Fiedler Contingency Method

By: Kevin Smith

 History and Info.
• The Fiedler contingency model is a
leadership theory of industrial and
organizational psychology developed by
Fred Fiedler (born 1922), one of the
leading scientists who helped his field
move from the research of traits and
personal characteristics of leaders to
leadership styles and behaviours.
 Description
• Many scholars assumed that there was one
best style of leadership, Fiedler’s contingency
model postulates that the leader’s
effectiveness is based on ‘situational
contingency’, that is a result of interaction of
two factors, known as 'leadership style' and
'situational favorableness' (later called
situational control).
 The Leadership Style
• The leadership style is the consistent system of interactions that takes place between
a leader and work group. According to Fiedler this depends on the personality of the
leader, thus, fixed and measured by –what he calls- the least preferred co-worker
(LPC) scale, an instrument for measuring an individual’s leadership orientation. The
LPC scale asks a leader to think of all the persons with whom he or she has ever
worked, and then to describe the one person with whom he or she worked the least
well with. From a scale of 1 through 8, the leader is asked to describe this person on
a series of bipolar scales such as those shown below:
• The responses to these scales (usually 18-25 in total) are summed and averaged: a
high LPC score suggests that the leader has a human relations orientation, while a
low LPC score indicates a task orientation. Fiedler assumes that everybody's least
preferred coworker in fact is on average about equally unpleasant. But people who
are indeed relationship motivated, tend to describe their least preferred coworkers in
a more positive manner, e.g., more pleasant and more efficient. Therefore, they
receive higher LPC scores. People who are task motivated, on the other hand, tend to
rate their least preferred coworkers in a more negative manner. Therefore, they
receive lower LPC scores.
 Situational favorableness
• According to Fiedler, there is no ideal leader. Both low-LPC (task-
oriented) and high-LPC (relationship-oriented) leaders can be effective if
their leadership orientation fits the situation. The contingency theory
allows for predicting the characteristics of the appropriate situations for
effectiveness. Three situational components determine the
favorableness or situational control:
2. Leader-Member Relations, referring to the degree of mutual trust, respect
and confidence between the leader and the subordinates.
3. Task Structure, referring to the degree to which the task at hand is low in
multiplicity and high in verifiability, specificity, and clarity.
4. Leader Position Power, referring to the power inherent in the leader's
position itself.
• When there is a good leader-member relation, a highly structured task,
and high leader position power, the situation is considered a "favorable
situation." Fiedler found that low-LPC leaders are more effective in
extremely favorable or unfavorable situations, whereas high-LPC leaders
perform best in situations with intermediate favorability.
 Opposing Views
• Researchers often find that Fiedler's contingency theory falls short on flexibility.
• They also noticed that LPC scores can fail to reflect the personality traits it is
supposed to reflect.
• Fiedler’s contingency theory has drawn criticism because it implies that the only
alternative for an unalterable mismatch between leader orientation and an
unfavorable situation is changing the leader.
• The model’s validity has also been disputed, despite many supportive tests (Bass
1990).
• Other criticisms concern the methodology of measuring leadership style through the
LPC inventory and the nature of the supporting evidence (Ashour 1973; Schriesheim
and Kerr 1977a, 1977b; Vecchio 1977, 1983). Fiedler and his associates have
provided decades of research to support and refine the contingency theory.
• Cognitive resource theory (CRT) modifies Fiedler’s basic contingency model by
adding traits of the leader (Fiedler and Garcia 1987). CRT tries to identify the
conditions under which leaders and group members will use their intellectual
resources, skills and knowledge effectively. While it has been generally assumed that
more intelligent and more experienced leaders will perform better than those with less
intelligence and experience, this assumption is not supported by Fiedler’s research.
 Least preferred co-worker (LPC)

• The leadership style is the consistent system of interactions that takes place
between a leader and work group. According to Fiedler this depends on the
personality of the leader, thus, fixed and measured by –what he calls- the
least preferred co-worker (LPC) scale, an instrument for measuring an
individual’s leadership orientation. The LPC scale asks a leader to think of
all the persons with whom he or she has ever worked, and then to describe
the one person with whom he or she worked the least well with. From a
scale of 1 through 8, the leader is asked to describe this person on a series
of bipolar scales such as those shown below:
• Unfriendly 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Friendly
• Uncooperative 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Cooperative
• Hostile 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Supportive
• Guarded 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Open