Foundations of Leadership

Fieldler

Foundations of Leadership

The Fielder Contingency Model of Leadership is one of the most popular leadership models in the literature and it emerged in the 1960s. The model is flexible and able to accommodate many different scenarios which are one of the primary factors responsible for its popularity. The model makes the claim that the group's performance is contingent on the interaction of the leader and the group. The models major contribution to the field of research is that it allows for a leader orientation as well as ways to measure it as well as situational factors that will influence the leaders as well as the group's performance. The two most fundamental leadership orientations are either relationship oriented or task oriented; with a range of possible combinations in-between. The primary measurement for a leader's evaluation on this scale is known as the LPC score. A high LPC score represents an individual that is generally more considerate, more focused on human relations, better at interpersonal relationships, and more sensitive to the needs of others. Other variables included in the model deal with the relationships between the leader and the members, the level of structure inherent in the task, and the amount of power that the leader has to influence the group's activities.

Fiedler's Contingency Theory of leadership

For more than 50 years, organization and management theory have been influenced by contingency theory and the idea of organizational fit and this model was among the first to develop the concept that there is no single best way of managing and organizing (Hanisch & Wald, 2012). The associations between leaders and their environment are complex and dynamic which makes it difficult to establish a single model to accurate describe these complex interactions. Fiedler uses the distinction between task-oriented leadership style and relationship-oriented leadership style, relating these leadership styles with different types of situation, in order to determine the contingencies that make either style effective (Cruz, Nunes, & Pinheiro, 2011).

There have been many studies conducted that have examined the accuracy of the model. One study used eighteen four-man groups that participated in a laboratory experiment testing Fiedler's contingency model of leadership effectiveness (Rice & Chemers, 2013). Predictions were generated from the model regarding (a) the leadership style (high or low on the least preferred co-worker [LPC] scale) of emergent leaders and (b) the leadership effectiveness of emergent leaders however the attempt to predict leadership style of emergent leaders was unsuccessful. Yet the predictions of leadership effectiveness were accurate and provided support for the model. Although there are many conflicting perceptions of the model's effectiveness, many research experiments such as this one offer evidence that it is useful in at least some situations.

Fiedler and Nature vs. Nurture

In my opinion, Fiedler's model is consistent with the nature vs. nurture debate. The leadership traits in the model are dispositional and can possibly change over time. For example, a leader might have one leadership style in their youth, but another style later in their career. Personalities are known to evolve over time as individuals have had more experience adapting to different environments. Furthermore, since the model uses a dispositional basis, this allows for variance in the potential outcomes. The model would suggest that leaders with a certain set of characteristics would likely be more successful in a certain environment, however such results are based on a correlation and the factors do not indicate causation.