Situational Engineering

Situational Engineering

Although leaders’ and followers’ behaviors are affected by a variety of situational factors, all too often leaders and followers completely overlook how changing the situation can help them to change their behavior. This has happened during author’s managerial career a few times. . A leader or followers become more effective by identifying problem areas and re-structuring the situation so that these problems become easier to overcome (Hughes, Ginnette, & Curphy, 2002, p. 351). As an example, one of the author’s subordinates who had worked very well in the past, had started to perform poorly. After noticing this for a few days, the author set up a series of one-on-one meetings. During these meetings, it was found that this employee was dissatisfied with the monotonous job. This prompted the author to tailor the job characteristics in such a so that it helped both the employee and the organization. This was done without knowing the various aspects of situational engineering. With the help of various aspects studied in this chapter, the author would like to implement what is appropriate when a situation arises. There are a variety of ways in which leaders and followers can change the task, organizational, and environmental factors affecting their behaviors and attitudes. By asking questions and listening effectively, leaders may be able to redesign work using the suggestions from Hackman and Oldham’s (1980) job characteristics model or Herzberg’s (1966) two-factor theory in order to improve followers’ satisfaction and productivity levels (Hughes, Ginnette, & Curphy, 2002, p. 352).

Hughes, R. L., Ginnette, R. C., & Curphy, G. J. (2002). Leadership enhancing the lessons of experience. New York: McGraw-Hil.