1. Contingency Approaches
Chapter 3
Contingency Approaches

2. Chapter Objectives
Understand how leadership is often contingent on people and situations.
Apply Fiedler’s contingency model to key relationships among leader style, situational favorability, and group task performance.
Apply Hersey and Blanchard’s situational theory of leader style to the level of follower readiness.
Explain the path-goal theory of leadership.
Use the Vroom-Jago model to identify the correct amount of follower participation in specific decision situations.
Know how to use the power of situational variables to substitute for or neutralize the need for leadership.
Note all action memos in the chapter

3. Leader’s bookshelf - Wheatley
Nurture relationships with a clear vision, statements of values, expressions of caring, sharing of information, and freedom from strict rules and controls
Focus on the whole, not on the parts in isolation
Reduce boundaries between departments to allow new patterns of relationships
Become comfortable with uncertainty and recognize that any solutions are only temporary
Recognize that healthy growth of people and organizations is found in disequilibrium, not in stability

4. Ex. 3.1 Comparing the Universalistic and Contingency Approaches to Leadership
Outcomes
(Performance, satisfaction, etc.)
Universalistic Approach
Leadership Traits/behaviors
Leader
Style
Traits
Behavior
Position
Contingency Approach
Outcomes
(Performance, satisfaction, etc.)
Needs
Maturity
Training
Cohesion
Task
Structure
Systems
Env.
Followers
Situation

5. Ex. 3.2 Metacategories of Leader Behavior and Four Leader Styles
High
High Task-Low
Relationship
High Task-High
Relationship
BEHAVIOR
TASK
Low Task-Low
Relationship
High Relationship
-Low Task
Low
Low
RELATIONSHIP BEHAVIOR
High

6. Contingency Approaches
Contingency approaches: approaches that seek to delineate the characteristics of situations and followers and examine the leadership styles that can be used effectively
Fiedler’s contingency model: a model designed to diagnose whether a leader is task-oriented or relationship-oriented and match leader style to the situation

7. Fiedler’s Contingency Theory
Fiedler’s Contingency Theory - classifies the favorableness of the leader’s situation
Least Preferred Coworker (LPC) - the person a leader has least preferred to work with over his or her career
Task Structure - degree of clarity, or ambiguity, in the group’s work activities
Position Power - authority associated with the leader’s formal position in the organization
Leader-Member Relations – quality of interpersonal relationships among a leader and group members

8. Unfavorable for leader
Leadership Effectiveness in the Contingency Theory
High LPC
relations oriented
1.00
.80
.60
.40
.20
-.20
-.40
-.60
-.80
I II III IV V VI VII VIII
Correlations
between leader
LPC & group
performance
Low LPC
task oriented
Favorable
for leader
Unfavorable for leader

9. Fiedler’s theory
Fit between leader’s style (task or relationship) and the situation (favorable or unfavorable)
Both relations and task oriented leaders can be effective in the right situation.

10. Situational Theory
Hersey and Blanchard’s extension of the Leadership Grid focusing on the characteristics of followers as the important element of the situation, and consequently, of determining effective leader behavior

11. Ex. 3.4 Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Theory of Leadership
Follower Characteristics
Appropriate Leader Style
Low readiness level
Moderate readiness level
High readiness level
Very high readiness level
Telling (high task-low relationship)
Selling (high task-high relationship)
Participating (low task-high rel.)
Delegating (low task-low relationship)
Can be tailored to individual followers

12. Leader’s concern with task
Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Model
Leader’s concern with task
Low
High
High
Leader’s
concern
with
relationship
Low
Mature
Employees
Immature
Employees
Willing/Able Unwilling/able
Willing/unable Unwilling/unable

13. Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership® Model
Follower Readiness
High
Moderate
Low R4 R3 R2 R1
Able and willing or confident
Able but unwilling or insecure
Unable but willing or confident
Unable and unwilling or insecure
Follower Directed
Leader Directed

14. Path-Goal Theory
A contingency approach to leadership in which the leader’s responsibility is to increase subordinates’ motivation by clarifying the behaviors necessary for task accomplishment and rewards

15. Situational Contingencies (p.77)
Personal Characteristics of group members
Ability, skills, needs, and motivations
The work environment
Degree of task structure, formal authority system, work group itself (e.g. quality of relationships and educational level of members)

16. Ex. 3.5 Leader Roles in the Path-Goal Model
Path Clarification
Increase Rewards
Leader defines what follower
must do to attain work outcomes
Leader learns follower’s needs
Leader clarifies follower’s work role
Leader matches follower’s needs to rewards if work outcomes are accomplished
Follower has increased knowledge & confidence to accomplish outcomes
Leader increases value of work outcomes for follower
Follower displays increased effort and motivation
Organizational work outcomes are accomplished

17. Ex. 3.6 Path-Goal Situations and Preferred Leader Behaviors
Impact on Follower
Outcome
Followers lack self-confidence
Supportive Leadership
Increases confidence to achieve work outcomes
Directive Leadership
Increased effort; improved satisfaction and performance
Ambiguous job
Clarifies path to reward
Achievement-Oriented Leadership
Lack of job
challenge
Set and strive for high goals
Participative Leadership
Clarifies followers’ needs to change rewards
Incorrect
reward

18. The Vroom-Jago Contingency Model
A contingency model that focuses on varying degrees of participative leadership, and how each level of participation influences quality and accountability of decisions

19. Ex. 3.7 Five Leader Decision Styles
Area of Freedom for Group
Area of Influence by Leader
Decide
Consult Individually
Consult Group
Facilitate
Delegate
See page 81-85

20. Substitute and Neutralizer
Substitute: a situational variable that makes leadership unnecessary or redundant
Neutralizer: a situational characteristic that counteracts the leadership style and prevents the leader from displaying certain behaviors

21. Ex. 3.10 Substitutes and Neutralizers for Leadership
Variable
Task-Oriented Leadership
People-Oriented Leadership
Organizational variables
Group cohesiveness
Formalization
Inflexibility
Low positional power
Physical separation
Substitutes for
Neutralizes
No effect on
Task characteristics
Highly struct. task
Automatic feedback
Intrinsic satisfaction
Follower characteristics
Professionalism
Training/experience
Low value of rewards