Fiedler contingency model

Contingency theory is a conceptual model ( therefore often referred to as Kontingenzmodell ) in leadership research, which deals with mainly the dependence of the superiors of his personal qualities and the relationship with the led in the corporate governance. The model is attributed to the situational leadership style.

The approach was coined by Fred Edward Fiedler in the 1960s and defined leadership success as an interplay of leadership and management situation. He has the trait approach by Ralph Stogdill and management style approach its historical roots.

Foundations of the theory

The management style can not be completely separated from the personal characteristics because personality is strongly related to leadership ability. This ultimately means that an executive in the model Fiddler can be difficult trained for new situations. Rather suggests Fiedler model to change the corresponding situation until it fits to the respective managers and their leadership style properties. For this purpose, the short formula "engineer the job" has emerged.

Fiedler considered two interacting factors: the " management style " and the " favorability of the situation". The latter is dependent on three variables: the leader - employee relationship, the " task structure " and the " position power of the leader ." These variables are combined, resulting in a total of eight possible situations. Based on the previously determined value of LPC (least preferred co -worker ), (low LPC value) or the employee orientation ( high LPC value ) can now be determined in every situation, the degree of task orientation. Depending on the situation, the group performance either positively or negatively correlated with the LPC value.

Through empirical studies Fiedler could find that in very favorable and most unfavorable leadership situations a task- oriented leadership style to a higher success leads while the people-oriented management style own better in situations of moderate favorability.

Criticism

According to Heinz Schuler, who refers in his remarks to Lutz von Rosenstiel and Jürgen Wegge, this theory can be regarded as a failure. Similarly, Oswald Neuberger, although it refers to the contingency theory as the first verifiable situational leadership theory. How To Use Fiddler with the contingency theory (the " ... every few years a completely different interpretation ... " offering ) and Fiedler's handling of criticism of this theory ("... but was not willing to use the differentiated critique of measurement methods and theory for revisions of his approach. ") provides Neuberger but very critical: " His work is a good example of how theories are only changed or abandoned fundamentally, when its founder died. "

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