The Situation

1. 12 The Situation Chapter • “When you’ve exhausted all possibilities, remember this: You haven’t!” • ~Robert H. Schuller

2. Background • The appropriateness of a leader’s behavior with a group of followers often makes sense only in the situational context in which the behavior occurs. • The situation, not someone’s traits or abilities, plays the most important role in determining who emerges as a leader. • Great leaders typically emerged during economic crisis, social upheavals, or revolutions. • It was believed that leaders were made, not born, and that prior leadership experience helped forge effective leaders.

3. Situational Factors That Affect Leaders’ Behaviors • Role theory: A leader’s behavior depends on a leader’s perceptions of several critical aspects of the situation: • Rules and regulations governing the job. • Role expectations of subordinates, peers, and superiors. • Nature of the task. • Feedback about subordinates’ performance. • Multiple-influence model (Hunt & Osborn) • Microvariables (task characteristics) • Macrovariables (external environment, persuasive influence on how leaders act) • Situational levels: Task, organizational, and environmental levels.

4. An Expanded Leader-Follower-Situation Model Figure 12.1: An Expanded Leader–Follower– Situation Model

5. From the Industrial Age to the Information Age • In the new information age, many fundamental assumptions of the industrial age are becoming obsolete. • Changes in the ways companies operate: • Cross functions (more flexible) • Links to customers and suppliers (more efficient) • Customer segmentation (unique) • Global scale • Innovation (shrinking product life cycle) • Knowledge workers (sophistication of work force)

6. Characteristics of the task • Task Autonomy: Degree to which a job provides an individual with some control over what and how he does it. • Task Feedback: Degree to which a person accomplishing a task receives information about performance from performing the task itself. • TaskStructure: Degree to which there are known procedures for accomplishing the task and rules governing how one goes about it. • Task Interdependence: Degree to which tasks require coordination and synchronization for work groups or teams to accomplish a desired goals.

7. Task problems and challenges Technical Problems: • Problems or challenges for which the problem-solving resources already exist. • These resources have two aspects: specialized methods and specialized expertise (i.e. ping in the engine, an ailment, how to use software) Adaptive Problems: • Problems that cannot be solved using currently existing resources and ways of thinking. • Can be difficult reaching a common definition of what the problem really is. • Solving such problems requires that the systems facing them make fundamental changes of some kind (ailment example but with parent)

8. Aspects of an organization’s structure • Horizontal Complexity: the number of “boxes” at any particular organizational level in an organizational chart. • Vertical Complexity: the number of hierarchical levels appearing on an organizational chart. • Spatial Complexity: describes the geographical dispersion of an organization’s members. • Formalization: the degree of standardization within an organization. • Centralization: the diffusion of decision making throughout an organization

9. Competing Values Framework Figure 12.2: The Competing Values Framework Source: K. S. Cameron and R. E. Quinn, Diagn osing and Changing Organizational Culture (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1999), p. 32.

10. Organizational Culture Table12.2: Some Questions That Define Organizational Culture Source: Adapted from R. H. Kilmann and M. J. Saxton, Organizational Cultures: Their Assessment and Change (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1983).

11. Environmental Characteristics at the Situation Level Figure 12.4: Contrasting Environments in the Situational Level

12. The GLOBE Study and CLT The GLOBE model posits that relatively distinctive implicit theories of leadership characterize different societal cultures from each other as well as organizational cultures within those societal cultures. The GLOBE researchers called these implicit theories of leadership Culturally Endorsed Implicit Theories of Leadership (CLT).

13. Six Dimensions of CLT • Charismatic/value-based leadership: the ability to inspire, motivate, and expect high performance from others on the basis of firmly held core values. • Team-oriented leadership: emphasizes effective team building and implementation of a common purpose or goal among team members. • Participativeleadership: degree to which managers involve others in making and implementing decisions.

14. Six Dimensions of CLT (continued) • Humane-oriented leadership: supportive and considerate leadership as well as compassion and generosity. • Autonomousleadership: independent and individualistic leadership. • Self-protectiveleadership: ensuring the safety and security of the individual or group member.

15. Universality of leadership attributes Table12.4: Relative Rankings of Selected Societal Clusters on CLT Leadership Dimensions

16. Universally positive leadership attributes Table12.5: Leader Attributes and Behaviors Universally Viewed as Positive Source: Adapted from House et al., Cultural Influences on Leadership and Organizations: Project Globe. Advances in Global Leadership, vol. 1 (JAI Press, 1999), pp. 171–233.

17. Universally negative leadership attributes TABLE 12.6 Leader Attributes and Behaviors Universally Viewed as Negative Source: Adapted from House et al., Cultural Influences on Leadership and Organizations: Project Globe. Advances in Global Leadership, vol. 1 (JAI Press, 1999), pp. 171–233.

18. Culturally contingent leadership attributes TABLE 12.7 Examples of Leader Behaviors and Attributes That Are Culturally Contingent Source: Adapted from House et al., Cultural Influences on Leadership and Organizations: Project Globe. Advances in Global Leadership, vol. 1 (JAI Press, 1999), pp. 171–233.