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Fiedler's Contingency Theory Essay

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Fiedler's Contingency Theory Essay
Fiedler's Contingency Theory
Fiedler's contingency theory states that leadership is a trait and it is fixed. Because leadership is fixed the only variable items are the situational factors. Therefore for effective leadership the situational factors need to be changed instead of the leadership traits.

Leadership trait is measured by a rating scale of 1-8 bipolar adjectives, with 1 being very poor and 8 being very good. The leader is then asked to identify any one member of a team the leader had to work with and did not get along well who is called the least preferred co-worker (LPC). If the leader scored the LPC very low (largely negative rating) then the leader is task oriented. If the leader scored the LPC very high (largely positive rating) …show more content…
In present day, a banking call centre with meticulously designed work processes would be the “most ideal situation” based on the 3 factor criteria and army operation supervising earthquake relief operation in Nepal with complete lack of support infrastructure would be the “worst case situation”. The task oriented leader is best suited to both of these scenarios. However where the 3 factor criteria are in between such as a company like Facebook with a group of highly qualified software analysts who do not want to be given precise tasks but wish to be creative - in such a situation a relationship oriented leader is best suited for the situation. The gaps in the theory are the criteria by which a LPC is judged and the leadership scale is determined. (Ashour 1973; Schriesheim and Kerr 1977).
Path-Goal Theory
Fiedler’s theory viewed leadership traits as fixed and the situation needed to fit the leader. In the path–goal theory of leadership model by Robert House, the leadership style is more effective if the leader alters his/her leadership style to the situation they face (House 1971). So path goal leadership is a contingency leadership model. The situation that a leader faces is created by two variables, the environment characteristics and the employee’s
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