Contingency Leadership
This type of leadership is based on the work of Fred Fielder who was a scientist in the mid 1900's. This type of leadership has a belief that there is no one way to lead a group. The way of leading a group depends on the situation. In order to use this model, one must realize what type of leader they are. To do this, one can use a scale.
The image on the left is known as the Least- Preferred Coworker Scale. A low score indicates that an individual has the ability to complete a task, is organized and can finish a task quickly. However, they don't care too much about building relationships with team members. A high score belongs to an individual that focuses on building relationships and deals well with conflicts.
After using the scale, one must determine the situational favourableness which depends on 3 key factors:
- Leader- Member Relations: Level of trust an confidence your team members have in you
- Task Structure: Nature of the task you are doing; whether it's structured or unstructured, clear or unclear
- Leader's Position Power: The amount of power a leader has and how they deal with the end result; by punishment or by reward