Overview of Contingency Leadership

Contingency theory of leadership states that a leader’s effectiveness is based on how well their working style is matching the situation. Unlike situational leadership, overview of contingency leadership does not require the leader to adapt to the situation. It focuses on matching the working style of the leadership with the situations they thrive in. One other way it can be interpreted is that situations that do not match the working style of the leader cause them stress and this leads to them making erroneous decisions that can have grave consequences for both the leader and the organization.

Development of Contingency Theory

The contingency theory of leadership was developed in 1958 by Fred Fiedler. According to this theory one’s effectiveness to lead depends on the control of the situation and the style of leadership. The theory defines three variables that influence the situation and they are leader-member relation, task structure and positional power. Leader-member relations refers to the working relations between a leader and a team they manage, task structure refers to the way a task is defined and the clarity of achieving the goal and, positional power refers to the amount of authority the leader holds to influence the productivity of the team, to what extent they can hand out rewards and punishments.

Leader-Member Relations

The contingency leadership theory can be used to handle multiple situations and map the right leader to each situation. When there is mistrust about the leadership’s intensions, building relationship and trust is of importance and a people-oriented leader would be effective at achieving the goal. Highly structured tasks are defined in a way that they need autonomy and minimal interference from the leader. In this situation, a leader that is task oriented and prefer to give their team autonomy, would fit the position.

Task Structure

On the other hand, tasks that have low task structure need a directive or participative leadership style in order to guide the process of task completion and nudge it towards the right direction when required. Leaders who have low positional power always must use their people skills in order to influence the team. In this case if the leader tries to use their limited power, there will be a negative reaction from the team and the continuity of the project will be disturbed. When all three variables of a situation are unfavorable, having low task structure, low leader-member relations and low positional power, only a strong task-oriented leader can ensure effective achievement of goals.

Advantages of Contingency Leadership

Contingency leadership reduces the complete focus on the leader and instead aims to match the leader to the situation. The implicit biases we have influence us to focus on the individual instead of the individual and the influence of the situation and surroundings. This approach to leadership gives us a tool to fix those biases. In a fast-paced environment, where the three variables are dynamic, it becomes difficult to match a different leader to each situation and instead situational leadership approach would be better suited. In cases where the situations and project conditions are relatively stable, overview of contingency leadership approach can be used to map the right kind of leader to the situation.