The negative organisational consequences of average leadership skills : case studies based on Ken Blanchards paradigm

Background. Organizational leadership is constantly present in the reflection of management science. It seems that the timeliness of the organizational leadership topic comes not only from the importance of managing teams of workers, but also from the changes that are taking place in: attitudes employees, the expectations of the organization and in the organizational environment. It causes the need for continuous reflection, because solutions adequate a couple of years ago, may not be conformed to contemporary situation. Organizational leadership is an interesting theme of reflection, because is an area of knowledge between management science and psychology. It is possible to venture the statement, that the reflection from one of these areas is enriched by the second one. Research aims. An average level of managerial skills can be considered as “good enough”. However, does this mean that it is the same as “correct”? The article indicates that nowadays “average” is “too little”. Methodology. On the basis of a few selected case studies of Polish organisations, the author presents the disadvantages of an average level of managerial skills. The analysis of the case studies and the particular types of organisational disorders will be based on the Situational Leadership Model developed by Ken Blanchard. The author analyses two situations in organisations: the leader using mainly styles S2 and S3 and the leader using mainly styles S1 and S4. Key findings. The author shows the consequences of average level of managerial skills for: a single employee, the team, the effects for another organisational processes (recruitment, employee turnover). The article also describes the psychological mechanism (social game or the archetype) that is often the background of that kind of behaviour (S2-S3; S1-S4) in the organisation.