Situational Leadership – Basic

Blanchard and his colleagues offered major revisions of the model in Situational Leadership II. Since it is not only a popular theory, but one of the most widely known, most widely used, or most popular leadership models employed in industry. Special emphasis is placed on a critical review of the concepts and theoretical arguments associated with Situational Leadership II as it was promulgated by Blanchard and Carew.

Critical ongoing problems with the theory, including the absence of theoretical arguments or weak theoretical arguments for critical aspects of the model, the existence of both logical consistency and internal consistency problems in the model, and apparent conceptual ambiguity are considered. In the year 1969, Hersey and Blanchard developed a life cycle theory of leadership, which later they renamed as ‘Situational Leadership Theory’.

Using the traditional categories of leader behavior, initiating structure and consideration, they formulated a situational theory of leadership in which the primary situational determinant of leader behavior is the task-relevant maturity of the subordinates. In the 1977 presentation of Situational Leadership Theory, Hersey and Blanchard provide the most explicit description of the theoretical foundations for the original version of their model.

They argue that Korman suggests the possibility of a curvilinear relationship rather than a simple linear relationship between initiating structure and consideration and other variables.  They state that of Situational Leadership Theory is based on a curvilinear relationship between task behavior and relationship behavior and maturity.

Hersey and Blanchard made the theoretical explanation for the relationships among key variables in the model more ambiguous. In place of the 1977 statement that Situational Leadership Theory “is based on a curvilinear relationship between task behavior and relationship behavior and maturity”. The second major change pertains to the problem of conceptual ambiguity associated with the concept of task-relevant maturity that was identified by Graeff. As their 1982 presentation of Situational Leadership Theory reveals, both ability and willingness are described, individually, in linear fashion.