HMEF5023

Educational
Leadership
Topic 2:
Effective Leadership Behaviours and Attitudes

Topic 3:
Contingency and Situational Leadership

Dr. Md Rosli Bin Ismail

 Behaviourial Theories

Theory X and Theory Y (Mc Gregor 1960)

Theory X
Why it is called theory X? What are the traits of theory X workers?
What happens if there are many theory X workers in an organisation?
Can theory X workers be trained as leaders?

Theory Y
Why is it called theory Y? What are the traits of theory Y workers?
What happens if there are many theory Y workers in organisation?
Can theory Y worker be trained to be leaders?

Sample of the Exam Question:

Mc Gregor (1960) developed Theory X and Theory Y - theories of work

motivation and management, where each theory represents different beliefs in
which leaders view employees.

(a) Discuss FIVE (5) characteristics of Theory X workers. (b) Discuss FIVE (5)
characteristics of Theory Y workers.
 Behaviourial Theories

The Ohio State Leadership Quadrants

(L) Consideration (Relationship Behaviours) (H)

C S C S The Managerial Grid Leadership Style

(H)
C S
Country Club
C S Team (9-9)

Concern for People

(1-9)
Middle of the
(L) Initiating Structure (Task Behaviour) (H) Road
(5-5)
Blake (1964) identified 5 leadership styles in organization. Impoverished
1. Laissez-Faire Task (9-1)
2.
3.
Country-Club
Middle-of-the-Road
(1-1)

(L)
4. Autocratic
5. Democratic Team Management
(L) Concern for Product (H)
 Country Club Style of Leadership (1,9)
▪ The leader gives extra care to subordinates.
▪ The leader does not care much about products.
▪ The leader gives all out support and defense to subordinate.
▪ Harmonious relationship with subordinates are the primary concern of the leader.
Democratic Style of Leadership (9.9)
▪ This is also known as Team Management. The leader is concerned with
production as much as he is concerned with his subordinates.
▪ A democratic leader believes that happy workers is more committed and
productive. Therefore, a democratic leader facilitates discussion with
subordinates before completing a task.
▪ Everyone is encouraged to contribute physically and mentally towards the
job. The success of any project is taken as the success of the whole
team. The understanding enhances higher commitment among team
members is encouraged to contribute physically and mentally towards the
job. Democratic leadership upholds the spirit of “team work”.

Middle-of-the-Road Style of Leadership (5,5)

▪ The leader is too protective to the extent of delaying decisions. Quite
often he adopts a “wait and see” attitude.
▪ The fear of making mistakes makes the leader to loose his direction
and become indecisive.
▪ Some leaders of this type care both production and the welfare of his
subordinates (positive) or just the opposite (negative aspects).
▪ Most often such leadership is branded as “no principle” as he could not
make his own stand.

Laissez-Faire Style of Leadership (1,1) Autocratic Style of Leadership (9,1)

▪ The leader concerns little on the products and his subordinates.
▪ The leader prefers to avoid conflicts within the organization.
▪ The leader follows the rule of the book and seldom uses his discretion. He is very
protective of himself.
▪ The leader gives very little guidance to subordinates who are left on their own
without proper direction towards their job.
▪ Face-to-face relationship between the leader and subordinates are too limited.
▪ The primary concern of the leader is the product no matter what
happens to subordinates.
▪ The leader cares less his subordinates because what matters most
is the products subordinates produce. The leader wants his
subordinates to be robots.
▪ The leader wants subordinates to sustain their efficiency at all times
and get productive more and more. The leader tends to be very strict
all through.
 1.
Leadership Styles

1.

2.

3.
 3. Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational
Leadership Theory

2.

Structure (directive,
achievement)

Consideration
(Supportive,
participative)

Sample of the Exam Question:

‘Leadership styles are based on situational contexts.’

Based on the above statement, discuss it with reference to the

Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership model. The discussion
should be supported with relevant examples in the educational
setting.
 Literature Review: Education Quality in Hong Kong Primary Schools (Cheng, 1994)

Correlation Between Principal’s Leadership and Student’s Performance

Structural
Leadership

Education Human Teachers’ Teacher’s group

Leadership 5 Leadership individual level
Dimensions performances performances Students’ Attitude
of towards School
Principal’s
Leadership

Level of
professionalism
Symbolic Political
Leadership Leadership

Dependent Variables
Independent Variables Mediating Variables

Findings:
All the dimensions of leadership were positive towards
students’ attitude towards schools
 Contingency Leadership
 Effective leaders are always open to any options
on leadership styles and approaches to use when
confronting problems and situations that need
their attention and participation.
 The contingency theory is a leader-match theory
where it tries to match leaders to appropriate
situations. It is called contingency leadership
because the effectiveness of the leader depends
on how well his leadership style fits the context.
Fiedler’s Contingency Theory of
Leadership
▪ Fiedler’s contingency theory suggests that there is no best way
for managers to lead.
▪ Situations will create different leadership style requirements for
a manager. The solution to a managerial situation depends on
the factors that influence the situation. Fiedler looked at 3
situations that could define the condition of a managerial task:
▪ Leader-member Relations
▪ Group atmosphere – the level of confidence, loyalty and
attraction followers feel for their leader.
▪ The Task Structure
▪ The requirement of a task are clearly spelled out. A
completely structured task will give more control to the
leader while vague and unclear tasks would reduce the
leader’s control and influence.
▪ Position Power
▪ The amount of authority a leader has to reward or punish
followers. This usually refers to positional power and it is
strong when the leader has the power to hire and fire or
has the authority to reward through raise in pay or
promotion.
 The Path-Goal Theory of Leadership Effectiveness
 It is a situational leadership. It focuses on how leaders motivate followers to
accomplish goals and enhance performance and satisfaction. A leader needs to
be skilful in all the following 4 behaviours.

 Directive Leadership - leader tends to give explicit expectations, initiating structure,

‘telling’ style.

 Supportive Leadership – leader treats followers as equals, considerate in behaviour,

with ‘approachable’ style.

 Participative Leadership – leader tends toward shared decision making,

collaborative behaviour.

 Achievement-oriented Leadership - leader sets challenging goals, shows

confidence that they are capable to meet them.

Structure (directive,
achievement)

Consideration (Supportive,
participative)
  It is based on the amount of direction (task behaviour) and amount of
The Hersey-Blanchard Situational socioemotional support (relationship behaviour).

Leadership Model  S1 Directing/Telling (High Task/Low Relationship Behaviour):

Recommended dealing with new staff, work is repetitive, to be
completed within a short time span. Subordinates are viewed as being
unable and unwilling to ‘do a good job’.

Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership model, there are 4 quadrant  S2 Coaching/Selling (High Task/High Relationship Behaviour) : An attempt
in the diagram, which is S1, S2, S3 and S4. The quadrant is divided into at encouraging people to “buy into” the task. Sometimes characterised
two elements which is directive behavior and supporting behavior. as a “coaching” approach, it is to be used when people are willing and
motivated but lack the required “maturity” or “ability”.

SI: Directing  S3 Participating/Supporting (High Relationship/Low Task Behaviour) : The

The leader or principal direct teachers because they have high
directive and low supporting behavior. For example new teacher
have a lot to be guidance and do not have idea and cannot think out
of the box for the beneficial of program that will be held in school ,
the principal just direct them without considering other things. Give
the teachers direction to complete the task.
leader to facilitate and communicate. It is used when people are able,
but perhaps unwilling or insecure.
 S4 Delegating (Low Relationship/Low Task Behaviour) : The leader still
identifies the problem or issue, but still responsibility for carrying out the
response is given to followers.

S2 : Coaching
When teachers are be able to have their own behavior they become
better and they need to be coached. Principal gives them high direct
behaviour and high direct supportive behavior. They can think and
perform the task better but they need to be supported. They become
better and be able to think by their own ways.

S3 : Supporting
As the teacher are able to become better in performing the given
task, they know the direction of the program, they know what they
what to achieve so principal do not have to give a lot of direction
and low supporting behavior.

S4 : Delegating
Principal do some discussion with the teachers and let they know
what they supposed to do. They are low direction and low supportive
behavior. Some of the teachers have no idea on how to performing a
task and leader identifies the problem, direct to them and ask what
to do later. Principal delegate the work to them because they have
high degree of competence and maturity.
 Concept of Ethics in Leadership
Ethics and leadership cannot be separated because ethics is embedded in
everything we do, and it is a part of our humanity. An ethical school is characterised
by an ethical culture, which the ethical nature od the core business of schools.
There are FIVE principles that provide a foundation for the development of sound
ethical leadership

Respectful of Others

Ready to Serve Others

Fair and Just

Honest

Build Community
Thank You