When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership
A situational theory of leadership attempts to match a particular leadership style or type to specific external circumstances. The general idea is that one type of leadership will be effective in one situation, but a different type of leadership will be effective in another situation. Historically, situational theories of leadership have been too abstract to apply to specific situations. Nevertheless, the concept of situational leadership retains considerable intuitive appeal. In this article we draw on our previous research about situational leadership during resuscitation in a trauma center, in order to derive a general strategy of how a leader can best develop his or her own personal theory of leadership which best works for their unique circumstances. The core of the strategic approach involves: (1) defining goals for a specific situation, (2) defining potential leadership types, (3) identifying situational conditions, (4) matching a leadership style to the particular situation, and (5) determining how the match between leadership style and situation will be made. The medical trauma center we profile provided an interesting example of how leaders considered elements of the situation to guide their own leadership.
Authors :: Henry P. Sims Jr., Samer Faraj, Seokhwa Yun
Swot Analysis of "When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership" written by Henry P. Sims Jr., Samer Faraj, Seokhwa Yun includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Situational Leadership facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Leadership development, Motivating people, Risk management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership casestudy better are - – technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Situational Leadership, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Situational Leadership operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Situational Leadership
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Situational Leadership
Strengths When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Situational Leadership in When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Situational Leadership
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Situational Leadership does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Situational Leadership is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Situational Leadership in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Situational Leadership is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Situational Leadership is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Situational Leadership has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Situational Leadership to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Situational Leadership has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Situational Leadership is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Situational Leadership has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Situational Leadership are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Situational Leadership digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Situational Leadership has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Situational Leadership has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Situational Leadership to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Situational Leadership to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Situational Leadership in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Situational Leadership supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Situational Leadership vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Situational Leadership has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Situational Leadership even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Need for greater diversity
– Situational Leadership has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Situational Leadership has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Situational Leadership has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership HBR case study mentions - Situational Leadership takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Situational Leadership is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Situational Leadership needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Henry P. Sims Jr., Samer Faraj, Seokhwa Yun suggests that, Situational Leadership is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Situational Leadership is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Situational Leadership needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Situational Leadership to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership are -
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Situational Leadership can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Situational Leadership to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Situational Leadership can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Situational Leadership in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Developing new processes and practices
– Situational Leadership can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Situational Leadership to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Manufacturing automation
– Situational Leadership can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Situational Leadership can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Situational Leadership can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Leadership & Managing People segment.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Situational Leadership has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Situational Leadership to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership case study. Situational Leadership can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Situational Leadership to increase its market reach. Situational Leadership will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Situational Leadership has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Situational Leadership to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Situational Leadership can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Situational Leadership can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Threats When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership are -
Regulatory challenges
– Situational Leadership needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Situational Leadership high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Situational Leadership with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Situational Leadership has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Situational Leadership needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Situational Leadership will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Situational Leadership can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership .
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Situational Leadership needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Situational Leadership can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Situational Leadership.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Situational Leadership in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Situational Leadership
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Situational Leadership.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Situational Leadership demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of When Should a Leader Be Directive or Empowering? How to Develop Your Own Situational Theory of Leadership is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Situational Leadership needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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