Leadership in Organizations
Ninth Edition, Global Edition
Chapter 3
The Leadership Situation and
Adaptive Leadership
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
3.1 Understand how aspects of the situation can influence
leader behavior.
3.2 Understand how aspects of the situation can enhance or
diminish effects of leader behavior.
3.3 Understand how to adapt leader behavior to the
situation.
3.4 Understand how to deal with demands, constraints, and
role conflicts.
Different Ways Situations Affect
Leaders
1. Situation Directly Influences Leader Behavior.
2. Situation Moderates Effects of Leader Behavior.
3. Situation Directly Affects Outcomes or Mediators.
Stewart Model of Situational
Determinants (1 of 5)
• Demands
• Constraints
• Choices
• Pattern of Relationships
• Work Patterns
• Exposure
• Leader Discretion
Other Situational Determinants
of Leader Behavior
1. Level of Management
2. Size of Organizational Unit
3. External Dependencies
4. Extreme Contexts
Guidelines for Coping with Demands and
Constraints (1 of 2)
•
Learn the reasons for demands and constraints
•
Expand the range of available choices
•
Determine what you want to accomplish
•
Manage external relationships
•
Analyze how you use your time
•
Plan daily and weekly activities
•
Avoid unnecessary activities
•
Conquer procrastination
•
Take advantage of reactive activities
•
Make time for reflective analysis and planning
•
Plan for extreme events
Guidelines for Coping with Demands
and Constraints (2 of 2)
Table 3-1 General Guidelines for Coping with Demands
and Constraints
• Learn the reasons for demands and constraints.
• Expand the range of available choices.
• Determine what you want to accomplish.
• Analyze how you use your time.
• Plan daily and weekly activities.
• Avoid unnecessary activities.
• Conquer procrastination.
• Take advantage of reactive activities.
• Make time for reflective analysis and planning.
• Plan and prepare for extreme events.
Early Contingency Theories of Effective
Leader Behavior
1. Path-Goal Theory
2. Leadership Substitutes Theory
Multiple-Linkage Model (1 of 6)
Mediating Variables
1. Interact with each other to determine the
effectiveness of a group or organizational subunit
1. Task commitment
2. Ability and role clarity
3. Organization of the work
4. Cooperation and mutual trust
5. Resources and support
6. External coordination
Multiple-Linkage Model (2 of 6)
Situational Variables
1. Directly influence mediating variables and can make
them either more or less favorable
Multiple-Linkage Model (3 of 6)
Short-Term Actions to Correct Deficiencies
1. A basic proposition of the model is that leader actions to
correct any deficiencies in the mediating variables that
determine group performance.
Multiple-Linkage Model (4 of 6)
Table 3-2 Types of Specific Actions for Improving Weak
Performance Determinants
Low subordinate task commitment or confidence
• Set challenging goals and express confidence they can be achieved.
• Articulate an appealing vision of what the group can accomplish.
• Use influence tactics to influence task commitment.
• Offer more incentives for goal attainment.
Low subordinate task knowledge and skills
• Make clear assignments.
• Provide more direction and clarification of procedures.
• Provide instruction and coaching when needed.
• Find skilled people to do difficult tasks.
Low coordination and inefficient procedures for the work
• Find ways to make better use of members, resources, and equipment.
• Identify and eliminate inefficient or unnecessary activities.
• Provide clear, decisive direction of activities.
• Develop better plans for achieving task objectives.
Multiple-Linkage Model (5 of 6)
Table 3-2 Types of Specific Actions for Improving Weak
Performance Determinants (continued)
Inadequate resources to do the work
• Find more reliable or alternative sources of resources.
• Request more resources from the organization.
• Identify ways to avoid wasted sources.
• Find more efficient ways to use resources.
Weak external coordination
• Develop better plans to avoid external coordination problems.
• Improve external relations with interdependent units.
• Consult more often with interdependent units to coordinate
actions.
• Monitor closely to detect external coordination problems quickly.
Multiple-Linkage Model (6 of 6)
Long-term actions to Improve the Situation
1.
Gain more access to resources needed for the work by cultivating better relationships with
suppliers, finding alternative sources, and reducing dependence on unreliable sources.
2.
Gain more control over the demand for the unit’s products and services by finding new
customers, opening new markets, advertising more, and modifying the products or services to
be more acceptable to clients and customers.
3.
Initiate new, more profitable activities for the work unit that will make better use of personnel,
equipment, and facilities.
4.
Initiate long-term improvement programs to upgrade equipment, and facilities in the work unit
(e.g., replace old equipment, implement new technology).
5.
Improve selection procedures to increase the level of employee skills and commitment.
6.
Modify the formal structure of the work unit to solve chronic problems and reduce demands on
the leader for short-term problem solving.
Evaluation of Research on the
Contingency Theories
1. The evidence supporting contingency theories of
effective leadership is limited, and the findings are
difficult to interpret.
2. The complexity, ambiguity, and conceptual problems in
the theories make them more difficult to test.
Guidelines for Flexible, Adaptive
Leadership
• Understand your leadership situation and try to make it more favorable.
• Learn how to use a wide range of relevant behaviors.
• Identify effective behaviors for your objectives and situation.
• Use more planning for a long, complex task.
• Provide more direction to people with interdependent roles.
• Monitor a critical task or unreliable person more closely.
• Provide more instruction and coaching to an inexperienced subordinate.
• Be more supportive to someone with a highly stressful task.