Team Paper MBA530

Team Paper MBA530

Leadership Statement and Assessment

Organizations have differing structures, cultures and are often diverse just as any assembled group may be. These differences offer unending opportunities for the organizations themselves. The more diverse, the more opportunities as every member of the organization brings different knowledge, different experiences, and come from different environments that may offer varied belief systems. These types of variances create a plethora of leadership models that are best practices by their creators.   Deciphering which model best describes an individual’s style, qualities and beliefs can be a daunting task, and to assume there is one best model shows little insight and a small minded approach.
Germinal research about situational leadership is grounded in Hersey and Blanchard’s (1960) original development derived from the life cycle theory of leadership. The original theory observed the leadership styles of children as the progressed through the development process from infancy to adulthood (Hersey & Blanchard, 1969). During the 1970’s situational leadership had an emphasis on “followers, and on leaders using different styles depending on the situation” (Avery, G. & Ryan, J., 2001, p.32).
According to Arvidsson, Johansson, Ek, Akelson, (2007) “it is important for all organizations to understand the role of leadership and that they identify the styles of leadership most effective to their business” (p.3). When evaluating organizational success a key factor will almost always be leadership throughout all the organizational levels (Arvidsson et al., 2007). Arvidsson’s research on organizational leadership and success parallels later key research by Hersey and Blanchard (1996) noting that today’s leadership “tends to be done to people rather then with people” (p.1).
There has been criticism of Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership model, which has lead to alternative research and modifications to the...