Chapter 10: Contingency

Models of Leadership
By Nicholas Bertolini
BUSN 56, Professor Grooms

Contingency Models
Contingency models of leadership take
into account the situation or context within
which leadership occurs.
Prominent contingency models
-Fred Fiedlers contingency model
-Robert Houses path-goal theory
-Leader substitutes model

Fred E. Fiedler
Fiedler was among the first leadership
researchers to acknowledge that effective
leadership is contingent on, or depends, on the
characteristics of the leader and of the situation.

Fiedlers Contingency Model

Leadership Style: All managers are
identified with one of two leader
styles.
-Relationship-oriented leaders: Leaders
whose primary concern is to develop good
relationships with their subordinates and to be
liked by them.
-Task-oriented leaders: Leaders whose primary
concern is to ensure that subordinates perform at
a high level.

Fiedlers Contingency Model

Situational Characteristics
Leader-Member Relations: The extent to which
followers like, trust, and are loyal to their leader;
a determinant of how favorable a situation is for
leading.
Task Structure: The extent to which the work to
be performed is clear-cut so that a leaders
subordinates know what needs to be
accomplished and how to go about doing it; a
determinant of how favorable a situation is for
leading.

Fiedlers Contingency Model

Position power: The amount of legitimate,
reward, and coercive power that a leader has by
virtue of his or her position in an organization; a
determinant of how favorable a situation is for
leading.
Putting the Contingency Model into practice
-research studies tend to support some aspects of
Fiedlers model but also suggest that it needs some
modifications.

Houses Path-Goal Theory

Path-goal theory: A contingency model of leadership

proposing that leaders can motivate subordinates by
identifying their desired outcomes, rewarding them for high
performance and the attainment of work goals with these
desired outcomes, and clarifying for them the paths leading
to the attainment of work goals.

Path-Goal Theory
4 kinds of leadership behaviors that motivate
subordinates:

Directive Behaviors
Supportive Behaviors
Participative Behaviors
Achievement-oriented Behaviors

The Leader Substitutes Model

Leadership substitute: A characteristic of a

subordinate or of a situation or context that acts
in place of the influence of a leader and makes
leadership unnecessary.

Contingency Models of
Leadership
Model

Focus

Key Contingencies

Fiedlers contingency model

Describes two leader styles,

relationship-oriented and
task-oriented and the kinds
of situations in which each
kind of leader will be most
effective.

Whether a relationshiporiented or a task-oriented

leader is effective is
contingent on the situation.

Houses path-goal theory

Describes how effective

leaders motivate their
followers.

The behaviors that

managers should engage in
to be effective leaders are
contingent on the nature of
the subordinates and the
work they do.

Leader substitutes model

Describes when leadership

is unnecessary.

Whether leadership is
necessary for subordinates
to perform highly is
contingent on
characteristics of the
subordinates and the
situation.