preview

Fiedler's Contingency Theory Of Leadership Analysis

Better Essays

Reflection: Is Leadership Style Situation-Dependent?
Leaders are known to play a vital role in determining the success of an organisation (Zenger, Folkman, Sherwin, & Steel, 2012). Effective leadership is defined as the aptitude of a leader to craft and spread the organisation’s aim among its members as well as support, motivate and direct its members towards the success of the organisation’s aim (de Charon, 2003). The primary purpose of this reflective journal is to examine the inter-relationship between the theories, researches and practices of organisational leadership and also to reflect whether leadership style is situation-dependent or universal across all situations.
Theories of Organisational Leadership
Transformational Leadership …show more content…

(Scott, 1981). The theory’s basic assumption is that there is no particular leadership style that suits all situations. The favorableness of the situation decides on the type of leadership style that has got to be adopted (Fiedler, 1967). Fiedler’s Contingency Theory of Leadership (1967), identified three factors that determine the favorableness of the situation and based upon the situation, the type of leadership that has got to be adopted. The first factor is the leader and member relationship which refers to the level of mutual trust and respect between the leader and the memebers. The second factor is task structure which refers to extent to which group tasks are clear and structured. The third factor is the leader’s position power which refers to the power of the leader’s position itself. Based upon the three factors, for favorable situations task-oriented leadership style and for moderately favorable situations relationship-oriented leadership style should be …show more content…

In practice, both the theories are effectively used and are seen to be beneficial for the organisations using them. Hence, both the theories are able to stand up for their own effective leadership styles. However, it questions whether leadership style is situation-dependent or universal across all situations.
According to the contingency theory of leadership, a task-oriented leadership style can be adopted when the relationship between the leader and the member is good, the task is highly structured and the leader is in a strong position, the situation is deemed to be. While, a relationship-oriented leadership style can be adopted when the relationship between the leader and the member is poor and the leader is in a weak position but the task is highly structured, the situation is deemed to be moderately favorable. Hence, this theory suggest that leadership style is

Get Access