Two axes, and maturity that is not an age

The opening definition is calm and usable: leadership is a process of exercising influence, in a given situation, so that an organization can reach its goal. Hicks and Gullett are mentioned for including the coordination of conflict, the setting of goals, and planning and organizing. A leader, in this telling, directs task behavior, uses reward and punishment with some care, and keeps motivation up through selection and training, the design of work, and a system of control and reward.

Hersey and Blanchard then supply the situational frame. A leader's amount of direction, the socio-emotional support they offer, and the readiness of the people being led all interact. Task and relationship are not two ends of one stick; they are separate dimensions that can be high at the same time. Drawing also on Argyris and on McClelland, the account reads maturity as a desire to achieve, a will to take responsibility, ability and experience, and education — not as a birthday. Because there is no one best way to influence other people, a leader should change the amount of task behavior and of relationship behavior to match the readiness in front of them. The four types that follow are the familiar ones: a commanding style, high on task and low on relationship; a persuading style, high on both; a participating style, low on task and high on relationship; and a delegating style, low on both, which hands control to members and steps back from the work itself.

Seven changes, a bureaucratic snag, and a ward that needs a different nurse

Argyris's path from immaturity to maturity is given as seven changes, and they are kept as the account lists them: a shift from passivity to an active adult life; from dependence to independence; from simple methods to more varied and complex ones; from passing interest to a deeper one; from a view stuck on the past to a longer view of present and future; from a subordinate position to an equal or higher one; and from having no self-concept to a state in which self-concept and self-control are possible. The conflict the account worries about is a mismatch of recognition. The individual sees a mature person in the mirror; the organization still sees a child. A conservative, bureaucratic culture, in this account, demands mechanical obedience more readily than initiative or inventiveness, and treats people like parts of a machine. An immature view of staff produces conflict, exit, and a standing dissatisfaction; if only obedience and control are demanded, creativity, efficiency, and flexibility are squeezed, and in the worst case the better people leave.

The ward diagnosis is the point of the source. A nursing unit is a place where shared values, beliefs, and ways of acting gather, and it has a large influence on the hospital as a whole. The members of this ward feel mature, yet they do not admit their own mistakes and they store up complaints — and that, for the author, is still a sign of immaturity. The head nurse mainly leads by command and supervision, watching whether general nurses carry out their work, and clinging to a traditional, control-centered management. That stance can work against a more active, customer-centered running of the ward. The change the account wants is toward a facilitator: high in relationship behavior, and able to lead people to take part. No hospital is named, and no extra percentage is added.

Sources

1. A study guide for a nursing-management course, applying Hersey and Blanchard's situational leadership and Argyris's maturity theory to a ward and to the style of its head nurse.

Last updated: 14 November 2026