Approaches to Leadership: Style and Situational

This paper discusses the different approaches to leadership, including style and situational approaches, and their impact on organizations. It explores the task-oriented and relationship-oriented approaches in style leadership, as well as the situational approach that requires leaders to adapt their styles based on the situation. The paper concludes by emphasizing the importance of both approaches in achieving organizational goals.

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Author Note

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Introduction
Leadership is a vast component within the organizations of the contemporary times. The
different organizations have to apply different types of leadership styles in order to manage their
organizations. There are the style and situational approaches to the leadership that are very much
integral for the overall success of the organizations. In this paper, the different approaches to
leadership will be discussed to present an idea about the same.
Style approach to leadership
The style approach to leadership is regarded as one of the most revered approach
followed within the organizations (Herrmann & Felfe, 2014). The leaders act as per their
characteristic features within the constraints of the organization and managing their teams
effectively. The leaders will have to practice the task-oriented approaches within the
organization so that the team members can act as per the requirements of the organization. The
two types of style approach to leadership are the task-oriented approach and relationship-oriented
behavior. In the task-oriented approach, the leaders would require to convince the members of
team to accomplish their goals and turn out of be much productive for the organization.
In the relationship-oriented approach the leaders have to build a good relationship with
the leaders that would help the subordinate team members to build up a good rapport (Herrmann
& Felfe, 2014). This will make the team members feel very comfortable within the constraints of
the organization. If the team members of the organization find themselves in a difficult situation,
the relationship-oriented approach can be implemented. In this manner the subordinate
employees feel some comfort in their working place. In the style approach leadership, the main
aim is to notice how the leaders can employ these two kinds of leadership approaches within

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their organizations (Ruggieri & Abbate, 2013). The implementation of these approaches will be
helpful for the leaders to manage their subordinates very effectively and their influence will have
a deep impact on the performance and achievement of goals of the subordinate employees. There
are two main things in the style approach leadership and these are to manage the people and
manage the tasks of the employees (Khan, Aslam & Riaz, 2012). The organizational leaders have
to manage the ways of tackling with the subordinate members as per the environment of the
workplace. They have to manage the tasks accordingly as well. This style approach to leadership
has been regarded as the Leadership Grid or the Managerial Grid.
Situational approach of leadership
Another important factor or approach towards the leadership development is the
situational approach to leadership. According to this approach, many easy and difficult situations
arise within the organization and the leaders will have to handle those situations by identifying
the risks and significance of the situation (McCleskey, 2014). This kind of leadership has been
developed by the two of stalwarts of leadership theories, Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey.
The leaders of the organization will have to manage the situations and adjust his leading styles as
per the need of the hour (Thompson & Glasø, 2015). Some of the manners in which the
situational approaches to leadership can be implemented are by telling and directing, selling and
coaching, delegating to all the subordinate employees, considering the level of development and
participating and supporting (Almansour, 2012).
In the most appropriate style of situational leadership style, the leaders have to participate
with the subordinates in completing the day-to-day activities of the organization. The leaders
have to provide the proper direction to the employees on how to solve the problems and the

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employees must follow those instructions properly (McCleskey, 2014). In the selling and
coaching style, the leaders are always associated with the decision making process. However, the
leaders must take the inputs from the employees before proceeding with the implementation of
the decisions. In this style of situation leadership, the employees are considered as an important
part of the management (Thompson & Glasø, 2015). However, the employees are supervised by
the leaders in a coaching manner. This is probably a very concrete situational leadership style
where the employees are engaged in the decision making process. This kind of situational
approach to leadership will be very much significant indeed (Almansour, 2012). The employees
are aware of their roles in this context and they perform their duties exceptionally. This also
increases the capabilities of the employees and the help to achieve the goals of the organization.
Conclusion
On a concluding note, it can be said that both the style based and situational based
approaches to leadership have been considered as very significant practices to achieve the goals
of the organization. The employees should have a voice before a decision is being implemented
by the managers.

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References
Almansour, Y. M. (2012). The relationship between leadership styles and motivation of
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Herrmann, D., & Felfe, J. (2014). Effects of leadership style, creativity technique and personal
initiative on employee creativity. British Journal of Management, 25(2), 209-227.
Khan, M. J., Aslam, N., & Riaz, M. N. (2012). Leadership Styles as Predictors of Innovative
Work Behavior. Pakistan Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology, 9(2).
McCleskey, J. A. (2014). Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and
leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), 117.
Ruggieri, S., & Abbate, C. S. (2013). Leadership style, self-sacrifice, and team
identification. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 41(7), 1171-
1178.
Thompson, G., & Glasø, L. (2015). Situational leadership theory: a test from three
perspectives. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 36(5), 527-544.