Of the two classes Iâve taken in Disney, I found the information taught in my Organizational Leadership quite intriguing. In this class, we learned the many leadership styles used by companies and organizations such as Apple, Pixar, Disney and etc… The different leadership style was chosen base on its effectiveness in managing the employees in a given company. Of all the leadership styles that was introduced to us, I found situational leadership most effective and itâs also the most widely used by many companies. This leadership style was developed by Hersey and Blanchard in 1969. For a manager to base their leadership style in situational leadership, they must be able to adapt their leadership style to any given situations. A model was created so one could determine what kind of approach one should use for different types of employees base on the traits of the person. For a class assignment, I was asked to interview one of my area managers for his input in this style of leadership. From the interview, I found that most of my manager uses situational leadership as their managing style because they found it most effective when dealing with cast members and guests that came from different parts of the world. Situational leadership is a complex style to use because it requires one to analyze a situation thoroughly so they can adapt their methods of approach to the issue at hand. Itâs almost as if youâre playing a chess game and trying to win using the best strategy.
According to the article Iâve found, âHow Xerox Managers Fine-tune Managerial Styles to Employee Maturity and Task Needsâ by Raymond A. Gumpert and Ronald K. Hambleton, Xerox believes that in order for a company to grow and profit, effective leadership is needed. In 1974, situational leadership was introduced to the company and they began to train new managers with this style of leadership but then a question has arisen. ISG management of Xerox was questioning if itâs more effective when one applies the model of this leadership style properly while interacting with employees, would it become more effective to those who doesnât. If not, it would be pointless to set up extensive leadership training for the new incoming managers. ISG management began a series of test on the managers who agree to participate with this study. The test consists of three parts: a manager questionnaire, a professional maturity scale and a manager rating form. Result shows those who used the model correctly had more knowledge of situational leadership and gave their employees a higher performance rating compare to those who doesnât.
Article/Resource: Situational Leadership: How Xerox Managers Fine-Tune Managerial Styles to Employee Maturity and Task Needs by Raymond A. Gumpert and Ronald K. Hambleton.
Management Review, December 1979, Vol. 68 Issue 12, p.8, p.5 (host on EBSCO)
Mei Ling Lin
Epcot – Future World East Attractions
Spaceship Earth
