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Contingency Theory

Contingency Theory states that leadership style must be matched to the specific group situation in order to be effective. Fiedler's Contingency Theory was one of the first formalized management theories to demonstrate the importance of selecting leaders based on group dynamics and goals. The theory outlines a three-step process to identify and match leaders' styles to groups: assessing the leader's style using an LPC scale, assessing the group situation, and matching them for effectiveness. The LPC scale measures traits like kindness to determine if a leader is relationship-oriented, task-oriented, or somewhere in-between. The Contingency Model shows how different leader styles are suited to different situations, like preferring a task-oriented leader for

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107 views2 pages

Contingency Theory

Contingency Theory states that leadership style must be matched to the specific group situation in order to be effective. Fiedler's Contingency Theory was one of the first formalized management theories to demonstrate the importance of selecting leaders based on group dynamics and goals. The theory outlines a three-step process to identify and match leaders' styles to groups: assessing the leader's style using an LPC scale, assessing the group situation, and matching them for effectiveness. The LPC scale measures traits like kindness to determine if a leader is relationship-oriented, task-oriented, or somewhere in-between. The Contingency Model shows how different leader styles are suited to different situations, like preferring a task-oriented leader for

Uploaded by

RACHEAL OLUWAFADEKEMI
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Contingency Theory states that different group situations call for different

leadership styles. Since leaders have a relatively fixed leadership style, an


organization must therefore design job situations to match a leader’s traits in order
to achieve group effectiveness.
Fiedler’s Contingency Theory is one of the first formalized management
theories to demonstrate the importance of selecting leaders based on group goals
and dynamics.

Contingency Theory looks closer at how leadership style impacts group


relationships and outcomes. More importantly, the theory outlines exactly how to
identify and match leaders and groups. While not commonly referenced in modern
workplaces, it’s a key theory underpinning popular leadership training and
management systems like DISC popular in Western corporations today.

In order to achieve group effectiveness, the Contingency Model requires the


following three-step process:

1. Assess a leader’s leadership style;


2. Assess the situation that a leader faces; and
3. Match the situation with the leader’s leadership style.

In order to assess a leader’s leadership style, you must first understand how a LPC
scale works. Then, after analyzing LPC scale results, you can determine a leader’s
leadership style.

How a Least Preferred Coworker (LPC) Scale Works: Assessing


Leadership Styles

The way the LPC scale works is a leader is asked to think of their least preferred
coworker and rate them on numerous bipolar adjectives. For an example of one
adjective, you could select a value between one for “unkind” and eight for “kind”
on an eight-point scale of “kindness.”

After the full scale has been completed, the values are totaled to give an LPC
score, which is then compared to different ranges to tell the individual their
leadership style. The three different leadership styles are:

1. Relationship-oriented;
2. Task-oriented; or
3. Somewhere in-between
How the Contingency Model Can Be Applied
consider a squad of soldiers, which has an unstructured task, a powerful leader,
and (in theory) good leader-member relations. Here, you would want a task-
oriented leader to make decisions and get the group to their objective rather than a
relationship-oriented leader who would waste precious time discussing options
with the group. As stated in Fiedler’s book about the old army adage, “it is better
in an emergency that the leader make a wrong decision than no decision at all.”

Fiedler’s Contingency Model is intuitively accurate and has countless applications


across organizations.

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