The Situational Theory of Leadership:
According to the Situational Theory, as the name itself suggests, Leadership emerges from a situation and is influenced by the situation. As a result, leadership differs from situation to situation. According to this theory, there is enough flexibility in the leadership to adjust to different situations. A leader is one who emerges out of a situation and leads the people effectively.
There are four variables that make leadership. These are the leader, the followers, the organization, and the social, economic, and political influences.
According to F. E. Fielder, an important proponent of the Situational Theory, “People welcome leaders because of situational factors.” He emphasizes that it is not meaningful to speak of an effective leader or an ineffective leader. We can only speak of a leader who tends to be effective in one situation and ineffective in another situation.
According to Fielder, there are there major situational variables exerting influence on the leader’s behavior and his effectiveness. These can be discussed in the following way:
(1) Leader-followers relations i.e., the degree of confidence that the followers have in their leader.
(2) Task structure i.e., the degree to which the follower’s jobs are either routine or illustrated.
(3) Position-power i.e., the degree of informal power and formal authority enjoyed by the leader.
F. E. Fielder further observes that there are eight possible combinations of the above-mentioned three variables.
The most favorable situation is one in which the leader-follower relations are very good, the leader enjoys great position-power and at the same time, the task structure is well-defined.
On the other hand, the most unfavorable situation is one in which the leader is disliked, the leader has little position power and the task structure is undefined. All other combinations fall within these two extremes.
Comments (No)