SITUATIONAL FACTORS:Social and psychological climate, Culture of the organization

<< BIG FIVE MODEL, MYERS BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR (MBTI):Sub-Categories Defined, Information Gathering

BECOMING A LEADER! WHAT DOES IT MEAN & HOW DO YOU GET IT?:Mission Statement, Leading oneself >>

Leadership & Team Management MGMT 623

Lesson 15

SITUATIONAL FACTORS

We understand that leadership is a process and not a position. Three components playing important role

in this process are leader, followers and situation. In this lecture, we tried to explain this important

component/part of leadership process.

Situation is the environment or circumstances in which an individual performs. Following are the

factors that can influence the situation;

Task Type: the nature of the work or assignment can also effect the employees

Structure of organization: The organization structure always depend on the size of the

organization. If the structure will be more rigid, more complexities faced by the employees

Stress: Stress in the environment and intensity under which team, organization, or leaders are

working also play important role in leadership process and also situation itself.

Environment: The environment itself effect on the situation prevails in the organization. The

micro (internal factors) and the macro (external factors) always keep on changing, so that this is

big challenge for the leaders to keep the close eyes on changing environment and make

decisions accordingly..

Situational factors influence the leadership process:

Size of the organization

Organizational life cycle stage

Social and psychological climate

Patterns of employment

Type, place, and purpose of work performed

Culture of the organization

Over all environment

Leader-follower interaction

Leader-follower compatibility

Compatibilities within the followers

Size of the organization:

Size of the organization varies organization to organization and its operations and activities in which

organization involve. An organization's size demands certain types of leadership skills which help to

provide right direction. Following two type of leadership, we can see in the organization;

Leaders of small organizations: can be in the form of salespeople, marketing manager and production

managers. These leaders organize the system, assign the task, coach the team and evaluate the system.

The small organizations have a flexible system and flatter structure. The approach of the small

organization is more entrepreneurs.

Leaders of large organizations: In the large organization, the main focus will be on to create public

image and future investment plans. The system of the large organization will be more procedural and

structure of the large organization will also be more rigid and more complex because of its operations

and activities.

Differences between Large and Small Organizations

LARGE

SMALL

Economies of scale

Flexible

Global reach

Regional reach

Complex

Simple

Flat structure

Entrepreneurs

Leadership & Team Management MGMT 623

Changes with size

Formalization increases

Centralization decreases

Complexity increases

Vertical

Horizontal

Personnel Ratios

Top administration Decreases

Clerical Ratio Increases

Professional Staff Ratio Increases

Growth Rates

· When organizations are growing

Administration grows faster

· When organizations are shrinking

Administration shrinks more slowly

Organizational life cycle stage:

Every organization has its own life cycle. Which always start from its birth and end with its decline. To

save from decline, most of the organization introduces new products and new paths etc.

Birth

Growth

Shakeout

Maturity

Non-bureaucratic

Pre-bureaucratic

Bureaucratic

Very bureaucratic

Social and psychological climate:

Every organization has its own climate of working and environment in which the employees works

together. Different factors that influence the organizations climate;

Confusion

Anxiety

Conflicts

Mistrust

Stress

Politics

These factors also play their role on the formulation of situation and ultimately the leadership process.

Patterns of employment:

In today's organization the pattern of the employees also varies from organization to organization. We

can now see the permanent or temporary and Short-term or Long-term employees. So it also effects the

situation of the organization. Today's people need more job security and befits instead of their services.

And organizations are facing more challenges in shape of changing the external environment. So it is

another challenge for leadership to create a congenial working environment for satisfaction of

employees.

Type, place, and purpose of work performed:

The type of work is an important factor. The Work duties should be clearcut. The routine or

monotonous work could create hostile working environment. Many researcher claims that in today's

organization work duties loosely defined which always cause de-motivation and stress.

Culture of the organization:

The system of shared values and beliefs held by organizational members or the system of the shared

values norms and behavior that held by the top management is called organizational culture. All

organizations have their own cultures;

Culture by default: means the culture already exists from the birth of organization.

Leadership & Team Management MGMT 623

Culture by design: means the culture exists according to its operations and structure.

The Observable Evidence of the organizational culture is;

Symbols

Ceremonies

Stories

Behaviors

Language

Dress

The bottom line is Culture permeates org. behavior BUT Very hard to observe or quantify

Types of Organizational Cultures

Control cultures

Collaboration cultures

Competence cultures

Cultivation cultures

Culture's Effects on Behavior

Culture effects on behaviors during Communication, Cooperation, Commitment, Decision Making,

Implementation, and Leadership style etc.

Organizational Climate:

Organizational Climate is an important dimension that clearly determines organizational climate and

environment. An organization should have a reward system to motivate its employee and linked with

the performance. A transparent unbiased system in which employees feel satisfied. The standard of the

performance should clearly define to the employee and same for each category and related with job

description. A congenial and supportive working environment should prevails in the organization for

the increasing the productivity of the organization.

Over all environment: The organizational environment is the set of forces surrounding an organization

that have the potential to affect the way it operates and its access to scarce resources. Basically

organization environment has two dimensions internal and external. This can also be known as Macro

and Micro factors or even General Environment and Task Environment. All these factors/forces do

affect the leadership process.

Leader-follower interaction:

For running an organization successfully there is need of leader-followers interaction. There should be

Leader-follower compatibility for working together in the organization. Proper communication and

confidence on each other is very essential for trust and performance.

Similarly, Leader-follower compatibility and Compatibilities within the followers is also very

important for particular situation. All above factor affecting directly or indirectly the situation and

ultimately the leadership process.

Table of Contents: