The importance of effective leadership cannot be underestimated, as the leadership’s primary task is to help the team overcome difficult situations at work, including performance problems and personal problems of the team members. In the “Sleeping on the Job: Management Dilemma” scenario, Marty, as a nurse, faces challenges in most traditional leadership styles. Knowledge of leadership styles and their application will be crucial to remedy Marty’s performance issues and assist her in overcoming her difficulties. This study analyzes the application of the transformational, servant, and situational leadership styles in the context of the above-highlighted scenario.
This leadership style aims to motivate and encourage the subjects to achieve the highest level of productivity. A transformational leader, on the other hand, would be involved with Marty to enable her to get over her challenges by dispensing support and resources (Brown et al., 2020). The transformational leader would be able to fix both Marty’s performance issues and her colleagues’ concerns by creating a supportive working environment and encouraging the team to have an open conversation.
The main characteristic of this approach is that transformational leaders are endowed with charisma, and they can express their vision and articulate it in a way that can inspire and motivate others. Additionally, they illustrate the image of virtue, displaying their values and behaviors (Brown et al., 2020). Besides, transformational leaders provide individual attention, having deep concern about any needs and progress of all followers. They offer a personal touch, such as personalized support, coaching, and mentoring, to help people accomplish their maximum capabilities.
Transformational leadership would be the most suitable in the above-described scenario as transformational leaders have the character bestowed upon them by charisma and vision, which could motivate and direct Marty and her colleagues to achieve the goal by overcoming all the challenges (Brown et al., 2020). A transformational leader would encourage Marty to improve her performance and promote her coworkers to support her efforts by portraying a desirable vision of a friendly and collaborative workplace.
This approach can reduce negative factors and build a healthy work culture. Transformational leaders are endowed with charisma and vision, which can stimulate Marty and her teammates to overcome their problems and work together to achieve the same goal (Legutko, 2020). A transformational leader could inspire the team members by creating a sense of purpose and motivation as they articulate a compelling workplace vision where everyone is collaborative and empathetic.
A disadvantage of this approach is the possibility of setting an extremely high bar or creating burnout. The common characteristic of transformational leaders is that they set high targets and expect maximum output from their subordinates (Legutko, 2020). Though this might motivate them to become the person they want to be, it might also put pressure and stress on them, particularly for someone like Marty, who is already looking after himself while caring for others.
Servant leadership is a philosophy concentrating on a leader’s primary function as a servant to their team or organization. Servant leaders do not just seek to advance organizational goals; they also look out for the welfare of their followers (Subhaktiyasa et al., 2023). They work to strengthen and encourage others, thus building a culture of honesty, unity, and growth. Servant leaders are role models, emulating humility, empathy, and a willingness to put others ahead of themselves.
One of the hallmarks of servant leadership is putting others before themselves, manifesting as a profound dedication to serving the team members (Subhaktiyasa et al., 2023). They show empathy through active listening, supporting one another, and subscribing to true love. The other significant principle of servant leadership is humility, where leaders accept their limitations as well as the contribution of others (Subhaktiyasa et al., 2023). Servant leaders represent stewards entrusted with guiding and nurturing their teams toward realizing shared goals.
Servant leadership would be appropriate in the “above scenario because it focuses on empathy, support, and empowerment. In this case, Marty, the nurse experiencing performance problems and personal struggles, needs compassion rather than disciplinary actions (Subhaktiyasa et al., 2023). The servant leader would ensure that Marty’s welfare is taken care of, hear her out, understand her problems, and provide her with the necessary resources to succeed.
Empathetic servant leadership advocates a learning approach that supports employees at all levels – personal and work-related. Effectively, serving or a servant leader bears the responsibility of prioritizing the well-being of their employees to ensure they are cared for and supported through tough times, which could create a culture of inclusion, respect, and motivation (Subhaktiyasa et al., 2023). This will boost the crew members’ morale, involvement, and satisfaction, leading to increased performance rates and productivity.
In this regard, the risk of using servant leadership will be to enable or tolerate poor performance. In this perspective, servant leaders tend to pay attention to the needs and desires of the followers; in this case, poor behavior at the place of work against the team or organization may be swept under the carpet or excused (Wuryani et al., 2021). To work this out in the illustration of Marty, not addressing the problem of her constant late arrival, napping on the job, and low performance level could result in an increased tolerance for the problem.
Situational leadership is a leadership model that adapts the leadership style to the specifics of the situation and the needs of the individual or team. The leaders will gauge the readiness and competency of the followers and manipulate the leadership behaviors accordingly (Wuryani et al., 2021). This flexibility in leadership style gives way for the applicability of the appropriate amount of directive, support, and guidance necessary for the case at hand, be it clear instructions required for a green team member or the responsibility being passed on to an experienced person.
Situational leaders vary in their behavior toward the members of a team and provide clear instruction and scrutiny toward a less experienced team member. In contrast, more professional and skilled personnel are granted independence. According to Wuryani et al. (2021), such flexibility and responsiveness to the changing needs of a team are crucial to having their type of leadership suitable for a situation and catalyzing maximum performance and development.
The style is effective in helping leaders adjust their style based on the specifics of each of the members. For example, with the complex personal and caregiving responsibilities that Marty takes on, situational leaders will be able to gauge her readiness and adjust their leadership style in relation to the level of her readiness (Wuryani et al., 2021). They will be able to offer more support and guidance where needed and, at the same time, delegate responsibilities to Marty. This would, in turn, ensure that Marty gets all the necessary support to be effective in handling the performance and personal-professional balance issues.
One of these effects is that the style of leadership allows for the flexibility of Marty to suit his particular needs and challenges. Suppose a situational leader constantly monitors the level of readiness and the ability to perform by Marty. In that case, they can change their way of leadership in order to offer the necessary level of direction and support (Bwalya, 2023). Such tailored support of the leadership to Marty, who has to balance personal and care problems, would therefore assist her in getting through the issues with her performance.
The major connotation of situational leadership in “Sleeping on the Job: A Managerial Challenge” is inconsistency and confusion in leadership approaches. Under a failed effective implementation, situational leadership will create unclear expectations and levels of support for members of the team (Bwalya, 2023). This could bring an aspect of employee resentment or feelings of being treated unfairly, especially when people feel others are being treated better.
In conclusion, the analysis of transformational, servant, and situational leadership styles in the “Sleeping on the Job: A Managerial Challenge” scenario reveals the need to adopt the right approach to best befit the challenges faced by Marty. Each leadership style has particular strengths and potential pitfalls, hence the call for flexibility and adaptability in leadership approaches. Transformational leadership has the promise to change things with the assurance of a supportive work environment. Servant leadership, in the meantime, provides the relationship with empathy and support. The peculiar circumstance in Marty’s life supports situational leadership. All these go on to say that careful consideration of the implications of any leadership style in this case will help Marty and the success culture within the team.
Brown, S., Marinan, J., & Partridge, M. A. (2020). The moderating effect of servant leadership on transformational, transactional, authentic, and charismatic leadership. Journal of International Business Disciplines, 15(2), 67-86.
Bwalya, A. (2023). Leadership Styles. Global Scientific Journal, 11(8). https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Arthur-Bwalya/publication/373068669_LEADERSHIP_STYLES/links/64d6349eb684851d3d9f6d24/LEADERSHIP-STYLES.pdf
Legutko, B. J. (2020). An exploration of authentic, servant, transactional, and transformational leadership styles in Fortune 500 CEO letters. Journal of Leadership Studies, 14(2), 44-51. https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.21683
Subhaktiyasa, P. G., Andriana, K. R. F., Sintari, S. N. N., Wati, W. S., Sumaryani, N. P., & Lede, Y. U. (2023). The effect of transformational leadership, servant leadership, and spiritual leadership on organizational citizenship behavior. Jurnal Organisasi Dan Manajemen, 19(1), 224-238. https://doi.org/10.33830/jom.v19i1.3695.2023
Wuryani, E., Rodlib, A., Sutarsib, S., Dewib, N., & Arifb, D. (2021). Analysis of decision support system on situational leadership styles on work motivation and employee performance. Management Science Letters, 11(2), 365-372. DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2020.9.033