1. MGMT500 Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
Application of Situational Leadership in Relation to Theory X and Theory Y
Ryan Dresher
Southwestern College
MGMT500 Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
Dr. Whitney Stevens
August 5, 2012

2. Theory X-Y Many employees exhibit Theory X and Theory Y behavior
People grow up in different environments
Theory X and Y behavior can be recognized by experienced and non-experienced leaders
Knowledgeable leaders have a strategy to deal with each behavior
McGregor’s Theory X and Y summarize follower behavior into two categories. Theory X assumes employees are not interested in being creative or solving the organization’s problems, but instead are only interested in satisfying their lower level fundamental needs and security needs. Self actualization is not pursued by employees at the workplace (McGregor, 1960). Theory Y assumes employees are interested in pulling the organization forward by working hard, being creative and solving problems. They value being allowed some autonomy and believe a their workplace is involved in their self-actualization (McGregor, 1960).
People grow up in different environments. They have ideas instilled in them from childhood through adulthood and carry those ideas forward in their evaluation of the workplace. People tend to believe the same things they see in their environment including negative and positive ideas. This could place them within the Theory X or Y categories.
Leaders can recognize this behavior whether they know about McGregor’s theories or not. However, the knowledgeable leaders will have the advantage of being able to deal with each behavior in a structured manner. Inexperienced leaders will not be able to quickly and effectively change their leadership style to match the behavior and risk losing the employee and the productivity he brings.

3. Situational Leadership
A structured way for dealing with employee behavior
Can be applied to Theory X and Theory Y
Categories assigned to both employee and leader behaviors
Leader uses appropriate behavior to manage and grow the follower
Situational leadership examines behavior and allows a leader to deal with each behavior type. This style of leadership can be applied to Theory X and Theory Y. Categories are assigned to employee behaviors of R1, unable and unwilling; R2, unable but willing; R3, able but unwilling; and R4, able and willing. The leadership behaviors which correspond are S1, authoritative or telling, known as task behavior; S2, high task and high relationship behavior; S3, high relationship and low task behavior; S4, low relationship and low task (Hersey et. al, 2008).
If a knowledgeable leader recognizes a certain behavior, she can adjust her leadership style to the behavior type. Leadership style can also be adjusted as followers progress through the different behaviors.

4. Hawker Beechcraft Culture
Employees exhibit all Theory X and Theory Y behaviors.
Can not be distinguished between shop floor employees or salaried employees
Situational leadership is a prime tool to practice with this organization
This structure will help my organization in at least 3 ways.
Any large organization will have an array of employees which range the full spectrum of theory x and theory y behaviors. Their extensive backgrounds make for a wide array of personalities, attitudes and behavior.
The Theory X and Theory Y behavior is not distinguishable between certain groups such as shop floor or salaried employees. These groups both have all types. I have seen shop floor employees and salaried employees show both types of behavior ranging from R1 through R4.
I will be able to use the situational leadership structure to deal with these behaviors to help and grow the employees.

5. Ryan’s Position Quality—it holds up production
Deal with all theory types to maintain Quality
Must be a leader to influence others to uphold and embrace Quality
Most people feel Quality is a bottleneck in the process. It seems this way due to not being able to pass inspection creates rework, which increases cycle time. However, there is more to quality than just inspecting. Quality also is concerned with decreasing waste, which includes travel, rework, overproduction, defects, etc.

6. Advantage 1 During situations which compromise safety of flight
Able to recognize behavior and adjust leadership style to influence actions
Quickly quell the safety concern to be dealt with in a relaxed manner
When a safety of flight issue is found on an aircraft, the right people have to be involved to quickly investigate. They must be able and willing to find how it happened where it happened, the impact and whether other aircraft are affected.
As a leader, I must know what behavior and performance readiness level each follower is in order to grow them into effective investigators.

7. Advantage 2
During situations which others don’t want to perform tasks they feel are useless
The tasks actually decrease rework and waste
The tasks are felt to be “over the top” of what is expected by production
I need to recognize which followers have problems performing tasks such as building charts, speaking to charts, performing improvement activities and other quality actions. I can use the leadership styles to grow followers to be effective by explaining why improvement actions benefit them.

8. Advantage 3 Influence others during containment actions
I need the help of other Quality members to find and segregate non-conforming parts
This requires help due to required fast pace
Similar to safety actions, investigations of non-conforming parts are fast paced because if it is suspected that non-conforming parts may be on an aircraft, it can’t be licensed for airworthiness. When the company doesn’t get paid, many people are questioned. I want to make sure we have done everything in our power to contain the bad parts and get good parts on the airplane. If I can use situational leadership to grow people to be more effective at this, the group would be a great asset to the company

9. Conclusion
Situational Leadership will allow me to quickly understand which style I should be using
No longer a chaotic process
Will help me achieve department goals, objectives and tasks
With situational leadership structure, I can diagnose the behavior and performance readiness of employees and teams. There will no longer be a question of how to influence someone, but which leadership style do I need to grow this person. Situational Leadership will help to improve my department and those I lead, which hopefully will help me be remembered as a good person and leader.

10. References
McGregor, D. (1960). The Human Side of Enterprise. New York: McGraw-Hill
Hersey, P., Blanchard, K. H., & Johnson, D. E. (2008). Management Of Organizational Behavior, Leading Human Resources (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.