Approach to Leadership
It was once stated that leadership is not a learned quality but a natural quality. The definition and methods of leadership all carry different meanings. The corporate world has one method of leadership while the armed forces carry a complete 180 from the outside perspective. What does the word “leadership” mean in a general? The term is defined as “Leadership is realized in the process whereby one or more individuals succeed in attempting to frame and define the reality of others” (Smircich & Morgan, 1982, pg. 258).
Different approaches to leadership exist in today’s world. Each carries its own strength and weaknesses of how it is applied. The approach to be discussed in this paper is the “Situational Approach”. One of the main sticking points for this type of leadership approach is the characteristics of the people, organization, type of work, etc. When using this approach, two major subcategories exist. The first is discovering which leadership process are the same or different with an organization (Yukl, 2010, pg. 14). Regarding the second subcategory, is identifying the aspects which “moderate” the attributes of the leadership. An example of this is relevant to traits and behaviors (Yukl, 2010, pg. 15).
What are the strengths and weaknesses for using the Situational Approach? The strengths for this type of approach are the ability to adapt to any environment within any organization. A prime example is when dealing with subordinates who possess a low level of knowledge, this specific approach is to do exactly as told. It eliminates the need to be just one type (Measom, n.d.). The weaknesses for the Situational Approach are the lack of demographic characteristics (Measom, n.d.). When applied, it makes for a very difficult for certain guidelines to exist and primary only happens in one-on-one scenarios.
A prime example of applying the Situational Approach would be in a Christian organization (Vanauken,...