Hersey Blanchard: Situational Leadership Theory

Hersey and Blanchard characterized leadership style in terms of the amount of Task Behavior and Relationship Behavior that the leader provides to their followers. They categorized all leadership styles into four behvior types:

Telling / Directing – is characterized by one-way communication in which the leader defines the roles of the individual or group and provides the what, how, when, and where to do the task

Selling / Coaching – while the leader is still providing the direction, he or she is now using two-way communication and providing the socioemotional support that will allow the individual or group being influenced to buy into the process.

Participating / Supporting – this is now shared decision making about aspects of how the task is accomplished and the leader is providing less task behaviors while maintaining high relationship behavior.

Delegating / Observing – the leaders is still involved in decisions; however, the process and responsibility has been passed to the individual or group. The leader stays involved to monitor progress.

Goleman’s Six Emotional Leadership Styles

Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee, in Primal Leadership, describe six styles of leading that have different effects on the emotions of the target followers. These are styles, not types. Any leader can use any style, and a good mix that is customised to the situation is generally the most effective approach.

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The Visionary Leader

The Visionary Leader moves people towards a shared vision, telling them where to go but not how to get there – thus motivating them to struggle forwards. They openly share information, hence giving knowledge power to others. They can fail when trying to motivate more experienced experts or peers. This style is best when a new direction is needed. Overall, it has a very strong impact on the climate.

The Coaching Leader

The Coaching Leader connects wants to organizational goals, holding long conversations that reach beyond the workplace, helping people find strengths and weaknesses and tying these to career aspirations and actions. They are good at delegating challenging assignments, demonstrating faith that demands justification and which leads to high levels of loyalty. It is best used when individuals need to build long-term capabilities. It has a highly positive impact on the climate.

The Affiliative Leader

The Affiliative Leader creates people connections and thus harmony within the organization. It is a very collaborative style which focuses on emotional needs over work needs. When done badly, it avoids emotionally distressing situations such as negative feedback. Done well, it is often used alongside visionary leadership. It is best used for healing rifts and getting through stressful situations. It has a positive impact on climate.

The Democratic Leader

The Democratic Leader acts to value inputs and commitment via participation, listening to both the bad and the good news. When done badly, it looks like lots of listening but very little effective action. It is best used to gain buy-in or when simple inputs are needed (when uncertain). It has a positive impact on climate.

The Pace-setting Leader

The Pace-setting Leader builds challenge and exciting goals for people, expecting excellence and often exemplifying it themselves. They identify poor performers and demand more of them. If necessary, they will roll up their sleeves and rescue the situation themselves. They tend to be low on guidance, expecting people to know what to do. They get short term results but over the long term this style can lead to exhaustion and decline. Done badly, it lacks Emotional Intelligence, especially self-management. A classic problem happens when the ‘star techie’ gets promoted. It is best used for results from a motivated and competent team. It often has a very negative effect on climate (because it is often poorly done).

The Commanding Leader

The Commanding Leader soothes fears and gives clear directions by his or her powerful stance, commanding and expecting full compliance (agreement is not needed). They need emotional self-control for success and can seem cold and distant. This approach is best in times of crisis when organization needs unquestioned rapid action and with problem employees who do not respond to other methods.

The present autocratic or telling leadership style happens to be the most ineffective one unless a militay base is in action. Follower of this style generally practices low competence, low commitment / unable and unwilling or insecure. Leaders are high task focused and low relationship focused.

When the follower cannot do the job and is unwilling or afraid to try, then the leader takes a highly directive role, telling them what to do but without a great deal of concern for the relationship. The leader may also provide a working structure, both for the job and in terms of how the person is controlled.

If the leader focused more on the relationship, the follower may become confused about what must be done and what is optional. The leader thus maintains a clear ‘do this’ position to ensure all required actions are clear.

Of these, no single style is considered optimal for all leaders to use all the time. Effective leaders need to be flexible, and must adapt themselves according to the situation. They should prepare a mix strategy to meet the demand of the situation.

A clear blend of the above mentioned leadership styles or setting up an opportunity based style may be fruitful in managing a critical situation that ‘Supfit’ is facing.

Task 2:

Agreeing appropriate objectives and making effective use of appraisals can improve business performance and help to assess just how well employees are working.

Establishing clear, defined objectives helps employees to focus on specific tasks and company goals.

A structured appraisal system can help employees feel that their good work is recognised and that they are valued. It can also provide the opportunity to discuss any weaknesses or problems they may have, and to come up with solutions.

1. Benefits of having an appraisals system

The purpose of any performance appraisal program is employee development. The value of performance appraisal is in the process of communication between supervisor and employee. Benefits can be defined in broader aspect as under:

To increase professional development, skills level, and performance of each employees against defined objectives. Skills and knowledge attained for both personal development and career advancement is the main stream here. It has been described as intensive and collaborative, ideally incorporating an evaluative stage.

To strengthen working relationship between supervisor and employee by addressing all problems through a systematic and defined way. Expert Supervisor’s unique consultation feature gives employees expert advice on how to solve different types of employee behaviour and performance problems.

To clarify job duties and responsibilities. The list of activities one is required to perform for any occupation are the job duties and this can be defined and monitored without error is performance appraisal.

To establish mutually understood standards for measuring performance and discussing apparent weaknesses. This helps an organization to achieve optimum goal towards the success.

To give constructive feedback and to praise staff for their good work that in turn will make them feel valued. A common demand of almost all the employees are to get fair feedback as per their performance and these can be only measured transparently if an effective appraisal system exists.

To aid in promotion, retention and salary decisions and define further objectives for the employees. Most of the times employees’ beer a creeping inside that they are well paid and increments are given unfairly which remains the most de-motivating factors. The best way of mitigating such crisis is to have an appraisal system.

2. Elements those are apprised (Factors of an appraisal System): There are few important factors that are closely monitored and rated during an appraisal process and based on those the performance is measured:

Inherited Leadership quality in a staff: This refers to the capabilities of an employee to motivate, counsel and direct an under command or subordinate. The biggest factors that an appraisal system looks for is the existence of the leadership quality in an employee. It is very important for the HR team to find out the potential leaders among the general staffs.

Planning & Decision making capabilities of an employee: Based on the preparation of administrative unit programs, activities and services by reaching firm, clearly defined decisions can be the most expected factors to be appraised.

Capability of Managing Staff: The way how an employee manages employee selection, retention, development and appraisal of the others is also looked for during an appraisal system. The most effective way to achieve organization performance is to manage employees as the efficient workforce. Higher management always try to appraise the same quality within a staff who might the potential manager in future.

Fiscal Management: The factor refers to the utilization of resources, safeguarding assets, effective internal controls, software/data security and so on. This is completely based on high technology and that is the integral part of modern HR appraisal process as a factor.

Human Relations & communications of staff: Interpersonal relations with internal and external constituents both verbal and written are known as another biggest factor. Appraisal system assesses how effectively a staff can maintain and retain human relations and how good he or she is in verbal and written communications.

Professional expertise (job knowledge): Job knowledge of an employee is the factors of appraisal process where one is assessed based on the performance of the job description. Most of the time this factors carries the most vital role for future placement.

Task 3

HONEY & MUMFORD’S LEARNING STYLE

Honey and Mumford (1982) have built a typology of Learning Styles around this sequence, identifying individual preferences for each stage (Activist, Reflector, Theorist, and Pragmatist respectively). Kolb also has a test instrument (the Learning Style Inventory) but has carried it further by relating the process also to forms of knowledge.

Fugure-1: Honey & Mumford’s Learning Style

Knowing the learning style can accelerate our learning as we undertake activities that best fit the preferred style. Knowing the learning style can also help avoid repeating mistakes by undertaking activities that strengthen other styles For example, if we tend to “jump in at the deep end”, consider spending time reflecting on experiences before taking action.

Activitists (Do)

Immerse themselves fully in new experiences

Enjoy here and now

Open minded, enthusiastic, flexible

Act first, consider consequences later

Seek to centre activity around themselves

Reflectors (Review)

Stand back and observe

Cautious, take a back seat

Collect and analyze data about experience and events, slow to reach conclusions

Use information from past, present and immediate observations to maintain a big picture perspective.

Theorists (Conclude)

Think through problems in a logical manner, value rationality and objectivity

Assimilate disparate facts into coherent theories

Disciplined, aiming to fit things into rational order

Keen on basic assumptions, principles, theories, models and systems thinking

Pragmatists (Plan)

Keen to put ideas, theories and techniques into practice

Search new ideas and experiment

Act quickly and confidently on ideas, gets straight to the point

Are impatient with endless discussion

Forms of Knowledge and the Learning Cycle

The four quadrants of the cycle are associated with four different forms of knowledge, in Kolb’s view. Each of these forms is paired with its diagonal opposite.

Figure-2: Learning Cycle

KOLB LEARNING STYLES

David Kolb’s learning styles model and experiential learning theory (ELT)

Having developed the model over many years prior, David Kolb published his learning styles model in 1984. The model gave rise to related terms such as Kolb’s experiential learning theory (ELT), and Kolb’s learning styles inventory (LSI). In his publications – notably his 1984 book ‘Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development’ Kolb acknowledges the early work on experiential learning by others in the 1900’s, including Rogers, Jung, and Piaget. In turn, Kolb’s learning styles model and experiential learning theory are today acknowledged by academics, teachers, managers and trainers as truly seminal works; fundamental concepts towards our understanding and explaining human learning behaviour, and towards helping others to learn.

Kolb’s experiential learning theory (learning styles) model

Kolb’s learning theory sets out four distinct learning styles (or preferences), which are based on a four-stage learning cycle (which might also be interpreted as a ‘training cycle’). In this respect Kolb’s model is particularly elegant, since it offers both a way to understand individual people’s different learning styles, and also an explanation of a cycle of experiential learning that applies to us all.

Kolb includes this ‘cycle of learning’ as a central principle his experiential learning theory, typically expressed as four-stage cycle of learning, in which ‘immediate or concrete experiences’ provide a basis for ‘observations and reflections’.

Kolb’s model therefore works on two levels – a four-stage cycle:

Concrete Experience – (CE)

Reflective Observation – (RO)

Abstract Conceptualization – (AC)

Active Experimentation – (AE)

and a four-type definition of learning styles, (each representing the combination of two preferred styles, rather like a two-by-two matrix of the four-stage cycle styles, as illustrated below), for which Kolb used the terms:

Diverging (CE/RO)

Assimilating (AC/RO)

Converging (AC/AE)

Accommodating (CE/AE)

Honey and Mumford’s Variation on the Kolb System

Various resources (including this one in the past) refer to the terms ‘activist’, ‘reflector’, ‘theorist’, and ‘pragmatist’ (respectively representing the four key stages or learning steps) in seeking to explain Kolb’s model. In fact, ‘activist’, ‘reflector’, ‘theorist’, and ‘pragmatist’ are from a learning styles model developed by Honey and Mumford, which although based on Kolb’s work, is different. Arguably therefore the terms ‘activist’, ‘reflector’, ‘theorist’, and ‘pragmatist’ effectively ‘belong’ to the Honey and Mumford theory.

In summary here are brief descriptions of the four H&M key stages/styles, which incidentally are directly mutually corresponding and overlaid, as distinct from the Kolb model in which the learning styles are a product of combinations of the learning cycle stages. The typical presentation of these H&M styles and stages would be respectively at north, east, south and west on a circle or four-stage cyclical flow diagram.

‘Having an Experience’ (stage 1), and Activists (style 1): ‘here and now’, gregarious, seek challenge and immediate experience, open-minded, bored with implementation.

‘Reviewing the Experience’ (stage 2) and Reflectors (style 2): ‘stand back’, gather data, ponder and analyse, delay reaching conclusions, listen before speaking, thoughtful.

‘Concluding from the Experience’ (stage 3) and Theorists (style 3): think things through in logical steps, assimilate disparate facts into coherent theories, rationally objective, reject subjectivity and flippancy.

‘Planning the next steps’ (stage 4) and Pragmatists (style 4): seek and try out new ideas, practical, down-to-earth, enjoy problem solving and decision-making quickly, bored with long discussions.

There is arguably a strong similarity between the Honey and Mumford styles/stages and the corresponding Kolb learning styles:

Activist = Accommodating

Reflector = Diverging

Theorist = Assimilating

Pragmatist = Converging

Recommended Style:

As per the scenario the existing European workforce has been a bit more problematic to management, demanding more holiday time and consultation than their American counterparts. The founder and CEO has recently decided to implement a more Americanised approach, which has meant less employee and union consultation, and more top down decision-making.

As Supfit does invest heavily in company training, and has instigated more of an experiential and participative approach to learning and training, including the use of mentors, we can very well use the combination of Honey and Mumford’s learning cycle and Kolb’s Learning Style.

Initially it may happen that the existing workforce may not be liking the style but as human nature is to get freedom, gradually the work force will be acquainted with the process.

Task 4:

The flexible firm combines functional, numerical and financial flexibility by operating with workforce consisting of both core and peripheral workers with a number of other workers on a variety of “non-standard” employment contracts. Some non-core functions are also outsourced or contracted out. Good answers offered examples to illustrate this range of flexible options for organisations.

The implications of the flexible firm were less convincingly addressed in answers. Issues that could have been discussed were that organisations can minimise employment costs and become more responsive to change in markets and technology by reorganising their employment systems in this way. In terms of HR, the issues of administering a variety of contracts of employment should have been raised in terms of the organisation’s commitment to different types of employees (opportunities for training and development, reward etc) Also, the motivation of peripheral employees may differ from that of core employees.

As per the Atkinson and Meager the firms sought four kinds of flexibility:

Functional

Numerical

Pay

Distancing

Functional flexibility or ‘multi-skilling’ was sought amongst ‘core’ employees’ within the firm. Other categories of employment were subject to strategies of peripheralization. This involved various forms of numerical flexibility that included increasing the numbers of part-timers, short-term contractors, trainees and job sharers in order to maximize the ‘fit’ between a firm’s perceived labour force needs and its employment practices. They suggested that pay flexibility was also sought, partly to purchase the functional flexibility outlined above and partly as a key to a global transformation of the ‘effort-bargain’ within such firms.

Atkinson and Meager’s Model of the Flexible Firm

Conjunctional Cases Outcomes

Unemployment Weak Trade Unions

Numerical Flexibility (part-timers,

Short-term contractors, casuals,

Greater Competitive Pressure new patterns of hours) Functional Flexibility (variability Greater Volatility & Uncertainty of tasks) Distancing (sub-contracting) Technological Change Pay Flexibility

Figure-3: Atkinson & Meagers Model of the Flexible Firm

Basis and Aspects of the Atkinson’s Model:

Let us discuss the various parameters where the model works on various aspects of flexible firm.

1. Flexible Hours:

a. Flexitime: Flexitime allows an employee to select the hours he or she will work. There are usually specified limits set by the employer. Employees on a flexible schedule may work a condensed work week or may work a regular work week. Those working a condensed week may work four ten hour days, rather than five eight hour days. Those who work a five day week may work hours other than the typical “nine to five.”

b. Crèche: The Crèche (from French) in zoology refers to care of another’s offspring, for instance in a colony. This term is used in the study of bird colonies. Many penguins form crèches, in addition to many other birds such as the Canada Goose, Common Eider and Common Shelduck. Here, the meaning is slightly different as the it means to arrange the stay of the workers/staffs in an area i.e. colony, arranged by the employer.

c. Special Shifts: Special shift for married women had been a longstanding feature of employment relations in the human management. These are mostly twilight or evening shifts and especially designed for the benefit of the group of staffs.

d. Child Care Arrangements

e. Transport to Work

2. Payment Systems: This is actually based on the merit pay and change to the mundane payment system based on various elements to justify the capabilities of the workers i.e. performance and quality based payment system.

3. Part time Workers:

4. Use of other kinds of Peripheral labour

a. Agency Workers: Workers engaged through, or by, an employment agency or bureau and supplied to a hiring employer on a temporary basis. Some agencies employ their workers directly and should therefore provide their staff with a contract of employment. Other agencies contract workers to provide a service to the hiring employer. In this case staffs are probably self-employed, though possibly not for tax purposes, and will have a “contract for service”.

b. Short-Term Contractees: In other language they are called ‘Floater’ who work for a certain short period especially when the work load increase during a certain period of the year.

c. Casual Workers: A casual worker was defined in the survey as a temporary worker who only works when their employer asks them to, on an as-needed basis, whose work is typically done in short episodes. A casual worker may be asked to work a shift, for a few days or, less often, for several weeks at a time. Casual workers do not have any guarantee of regular ongoing work.

d. Home workers/Out workers

Applications of Atkinson’s Model in Case of ‘Supfit’:

The best implications of Atkinson’s Model can in case the present organization (Supfit) in the sector of appointing non-permanent staffs. As we are in the context of European Workforce it would the best to have a good ratio of peripheral workers i.e. part time employees, agency workers, short term workers and casual workers with flexible shift, flexible payment term and crèche facilities.

This will create a feeling of cohesiveness among the permanent staffs and to fulfil their requirement of leave, personal interest and other facilities. It is very natural that staff would have some personal problems even during the high business hour and management should not forget that a complete life consists of personal and professional activities. Once the permanent staff is unable to attend in a specific time and job requirement the peripheral labours can be placed and get the maximum outcomes.

Moreover, it is an expensive issue to have a goof numbers of permanent staffs as it involves overtime facilities, high salary and wages, uniforms, earn leave and other leave coverage, group or health insurance, good amount of bonuses and so on. To avoid we may have limited numbers of supervisory permanent staffs and a good number of peripheral workers who will be kept under the supervision of permanent staffs to get the maximum profit margin for the owner group.

Based on the above a planning to be prepared to arrange such a flexible environment where the employees are highly satisfied. While doing so we should not forget to compromise with the organizational performance and profit maximization. It is the basic goal for human resource to create a highly satisfied staffs that leads to the organizational performance.

Task 5:

According to the Human Resource Development we can use various approaches for on the job learning for the overall development of the staffs as well as the organization.

Job Rotations

Special Assignments

Coaching

Mentoring

Individual Development Plan

Manager as Teacher

Learning Groups (Teams)

Among all the approaches I have the privilege to discuss on four approaches which are as under:

Job Rotation:

Job rotation is an approach to management development where an individual is moved through a schedule of assignments designed to give him or her a breadth of exposure to the entire operation. Job rotation is also practiced to allow qualified employees to gain more insights into the processes of a company, and to reduce boredom and increase job satisfaction through job variation.

The term job rotation can also mean the scheduled exchange of persons in offices, especially in public offices, prior to the end of incumbency or the legislative period. This has been practiced by the German green party for some time but has been discontinued. At the senior management levels, job rotation – frequently referred to as management rotation, is tightly linked with succession planning – developing a pool of people capable of stepping into an existing job. Here the goal is to provide learning experiences which facilitate changes in thinking and perspective equivalent to the “horizon” of the level of the succession planning.

For lower management levels job rotation has normally one of two purposes: promotability or skill enhancement. In many cases senior managers seem unwilling to risk instability in their units by moving qualified people from jobs where the lower level manager is being successful and reflecting positively on the actions of the senior manager.

Many military jobs use the job rotation strategy to allow the soldiers to develop a wider range of experiences, and an exposure to the different jobs of an occupation.

Coaching

Coaching is a method of directing, instructing and training a person or group of people, with the aim to achieve some goal or develop specific skills. There are many ways to coach, types of coaching and methods to coaching. Sessions are typically one-on-one either in-person or over the telephone. Direction may include motivational speaking. Training may include seminars, workshops, and supervised practice.

At the present days coaching refers to a method of personal development or human resource development (HRD). The field of coaching is becoming a distinct area of practice for individuals and in organizations.

Today, coaching is a recognized discipline used by many professionals engaged in human development. However, as a distinct profession, it is relatively new and self-regulating. No independent supervisory board evaluates these programs and they are all privately owned. These bodies all accredit various coaching schools as well as individual coaches, except the IAC and ECI which only certify individuals. According to coach credentialing expert, Dr. Rey Carr, in North America the term accreditation only applies to organizations, and certification applies to individuals; whereas in European countries “accreditation” can mean either organizations or individuals.

Mentoring

“Mentoring is to support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be.” Eric Parsloe, The Oxford School of Coaching & Mentoring

Mentoring is a powerful personal development and empowerment tool. It is an effective way of helping people to progress in their careers and is becoming increasing popular as its potential is realised. It is a partnership between two people (mentor and mentee) normally working in a similar field or sharing similar experiences. It is a helpful relationship based upon mutual trust and respect.

A mentor is a guide who can help the mentee to find the right direction and who can help them to develop solutions to career issues. Mentors rely upon having had similar experiences to gain an empathy with the mentee and an understanding of their issues. Mentoring provides the mentee with an opportunity to think about career options and progress.

A mentor should help the mentee to believe in herself and boost her confidence. A mentor should ask questions and challenge, while providing guidance and encouragement. Mentoring allows the mentee to explore new ideas in confidence. It is a chance to look more closely at oneself, one’s issues, opportunities and what someone want in life. Mentoring is about becoming more self aware, taking responsibility for our life and directing the life in the direction we decide, rather than leaving it to chance.

Self Development

Self-Development is taking personal responsibility for one’s own learning and development through a process of assessment, reflection, and taking action. This is a method of learning style helps to:

To continually update skills and to remain marketable in the workplace

To determine future career direction

Strategies that we may use these skills highly depend of the individual’s capability and willingness to take challenges. To do those effectively followings can be adhered:

Assessing current skills and interest through paper-and-pencil career tests or through computer programs that analyze skills and interests.

Maintain a learning log or diary to help us analyze what we are learning from work experiences.

Write a personal vision and mission statement.

Develop a personal development plan that identifies learning needs and goals.

Find a mentor who can provide with best support, advice, and assistance in career direction.

Become involved in professional organizations.

Read professional journals and trade magazines to keep current on the latest developments in relevant field.

Approach to be adhered by ‘Supfit’:

It is always expected that employees to adhered the practices of continuous self developments within them which ultimately leads toward the optimal goal. Nevertheless, human nature is to relax (in most of the cases) unless a competitive environment is in place.

Therefore, it is the responsibility of the higher management of ‘Supfit’ to create a blend of the approached judiciously prepared and practiced on trail basis before implementing on the employees.

In the given scenario it has been observed that the employee complaints, absenteeism, turnover and complaint to union which is not very good in the long run. A discussion session to be arranged with the union leaders in presence of the all the employees to make them understand by a participative manner that how it will help the individuals in the long run. Mentionable here that in most of the cases the staffs do not like to attend training session in holidays or by hampering their day to activities. This ba