Assignment Overview

For this assignment, first, review the background materials with a focus on Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership model from Avery (2011). Make sure you are familiar with the four leadership styles covered in the situational approach (Directing, Coaching, Supporting, and Delegating) and situations where you are supposed to use these four styles.

Case Assignment

Pick one of the following scenarios (A, B, or C) below:

1. You are in charge of a team of architects. They are highly skilled but have strong opinions and do not necessarily follow instructions. These architects are independent thinkers who are used to doing things their own way.
2. You are in charge of a fast-food restaurant. The employees are all teenagers who have not yet graduated from high school, and this is the first job for most of them.
3. You are the supervisor of a team of software engineers. They are all highly skilled and highly motivated and are used to working independently. All of them believe in the mission of the company.

and write a 3 full-page paper (excluding title and reference pages) to include 3 scholarly sources from the required or optional reading lists and address the following:

1. What is the Situational Leadership Model, and how can it be used to improve your selected scenario?
2. The Situational Leadership Model involves both “inputs” and “outputs” by taking employee commitment and competency as inputs and then, based on the employee information, selects one of the four Directing, Coaching, Supporting, or Delegating as an output.
   Create a table comparing and contrasting the four leadership styles (Directing, Coaching, Supporting, or Delegating) in terms of inputs and outputs, and include a 1 or 2 paragraph discussion of your table.
3. Based on your table and the readings, which of the four leadership styles do you think is most useful to the scenario and why?

Assignment Expectations

1. Your Case Assignment should be at least 3 full-pages in length (excluding Title and Reference pages).
2. Be sure to cite and reference (Using APA Style) a minimum of 3 scholarly sources listed in the Course Materials and Bibliography (Module 1 Required and Optional Reading List), or in the Module 1 Background Page: Required and Optional Readings.
3. Upload your paper to the Module 1 Case Dropbox before the assignment due date.
4. Include both a References Page and in-text citations. Citation and reference style instructions are available at Trident University’s Introduction to APA Style, 7th edition . Another resource is the “Writing Style Guide,” which is found under “My Resources” in the TLC portal.

Answer preview

A good and effective leader is able to come up with a vision, goals, and objectives and motivates and influences their followers to work towards attaining the shared vision, goals, and objectives. For a leader to do this, they have to use a leadership approach that allows them to understand the needs and preferences of their followers (Sethuraman & Suresh, 2014). One leadership philosophy that allows a leader to do this is situational leadership (Sethuraman & Suresh, 2014). As such, this paper will analyze the situational leadership model and apply its dictates to a case study. The selected case study involves a fast-food restaurant, which employs teenagers who are yet to graduate from high school, and thus, this is the first job they have ever done.

1161 words