How situational leadership can help raise your organisation's Essay

How situational leadership can help raise your organisation's performance - Essay Example Over the period of time, there have been different attempts to define leadership and its overall impact on the organization. There has been extensive research on understanding the relationship between the organizational performance as well as the style of leadership. Different authors have attempted to link specific leadership styles with the way an organization performs when a particular set of leadership style is in place. Situational leadership is one such concept outlining that there is no single best concept or style of leadership. The best leadership therefore is task related and therefore the most successful leadership is the one which can easily adapt its style to the level of maturity. Robbins et.al outline that the overall performance of the leader as well as the organization critically depends upon the nature of the relationships between the followers and the leaders. Under situational leadership, the overall organizational effectiveness as well as the performance largely depends upon what followers do and how they do it. The overall organizational performance under the situational leadership therefore largely depends upon the notion of the task as well as the supportive behavior from the followers. This paper will therefore discuss as to how the situational leadership can actually allow an organization to perform better and how it can raise the performance standards of the organization. Leadership Defined Over the period of time, it has been unanimously agreed by almost all the academics and researchers that leadership is probably the single most important factor in the success and failure of an organization. One of the lasting impressions of the successful leaders is that the environment and culture set by the leaders remain after they depart. Such a lasting influence and impact on the way leaders impact the organizations and societies therefore deserve special attention in carefully defining the overall concept of leadership. (Boaden, 2006) Accord ing to Robbins et.al there are different explanations and definitions of leadership which have evolved over the period of time. It is however, critical to note that the different authors have disagreed on the use of formal as well as informal influence as an integral part of the overall leadership concept. (Robbins, Millett, & Waters-Marsh, 1998) According to Robbins et.al the leadership is the ability to influence others in order to achieve common goals which can contribute towards any worthwhile goal. (Robbins, Millett, R, & Waters-Marsh, 1998) This definition therefore outlines some important ideas regarding leadership besides indicating the parameters within which leadership as a concept can be assessed. Robbins et.al have also clearly separated the use of force and use of influence as two different aspects and it has been argued that the leaders do not force others to do something but rather they influence them to achieve a common goal. Apart from achievement of common goals, l eaders are also expected to give a shared vision as well as a worthwhile purpose. Situational Leadership Situational leadership is a relatively new concept developed two different authors during 1970s and 1980s. Developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard, the theories of situational leadership are considered as one of the most important contributions towards the field of leadership and its impact on the organizations. Both the authors have developed their own set of theories and models based on the situational leadership concepts. The basic or core idea behind the concept of situational leadership is based on the idea that there is no preferred style of leadership whereas the effectiveness of a leader can be judged only by the ability of the leader to adapt to maturity. The leaders therefore are considered