SITUATIONAL THEORY OF LEADERSHIP Leadership is Situational According to the situational approach, the effectiveness of a leader depends upon the situation in which leadership is exercised. Leadership is a function of the leader, the led or followers and the situation. There is an interaction between the leader and the group. People tend to follow the leader when they perceive him to be capable of fulfilling their aspirations. Thus, a leader is a means of achieving the goals of the group and of its members. The main situational variables are the type of the organisation, the nature of the task or job and the working environment. According to the situational theory, leadership is Situational, i.e., effectiveness of leadership is affected by the Situation from which a leader emerges and in which he works. In other words, the situation— the group, the problem and its International EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT Economic ORGANISATION [Objectives, People, Structure and Technology} Leader —— Followers, Socio-cultural Situational model of leadership.environment will affect the type of leadership. An important aspect of this theory is the interaction between the group and its leader within the parameters of the organisation and the situational factors as shown in Fig. The leader recognises his followers’ needs and adopts such methods (depending on the situation) which satisfy them. The main thrust of the situational theory is that the leadership style may be effective under one situation and ineffective under the other. In other words, situational theory emphasises that there is no one best style of leadership universally applicable to all situations and that the leader has to change his style of leadership from situation to situation. If the leader adopts the same style under all situations, he may not be successful. For example, Winston Churchill was the most effective and successful Prime Minister of Britain during the period of the Second World War, but he was a flop afterwards when the situation changed. Though this theory states leadership ability of an individual in a given situation and measures his leadership potentialities, it is silent on the point whether this individual will fit in another situation. The situational theory suffers from the following weaknesses : (i) It gives much emphasis on situation aspect and overlooks the qualities needed in a successful leader. (ii) Leadership is a subjective consideration in which qualities of head and heart of a leader play their part. But this theory overlooks this aspect.Fiedler’s Contingency TI Fred Fiedler developed a contingency theory which described successful leadership as a direct result of matching manager's styles with situational variables, Fiedler grouped situational variables into three areas of concern : the degree to which the followers, ccept their leader, -~ ‘The task structure or the degree to whi i elled out ——— eee routinised. iiiy/Position power of the leader, That is, the degree of formal authority’ attributed to the leader's position. Grese three variables getermine Qhether a given situatioh is favourable Dunfavoural le to the leader.)The favourabieness of situation may be defined | as “the degree to which the $ttuation enables the leader to exert his influence | over his group.” iedler perceived ei it possible combinations of the three situational As a leadership lon varies from high to on these va as, it falls‘nto one of the eight combinations or situations(The s one in which the leader-follo tions are vel od, the leader enjoys great position power and the task st rained, On the other hand, the most_unfavourable situation signifies that the Te: is_di the_leader has little position power an the task is unstructured. ed ——SaooFiedler’s Situational Combinations Situational Lea Te Position Situational Combination fone: stctio pawer favour- relations, =—— ae. ableness 1. Good f High) Strong yj HIGH 2. Good righ| Weak | 3. Good Low Strong ) 4. Good Low Weak , 5. Poor High Strong , 6. Poor High’ Weak q. Poor Low Strong y 8. Poor |“ Lowi“ Weak Low Fidler attempted to determine the most effective leadership style for each the above eight situations. He came to the conclusion that task oriented leaders. t@fd to be most effective in situations) that gither very favourab| €Or) very. unfavourable to them. u ders tend to-be-most effective in : in situations favoura urdbleness. that are intermediate i — — a Relationship-oriented Task-oriented style | contidereia style | Task-oriented style Favourable leadership _Siituation intermediate in Untavourable leadership situation favourableness for Leader situation Leadership styles appropriate tor Various Group Situations