FIEDLER'S
CONTINGENCY MODEL
All information
has been referenced from pg. 176 of Schermerhorn and Chappell's, Introducing
Management.
According to his
model, Fred Fiedler suggests that leadership success depends on a match
between leadership style and situational demands. In this model,
leadership
style is part of one's personality. It is therefore difficult
to change.
According to the
theory, people's leadership styles are either task motivated
or relationship
motivated: Neither style is effective all the time.
There are 3 Contingency
Variables presented in this model:
1. Quality
of leader-member relations- measures the degree to which the
group supports the leader
2. Degree
of task structure- measures the extent to which the task goals,
procedures, and guidelines are clearly spelled out
3. Amount
of position power- measures the degree to which the position gives
the leader power to reward and punish subordinates
*This information
provides for the following model:
Combinations
of Situational Characteristics
Leader-
member
relations |
GOOD
|
GOOD
|
GOOD
|
GOOD
|
POOR
|
POOR
|
POOR
|
POOR
|
Task
structure |
HIGH
|
HIGH
|
LOW
|
LOW
|
HIGH
|
HIGH
|
LOW
|
LOW
|
Position
power |
STRONG
|
WEAK
|
STRONG
|
WEAK
|
STRONG
|
WEAK
|
STRONG
|
WEAK
|
Situation-
al
control Very High «----------------------------------------------------»
Very
low |
Preferred
leadersh-
ip
styles |
T
|
T
|
T
|
R
|
R
|
R
|
T
|
T
|
T=Task-Oriented Style
R=Relationship-Oriented Style
From the model,
we can state two propositions:
Proposition 1-
A task-oriented leader will be most successful in either very
favorable or very unfavorable positions.
Proposition 2-
A relationship-oriented leader will be most successful in situations
of moderate control
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