Contingency Theories of Leadership and Adaptive Leadership Chapter 7.

Contingency Theories of Leadership and Adaptive Leadership

Chapter 7

Fiedler’s Contingency Theory

No “one best” leadership: The effectiveness of Leadership depends on leader’s style, follower’s behavior and the favorableness of the situation

Component 1 of the theory:1. Leader’s orientation 2. Elements of situation

1. Leader’s Orientation 1.1 Task oriented : cares more about the task and not on the personnel (Initiating Structures)

1.2 Relationship Oriented: cares more on the people (considerate)

How to determine the orientation ?By Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC) tool

Interpreting LPC scores

• Relationship oriented: if LPC Score is high (it means leadership behavior is considerate)

• Task oriented: if LPC Score is low (it means leadership behavior is IS – initiating structures of directive)

• Component 2 of the theory: Situational favorableness

1. leader-member relationship (trust, respect between leader and member)

2. Task structure (task is clear or structured, task is not clear or unstructured)

3. Position of power (how much power does leader have over subordinates)

Interpretation

• When the leader-member relation is good, the task is structured and the leader has enough power, the situation is favorable – thus effective leadership. Situation is unfavorable for leaders vise versa.

• Fieldler says : low LPC leaders are good in extremely favorable situations while high LPC leaders are effective in moderately favorable situations

Leader’s orientation

Favorableness of the situation

Substitutes for Leadership

• Kerr & Jermier (1978)• Identify Aspects of Situation that Minimize

Need for Leaders– Substitutes (Task, Organization, Roles, Subordinate

Characteristics)– Neutralizers (Reward, Authority, External)

• Substitutes Make Leaders Redundant• Strong Support for Substitutes and

Neutralizers

Path-Goal Theory• Leaders Influence Satisfaction and Performance• Increase Subordinate Outcomes By:

– Clarifying Path to Goals– Reducing Roadblocks to Goals– Increase incentives on the Way

• Inclusion of Task Characteristics and Subordinate Characteristics

• 4 Types of Leaders– Supportive (Boring)– Directive (Unstructured)– Participative (Complex)– Achievement-Oriented

Other Referenced TheoriesTheory X and Theory

Y• Theory X and Theory Y each represent

different ways in which leaders view employees.

– Theory X is the traditional view of direction and control by managers.

– Theory Y is the view that individual and organizational goals can be integrated.

Management/

Leader

Staff/

FollowersAlan Chapmen

Tight control, lots of rules, no

freedom

Alan Chapmen

Management/

Leader

Staff/

Followers

Lots of freedom, creativity &

responsibility

ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP

• Today’s work environment is increasingly - Turbulent - Unreliable - Unpredictable

• Today’s companies are increasingly - Interdependent - Organized

How can leaders….

• Predict the outcome of their choices ?• Determine how leads whom specially when

limits and boundaries are increasingly blurred as a result of extra organized systems etc ?

• Ensure that they have rightly understood signals and messages of changes and varying situations?

• Be sure that they are right?

These changes call for adaptive strategies and ways of doing business

ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP, THEREFORE, IS TO CREATE AN ENVIORONMENT IN WHICH

OBJECTIVES ARE ACHIEVED IN PRESENCE OF UNCERTAINTY

Unique dimensions of Adaptive Leadership

• Navigate the business environment:- Manage the context in which actors operate- Cultivate diversity of perspectives (Abraham

Lincoln idea of opposing ministers)- Share leadership - Curiosity and questioning the world around

• Leading with Empathy: - Seeing the world with others’ prisms - Create a shared sense of purpose - Reward independent good work • Learning through self-correction - Enable learning through experimentation - Increase organization’s ability to self-correct

• Create win-win situations- Enable collaboration (CEO’s need to enable

collaboration because the employees already have all the data)

- Use influence of leadership to go beyond the firm

Adaptive Leadership Dimensions

THANK YOU !