Topic 12.Contingency Theories & Situational Leadership
Transcript of Topic 12.Contingency Theories & Situational Leadership
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Topic 12Contingency Theories
& SituationalLeadership
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The Contingency Approach
The essence of the contingency approach toleadership is that leaders are most effectivewhen they make their behavior contingent uponsituational forces, including group membercharacteristics.
Leadership effectiveness is maximized whenleaders correctly make their behaviorscontingent on certain situational and followercharacteristics.
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The Contingency Approach (cont.)
The effects of leadership vary from situation tosituation. Aspects of the situation that enhanceor nullify the effects of a leaders traits orbehavior are called situational moderatorvariables.
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The Contingency Approach (cont.)
Normative Decision Model (Vroom, Yetton / Vroom,Yetton, and Jago)
The Situational Leadership Theory (Hershey and Blanchard)
Fiedlers Contingency Theory
The Path-Goal Theory (House, et.al.)
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Contigency Approach (cont) The four theories share several similarities:
They are theoriesrather than someones personal opinions. They implicitly assume that leaders are able to accurately diagnose or
assesskey aspectsof the followers and the leadership situation. With the exception of the contingency model, leaders are assumed to
be able to act in a flexiblemanner. A correct matchbetween situational and follower characteristics
and leaders behavior is assumed to have a positive effecton groupor organizational outcomes.
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Normative Decision Model
The Normative Decision Model views leadershipas a decision-making process. It specifies what a
leader ought to do in a given situation. It issolely directed at determining the amount ofsubordinate input in the decision-makingprocess. Normative refers to the idea that the
leader should follow certain prescriptionsindicated in the model.
Two key factors in the model are decision qualityand decision acceptance.
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Normative Decision Model (cont.)
Decision quality refers to the objective aspects ofa decision that affect group or individual
performance. When an effective alternative ischosen, decision quality is said to be high.
Decision quality is not important when the
consequences of choosing various alternativesare about the same, or when the consequences ofthe decision are unimportant.
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Normative Decision Model (cont.)
Decision acceptance refers to how committedgroup members are to implementing a decisioneffectively. If group members are responsiblefor implementing a decision, acceptance iscrucial. At times decision acceptance is not an
issue because very few employees are involved inimplementation.
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Normative Decision Model (cont.)
The model identifies 5 levels of leader-subordinate (follower) participation:
AI- leader decides completely alone AII- leader obtains information from subordinates,
leader decides CI- Leader shares problem individually with
subordinates, obtains opinions, leader decides. CII- leader shares problem collectively with
subordinates, obtains opinions, leader decides. GII- leader shares problem with group, group decides.
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Normative Decision Model (cont.)
A decision tree is required to implement themodel. The leader diagnoses situationalvariables by considering key questions.
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Normative Decision Model (cont.)
The Decision Tree- provides a branching set ofquestions to be answered either yes or no
which lead to a set of decision processes that willprotect quality and acceptance. Time andsubordinate development may be factored in ifof importance AFTER ensuring quality and
acceptance by using the decision tree.
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The Decision Tree
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Evaluation of the Model:
Pro:
Supported by numerous empirical studies
Prompts leaders to ask themselves intelligent,perceptive, focused questions
Following step-by-step procedures increasesdecision-making effectiveness
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Evaluation of the Model (cont.): Con:
Decision processes are treated as a single, discrete
episode that occur at one point in time Being a good decision-maker is not enough to be a
good leader Excludes trial-balloon approaches to decision-
making (leader floating tentative decisions) More about management than about leadership, and
therefore has little to do with inspiring and influencingothers and bringing about important changes
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Situational Leadership Theory
The Situational Leadership Theory explains howto match leadership style with follower
readiness.
The key contingency factors are group membercharacteristics.
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Situational Leadership Theory (cont.)
The theory has its roots in the Ohio State Studieson Leader Behavior.
That study identified 2 distinct leader behaviorcategories:
Initiating structure (task behavior)
Consideration (relationship behavior)
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Basics of the Model
Task behavioris the extent to which the leaderspells out the duties and responsibilities of an
individual or group.
Relationship behavioris the extent to whichthe leader engages in two-way or multi-way
communication.
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The Situational Leadership Theory
developed by Hershey and Blanchard,answers the following questions:
Is there an optimum way for leaders to adjusttheir behavior with different followers andthereby increase their likelihood of success?
If so, then what factors should the leader basehis behavior on?
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The Answer: Answer is that leaders adapt their style or
behavior based on he maturity of their followers.
The most effective style depends on thereadiness level of group members.
Readinessis the extent to which a follower isable and willing to accomplish a specific task.
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Components of Follower Maturity Job maturity- the amount of task-relevant
knowledge, experience, skill, and ability that the
follower possesses. (i.e. ability, KSAs)
Psychological maturity- the followers selfconfidence, commitment, motivation, and self-
respect relative to the taskat hand (i.e.willingness)
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Four Levels of Readiness
Style 1- High task and low relationship. The telling style isdirective.
Style 2- High task and high relationship. The selling styleis also directive, but in a more persuasive, guiding, manner.
Style3- High relationship and low task. In theparticipating leadership style there is less direction and
more collaboration between leader and group members.
Style 4- Low relationship and low task. In the delegatingstyle, the leader delegates and is kept informed of progress.
TM 13-6 SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP THEORY
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TM 13 6 SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP THEORY
3 2
4 1
High Rel.Low task
Low Rel.
Low task
High TaskHigh Rel.
High Task
Low Rel.
(LOW) (HIGH)TASK BEHAVIOR
(Supportiv
eBehavior)
RELATIONSH
IPBEHAVIOR
(HIGH)
R4 R3 R2 R1
FOLLOWER READINESSMODERATEHIGH LO
W
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Hersey and Blanchards Situational
Leadership Model
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The Situational Leadership Model Caveat
Any given follower could be lowon
readiness to perform one taskbuthighon readiness to perform adifferent task.
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Evaluation of the Theory: Best used with new hires Can be valuable in training and development
Based on fundamental truth about leadership:Competent people require the least specificdirection
Gives false impression that all situations are
clear-cut Popular because of its commonsense approach
but not a lot of empirical research to support itsvalidity
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Evaluation (cont)
Situational Leadership is a useful way to
get leaders to think about howleadership effectiveness may dependsomewhat on being flexiblewith
different subordinates, not on acting thesame way toward them all.
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The Contingency Model
Fiedlers contingency theory of leadership statesthat best leadership style is determined by the
situation in which the leader works. It recognizes natural behavioral tendencies of
leaders and suggests certain situations where
these behaviors may be more or less effective. Probably the earliest and certainly the most well-known contingency theory.
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Some leaders may be generally more supportive andrelationship-oriented, whereas others may be moreconcerned with taskor goal accomplishment.
The contingency model suggests that leader
effectiveness is primarily determined by selecting theright kind of leaderfor a certain situation orchanging the situationto fit the particular leadersstyle.
To understand the contingency theory one must look
first at the critical characteristicsof theleaderand then at the critical aspectsof the situation.
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Least Preferred Coworker Scale
To measure leadership style the theory uses aninstrument called the Least-Preferred-Coworker
Scale (LPC) LPC Handout
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LPC Scale
The scale instructs a leader to think of thesingle individual with whom he has had thegreatest difficulty working and then todescribe that individual in terms of a series of
bipolar activities. Based on their LPC scores, leaders arecategorized into two groups: Low-LPC leaders (primarily motivated by task) High-LPC leaders (primarily motivated by
relationships)
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Scale Interpretation
One who describes the least preferred coworkerin favorable terms is relationship-motivated. In
contrast, a person who describes his or her leastpreferred coworker unfavorably tends to be task-motivated.
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Motivational Hierarchies For Low- andHigh-LPC Leaders
Task
People
Low-LPC leader motivationalhierarchy
People
Task
High-LPC leader motivationalhierarchy
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Situation Dimensions: The situation is assessed to determine the degree
of situational control, or favorability, for the leaderusing three dimensions:
1. Leader-member relations measures how well the groupand the leader get along. 2. Task structure measures how clearly the procedures,
goals, and evaluation of the job are defined.
3. Position power measures how much authority the
leader possesses. Leader-member relations contribute as much to
the favorability of the leadership situation as dotask structure and position power combined.
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Contingency Model Octant Structure For
Determining Situational Favorability
Good Poor
Structured Unstructured Structured Unstructured
High Low High Low High Low High Low
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Leader-member
relations
Task structure
Position power
Octant
Overall situation favorability
High Low
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Prescriptions of the Model The major proposition in contingency theory is
the leader-match concept-leadership
effectiveness depends on matching leaders tosituations where they can exercise more control.
Fiedlers research suggests that low LPC leaderswill perform better in either low favorability
situations or in very high favorability situations.High LPC leaders will perform best in moderatefavorability situations.
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Path-Goal Theory The path-goal theory of leadership effectiveness
specifies what the leader must do to achieve high
productivity and morale in a given situation.
Path-goal theory, in its most basic form, is basedupon expectancy theory. The effective leader
will ensure valued rewards are available to thefollowers (the goal) and will help them find waysof getting to these goals (the path).
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The Path-Goal Theory
The underlying mechanism of the path-goaltheory deals with expectancy, a cognitiveapproach to understanding motivation where
people calculate: Effort-to-performance probabilities Performance-to-outcome probabilities Assigned valences or values to outcome
Path-goal theory uses the same basicassumptions as expectancy theory (to bediscussed in topic 19Motivation)
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Leader Behaviors Leader behaviors- unlike contingency theory,
path-goal theory suggests that leaders may use
varying styles with different subordinates oreven with the same subordinates in differingsituations.
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The Four Leader Behaviors of the
Path-Goal Theory
Directive leadership
Supportive leadershipParticipative leadership
Achievement-orientedleadership
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Leaders / Path-Goal
Directive leaders give specific directions.
Supportive leaders strive to create a positive
climate.
Participative leaders consult with subordinatestaking their suggestions into account.
Achievement-oriented leaders push goal setting,higher standards, and show strong confidence intheir followers.
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Evaluation of Theory Path-Goal Theory is so complicated and has so
many nuances it is primarily studied by
researchers and scholars in the field ofleadership it has little value or at bestquestionable value for practicing leaders.