Midterm 3/22/2011

Midterm Temp Ate

Contingency vs. Situational

Contingency: 

Is basically a theory that states that leaders must adapt to certain situations considering the circumstances.  With most stressful circumstances a task based leader is more appropriate because they are more apt to not worry about peoples' feelings and they tend to focus more on getting things done so they are more appropriately directive.   

Fiedler states that, "stress is a key determinant of leader effectiveness".  Which means that under pressure leaders perform better, which further proves why task based leaders will pull through more effectively.  Fiedler also says that, "intelligence is more effective and used more often in stress-free situations. Fiedler has found that experience impairs performance in low-stress conditions but contributes to performance under high-stress conditions".  Overall the theory sums up that as a leader you can change a situation but you can't change the person.  

An example of a real life experience that backs up this theory is when a deadline is pressing and other employees have not necessarily pulled their weight on a  project then it comes down to the supervisor/manager to complete the project.  They must rearrange the situation and lead well under pressure in a task based way so that they are not angered or unproductive because of their relationships with the employees who slacked off on their project.

 

Situational:

The situational theory states that, "situational leadership proponents emphasize that to be a successful leader, the manager should not only use the management style that comes naturally but also use the styles that fit the situation at the moment.  This style decision is based on the needs and maturity levels of the employees".  This basically means that a leader must be perceptive of what their team can handle so that they can lead in a way that is not too overwhelming or makes sense under the current circumstances. 

The situational leadership also includes four basic leadership behavior styles:

(1) high task-low relationship (telling); 

(2) high task-high relationship (sell

ing);

(3) low task-high relationship (participating); and

(4) low task-low relationship (delegating).

The theory states that, "The most effective leadership style depends on the readiness level of group members". Readiness, as defined in the article includes two components; ability and willingness.

An example of this would be coaching a basketball team.  If the team cares more about being a team and about bonding than you would want to be more in a participating mind set as the coach more so than the delegating, selling or telling mind set, you would need to help and be super involved.

The Office...

So we've all seen the office, which is one of the funniest shows on earth in my opinion.  It is also one of the best examples of horrible leadership as well! However, there are some pretty apparent leaders that come through because they have to compensate for Michael (the boss's) lack of leadership quality.  In this episode the major issue is dealing with office PDA, we will see double standards come out and direct and indirect ways of people dealing with it.

http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/video/pda/1290033/


Pam: Task/Relationship. She is relationship based, she just want's to make sure everything is okay.  In the beginning of the show she decides to give Darryl, a fellow employee, a sympathy card because his grandmother died.  She has seniority and a voice in the office so by doing this she is opening up lines of communication and establishing an open door for him to come talk to her if he needs someone to talk to which therefore strengthens their bond. 


Michael: He is basically the boss.  He is mostly path/goal driven.  He is an interesting character because he acts like he knows everyone and knows what's going on but he doesn't.  He has been assigned the leadership role somehow yet he really only looks out for himself so he will do anything it takes to accomplish his goals.  In this episode he disagrees with the "no PDA" guideline and he is upset that this is not what he wants but his overly obvious PDA with his girlfriend bothers everyone.  So he tries to accomplish his goal in this episode by making his unhappiness extremely obvious in order to accomplish his goal to bring PDA back to the office.


Darryl: is in the LMX acquaintance stage of leadership.  He is trying to be nice and maintain the peace within the office but he is also concentrated on getting his work done.  He has moderate relationships with everyone else but it isn't anything to close because he is concentrated more on getting his work done so he can go home because he seems irritated with everyone in the office all of the time.

Blog Comparisons...

After reading through some of the students' blogs in our class I realized how important it is to have a tone and a voice that runs consistently throughout the blog itself so that the readers know what to expect and feel comfortable coming back to and reading it...that is after all why people blog right? To attract a following of readers and to share their personal, consistent view on different things?

Well, I came to the conclusion that;

Emily Anne Rowe's Blog is rather similar to mine in the sense that we are both focused on completing the assignment, however, we like to spice it up with fun questions and pictures!  As I'm writing I feel like I have to constantly ask myself questions, and I have no problem with just typing them out as I'm thinking them, it actually helps the thought process a bit.  As far as pictures go, they just make everything so much more interesting and exciting even! We also have a few similar traits relating to the PMAI test we are both lovers and creators so I think that that might be an attribute as to why our blogs are so similar :)

Dan's blog on the other hand is a completely different story...

He is HILARIOUS!!!! Oh my gosh, this is by far the most entertaining blog I have come across yet (no offense anyone) he keeps a very funny running theme throughout the entirety of his blog that encourages us to stay engaged.  He takes the assignment one step further by adding much needed humor to an originally rather bland assignment, every time! I think that his color choice could not be more different than mine either which also sets a different tone for the blog itself at all, it's more edgy and resembles more of a "leader-ship" style rather than a "relaxing, peaceful" style of blog.  Props to you Dan...you influenced me to spice my blog up a bit!