With the plethora of training and development products available on the market today, it is no surprise that there is sometimes confusion over the names and products being offered to companies. Perhaps the most notable example of this is with Situational Leadership® and Situational Leadership II®, two similarly named management training products.
Both models originally grew from collaborative work by Dr. Paul Hersey and Dr. Ken Blanchard when they were both employed at Ohio University. The original textbook, published by Prentice Hall in the latter part of 1969, was entitled “Management of Organizational Behavior: Utilizing Human Resources” and has been a bestseller in its field for nearly forty years.
Further work ensued which saw changes being made to the model and in the 1972 edition of the book, the term ‘Situational Leadership’ first appeared, being used to describe Hersey and Blanchard’s approach to leadership.
As time progressed, revisions and changes were made to ‘Situational Leadership®’ and the models contained within the book that reflected the advancements and societal developments over time. The working environment of forty years ago was a very different environment to that of today, especially in terms of the expectations of managers and their relationships formed with their workforce.
Dr. Paul Hersey and Dr. Ken Blanchard continued to work closely until 1979, when Ken Blanchard, together with his wife Margie, founded Blanchard Training and Development, Inc. (BTD). From that time two separate but interlinked models began to form- Situational Leadership® and Situational Leadership II®. Dr Paul Hersey continued to focus and develop Situational Leadership® from his established ‘Centre for Leadership Studies’ whereas Ken Blanchard developed his Situational Leadership II program under ‘Ken Blanchard Companies’ along with other managerial and soft skill programs.
Essentially the two programs can be considered two slightly differing paths that will ultimately reach the same destination. Whether Situational Leadership® or Situational Leadership II® is used, a person will gain a better understanding of the people they work with.
Situation Leadership® works with the assumption that when people join an organisation, or are promoted or moved into a new position, they are highly motivated but are not able to perform at targeted levels from day one. Therefore the leadership provided at the time, can move the individual up or down on both the performance and the motivation scale.
Situation Leadership II®, on the other hand, starts with the assumption that a person in the same position (the new employee) will undergo a natural set back in performance and motivation before they start clipping in the performance ladder.
While the models can both appear the same there are a few more fundamental differences:
- Situation Leadership® refers to the readiness of a follower as R1, R2, R3, R4, while Situation Leadership II® refers to it as development stages and hence D1, D2, D3, D4.
- Situation Leadership® believes that the new comer to a job/ task or position needs to be led using high supportive behaviour and high directive behaviour, thereby sustaining the individuals’ motivation and upping the performance levels. Situation Leadership II®, on the other hand, recommends high directive behaviour and low supportive behaviour.
- In the layout of the Model R1 = D2 , and R2 =D1, the rest of the model is exactly the same.
- The approaches to selecting the leadership styles
- Assessing readiness / developmental levels of an individual
- That the leadership style is a combination of supportive / directive behaviour used by a leader in any one given interaction
- They both focus on the follower in a given task
At the Center for Leadership Studies, Dr. Hersey has focused all his studies and research in the Situational Model. Today companies can fine tune the implementation of Situation Leadership® by going into powerbases that drive leader behaviour and hence the effective / ineffective usage of a leadership style or they can choose to work on why some leaders avoid particular styles.
Dr. Blanchard, however, has worked on the situational leadership model and combined it with stages of team development. He has also diversified into other managerial skills pertinent for a manager today.
Whichever model (Situation Leadership® or Situation Leadership II®) a company chooses it is important to note that that both are copyrighted programs. Globally, both companies have certified trainers / affiliates that distribute their skill development programs through. Both companies also license organisations to run their development modules internally.
It is important to note that while the Blanchard Model seemingly is available on the World Wide Web (and to some extent the Hersey model is too) it is there for public reference only and is not there as a whole program to be used. Additionally, using an official affiliate or licensed trainer ensures that your program is being delivered by someone with the necessary training and experience to deliver the program properly. Like any behavioural model it IS the subtle nuances that make the model a success and these are known ONLY to Licensed Trainers.
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