Effective approaches to Situational Leadership; Which methods are the most influential?
Lee Rogers
DEPM 604 Section 1302
February 24, 2013
A1 Annotated Bibliography
Effective approaches to Situational Leadership; Which methods are the most influential?
Larssona, J. and Vinbergb, S. C. (2010). Leadership behaviour in successful organisations: Universal
or situation-dependent? Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 21(3), 317-334. doi:
10.1080/14783360903561779
This article explains about the three tier leadership behavior theory; change, structure, and
relation-orientation in organizations. The purpose of this article is to distinguish factors that
influence leadership behavior which effects organizations. According to much research and
case studies done in Larssona and Vinbergb`s article, researchers have discovered a group of
leadership behaviors. These were, "strategic and visionary leader role, communication and
information, authority and responsibility, learning culture, worker conversations, plainness and
simplicity, humanity and trust, walking around, and reflective personal leadership." Although
many of these behaviors promote a positive environment, there were some limitations found
that promoted negative behaviors. A lack of quality management factors contribute to
"worsened working environment" (p. 5). Of course, these leadership behavior factors are
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Effective approaches to Situational Leadership; Which methods are the most influential?
continuously evolving so more research is needed.
Kotter, J.P. (1996). Leading change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Kotter`s Leadership Change had similar guidelines as Larssona and Vinbergb`s article. Kotter
described about the nature of an effective vision with 6 elements that defines its
characteristics; imaginable, desirable, feasible, focused, flexible, and communicable. Similarly,
Larssona and Vinbergb`s article explores strategic and visionary leader; Strategic and visionary
leader role, Communication and information, Authority and responsibility, Learning culture,
Worker conversations. Although there are slight differences between Kotter and Larssona and
Vinbergb’s article, there are many leadership characteristics that are irrefutably similar.
Seiler, S., and Pfister, A. C. (2009). “Why did I do this?”: Understanding leadership behavior through
a dynamic five-factor model of leadership. Journal of leadership studies, 3(3), 41-52.
doi:10.1002/jls.20122
Seiler and Pfister offer a comprehensive model of leadership that consists of five-factors. The
purpose of this article is to examine these five dynamic factors and how it influences the
complex layers of leadership. The authors asked a fundamental question that goes to the heart
of the article; "what makes a good leadership?" (p. 41). In their search for the answer, they
have created a mathematical formula for the five-factors of leadership behaviors. The authors
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Effective approaches to Situational Leadership; Which methods are the most influential?
used the framework to define how these factors influence leadership behaviors. Evaluations
also played a major role in assessing the leadership behavior and how he or she interacts in
certain situations. For example, analyzing change over a certain period of time and being able
to interact with these changes would be a useful leadership skill, according to the authors. In
addition, "Group think" (p. 5) is vital among a coalition or power group within an organization.
This article would be useful to use in any future research paper because there are a number of
approaches to understanding leadership behavior using the five-factors.
Although this model is beneficial, there are limitations. More research is needed since this
research is only preliminary.
Kotter, J.P. (1996). Leading change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Kotter`s Leadership Change had a similar criterion to Seiler and Pfsiter`s article. Although
Kotter didn`t develop any mathematical formula for any of his theoretical approaches, his
guiding coalition mostly matches Seiler and Pfister`s article. In Kotter`s guiding coalition, he
explains their characteristics; position power, expertise, credibility, and leadership. Similarly,
Seiler and Pfsiter`s article explains independent competency, group, organization, context, and
situation. Both sources understand that in order to have any type of unified coalition,
management and leadership skills are crucial to the success of an organization.
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Effective approaches to Situational Leadership; Which methods are the most influential?
Graeff, C. L., (1983). The Situational Leadership Theory: A Critical View. Academy Of Management
Review, 8(2), 285-291. doi:10.5465/AMR.1983.4284738
This article examines the situational leadership theory from its inception in 1969 by Hersey and
Blanchard. The purpose of their work was to identify leader behaviors. These behaviors were
broken into two categories; initiating structure (IS) and consideration (C). (p. 285). According to
Graeff, these categories focused on two important factors; jobs maturity and psychological
maturity. Both factors are indicative of education and motivation which are partially the
characteristics of leadership behavior. However, critics of Hersey and Blanchard’s theoretical
view to identify leader behaviors said to have ambiguity in it. Among the many problems that
were identified in Hersey and Blanchard’s research, some of them Graeff explains in detail
because of the theory’s “inconsistencies or contradictions” (p. 288) in the research. One of the
discrepancies was with the LEAD instrument. The LEAD instrument was developed by Hersey
and Blanchard in 1977 to measure leaders’ adaptability and effectiveness. However, one of the
problems with LEAD was the lack of relationship and lack of task. The relevance of this article is
obvious. This article proves that the situational leadership theory that was created by Hersey
and Blanchard had little to no effect and lacked any type of theoretical reasoning. This article is
relevant to the topic because it covers situational leadership behaviors which are covered in
our readings.
Kotter, J.P. (1996). Leading change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
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Effective approaches to Situational Leadership; Which methods are the most influential?
In Kotter’s readings, he explains about the eight mistakes or errors, in chapter one, that
prevent organizations from succeeding in a competitive market. Graeff’s article also touches on
many of the mistakes companies make; for example, the lack of relationship and lack of task.
Kotter’s second error number 2 explains “Failing to create a sufficiently powerful guiding
coalition” (p. 6). This particular error talks about the necessity of have a leader who are active
supporters of an organization. Another error from Kotter’s 8 error list explains the challenges
of complacency; error number 1. He mentioned that self-satisfaction in a competitive market is
a dangerous recipe for disaster. Failing to create some type of preparation to prevent any
forces that might descend on your organization is definitely not prudent.
Weick, K. E. (2002). Leadership when events don’t play by the rules. Reflections, 4(1), 30-32.
This article presents what happens when leadership encounters unexplained events and how
they should deal with them. According to Karl E. Weick, a Professor of Organizational Behavior
and Psychology at the University of Michigan, believes that the when chaos abruptly comes to
our door step everyone is susceptible. In addition, there are three stages people go through
when trying to explain the aftermath of chaos; “superficial simplicity, confused complexity, and
profound simplicity.” (p. 2, Weick). However, what sets leaders apart from everyone else is
how he or she deals with chaos at that moment. According to Weick, it seems that a certain
level of acceptance by leaders is the first initial stage in dealing with the reality of the chaos.
The author created an acronym “SIR COPE” (p. 2) which means, social, identity, retrospect, cues,
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Effective approaches to Situational Leadership; Which methods are the most influential?
ongoing, plausible, enactment. This guideline is a sure way leaders can navigate through
chaotic events with better results. The relevance of this article shows a wider range of
situational leadership strategies. This article would support any research paper done in the
future.
Kotter, J.P. (1996). Leading change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Kotter explains about the role of crises in unit three. The problem with complacency is the
main theme of the unit. Also, the building of a strong coalition to combat any negative inertia
that plagues organizations is imperative. On the other hand, Weick’s article covers some of
these crises mentioned in Kotter’s unit. However, those crises in Weick’s article are immediate,
not slow and drawn out like Kotter’s crises. There should be a sense of urgency if something
bad happens suddenly at any organization. And, leaders must know how to deal with chaos
on-the-fly without any hesitation.
Zaccaro, S. J. (2007). Trait-based perspectives of leadership. American psychologist, 62(1), 6-16.
doi:10.1037/0003-066X.62.1.6
The article examines the traits of leadership. It was believed that leadership was nature not
nurture according to research done by Galton in 1869. Later researchers like Bird's 1940
summary discovered that leader traits hinged on the ability to acquire, "accuracy in work,
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Effective approaches to Situational Leadership; Which methods are the most influential?
knowledge of human nature, and moral habits." (p. 7). Zaccaro explains that there are three
components that make up leadership traits. The first trait is leadership performance. The
second trait is a number of different leadership personal qualities. And the last is leadership
attributes. The author uses these traits to illustrate that leaders perform differently under
different situations. Zaccaro also suggest that leaders regardless of the situations, leaders must
perform effectively which is the basic requirement of any leader. Of course leaders’ behaviors
should be flexible. However, is thinking flexibly a requirement? According to Zaccaro, cognitive
thinking is also included in the leadership traits. One of the unique features about this research
is that the author looks at leadership traits from all angles including cognitively. This article is
relevant to the topic because it goes beyond the scope of situation leadership in DE.
Kotter, J.P. (1996). Leading change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Making a comparison between Zaccaro’s article and Kotter’s book was challenging. Kotter
doesn’t explain whether leadership is nature or nurtured. Kotter also doesn’t explain the
cognitive aspect of leadership. Ultimately, Zaccaro’s research had limitations. Leadership
roles are continuously changing and this article is slightly outdated. However, some of the
research merits some investigation.
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