Fred E Fielder Contingency Theory

Introduction

Note: from toolshero.com

The situational approach of leadership provides a very important consideration on leadership effectiveness, that is, the critical role played by the leadership situation that can make a leader effective or ineffective (Seyranian, 2009). Fred E Fiedler has developed a more detailed and logical approach under this theory which he named as the Contingency Theory of Leadership. 

Contingency Theory has two parts:

1. Measuring a leader’s leadership style to scale the predominant style of a leader falling under either Task Oriented or Relations Oriented. 
2. Determining the Situational Favorableness that a given leadership situation offers a leader. Situational favorableness is measured by the combination of three situational variables.

• How much is the task structured: High or Low

• Leader-Member Relations: Good or Poor

• Leader’s Position Power: Strong or Weak

Note: From business-to-you.com

There can be several combinations of the Situational Factors that can give low, moderate, or high Situational Control to a leader. As an example If the Task Structure, Leader-Member Relations, and Leader’s Position Power all are favorable both Task-Oriented and Relationship Oriented leaders can be effective as it gives a high situational favorableness to both leaders.

If task Structure is low but Leader-Member Relations are good, and Leader’s Position Power is Strong, a task-oriented leader may eventually be ineffective. But a Relationship Oriented leader might be effective since the leader get the fullest support of the subordinates even in a low task structured environment (Daft, 2016).

Example from Global Context

Chrysler Group LLC was the smallest of the big three US automakers, Sergio Marchionne a highly task-oriented leader took the charge just after the company emerged from bankruptcy. The Chrysler’s Sales were falling, reputation was damaged, morale and motivation were low, costs were high, and operational problems plagued the company. Marchionne provided directions for working long hours seven days a week, and plan to do the same for the foreseeable future. He met with managers regularly and gave them specific orders on the task to be accomplished. He fired out the Managers who were not committed to work. Marchionne’s task-oriented leadership had a positive effect as all the above problems were under control. Marchionne’s hard-hitting approach became successful giving its employees a greater sense of hope (Daft, 2016).

Advantages of Fielder’s Model 

• The theory can be applied to many situations, and it provides a clear impression of which situations are the best for each type of leader to lead in. 
• Since it is a practical approach most popular in the field of management.
• It is a simple model to understand and apply, can be used as a kind of rule of thumb in a situation.
• The theory is flexible enough where organizations can match their managers to different environments and situations to make their effort effective (LaMarco, 2018).

Limitations

• The model doesn’t provide guidelines on how to become a better leader.
• Not applicable to the organizations operate under today’s turbulent environment conditions (BusinessBalls, 2021).

Conclusion

Fiedler’s theory provides an important contribution to leadership thinking. Especially it strengthening the idea that there is no distinctly ideal way for a leader to behave in, and effectiveness depends on the correct match between leadership style and the situation. 

References

BusinessBalls, 2021. BusinessBalls. [Online]
Available at: https://www.businessballs.com/leadership-models/contingency-model-fred-fiedler/
[Accessed 29 July 2021].

Daft, R. L., 2016. Leadership. In: Management. s.l.:Sengage Learning, pp. 526,527.

LaMarco, N., 2018. CHORN. [Online]
Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-vertical-dyad-linkage-model-38845.html
[Accessed 29 July 2021].

Seyranian, V., 2009. Enclopedia of Group Processes and Inter Group Relations. [Online]
Available at: https://study.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/reference6.1.pdf
[Accessed 29 July 2021].