Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
Lecture Notes
Chapter 5: Situational Approach
Learning Objectives
5-2 Explain how the situational approach works.
5-4 Identify the criticisms of the behavioral approach.
5-5 Explain how to apply the situational approach to modern day leadership.
Annotated Chapter Outline
I. Description
A. A widely recognized approach to leadership.
i. Developed by Hersey and Blanchard (1969).
ii. Based on Reddin’s (1967) 3-D management style theory.
iii. Refined and revised by many researchers including Blanchard, Zigarmi, and the
original authors themselves.
B. Blanchard and colleagues developed an extension of the original model called the
Situational Leadership® II or SLII® model, the approach examined in this chapter.
i. Stresses the directive and supportive dimensions of leadership, and the
appropriate application of each based on the situation.
a. Determining appropriate actions for the situation requires the leader to
b. The model assumes that followers’ skills and motivations change over
time, so leaders will also have to change the degree of direction and
support.
C. Leadership Style
i. Leadership style: The behavior pattern of a person who attempts to influence
others, including directive and supportive behaviors.
ii. Directive behaviors: Help group members accomplish goals by giving directions,
establishing goals and methods of evaluation, setting timelines, defining roles,
and showing how the goals are to be achieved.
a. Clarify (often through one-way communication) what is to be done, how
it will be done, and who will do it.
iii. Supportive behaviors: Help group members feel comfortable about themselves,
their coworkers, and the situation.
a. Use of two-way communication and responses that show social and
emotional support to others.
Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
b. Examples include asking for input, delivering praise, sharing information
about oneself, and listening to followers.
iv. Leadership styles have four distinct categories:
a. High directive-low supportive style: Also called directing style or S1 in
short. The leader focuses communication on goal achievement and
b. High directive-high supportive style: Also called the coaching approach
or S2 in short. The leader focuses communication on both achieving
goals and meeting followers’ needs. The leader is more emotionally
c. High supportive-low directive style: Known as the supporting approach
or S3 in short. The leader uses supportive behaviors that bring out
followers’ skills around the target goal. Extensive listening, praise,
d. Low supportive-low directive style: May be called the delegating
approach or S4 in short. The leader offers much less goal input and
D. Development Level
i. Development level: The degree to which followers have the competence and
commitment necessary to accomplish a given goal or activity.
ii. Competence: Mastery of the skills needed to achieve a specific goal. Previously
known as readiness.
iii. Commitment: An individual’s positive attitude regarding the goal. Previously
known as maturity.
iv. Followers are at a high development level if they are:
a. Interested.
v. Followers are at a developing level if they are:
a. At a low skill level for the job at hand.
b. Believe they have the motivation or the confidence to get the job done.
vi. Development level has four categories, D1 through D4, that represent a
spectrum from developing to developed.
a. D1 followers: low competence, high commitment.
b. D2 followers: some competence, low commitment.
Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
II. How does SLII® Work?
A. Constructed around the idea that followers move back and forth along the
developmental continuum.
i. Effective leaders determine where followers are on the continuum and adapt
accordingly.
B. Steps to situational approach:
i. Determine the nature of the situation.
a. Identify the goal, its complexity, and (using classifications D1 through
ii. Adapt leadership style to the prescribed style of the SLII® model.
a. One-to-one relationship: D1 followers benefit from S1 leadership, D2 to
S2, and so on.
C. Important to note that followers may require a different approach over time as well as
from task to task.
i. Some employees may be a D1 requiring S1 leadership at one task, but a D3
requiring S3 leadership at another.
a. Variation may even occur within the same tasks, such as a follower
III. Strengths
A. Especially useful to practitioners.
i. Well known and frequently used for leadership training.
a. Factored into the training programs of more than 400 of the Fortune
500 companies.
ii. Corporations see it as a useful model for training effective leaders.
B. Practical
i. Easy to understand, intuitively sensible, and easily applied in various settings.
ii. Applicable across many settings, not just work.
C. Prescriptive value
i. Many theories of leadership are descriptive and provide no insight as to what
should be done.
D. Emphasizes leader flexibility
i. One of the first contingency theories of leadership to introduce situational
factors to leadership style.
ii. Followers who feel the leader’s behavior fits their own needs have better job
affect, trust, and favorable work intentions.
Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
E. Reminds leaders to treat each follower differently based on the goal at hand and to seek
empowerment opportunities for followers.
IV. Criticisms
A. Few research studies have been conducted to justify the assumptions and propositions.
i. Most of the numerous doctoral dissertations on SLII® are unpublished.
ii. May mean this approach is built on shaky theoretical ground.
B. Ambiguous conceptualization in the model of followers’ development level.
i. Authors are insufficiently clear on how commitment combines with competence
to form four distinct levels, and in fact, it has changed over time.
a. Originally, Level 1 followers were described as “unwilling and unable.”
ii. Commitment is a particular sticking point in this criticism:
a. The SLII® model describes commitment as starting high in D1,
decreasing in D2, varying in D3, and ending high again in D4.
iii. Thompson and Glasø found these predictions more likely to hold true when
leaders and followers have similar ratings of competence and commitment.
a. These findings were replicated and expanded.
C. Questionable validity of the model’s prescriptions
i. Vecchio and various colleagues (in 1987, 1997, and 2006) studied high school
teachers, university employees, and U.S. Military Academy cadets separately, but
all showed the same effect.
a. Newer followers are more satisfied and perform better under leaders
ii. Thompson & Vecchio (2009) analyzed several versions of the SLII® model and
found no clear empirical support for any version of the model.
a. At best, they found leaders may be more directive with newer
employees and more supportive with more senior employees.
Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
D. Fails to account for the influence of demographic characteristics on leader-follower
prescriptions (Vecchio & Boatwright, 2002).
i. Level of education and job experience are inversely related to directive
leadership and unrelated to supportive leadership.
a. Followers with more education and work experience desire less
ii. Older followers desire more structure than younger followers.
iii. Gender also affects preferred leadership style:
a. Female followers expressed a stronger preference for supportive
E. Does not fully address the issue of one-to-one versus group leadership in the
organizational setting.
i. Group size not specified or accounted for.
a. Sparse empirical research also fails to indicate the level of analysis
(individual, dyadic, group level).
ii. Carew, Parisi-Carew, and Blanchard (1990) suggest that groups have their own
developmental stages similar to the individuals’ stages.
F. Questionnaires force respondents to describe leadership style in terms of four
parameters.
i. Questionnaires typically ask respondents to analyze various work situations and
select the best leadership style for each situation, with four options based on the
parameters of directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating.
V. Application
A. Used frequently in consulting due to its ease of conceptualization and application.
i. Straightforward and practical for managers.
B. Applicable in nearly any type of organization, at any level, for nearly all types of goals.