Leadership style refers to how a leader influences his followers and how he works to achieve his goals. There are different theoretical models of leadership within social and organizational psychology.

One of these is Fiedler’s Contingency Model, a model that holds that group productivity depends on leadership style and situational control. In this article we will analyze the components of the model and explain how it works.

Fiedler’s Contingency Model: what is it?

Fiedler’s Contingency Model, also called the theory of leadership effectiveness , is a model that we find within social and organizational psychology. Its creator was Fred E. Fiedler, an important researcher of social and organizational psychology in the 20th century born in Vienna (Austria).

This model talks about leadership within organizations, and proposes that group productivity depends on two variables: the leader’s leadership style and situational control.

Situational control refers to a secure and confident leader who can get the job done. It is based on three dimensions, which we will see below: the leader’s reliable relationships with the members, that the task is structured, and the leader’s supervision and capacity for reinforcement/punishment (i.e. power).

Characteristics

Broadly speaking, what does Fiedler’s model propose and what does it consist of?

Fiedler’s Contingency Model aims to describe how high group productivity (i.e., results) is achieved through leadership (the way the leader “leads”), the characteristics of the leader and the situation at hand.

In his model, Fiedler proposes two types of leadership, as we will see later on: one more oriented to people (socio-emotional) and another one more oriented to productivity (task) . The model also argues that the leader’s ability to influence his followers will depend, among other things, on how favorable the situation in question is.

Target

The objective of this model was to predict the effectiveness of different types of leadership . To do this, it was first necessary to correctly identify the leadership style of the leader and the situation within the organisation. If these two variables were correctly matched, according to Fiedler, the results were assured.

Fiedler believed that a person’s leadership style was something quite fixed, difficult to change, though not impossible. This thought led him to consider the aforementioned, and that is that perhaps it was a good idea to make the different leadership styles coincide with the most favorable situations for obtaining results (effectiveness of the leader), and this is what Fiedler’s Contingency Model proposes.

Components

Fiedler’s Contingency Model proposes two components that interact with each other, to give as a final result the productivity of the group . This productivity has to do with the results obtained by the group within the organization.

Thus, the components referred to in Fiedler’s Contingency Model are the following.

1. Leader’s Leadership Style

Leadership style refers to the leader’s way of achieving his or her purposes and the purposes of the group. It relates to the way he treats the workers (or followers) and how he achieves (or does not achieve) what he sets out to do .

Fiedler, in his contingency model, speaks of two types of leaders or leadership: the leader who is motivated by the task (task leader) and the leader who is motivated by interpersonal relationships (socio-emotional leader).

The task leader will focus, as the name implies, on the tasks of the group, i.e. on the performance and results obtained by the group. This leader aims to increase group productivity by working directly through the group.

The socio-emotional leader, on the other hand, will focus on promoting satisfactory relations between workers in order to increase the group’s performance. Later on we will see how the type of leader relates to situational control (the second component of Fiedler’s Contingency Model).

2. Situational control

As we already mentioned, the second component of Fiedler’s Contingency Model is situational control, which has to do with the degree of control of the situation . This variable has two poles within a continuum: the “low” pole and the “high” pole. The label “moderate” appears in the middle of the continuum.

The greater the situational control, the greater the assurance by the leader that the task in question is performed correctly.

The situational control depends, in turn, on three other variables or dimensions (necessary to analyze the situational control):

2.1. Reliable relations with members

This variable refers to how the leader relates to the members of the group. It is related to loyalty, mutual support and, in short, to the quality of the relationship between the leader and his followers. If these relationships are good, this will have a positive impact on the effectiveness and power of the leader.

2.2. Degree of task structuring

For situational control to be high, the task must be well structured. In particular, this variable refers to whether or not the tasks are well defined; it also has to do with objectives and working procedures.

2.3. Monitoring and enforcement/punishment capacity

Finally, there must be supervision by the leader towards the members of the group, and in addition the leader must have a good capacity to offer reinforcements (prizes) and punishments according to the results (group productivity).

This third dimension also alludes to the power that the leader has in his position. This power is legitimate. The following relationship has also been found: the power of the high positions makes the leader’s task of influence easier, but the power of the low positions makes it more difficult.

Relationship between components

But, how does it influence that the leader is task or socio-emotional, and that the situational control is low, moderate or high, in the effectiveness of the leader? Let’s explain these interactions.

Fiedler’s Contingency Model proposes a kind of graph, which explains the possibilities of relationship between the two previous components. Six possibilities are proposed, which are born from the two types of leadership.

1. Social-emotional leader

When the leader is socio-emotional (focused on interpersonal relationships), three situations can occur:

  • Keep situational control low: then effectiveness will be minimal.
  • Let the situational control be moderate: then the effectiveness will be maximum.
  • Let the situational control be high: then the effectiveness will be minimal.

2. Task leader

In contrast, when the leader is task (production-focused), three other situations can also occur:

  • Keep situational control low: then the effectiveness will be maximum.
  • Let the situational control be moderate: then the effectiveness will be minimal.
  • Let the situational control be high: then the effectiveness will be maximum.

Final Reflection

Fiedler’s Contingency Model does not really have sufficient empirical support to support it in research . However, it is considered an important model within organizational psychology, which continues to be transmitted and taught.

This is because it provides a comprehensive and well-argued set of theories regarding leadership, leader effectiveness and group productivity. Furthermore, it incorporates elements of the environment (situation), and not only the characteristics of the leader (leadership style, personality…), to explain the effectiveness of the leader and its repercussions on the results.

Bibliographic references:

  • Hogg, M. (2010). Social psychology. Vaughan Graham M. Panamericana. Editorial: Panamericana.

  • Palaci, F. (2005). Organizational psychology. Spain: Pearson education. “They are more effective in moderately favorable situations (some are favorable and others are unfavorable)”.

  • Stoner, J. (1998). Administration (sixth edition). Mexico: Prentice hall hispanoamericana.