Premium
Leading for Long‐Term Performance: Matching the Behavior to the Situation
Author(s) -
Bazigos Michael N.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of leadership studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.219
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 1935-262X
pISSN - 1935-2611
DOI - 10.1002/jls.21472
Subject(s) - situational ethics , set (abstract data type) , action (physics) , matching (statistics) , situational leadership theory , term (time) , perception , psychology , baseline (sea) , public relations , leadership development , social psychology , political science , servant leadership , computer science , leadership style , medicine , law , physics , pathology , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , programming language
Is there one right way to lead, or does it all “depend?” The right answer will inform the right leadership development strategy. A recent study by McKinsey & Co. using survey data collected from 165 organizations and over 365,000 respondents globally suggests that the answer is both. Two types of behavior sets emerged from organizations that enjoyed higher member perceptions of leadership effectiveness and attained higher levels of organizational health (the latter predicts long‐term financial and operational performance). We combined these into a model that prescribes a set of “baseline” behaviors that should always be evident, complemented by another set of behaviors (“situational behaviors”) that should be differentially emphasized depending on the level of organizational health. Both the content of the behavior and its relative emphasis are critical to either set. The current paper combines these into a model of organization‐wide leadership and concludes with action implications for organizations’ leadership development strategy.