Contingency Theory

Most favorable situations

good leader-follower relations defined tasks strong leader-position power

Fiedler's thoughts about leaders whose LPC scores do not match the situation

- A leader whose LPC style does not match a particular situation experiences stress and anxiety - Under stress, the leader reverts to less mature ways of coping that were learned in early development - the leader's less mature coping style results in poor decision making, resulting in negative work outcomes

Moderately favorable situations

In between most and least favorable situations

Least favorable situations

Poor leader-follower relations unstructured tasks weak leader-position power

Task-motivated leaders

concerned primarily with reaching a goal; will be effective in both very favorable and very unfavorable situations

Relationship-motivated leaders

concerned with developing close interpersonal relationships; effective in moderately favorable situations

Leader-member relations

consist of the group atmosphere and the degree of confidence, loyalty, and attraction that followers feel for their leader

Task structure

degree to which the requirements of a task are clear and spelled out; tasks that are completely structured tend to give more control to the leader, whereas vague and unclear tasks lessen the leader's control and influence

Contingency Theory

leader-match theory; effective leadership is contingent on matching a leader's style to the right setting; concerned with styles and situations

High LPC (Least Preferred Coworker) scale leader

relationship motivated leaders

Low LPC scale leader

task motivated leaders

Fielder's leadership styles

task-motivated leaders relationship-motivated leaders

Position power

the amount of authority a leader has to reward or to punish followers

Strengths (Contingency Theory)

•Backed by a large amount of research •First leadership theory to emphasize the impact of situations on leaders •Predictive of leadership effectiveness •Allows leaders not to be effective in all situations •Provide useful leadership profile data

Criticism (Contingency Theory)

•Relies heavily on the LPC scale, which has been questioned for its face validity and workability •Not easily used in ongoing organizations •Does not fully explain how organizations can use the results of this theory in situation engineering