Leadership Styles and Situational Team Leadership

Introduction

Leadership is not simply the position a person occupies; it is the process through which individuals influence, support and coordinate others toward shared purposes. In organisations, leadership affects motivation, communication, decision-making, trust, performance and ethical conduct. No single leadership style is effective in every situation. A directive approach may be valuable during an emergency, while participation may be more appropriate when a team possesses relevant expertise and time is available for consultation.

This chapter examines major leadership approaches relevant to team building and people management: behavioural, situational, transformational, transactional, servant and shared leadership. It also explains how leaders can assess team maturity and contextual demands before selecting an appropriate pattern of behaviour. The central argument is that effective leadership requires behavioural flexibility rather than loyalty to one preferred style.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Explain the main assumptions of behavioural, situational, transformational, transactional, servant and shared leadership.
2. Compare the strengths and limitations of these approaches.
3. Assess team maturity, competence, commitment and contextual demands.
4. Select and justify an appropriate leadership style for a particular team situation.
5. Apply leadership frameworks to workplace problems while considering ethics, inclusion and accountability.
6. Develop a practical plan for adapting leadership behaviour as a team develops.

Leadership as a Relationship and a Contextual Practice

Traditional views often treated leadership as a set of personal traits possessed by exceptional individuals. Contemporary perspectives generally view leadership as relational and contextual. Leaders influence followers, but followers also shape leadership through their expectations, expertise, feedback and willingness to accept influence. Leadership is therefore a social process involving purpose, power, communication and responsibility.

A useful distinction is between leadership style and leadership behaviour. A style is a relatively consistent pattern of interacting with others. Behaviour refers to observable actions such as setting goals, giving instructions, asking questions, coaching, recognising performance or delegating decisions. Situational leadership focuses particularly on matching behaviour to the needs of followers and the demands of the task.

Leadership should also be distinguished from management. Management commonly emphasises planning, organising, allocating resources and controlling processes. Leadership emphasises direction, influence, commitment and change. In practice, supervisors and managers often need to perform both roles. A manager may administer a performance system while also leading a team through uncertainty and learning.

Behavioural Approaches to Leadership

Behavioural theories shifted attention from the question “What qualities does a leader possess?” to “What does a leader do?” Research associated with Ohio State University identified two broad dimensions: initiating structure and consideration. Initiating structure concerns clarifying roles, setting standards, organising work and monitoring progress. Consideration concerns respect, trust, support, listening and concern for employee welfare.

The University of Michigan studies similarly distinguished production-oriented and employee-oriented leadership. Production-oriented leaders emphasise tasks, efficiency and output. Employee-oriented leaders emphasise relationships, participation and individual development. These dimensions are not necessarily opposites. A leader may establish demanding performance standards while also treating people with respect and providing support.

Robert Blake and Jane Mouton’s managerial grid represents concern for production and concern for people as two dimensions. It identifies patterns such as impoverished management, country-club management, authority-compliance management, middle-of-the-road management and team management. The grid is useful as a reflective tool, but it should not be treated as proof that one fixed position is always best. Organisational constraints, task risk and employee capability affect what is appropriate.

Practical value and limitations

Behavioural approaches are valuable because behaviours can be observed, practised and improved. A supervisor can learn to provide clearer instructions, conduct better feedback conversations or involve employees in decisions. Their limitation is that they may understate the importance of context. The same behaviour can have different effects depending on time pressure, culture, task complexity and the experience of followers.

Situational and Contingency Leadership

Situational approaches argue that leadership effectiveness depends on the fit between leadership behaviour and circumstances. They differ in their specific assumptions, but commonly consider task requirements, follower capability, motivation, relationships, authority and environmental uncertainty.

Hersey–Blanchard situational leadership

The Hersey–Blanchard model links leadership behaviour to follower development or readiness. Although terminology varies across editions, the model commonly identifies four patterns:

The model is often illustrated through four development levels. A new employee may require explicit instructions about procedures, standards and deadlines. As competence grows, coaching helps the employee interpret problems and build confidence. A capable but uncertain employee may benefit from participation and encouragement rather than more instructions. A highly competent and committed employee may require authority, resources and accountability rather than close supervision.

The model should not be applied mechanically. A person may be highly capable in one task and inexperienced in another. Team members may also have different needs. Leaders should therefore diagnose the task-specific development level rather than label a person permanently.

Path–goal theory

Path–goal theory proposes that leaders improve motivation by clarifying the path to valued outcomes, removing obstacles and connecting performance with rewards. It identifies directive, supportive, participative and achievement-oriented behaviours. Directive behaviour clarifies expectations; supportive behaviour attends to welfare; participative behaviour involves employees in decisions; achievement-oriented behaviour communicates confidence and challenging standards.

The appropriate behaviour depends on employee characteristics and the work environment. For example, directive leadership may help when procedures are ambiguous, but may frustrate experienced professionals whose work is already highly structured. Supportive leadership may be especially important under stressful or repetitive conditions.

Fiedler’s contingency perspective

Fiedler proposed that effectiveness depends on the match between a leader’s relatively stable orientation and situational favourableness. Situational favourableness is influenced by leader–member relations, task structure and position power. This perspective contributed to contingency thinking, although its measurement assumptions and claim that leaders are relatively difficult to change have been debated. Its practical lesson is that organisations should consider both leader behaviour and the conditions in which leadership occurs.

Transformational and Transactional Leadership

Transactional leadership

Transactional leadership is based on exchanges between leaders and followers. Leaders clarify expectations, monitor performance and provide rewards or corrective action. Management-by-exception may be active, involving close monitoring for deviations, or passive, involving intervention only after problems become serious. Contingent reward is the constructive element of transactional leadership: employees understand what is expected and what recognition or reward follows achievement.

Transactional leadership is useful when work requires reliability, compliance, safety or consistent standards. It supports role clarity and can be appropriate in routine operations, regulated environments and performance-management systems. Its limitations arise when employees need creativity, intrinsic motivation or commitment to a purpose beyond immediate exchange. Excessive reliance on punishment can produce concealment of errors, defensive behaviour and minimum compliance.

Transformational leadership

Transformational leadership seeks to elevate motivation and performance by creating meaning, developing people and encouraging them to consider collective interests. Bernard Bass developed a widely used formulation involving four dimensions:

• Idealised influence: leaders demonstrate credibility and ethical commitment.
• Inspirational motivation: leaders communicate an attractive and meaningful vision.
• Intellectual stimulation: leaders question assumptions and encourage problem-solving.
• Individualised consideration: leaders attend to individual development and needs.

Transformational leadership is especially relevant during change, innovation and organisational renewal. However, charisma is not equivalent to ethical leadership. A persuasive leader can mobilise people toward harmful objectives. Transformational claims should therefore be evaluated against transparency, participation, evidence, respect for dissent and accountability.

Transformational and transactional leadership are not mutually exclusive. Effective leaders may establish clear performance expectations while also communicating purpose and developing capability. A team needs both dependable execution and the capacity to adapt.

Servant Leadership

Servant leadership, associated particularly with Robert Greenleaf, begins with the priority of serving others. The leader seeks to improve the growth, autonomy, wellbeing and capability of followers and to contribute to the wider community. Common characteristics include listening, empathy, stewardship, persuasion rather than coercion, ethical conduct and commitment to people’s development.

Servant leadership can strengthen trust, psychological safety and inclusion. It is valuable in professions where service quality depends on employee commitment and client relationships. It does not mean avoiding difficult decisions or satisfying every preference. A servant leader can hold people accountable, address misconduct and make unpopular decisions while explaining their purpose and protecting dignity.

A risk is that servant leadership may be misunderstood as passive or excessively self-sacrificing. Leaders must maintain boundaries, allocate resources fairly and ensure that care for individuals does not compromise organisational responsibilities or stakeholder safety.

Shared and Distributed Leadership

Shared leadership occurs when influence is distributed among team members rather than concentrated in one formal leader. Expertise, initiative and responsibility move across the team according to the task. A technical specialist may lead a design decision, while a customer-service expert leads a client recovery process.

Shared leadership is supported by a clear common purpose, competence, trust, information sharing and norms for resolving disagreement. It is particularly appropriate for knowledge-intensive, project-based and cross-functional work. It can increase ownership and improve the use of expertise.

It is not the same as leader absence. Formal leaders remain responsible for setting direction, designing decision rights, securing resources, developing people and ensuring accountability. Without these conditions, shared leadership can produce confusion, conflict or informal domination by the most vocal members. Inclusive facilitation is therefore essential.

Comparing the Approaches

These approaches should be treated as complementary lenses. A leader may use transactional practices to maintain safety, transformational communication to explain a change, servant behaviours to support employees and shared leadership to draw on expertise. The challenge is coherence: employees should understand why decisions are made and how authority operates.

Diagnosing Team Maturity and Context

Before selecting a style, a leader should assess five factors:

1. Competence: Does the team possess the knowledge and skills required for the task?
2. Commitment: Are members willing to invest effort and persist through difficulty?
3. Task clarity: Are goals, roles, standards and procedures understood?
4. Interdependence: How much must members coordinate and rely on one another?
5. Contextual risk: What are the consequences of error, delay or non-compliance?

Team maturity is task-specific and dynamic. A mature team may still need directive coordination during a crisis or when entering unfamiliar technical territory. Conversely, an apparently inexperienced team may contain specialist knowledge that requires participative leadership.

A practical diagnostic sequence is:

• Define the outcome and identify the level of risk.
• Assess each member’s relevant competence and confidence.
• Determine whether time permits consultation and learning.
• Identify legal, safety, ethical and organisational constraints.
• Select initial behaviours and agree how progress will be reviewed.
• Adjust the style as evidence about capability and commitment changes.

Leaders should communicate the reason for adaptation. Moving from close direction to delegation can be interpreted as trust when expectations are explicit. Sudden withdrawal without preparation may be experienced as abandonment.

A Practical Decision Framework

The following framework integrates the theories discussed:

This table is a starting point rather than a prescription. Leadership selection should be treated as a hypothesis: the leader chooses behaviours, observes results and revises the approach.

Applied Case: The Riverside Community Clinic Project

The following is a fictional illustrative case.

Background

Riverside Community Clinic introduced a digital appointment and patient-record system. The project team included an experienced nurse, two administrative officers, an external software specialist and a newly appointed project coordinator. The clinic had six weeks to implement the system before a regulatory inspection.

Problem

The project coordinator initially used a highly participative style. Meetings were inclusive, but responsibilities remained unclear and the team missed two early milestones. Staff were anxious because errors could affect patient confidentiality and service continuity. At the same time, the software specialist became frustrated by repeated discussions of technical decisions that fell within her expertise.

Analysis

The team had mixed maturity. The software specialist had high competence in the technical task. The administrative officers understood clinic workflows but had limited experience with the new system. The coordinator had authority to organise the project but needed to build credibility. Regulatory and privacy risks meant that some decisions required explicit controls, while other design decisions benefited from distributed expertise.

Approach and solution

The coordinator adopted a differentiated approach. For privacy controls, data access and inspection deadlines, the coordinator used directive and transactional behaviours: responsibilities, standards, escalation routes and deadlines were documented. For administrative staff, the coordinator used coaching, demonstrations and practice sessions. The nurse was invited to lead workflow testing because of her frontline knowledge. The software specialist was given authority over configuration within agreed boundaries. Weekly meetings used a short decision log identifying the issue, owner, deadline and consultation requirements.

The coordinator also used servant leadership by removing barriers, arranging protected training time and listening to staff concerns about workload. Transformational communication connected the project to safer and more accessible patient care rather than presenting it merely as an information-technology exercise.

Outcome

Within four weeks, the team completed testing and resolved the most serious workflow defects. Staff confidence improved, and the inspection identified adequate privacy controls. The coordinator continued to monitor risks but reduced routine direction as employees became more capable.

Learning points

The case demonstrates that a single style would have been inadequate. Directive behaviour was appropriate for non-negotiable privacy requirements and deadlines. Coaching supported developing users. Shared leadership used specialist knowledge. Servant behaviour addressed wellbeing and barriers, while transformational communication created meaning. Effective situational leadership therefore involved combining approaches without confusing decision rights.

Ethical, Inclusive and Governance Considerations

Leadership style has ethical consequences. Directive leadership can become coercive; participative leadership can exclude people who are less confident or less culturally dominant; charismatic leadership can suppress dissent; and delegation can transfer responsibility without providing authority or resources.

Ethical leadership requires honesty, fairness, respect, accountability and willingness to hear concerns. Leaders should distinguish consultation from tokenism: asking for views without allowing them to influence a decision damages trust. They should also explain confidentiality boundaries and protect employees who raise safety, discrimination or misconduct concerns.

Inclusive leadership involves inviting diverse perspectives, managing interruptions, using accessible communication and examining whose expertise is recognised. Shared leadership should not simply reproduce informal power inequalities. Rotating facilitation, transparent criteria for decisions and documented responsibilities can improve fairness.

Leaders must also comply with relevant employment, health and safety, equality, privacy and professional regulations. Accountability cannot be delegated away. Even where a team makes decisions collectively, the formal leader may retain legal or organisational responsibility for ensuring appropriate governance.

Technology, Remote Work and AI

Digital collaboration tools can support shared leadership by making information, decisions and expertise more visible. However, remote work can reduce informal learning and make some employees less visible. Leaders should establish communication norms, ensure equitable access to information and avoid treating online availability as a measure of commitment.

Artificial intelligence may assist with scheduling, summarising meetings, identifying patterns in employee feedback or supporting scenario planning. It should not replace human judgement in promotion, discipline, wellbeing or other high-impact decisions without appropriate oversight. Leaders should assess data quality, privacy, bias, explainability and the possibility that automated recommendations reinforce historical inequalities. Technology should strengthen, not weaken, human accountability and dialogue.

Challenges and Limitations of Leadership Models

Leadership models are useful simplifications, but organisations are more complex than diagrams or labels suggest. First, models may imply that leaders can freely choose any behaviour, although hierarchy, resources, culture and regulation constrain choices. Second, follower “readiness” can be misdiagnosed or used to blame employees for structural problems such as inadequate training. Third, leadership research often relies on perceptions of effectiveness, which may be influenced by culture, gender expectations and power relationships. Fourth, a style that produces short-term performance may damage trust, learning or wellbeing over time.

Leaders should therefore use models critically. They should gather evidence from performance results, employee feedback, quality indicators, turnover, incident reports and learning outcomes. They should ask whether apparent performance reflects sustainable capability or excessive pressure. Reflection, coaching and 360-degree feedback can help leaders identify gaps between intended and experienced behaviour.

Best-Practice Guidelines

Effective situational team leadership generally involves the following practices:

1. Diagnose before acting; do not assume that a familiar style fits every problem.
2. Match direction and support to the task-specific competence and confidence of team members.
3. Make expectations, decision rights and accountability explicit.
4. Combine performance clarity with respect, listening and development.
5. Increase participation as capability and task conditions permit.
6. Use delegation with resources, authority and agreed review points.
7. Encourage constructive dissent and protect psychological safety.
8. Adapt leadership without changing core ethical standards.
9. Review outcomes and seek feedback on how leadership behaviour was experienced.
10. Treat leadership as a developmental process for the whole team, not merely as the performance of one individual.

Chapter Summary

Leadership is a relational process of influence, direction, support and accountability. Behavioural approaches explain leadership through task and relationship behaviours. Situational approaches emphasise fit between leadership behaviour, follower development and context. Transactional leadership provides expectations, monitoring and rewards; transformational leadership creates purpose, commitment and development; servant leadership prioritises the growth and wellbeing of people; and shared leadership distributes influence across a competent team.

No approach is universally superior. Leaders should assess competence, commitment, task clarity, interdependence and risk before selecting a style. In practice, effective leaders combine approaches: they may direct during a high-risk event, coach developing employees, support capable but uncertain staff, delegate to experts and facilitate shared leadership in complex work. Ethical, inclusive and evidence-informed adaptation is more valuable than rigid loyalty to one model.

Key Terms

Behavioural leadership: An approach that explains leadership through observable actions and patterns of behaviour.

Consideration: Leader behaviour showing respect, support, trust and concern for people.

Contingency leadership: The view that leadership effectiveness depends on the fit between leader, followers and situation.

Delegating: Providing limited direct instruction while assigning responsibility to capable team members.

Directive leadership: Clarifying tasks, roles, procedures, standards and deadlines.

Distributed leadership: Leadership influence spread across people and roles rather than concentrated in one person.

Initiating structure: Behaviour concerned with organising work, defining roles and setting performance expectations.

Individualised consideration: Attention to the unique needs, development and circumstances of followers.

Path–goal theory: A theory proposing that leaders clarify routes to valued outcomes and remove obstacles to performance.

Psychological safety: A shared belief that people can speak up, ask questions and raise concerns without humiliation or retaliation.

Readiness or development level: Task-specific capability and commitment relevant to a person’s ability to perform independently.

Servant leadership: Leadership that prioritises the growth, wellbeing and autonomy of followers and the wider community.

Shared leadership: A process in which team members collectively exercise influence according to relevant expertise.

Situational leadership: The adaptation of leadership behaviour to the needs of followers and the demands of the situation.

Supportive leadership: Behaviour that demonstrates care, encouragement, respect and attention to employee wellbeing.

Transactional leadership: Leadership based on clarified expectations, performance monitoring and exchanges such as rewards or corrective action.

Transformational leadership: Leadership that motivates people through vision, values, intellectual stimulation and individual development.

Team maturity: The degree to which a team possesses relevant competence, commitment and capacity for autonomous performance.

Review Questions

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the main difference between behavioural and situational leadership approaches?
2. Define transactional leadership and identify one context in which it is useful.
3. What are the four commonly identified dimensions of transformational leadership?
4. Why is team maturity considered task-specific?
5. State two conditions required for effective shared leadership.

Long Answer Questions

1. Compare transformational and transactional leadership, including their strengths and limitations in organisational practice.
2. Explain how a leader could move from directing to delegating as a team develops.
3. Discuss the contribution of servant leadership to trust, inclusion and employee development.
4. Evaluate the usefulness and limitations of behavioural leadership theories.
5. Explain why effective leaders may combine several leadership approaches rather than adopt one fixed style.

Analytical / Application Questions

1. A newly formed team must deliver a safety-critical project within three weeks. Some members are inexperienced, while one member is a highly qualified specialist. Select leadership behaviours for the situation and justify how you would adapt them over time.
2. An experienced team is meeting targets but has stopped suggesting improvements. Analyse the likely leadership problem and propose a combination of transformational, servant and shared leadership behaviours.
3. Using the Riverside Community Clinic case, identify which leadership approaches were used, explain why each was appropriate, and evaluate one ethical risk that the project coordinator still needed to monitor.

Multiple Choice Questions with Answers

Question 1

Which leadership approach focuses primarily on observable leader actions such as initiating structure and consideration?

A. Behavioural leadership

B. Trait leadership

C. Cultural leadership

D. Exchange-cost leadership

Correct Answer: A. Behavioural leadership

Question 2

Which style is generally most appropriate when team members are competent, committed and able to work autonomously?

A. Directing

B. Coaching

C. Supporting

D. Delegating

Correct Answer: D. Delegating

Question 3

Which of the following is a dimension of transformational leadership?

A. Position power

B. Individualised consideration

C. Passive management only

D. Formal control span

Correct Answer: B. Individualised consideration

Question 4

Transactional leadership primarily involves which process?

A. Exchanging clarified performance for rewards or corrective action

B. Removing all performance standards

C. Distributing every decision informally

D. Avoiding feedback until the end of a project

Correct Answer: A. Exchanging clarified performance for rewards or corrective action

Question 5

What is a central principle of servant leadership?

A. Protecting the leader from criticism

B. Prioritising follower growth and wellbeing

C. Using authority without consultation

D. Maximising competition between team members

Correct Answer: B. Prioritising follower growth and wellbeing

Question 6

Shared leadership is best described as:

A. The absence of any coordination

B. Influence distributed among members according to relevant expertise

C. A system where only the most senior employee decides

D. A reward system based on individual output

Correct Answer: B. Influence distributed among members according to relevant expertise

Question 7

According to path–goal theory, a leader can improve motivation by:

A. Making goals less clear

B. Removing obstacles and clarifying the route to valued outcomes

C. Avoiding supportive behaviour

D. Delegating every decision immediately

Correct Answer: B. Removing obstacles and clarifying the route to valued outcomes

Question 8

Why should team maturity be assessed as task-specific?

A. People have identical competence in all tasks

B. Competence and confidence may differ across tasks

C. Task requirements never change

D. Team maturity is determined only by age

Correct Answer: B. Competence and confidence may differ across tasks

Question 9

Which leadership response is most appropriate for a high-risk emergency involving an inexperienced team?

A. Immediate delegation with no review

B. Clear direction, safety checks and rapid feedback

C. No instructions to encourage creativity

D. Delayed consultation before every action

Correct Answer: B. Clear direction, safety checks and rapid feedback

Question 10

Which statement best reflects ethical situational leadership?

A. Any style is acceptable if targets are achieved

B. Leaders adapt behaviour while maintaining ethical standards and accountability

C. Participation should always replace expertise

D. Delegation removes the formal leader’s responsibility

Correct Answer: B. Leaders adapt behaviour while maintaining ethical standards and accountability