THE THEORY PREDICTS THAT A TASK-ORIENTED STYLE WILL BE THE BEST STYLE IN FAVORABLE LEADERSHIP SITUATIONS, A RELATIONSHIP-ORIENTED STYLE WILL BE BEST IN INTERMEDIATE SITUATIONS, AND A TASK-ORIENTED STYLE WILL AGAIN BE MOST EFFECTIVE IN UNFAVORABLE GROUP SITUATIONS.

1. Unit#04
Fiedler’s Contingency Theory:
Why leadership isn’t uniform?
BY: MS.NARGIS SHAMIM

2. JUMP TO SECTION
What is Fiedler’s Contingency Theory?
What are the elements of Fiedler’s Contingency Model?
How to apply Fiedler’s Contingency Model to be a better leader?
Examples of Fiedler’s theory in action
Does it hold up under pressure?
Put your team’s success first with Fiedler’s Contingency Theory

3. Summary..
Fiedler’s Contingency Theory states that, for a
leader to be effective, their leadership style must fit
the situation. Using this model, you’ll identify your
own leadership style, assess the situation that
requires leadership, and determine whether you’re
the right leader. In this piece, we further break
down the theory, teach you how to apply it to
become a better leader, and provide examples of the
theory in action.
When you imagine the qualities of a
leader, what comes to mind?
Perhaps you think of a strong, determined
individual with a blazer and a checklist. Maybe you
think of a master of interpersonal relationships who
empowers a team to collaborate well. According to
Fiedler’s Contingency Theory, both of these people
can be great leaders, because a leader’s
effectiveness depends on the harmony between
their leadership style and the situation at hand.
Fiedler argues that it’s difficult to change
how you lead, so understanding your
leadership style is essential for serving your
team. To help you better comprehend your
style of leadership and make the best
decisions for your company, we break down
Fiedler’s model.

4. What is Fiedler’s Contingency Theory?
• Fiedler’s Contingency Theory, also known as Fiedler’s Contingency Model or Fiedler’s
Theory of Leadership, states that there is not one best style of leadership. Rather, the most
effective leadership style for any given situation is one that aligns with the situation at
hand.
• The theory was developed in the 1960s by Austrian psychologist, Professor Fred Fiedler. He
studied leaders’ personalities and characteristics and came to the conclusion that leadership
style, since it is formed through one’s life experiences, is incredibly difficult, if not
impossible, to change.
• For this reason, Fiedler believed the right leader must be chosen for each job based on their
skill set and the requirements of the situation. In order to best match leaders with situations,
each leader must first understand their natural leadership style. Then, they need to evaluate
whether their leadership style is right for the situation. To put it simply, Fiedler determined
that a leaders’ ability to succeed rests on two factors:
• Natural leadership style
• Situational favorableness

5. What are the elements of Fiedler’s
Contingency Model?
As you’ve probably realized, Fiedler’s Contingency Theory is pretty simple. All it requires is a
comparison of one’s leadership style with the demands of the situation. Let’s take a closer look
at how the model breaks down these factors.
Leadership style
• To help you determine your leadership style, Fiedler developed the Least Preferred
Coworker (LPC) scale. The scale asks you to describe the coworker you least prefer to
work with.
• The more positively you rate your least preferred coworker on a variety of different criteria,
the more relationship-oriented you are. The less favorably you rate them on the same
criteria, the more task-oriented you are.
Essentially:
• If you’re a high LPC leader, you’re a relationship-oriented leader.
• If you’re a low LPC leader, you’re a task-oriented leader.

6. •
Relationship-oriented leaders are great at building relationships,
facilitating team synergy, and managing interpersonal conflict. Task-oriented
leaders tend to be skilled at organizing projects and teams to accomplish
tasks efficiently and effectively.

7. Continue..
• The rationale behind these two leadership styles is pretty straightforward:
• Rating your least preferred coworker favorably means that you see the best in people—even
those who you wouldn’t necessarily choose to work with.
• Rating your least preferred coworker unfavorably suggests that you struggle to see their
contributions, since you value efficiency and effectiveness over other attributes.
• There isn’t one “right” way to lead. While task-orientation may be preferable to the
organization at large, teammates themselves tend to prefer relationship-orientation. In
fact, 79% of people who quit their jobs cite lack of appreciation as a primary reason for
leaving.

8. Situational favorableness..
Next, Fiedler’s model requires you to assess the situation at hand. Situational contingency theory, also known as
situational leadership, states that every situation that requires leadership is different and requires a specific type
of leader. The favorability of a situation depends on how much influence and power you have as a leader.
Situational favorableness is determined by three variables:
• Leader-member relations
• Task structure
• Position power
Leader-member relations are all about trust. Does your team trust you as a leader? The more they do, the higher
your degree of leader-member relations and the more favorable the situation is.
Task structure refers to the clarity of the tasks required to complete a project. Higher task structure results in a
more favorable situation. The more clear-cut and precise tasks are, the higher the situation’s task structure—
whereas the vaguer they are, the lower the situation’s task structure.
Finally, position power refers to the authority you have over your team as a leader. If you can reward them,
punish them, or tell them what to do, your position power is high. As you can imagine, higher position power
makes the situation more favorable.

9. How to apply Fiedler’s Contingency Model to
be a better leader ?
Now that we’ve established a basic understanding of Fiedler’s Contingency Theory, you can
determine what type of leader you are and start applying the model.
The following section will walk you through how to determine your natural leadership style
and understand the situation at hand. According to Fiedler, only then can you be an effective
leader and make the best decision in each situation—lead or delegate.
Step 1: Understand your leadership style
• In order to identify your natural leadership style, we return to the LPC scale. It’s time to
bring to mind the person you least prefer working with. Copy the chart below into a separate
document and use it to mark the score that best fits how you’d describe your least preferred
coworker.
• Remember, understanding your leadership style is highly beneficial to you and your team.
While you may want to be generous with your answers, it’s important to respond honestly
for the most accurate understanding of your leadership style.

10. Least
preferred
coworker
(LPC)
scale
Negative Score Positive
Unpleasant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Pleasant
Rejecting 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Accepting
Tense 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Relaxed
Cold 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Warm
Boring 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Interesting
Backbiting 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Loyal
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
Insincere 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Sincere
Unkind 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Kind
Inconsiderate 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Considerate
Untrustworthy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Trustworthy
Gloomy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Cheerful
Quarrelsome 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Harmonious

11. Determining your LPC score
Now that you’ve filled out the test, add up every number you marked to
calculate your LPC score. Interpret your score as follows:
• If you scored 73 and above (a high LPC score), you are a relationship-
oriented leader.
• If you scored 54 and below (a low LPC score), you are a task-oriented
leader.
• If you scored between 55 and 72, you have the qualities of both a
relationship-oriented and a task-oriented leader. Deciding which style
fits you better will take further exploration through other leadership
theories.

12. Step 2: Assess the situation
In order to assess situational favorableness to determine leadership effectiveness in a
specific environment, Fiedler poses three questions.
• On a scale of one to 10, with 10 representing the highest value…
• Are leader-member relations good and trustworthy (10) or poor and untrustworthy
(1)?
• Are the tasks at hand clear and structured (10) or confusing and unstructured (1)?
• Is your authority and influence over your team strong (10) or weak (1)?
Don’t solely rely on your own judgment of the situation. Ask group members to
anonymously answer these same questions and calculate the average of all
answers to best understand the situation’s favorableness. Seeking your team’s
insight is a great way to empower them and improve team morale.

13. Step 3: Decide whether you’re the leader for the
job
Now that you have a grasp on your leadership style and the favorableness
of the situation, you can determine whether you’re the right leader for the
situation.
• If you’re a task-oriented leader, you’re the best fit to tackle highly
favorable and highly unfavorable situations. The extremes are where
you’ll serve your team best.
• If you’re a relationship-oriented leader, your style is best suited to lead
in situations with moderate favorability.
The table below breaks down all of the different instances when each
leadership style is the best fit.

14. Now for the trickier situations. If you’re a task-oriented leader in a moderately favorable situation
or a relationship-oriented leader in a highly favorable or unfavorable situation, your leadership
style likely isn’t the right fit for the situation. If this is the case, don’t panic—there are ways to
make sure that your team is still set up for success.

15. Step 4: Consider delegating to the right leader
• According to Fiedler, leadership style is fixed and cannot be changed. This means
that if a leader’s style isn’t right for a situation, that leader may need to delegate
leadership to the right person.
• While it can be challenging to admit that your skillset isn’t right for a situation,
there’s no shame in delegating leadership to someone else. In fact, delegation is
necessary for effective leadership. If you’re a manager, consider promoting
someone on your team with the opposite leadership style to supervise the team
wherever needed. Alternatively, if you’re overseeing a cross-functional project, see
if one of the cross-functional team members is a better fit for the situation.

16. Step 5: Try changing the situation
• Another way to ensure that your team is set up for success if your leadership style doesn’t
fit the situation at hand is to try to change the situation. Here are a few ways to align
situational favorableness with your skillset:
• Improve leader-member relations. If it would help the situation to improve leader-member
relations, try focusing on your transparency with the team or entrusting team members
with new responsibilities. 60% of leaders worry about how their team perceives
transparency. By improving it wherever possible, leaders can feel confident that their
team members will trust them, which in turn improves leader-member relations.
• Level up task clarity. Are tasks unclear simply because that’s the nature of the job, or are
there processes that can be cleaned up a bit? Try outlining tasks to make them easier for
your team to accomplish.
• Increase your authority. If more power and influence could help you lead better, try
formulating an argument to present to upper management. You may come out of it with a
promotion to a more senior role.

17. Examples of Fiedler’s theory in action
We’ve mostly been discussing Fiedler’s model in theory. Let’s take a look at some real-world scenarios that
will help clarify what it might look like in an organizational setting.
• Scenario 1: Newly hired co-manager at a startup
• Imagine you’ve just been hired as a co-manager of a startup tech company. The team of 12 has been
working together for a little over a year. You were brought on by the existing manager to help improve the
company’s strategy.
• Leader-member relations are poor. As a new manager brought into an already tight-knit team, there’s bound
to be some friction and distrust.
• Task structure is low. The company is still considered a startup, and you were hired to help establish some
structure. At this point, everyone helps out with everything.
• Leader position power is weak. There’s another manager with more authority who could veto your
decisions, especially as they pertain to the team.
• According to Fiedler’s Contingency Theory, this scenario calls for a task-oriented leader. The situation is
highly unfavorable and a relationship-oriented leader would have a very hard time getting anything done.

18. Does it hold up under pressure?
• There is plenty of valuable insight that can be taken from
Fiedler’s Contingency Theory, but it’s important to remember
that it’s just one theory. It shouldn’t be given supreme
authority to determine leadership fit and should be
supplemented with additional resources.

20. Put your team’s success first with Fiedler’s
Contingency Theory
• Fiedler’s Contingency Theory of Leadership serves as a great reminder that
leadership isn’t uniform. If your team isn’t performing as well as it should be, it
might not mean that you aren’t a good leader. Rather, your natural leadership
style might not be what’s best for your team’s needs at the moment.
• Regardless of a leader’s style and the favorableness of a situation, every team
needs the right tools to communicate well and accomplish organizational goals.
When your team knows who’s doing what by when, they’re empowered to get
their best work done and develop collaborative relationships. The best way to do
this is with work management software. Work management software will help
keep your team on track, saving you time and energy as you hone your
leadership skills.