Fiedler\'s Contingency Theory of Leadership

Contingency Theory of Leadership

Fiedler's Contingency Theory of Leadership Applied in the Non-Profit Organizational Context

In evaluating leader-member relations and leadership styles implemented in a non-profit organization, Fred Fiedler's Contingency Theory of Leadership is useful for this specific purpose. Fiedler's theory posits that "the style of the leader and the leader's acceptance by subordinates had a strong effect on the performance of the group." Further, Fiedler categorizes leadership into three (3) "styles," dependent on the leader's "emotional reaction to a person who obstructs goal attainment": (i) task oriented, (ii) relationship oriented, and (iii) socioindependent. These styles are determined through the Least Preferred Coworker (LPC) Scale, which objectively and quantitatively assesses the individual's leadership style and orientation based on specific traits and attributes related to leader-member relations. The "situational favorableness" of an organizational dynamic to the leader would depend, according to Fiedler, on three (3) components: (i) quality of leader-member relations, (ii) degree of task structure, and (iii) amount of position power (42-3).

Using the LPC Scale, I identified myself as a relationship-oriented leader, which means, according to Fiedler's interpretation, the leader "tend to function best in situations that are moderately favorable for exercising control" (43). Indeed, I consider myself as the type of leader who maintains good relations with the members of my team. However, I would also consider myself as having a balance between relationship- and task-oriented styles of a leader. While I am aware that I it is my personal style to maintain good relations, personal and professional, with my colleagues, I also value the importance of accomplishing tasks and responsibilities in a professional manner. Thus, as a leader, I would say that I try, as best as I could, to strike a balance between tasks and relations, and have so far been successful in implementing this balance in my leadership style.

My leadership style in the non-profit organization Save the Children Federation is most useful, since the organization has good leader-member relations, but is poorly structured in terms of task delegation and accomplishment. Since the organization has good leader-member relations, it is not surprising then that it has a low level of position power. On the overall, taking into account Fiedler's components that comprise the "situational favorableness" of the organization to my leadership style, I would say that my style is a good fit to the organization.