What is the Contingency Theory?
The Contingency Theory of Leadership states that a leader’s effectiveness is contingent upon
with how his or her leadership style matches to the situation (Leadership Theories). That is, the
leader must find out what kind of leadership style and situation he or she thrives in. The
Contingency Theory is concerned with the following:
•
“There is no one best style of leadership” (Fiedler’s Contingency Model)
•
A leader is effective when his or her style of leadership fits with the situation (Fiedler’s
Contingency Model)
History of Contingency Theories
The Contingency Theory of leadership was developed by Fred Fiedler in 1958 during his
research of leader effectiveness in group situations. Fiedler believed that one’s effectiveness to
lead depended on one’s control of the situation and the style of leadership. Unlike the Situational
Theory of leadership, leader effectiveness is contingent on the leader’s style matching the
situation, not adapting to it. This theory assumes that styles are fixed, and that they cannot be
adapted or modified (Gupta, 2009). A leader is most effective when his or her attributes and style
of leadership is matched with the situation and environment around them (Gupta, 2009).
How Fiedler’s Contingency Theory Works
The Contingency theory is not concerned with having the leader adapt to a situation, rather the
goal is to match the leader’s style with a compatible situation (Gupta, 2009). To make best use of
this theory, it is important to find what style a leader has (Gupta, 2009). This is done through
the Least Preferred Coworker Scale (LPC) (Gupta, 2009).
The LPC is a list of questions designed to find out what kind of employee a leader would most
like to work with, and in turn shows the leaders style (Gupta, 2009). Fiedler’s Contingency
Model attempts to match the leader’s style using LPC to the situation in which they would thrive
(Gupta, 2009).
•
High LPC Score– leader with good personal skills and relies on relationships with others to
accomplish tasks (Fiedler’s); people-oriented
•
Low LPC Score– leader that accomplishes goals through focus on the task and positional
power (Fiedler’s); task-oriented
Task-oriented leaders are most effective when their positional power is high, as well as the task
structure (Gupta, 2009). People or relation-oriented leaders perform their best when the
relationship levels between themselves and followers are at their greatest (Gupta, 2009). After
finding the style of the leader, Fiedler’s Model states that finding the best situation for the leader,
also known as “situational favorableness” (Fiedler’s Contingency Model).
A situation is defined by three factors in the contingency theory:
1. Leader-Member Relation– how the leader interacts with employees (Gupta, 2009).
2. Task Structure- how tasks are set up by the leader (Gupta, 2009).
3. Positional Power- the amount of power a leader has over followers (Gupta, 2009).
