Question

1. Fiedler’s Contingency Theory of Leadership was an important advanement in our understanding effective leadership styles. But, it was just a beginning in our understanding of the “contingencies” that impact leadership effectiveness. Summarize Fiedler’s leadership contingency factors. Now consider House’s Path-Goal Theory, what did the Path-Goal Theory of Leadership add to our understanding of leadership contingencies. What contingency did House consider that Fiedler did not?  Explain fully.

Answer 1

Similar to other contingency theories, Fiedler’s Contingency Theory also mentions that there are many methods that can be utilized by the leaders to lead the team and the situation will determine the best method of leading the team. In the case of Fiedler’s Contingency Theory, the leadership style cannot be altered that means in order to match with the situation, there cannot be any change in the leadership style, in fact, the leaders have to be selected depending on the situation.

Leadership style and situational favorableness are the two important elements in this theory. In the case of leadership style, the most important element is to find out the most natural leadership style that can be found on the basis of Least Preferred Coworker (LPC) that indicates the coworkers with whom the person would least likely to work with. This will yield the following two outcomes.

· High LPC = Relationship-oriented leader.

· Low LPC = Task-oriented leader.

The next step in this theory is the situational favorableness that determines the level fo the control on the situation a leader has

When we talk about Path-goal theory, this theory mainly depends on the specification of the leadership style or conduct that suits most to the working environment and the manpower so that the greater goals can be accomplished. The main focus remains on improving the motivation and satisfaction of the employees so that they can facilitate greater productivity to the organization. This theory indicates that the leaders are quite flexible in their approach and depending on the situation, the leadership style can be modified. Environment and employee characteristics, are the two critical factors in this theory.

Path-goal theory states that the leadership style can be changed on the basis of the situation that was not the case when we talk about Fiedler’s Contingency Theory