Contingency Theories of Effective Leadership

CONTINGENCY THEORIES OF EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP

• Contingency Theory – Theory that explains leadership effectiveness in terms of situational moderator variables

LPC (Least Preferred Co-Worker) CONTINTENCY MODEL

• The LPC contingency model describes how the situation moderates the relationship between leadership effectiveness and a trait measure called the “least preferred co-worker” score

Leader LPC Score

• The LPC score is determined by:

• Asking a leader to think of all past and present co-workers

• Select the one with whom the leader could work least well, and

• Rate this person on a set of bipolar adjective scales

 Friendly/Unfriendly

 Cooperative/Uncooperative

• A leader who is generally critical in rating the least preferred co-worker will obtain a low LPC score, whereas a leader who generally lenient will obtain a high LPC score

• A high LPC leader is primarily motivated to:

o Have close interpersonal relationship with other people (including subordinates)

o Will act in a considerate, supportive manner if relationships need to be improved

• A low LPC leader is primarily motivated by:

o Achievement of task objectives

o Will emphasize task oriented behavior

o The second motive of establishing good relations will become important only if the group is performing well and there are no serious task problems

• Low LPC leaders value task success, whereas high LPC leaders value interpersonal success

Situational Variables

• The relationship between leader LPC score and effectiveness depends on a complex situational variables called situational favorability or situational control

• Favorability is defined as the extent to which the situation gives the leader control over subordinates

1. Leader Member Relations – the extent to which the leader has the support and loyalty of subordinates, and the relations with subordinates are friendly and cooperative

2. Position Power – the extent to which the leader has authority to evaluate subordinate performance and administer rewards and punishments

3. Task Structure – the extent to which there are operating procedures to accomplish the task, a detailed description of the finished product and objective indicators of how well the task is being performed

• Favorability is determined by weighting and combining these three aspects of the situation

• The weighting procedure assumes that leader-member relations are more important than task structure

Propositions

• According to the model, the situation is most favorable for the leader (octant 1) when:

o The subordinates are good,

o The leader has substantial position power

o The Task is highly structured

• The situation is least favorable for the leader (octant 8) when:

o The relations with the subordinates is poor

o The task is unstructured

o Position power is low

Conceptual Weaknesses

• The LPC interpretation has been changed in an arbitrary fashion

• The current interpretation is speculative

• LPC scores may not be stable over time and may be more complex than assumed

• In absence of behavioral variables the model does not provide any guidance for training leaders how to adapt to the situation

• The model neglects medium LPC leaders, who probably outnumber high and low