Question

Explain the two Situational Leadership Approaches (the Fiedler contingency leadership model and the path-goal leadership model).

Analyze their potential advantages over the behavioral leadership approaches.

Answer 1

Contingent models state that different situations demand different styles of leadership. A leader can change his style according to the external factors like situation, task, and people

Theories under this model

• Path-goal theory
• Fiedler's theory of leadership
• Contingency theories
• Vroom-Yetton model of decision making.
• Situational leadership

Fielder’s theory

The leadership style depends on three factors:

• Leader-Member Relations – A leader with who trust among followers and is deemed influential has a good relationship(good/bad)
• Task Structure – tasks can be clear /structured or vague /unstructured.
• Leader's Position Power – the amount of power held by the leader to control the followers (strong/weak)

        Different combinations of factors require different leadership style

How to use   Fiedler's theory of leadership

• First, we identify the leader’s natural leadership style. For this we survey the followers / employees using LPC questionnaire. (high LPC- relationship oriented: low LPC- task oriented)
• we assess the situation i.e if relationship is good, task is structured etc
• then we Determine the most effective leadership style (which may or may not be in line with our natural style) and adjust ourselves accordingly

Example - CEO in a start-up organisation

• Assume there is a good relationship with the employees
• task structure –tasks are unstructured and there is no role clarity
• Leader's Position Power – Being a boss the CEO has strong power

Situation analysis:-   good relationship -Unstructured - strong power

This combination requires a task-focused –Low LPC leadership style according to Fielders theory. Similarly, for different combinations, we need a different style team performance may be poor. So the CEO has to modify his style accordingly

Path goal theory-

According to this theory, a person has to adopt a leadership style to match task/environment characteristic and follower characteristics.

Task characteristics – determined based on level of structuring, task complexity, etc

Follower characteristics – authoritarianism, need for control over tasks , follower’s belief about their ability to do their job etc

            

	Follower characteristics	Task characteristics	Leadership style to be followed
1	Dogmatic, Authoritarian		Directive
2	Need affiliation and human touch	Repetitive and mechanical; Not challenging	Supportive
3	Autonomous, Need for clarity, wants to control the situation	Ambiguous; unstructured; Lack of clarity	Participative
4	Need to excel, High expectations	Ambiguous and challenging; complex tasks	Achievement oriented

• Directive: The leader sets expectations, role clarity, goals , scheduling etc, This style is effective when the environment is filed with uncertainty and ambiguity
• Supportive: When tasks and relationships are physically or psychologically challenging, leader has to follow a friendly approach with concern for followers
• Participative: when followers s are highly trained and involved in their tasks, the leader consults with them in decision making as expected by the followers
• Achievement: he leader sets challenging goals for her followers, expects them to perform at their highest level, and shows confidence in their ability to meet this expectation. It is most effective in professional work environments, such as technical, scientific; or achievement environments, such as sales

Their potential advantages over the behavioural leadership approaches.

Behavior theories study the behaviors exhibited by leaders. Leaders exhibit certain common behaviors. Leadership is exhibited through such behaviors. Any person can become a leader by replicating such behaviors

• Task-oriented leader behaviors -. structuring the roles of subordinates, offering guidance and instructions,
• People-oriented leader behaviors – sharing empathy for employee feelings, respecting employees etc

Advantages over the behavioural leadership approaches.

This approach does not take into consideration the situational variables.

• A particular leadership style may be suitable in one situation: but it may not effective or it may be even detrimental to performance in other situations. Contingency approaches take this important factor into account
• Contingency approach also consider time factor. A leadership behavior valid during a particular time/era may become irrelevant in another time period