A study about empowerment as a key validation element of situational leadership theory

The Hersey and Blanchard theory for Situational Leadership (SLT) postulates that a leader following SLT determines the mixture of task behavior and relationship behavior for a specific task based on the maturity or readiness level of the subordinate. Efforts to validate SLT have not been universally successful. Researchers have experienced considerable difficulty measuring the multi-faceted construct maturity.;In this study, the researcher determined that a positive relationship does exist between, a combination of willingness of the subordinate to be empowered and the age of the subordinate, to the resulting level of empowerment of the subordinate. The results of this study, therefore, provide support for the validity of the Hersey and Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory.;The researcher measured the level of empowerment of middle managers by asking them questions to determine the latitude that they employed in the performance of their job. The researcher focused on how much direction middle managers needed to make decisions and perform task within the scope of their job as well as beyond the scope of their job. In addition the researcher focused on the sense of urgency that the middle manager placed on reporting resulting actions.;A second purpose of this study was to examine the impact that involvement by middle managers in a participative management program has on their resulting level of empowerment. In this study, the researcher found that the resulting level of empowerment of middle managers was positively related to the involvement of the middle managers in a participative management program.;The primary purpose of this study was to utilize the construct empowerment to test the validity of the Situational Leadership Theory. In this study, the researcher examined the level of empowerment of middle managers of a large corporate entity. The purpose of the examination was to determine the extent that variances in the level of empowerment can be explained by the variables historically used by researchers to describe the constructs readiness or maturity as used by Hersey and Blanchard for the development of their Situational Leadership Theory.