Situational & Contingency Perspectives. Stages of Leadership Theory & Research Post-charismatic & Post-transformational emerged late 1990s, distributed

Situational & Contingency Perspectives

Stages of Leadership Theory & Research

Post-charismatic & Post-transformationalemerged late 1990s, distributed leadership, cooperative community-ship & spirituality

Trait Approach dominant until late 1940s - assumes leaders born, not made

Style Approach held sway until late 1960s - effects of leadership on those led

Contingency Approach or Situational Approach popular to 1980s - situational factors are focus for understanding leadership

New Leadership Approachsince 1980s, leader defines organizational reality through articulation of a vision

Source: Parry, K.W. & Bryman, A. (2006) Leadership in organizations, In S.R. Clegg, C. Hardy, T.B. Lawrence & W.R. Nord. Handbook of organizational studies (2nd ed), Sage.

Situational Leadership II (Blanchard et al. 1985)

Blanchard, Zigarmi & Zigarmi (1985). Leadership and the one minute manager: Increasing effectiveness through situational leadership. New York: William Morrow

Situational Approach

• Assumes that subordinates vacillate along the developmental continuum of competence and commitment

• Leader effectiveness depends on -– assessing subordinate’s

developmental position, and – adapting his/her leadership

style to match subordinate developmental level

“The Situational approach requires leaders to demonstrate a strong degree of flexibility.”

Focus

Northouse - Leadership: Theory and Practice, Sixth Edition © 2012 SAGE Publications, Inc.

How Does The Situational Approach Work?Using SLII model – In any given situation the Leader has 2 tasks:

1st Task 2nd TaskDiagnose the Situation

Identify the developmental level of employeeAsk questions like:• What is the task subordinates are

being asked to perform? • How complicated is it?• What is their skill set?• Do they have the desire to complete

the job?

Adapt their Style

To prescribed Leadership style in the SLII model

• Leadership style must correspond to the employee’s development level


Development Levels

The degree to which subordinates have the competence and commitment necessary to accomplish a given task or activity

Definition Dimension Definitions

D1 Low CompetenceHigh Commitment

D2 Some CompetenceLow Commitment

D3 Mod-High CompetenceLow Commitment

D4 High CompetenceHigh Commitment

D4 D3 D2 D1

Developed Developing

High Moderate Low

Developmental Level of Followers


How Does The Situational Approach Work?

D1 Low CompetenceHigh Commitment

S1 – DirectingHigh Directive-Low Supportive

D4 High CompetenceHigh Commitment

S4 – DelegatingLow Supportive-Low Directive

D3 Mod-High CompetenceLow Commitment

S3 – SupportingHigh Supportive-Low Directive

D2 Some CompetenceLow Commitment

S2 – Coaching High Directive-High Supportive

Employee’s Developmental level

Leader’sLeadership style


S1 - Directing Style

• Leader focuses communication on goal achievement

• Spends LESS time using supportive behaviors

S 1Directing

High Directive

Low Supportive


S2 - Coaching Style

• Leader focuses communication on BOTH goal achievement and supporting subordinates’ socioemotional needs

• Requires leader involvement through encouragement and soliciting subordinate input

S 2

Coaching

High Directive

High Supportive


S3 - Supporting Style

• Leader does NOT focus solely on goals; uses supportive behaviors to bring out employee skills in accomplishing the task

• Leader delegates day-to-day decision-making control, but is available to facilitate problem solving

S 3

Supporting

High Supportive

Low Directive


S4 - Delegating Style

• Leader offers LESS task input and social support; facilitates subordinates’ confidence and motivation in relation to the task

• Leader lessens involvement in planning, control of details, and goal clarification

• Gives subordinates control and refrains from intervention and unneeded social support

S 4Delegating

Low Supportive

Low Directive


Situational Leadership II (Blanchard et al. 2004)

Blanchard, Zigarmi & Zigarmi (1985). Leadership and the one minute manager: Increasing effectiveness through situational leadership. New York: William Morrow

Strengths• Marketplace approval. Situational leadership is perceived as providing

a credible model for training employees to become effective leaders.

• Practicality. Situational leadership is a straightforward approach that is easily understood and applied in a variety of settings.

• Prescriptive value. Situational leadership clearly outlines what you should and should not do in various settings.

• Leader flexibility. Situational leadership stresses that effective leaders are those who can change their style based on task requirements and subordinate needs.

• Differential treatment. Situational leadership is based on the premise that leaders need to treat each subordinate according to his/her unique needs.


Criticisms

• Lack of an empirical foundation raises theoretical considerations regarding the validity of the approach.

• Further research is required to determine how commitment and competence are conceptualized for each developmental level.

• Conceptualization of commitment itself and why it varies is very unclear.

• Replication studies fail to support basic prescriptions of situational leadership model.

• Does not account for how particular demographics influence the leader-subordinate prescriptions of the model

• Fails to adequately address the issue of one-to-one versus group leadership in an organizational setting

• Questionnaires are biased in favor of situational leadership


Application

• Often used in consulting because it’s easy to conceptualize and apply

• Straightforward nature makes it practical for managers to apply

• Breadth of situational approach facilitates its applicability in virtually all types of organizations and levels of management in organizations


Contingency Theory (Fiedler , 1964, 1967, and Fiedler & Chemers, 1974)

• Most widely recognised contingency theory.

• Theory assumes leaders are either task or relationship oriented and cannot change their orientations.

• Leader’s situation has three dimensions:

– Task structure (goal clarity, goal-path multiplicity, decision verifiability)

– Position power (sole control over rewards, and punishments)

– Leader-member relations (trust and respect of followers for leader)

• Clarifying these three dimensions enables leaders to clarify which situation is suited to their orientation

• Fiedler, F. E. (1964). A contingency model of leader effectiveness. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, vol. 1 (pp. 149–190). New York: Academic Press.

• Fiedler, F. (1967). A theory of leadership effectiveness. New York: McGraw-Hill• Fiedler, F. E. and Chemers, M. M. (1974) Leadership and Effective Management, Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman and Co.

Good Poor

High

Strong Weak

Task-motivated Relationship-motivatedTask

motivated

Projectengineer

Registered nurse

(supervisory)

StrongStrongStrong WeakWeakWeak

High High HighLow Low LowLow

Poor Poor PoorGood Good GoodLeader

memberrelations

Taskstructure

Positionpower

Preferredleaderstyles

veryfavourable

Veryunfavourable

Situational CharacteristicsI II III IV V VI VII VIII

Summary of Fiedler’s preferred leadership styles

Officemanager

Gibson, J. L., Ivancevich, J. M., & Donnelly, J. M., Jr. (1994). Organizations: Behavior, structure, processes (8th ed.). Burr Ridge, IL: Richard D. Irwin

How Does Contingency Theory Work?

Effective in Categories – 1, 2, 3, & 8

• If individual’s style matches appropriate category in the model, leader will be effective

• If individual’s style does not match appropriate category in the model, leader will not be effective

Low LPCs – Task-Oriented

Middle LPCs

High LPCs – Relationship-Oriented

Effective in Categories –

4, 5, 6, & 7

Effective in Categories –

1, 2, & 3


Strengths• Empirical support. Contingency theory has been tested by

many researchers and found to be a valid and reliable approach to explaining how to achieve effective leadership.

• Broadened understanding. Contingency theory has broadened the scope of leadership understanding from a focus on a single, best type of leadership (e.g., trait approach) to emphasizing the importance of a leader’s style and the demands of different situations.

• Predictive. Because Contingency theory is predictive, it provides relevant information regarding the type of leadership that is most likely to be effective in particular contexts.


Strengths• Not an all-or-nothing approach. Contingency

theory contends that leaders should not expect to be effective in every situation; thus companies should strive to place leaders in optimal situations according to their leadership style.

• Leadership profiles. Contingency theory supplies data on leadership styles that could be useful to organizations in developing leadership profiles for human resource planning.


Criticisms• Fails to fully explain why leaders with particular

leadership styles are more effective in some situations than others

• Criticism of LPC scale validity as it does not correlate well with other standard leadership measures

• Cumbersome to use in real-world settings

• Fails to adequately explain what should be done about a leader/situation mismatch in the workplace


Application

• Useful in answering a multitude of questions about the leadership of individuals in various types of organizations

• Helpful tool to assist upper management in making changes to lower level positions to ensure a good fit between an existing manager and a certain work context


Path-Goal theory (House 1971)

• Based on expectancy theory of motivation (linkages between effort and performance and performance and valued rewards are critical to motivation).

• Leaders responsibility is to smooth the followers path to the goal through using most appropriate style – matching leader behaviours to follower characteristics and environmental characteristics

• Assumes there is no one right way of achieving a goal• Every leaders is able to change their behaviour

accordingly

House, R. J. (1971) A path-goal theory of leadership effectiveness, Administrative Science Quarterly, 16, 321-338



Path-Goal theory• Research support mixed• Casts leader as the knowing person and the follower as

dependent• Assumed the follower acts completely rationally and

appropriate methods can be deterministically selected depending on the situation

• Some of the relationships within the model have received support e.g. link of directive behaviours and satisfaction for low ability followers

• But supportive leadership was related to follower satisfaction across all situations

• Considered not sufficiently tested• However “the four types of leader behaviour and the ideas for

fitting them to situational contingencies provide a useful way for leaders to think about motivating subordinates” (Daft 2008).

Daft, R.L. (2008) New Era of Management. (Mason, Ohio: South Western: Cengage

Situational/Contingency approach - overview

• Situational factors – type of task & type of work group (followers) are important

• No one best way to lead – different styles or behaviours can all be effective. Situational or contextual factors help determine best style or behaviour

• Most theories assume leaders must be flexible and able to adapt the behaviours and styles to match the situation

• Theories also assume the situation can be correctly diagnosed by the leader

• Fiedler’s least preferred co-worker model is best known contingency approach. Hersey & Blanchard's Situational Leadership Model most useful for managers

• Assumes people can learn to become effective leaders.• Little agreement about what constitutes effectiveness.

Key reading and resources

READING FOR SEMINAR • Vroom, V.H. & Jago, A.G. (2007) The role of situation in Leadership,

American Psychologist 62 (1):17-24

KEY TEXTS• Northouse (2012) Chapter 5-7

OTHERS• Blanchard, K., Zigarmi, P., & Zigarmi, D. (2004) Leadership & the one

minute manager. Harper Collins• Fiedler, F.E., & Chemers, M.M. (1984). Improving Leadership

Effectiveness: The Leader Match Concept (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley• House, R. J. (1971) A path-goal theory of leadership effectiveness,

Administrative Science Quarterly, 16, 321-338

Documents

Situational & Contingency Perspectives. Stages of Leadership Theory & Research Post-charismatic & Post-transformational emerged late 1990s, distributed