Leadership and Followers: Hersey and Blanchard

Hersey and Blanchard's model defines effective leadership based on leadership style and maturity of follower(s).


LEARNING OBJECTIVE

  • Compare and contrast leadership style characteristics with the follower maturity concepts as defined by Hersey and Blanchard


KEY POINTS

    • The ideal leadership style varies based on what is required of a group and that group's level of development. The Hersey and Blanchard model measures this by categorizing leadership style and group (follower) maturity.
    • Leadership styles are a mix of task behavior and relationship behavior. There are four combinations of high and low task and relationship behaviors that imply different leadership roles.
    • Group maturity describes how confident group members are in the group's ability to complete its tasks.

TERMS

  • Relationship Behavior

    The style of leadership that is concerned with guiding how people interact, instead of the mechanics of how they complete the task.

  • Situational Leadership

    The theory that different leadership styles are required for different contexts.

  • Task Behavior

    The style of leadership that is concerned with instructing followers what actions to take.

Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard introduced their theory of situational leadership in the 1969 book Management of Organizational Behavior. Situational leadership states that there is no single, ideal approach to leadership because different types of leadership are required in different contexts. The Hersey and Blanchard model explains effective leadership in terms of two variables: leadership style and the maturity of the follower(s).

Source: Boundless
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