Week 6: Theories in Action (Contingency Theories)

Now that I have finished my sixth week in the office for Resolute Management, I think it is important to relate my experience to contingency theories of leadership, which examine leader’s qualities, situational factors, and the relationship between the two. Specifically, Hersey and Blanchard’s situational model of leadership is especially relevant to my experience thus far at Resolute Management.

The core assumption of Hersey and Blanchard’s situational model of leadership is that successful leadership depends on leadership style and the situation in which leadership takes place. With regards to style, the theory describes both relationship and task oriented styles, and the theory aims to prove that situational factors determine when each style (or a combination of these styles) is most effective. To provide a brief overview of these situations, Hersey and Blanchard break it down into essentially 4 groups that pertain to follower ability and commitment to organizational goals:

S1: low in competence and commitment–requiring high levels of direction (task orientation)

S2: Gaining in experience–requires high direction and support

S3: moderately mature group of followers–supportive leadership is best

S4: fully mature group–a delegating style of leadership is best

While I can really only speak for myself due to the circumstances in the office regarding COVID, I can relate my experience to these processes rather directly. Outside of the first week (which I view as sort of an outsider as a result of the simplicity of the work I was doing), I have noticed these stages occurring with each new project I have started. For example, my most recent project has been compiling statistics on model performance for financial forecasting on environmental insurance claims. When I first had this assigned, my supervisor provided me with a great deal of direction, walking me step by step through the different processes involved. As time went on and I began to improve, I began to receive more support in a relational sense and less directing–receiving strong feedback, answers to questions about the way my work fit into the goals of the company as a whole etc., making me feel more and more valued (for me, the S2 and S3 phases were rather fluent). Now, as I exit my third week working exclusively on this project, I do not really require much direction at all and am able to complete tasks relating to the project freely and with confidence. This sort of delegation without overbearing direction from my supervisor has allowed me to feel confident and respected as a member of the company. Overall, this contingency theory of leadership has allowed me to view to organizational processes related to my work in a whole new light.