The quality of leadership, more than any other single factor, determines the success or failure of an organization.1
- Fred Fiedler
Fred Fiedler was a professor and researcher who wrote several books in the management and leadership field. He believed that a company's management plays a crucial role in its success. Let's look at his most famous work on contingency theory, particularly the Fiedler contingency model.
Fiedler Contingency Model Definition
A little bit of context first, in 1967, Fred Fiedler published "A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness." In this publication, he elaborates on the concept of contingency theory and develops his model.
The contingency theory is a concept that states that there is not one best way to lead a group. On the contrary, as there are different types of groups and environments, leadership has to adapt to the situation to be effective.
Although Fiedler helped develop the concept of contingency theory, it is not the only one. There are four contingency theories: Fiedler's Contingency Theory, Situational Leadership Theory, the Path-Goal Theory, and the Decision-Making Theory. You can check out our explanation of Contingency Theory for more information.
Fiedler Contingency Model of Leadership
Fiedler developed his model to determine the most appropriate leadership method. This model has three steps: identify leadership, assess the situation, and select the best leadership method:
Step 1: Identify leadership.
The first step consists of determining if the leader of an organization is relationship-oriented or task-oriented.
To do so, Fiedler created a scale called The least preferred coworker (LPC). To use this scale, you need to think about the person you least enjoy working with, and you will have to rate that person on a scale from 1 to 8 on different criteria. See Table 1 below the LPC scale used by Fiedler:
Least Preferred Coworker scale (LPC) |
| Pleasant | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Unpleasant |
| Friendly | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Unfriendly |
| Rejecting | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Accepting |
| Tense | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Relaxed |
| Cold | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Warm |
| Supportive | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Hostile |
| Boring | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Interesting |
| Quarrelsome | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Harmonious |
| Gloomy | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Cheerful |
| Open | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Closed |
| Backbiting | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Loyal |
| Untrustworthy | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Trustworthy |
| Considerate | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Inconsiderate |
| Nasty | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Nice |
| Agreeable | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Disagreeable |
| Insincere | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Sincere |
| Kind | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Unkind |
Table 1 - Least Preferred Coworker Scale (LPC)
For example, if you think your colleague was unpleasant, you can rate them 1 or 2. If you believe this person was neither friendly nor unfriendly, you can rate them a 4 or 5. If you think this person was rejecting everyone, you can rate them 8. The idea is to rate that person on the 17 criteria of the scale. Once you have finished, you simply need to add each measure to get a final score.
A higher score on the LPC scale means that you are a more relationship-oriented leader, as you can separate your coworker's personalities from their work performance. A lower score on the LPC scale means you are a task-oriented leader and more focused on the work than the person.
No leadership style is better than the other; a people-oriented leader will facilitate synergies between teams, make people feel at ease, and encourage them to reach a common goal. On the other hand, task-oriented leaders will focus more on the work and achieve great tangible results for the company or the organization.
Step 2: Assess the situation3
After evaluating your leadership style, it's time to assess the situation by looking at your work environment. You can evaluate the situation by looking at three variables called the three contingency variables and score them on a scale from one to ten.
Leader-member relations: how the team perceives its leader, the trust and confidence they have in him, but also how he can inspire loyalty and is accepted among his peers. In other words, how is the relationship with the leader? If it's a great relation, you can score 8, 9, or even 10. If it needs improvement, you can score a 4 or 5 for example.
Task structure: it is how the job and tasks are structured. You can score highly if the tasks are well-structured and easily understandable. You can give a lower score if it needs to be better structured.
Leader's position power: it's the level of power the leader has in the organization. For example, if the leader has all the decision power, if he can hire or fire an employee directly and promotes his employees, you can give a high score. You can give a low score if the leader has very little power.
Step 3: Determine if you are a good leader in this situation.2
Once you have gathered all the information, the last step of the model is to determine how your leadership style performs in a specific environment. You can use the table below to determine if your leadership style is optimal or not:
As shown in Figure 2, based on Fiedler's model, a task-oriented leader is highly effective when the situation is either favorable or unfavorable. However, they perform poorly when it is moderate. In contrast, a people-oriented leader will perform poorly when the situation is favorable or unfavorable and will do great when it is moderate.
Fiedler Contingency Model Position Power
To help you evaluate a leader's position power, you can use John R. P. French and Bertram Raven's study: "The bases of social power." According to this study, leaders have six sources of power:
Reward: when leaders motivate someone to do something with a reward.
Coercive: the opposite of reward power when leaders force someone to do something out of fear of punishment.
Legitimate: when leaders legally have the right to exercise power, in other words, when they are legitimate leaders.
Referent: when people do what the leaders want because they like them.
Expert: when leaders have a high level of knowledge and expertise.
Informational power: when leaders have information that others don't.4
Fiedler Contingency Model Example
To help you understand how the Fiedler Contingency Model can benefit your organization, let's have a look at some examples:
Situation 1
You are a consultant and need to advise a company on the appropriate leadership type to lead a particularly troublesome team. In this team, there is no good relationship with the team leader, the tasks are not well-structured, and the current leader doesn't have much authority. According to Fiedler's model, if you look at Fig. 2 above, you can see that it is an unfavorable situation across the board. For this type of situation, the most appropriate leadership style would be task-oriented.
Situation 2
You manage a company, and one of your team leaders is retiring and will leave the company soon. You will have to find the perfect replacement for them. You have two candidates; one is people-oriented, and the other is task-oriented, but you don't know who works best with the team. Based on Fiedler's model, you realize that the team has good relations with the current leader, the tasks are well-structured, and the current leader has a lot of authority. According to Fiedler's model, it is a very favorable situation. For this particular situation, the appropriate leadership style is a task-oriented leader.
Situation 3
You manage a company and realize that one of your teams is not performing as well as it used to. You took a closer look and realized that the team leader is task oriented. When analyzing the environment, you realize there is a good relationship with the team leader but that the tasks given need to be better structured and that this leader does not have much decision power in the organization. In this case, the team environment is moderate, and the appropriate leadership style should be people-oriented, not task-oriented.
As you can see, you can use Fiedler's model not only to evaluate a situation but also to determine what would be the most appropriate leadership style to lead a team.
Fiedler Contingency Model Advantages and Disadvantages
Fiedler's Contingency model isn't perfect. There are several advantages and disadvantages to using this model and it helps you determine what would be the appropriate leadership style for a specific situation:
Advantages | Disadvantages |
This model takes into consideration the situation of an organization. It shows the difference between situations and proposes an appropriate leadership method. The model can be applied in any teamwork environment.
| This model uses biased information, as the leader determines their leadership style by evaluating coworkers they have had trouble with. Fiedler assumes that leaders are either task-oriented or people-oriented. Although the LPC scale is numerical, it is a very subjective way to assess leadership.
|
Table 2 - Table advantages and disadvantages of Fiedler's Model
Fiedler was one of the first to realize that there is no best way to lead a team and that a leader should adapt to the situation. You can use Fiedler's model to evaluate a situation and determine the most appropriate leadership style to lead a team.
Fiedler Contingency Model - Key takeaways
Fiedler created the contingency theory in 1967 and stated that there is not one best way to lead a group. On the contrary, as there are different types of groups and environments, leadership has to adapt to the situation to be effective.
There are four contingency theories: Fiedler's Contingency Theory, Situational Leadership Theory, the Path-Goal Theory, and the Decision-Making Theory.
Fiedler's model has three steps: identify leadership, assess the situation, and select the best leadership method.
When assessing an organization's situation, Fiedler considers three variables: leader-member relations, task structure, and leader's position power.
References
- Van Vliet, V. Fred Fiedler. 12/07/2013. https://www.toolshero.com/toolsheroes/fred-fiedler/
- Patrick Ward. Fiedler's Contingency Theory: Summary with Examples. 03/10/2021. https://nanoglobals.com/glossary/fiedlers-contingency-theory/
- Asana. Théorie de la contingence de Fiedler : à chaque situation son style de leadership. 27/06/2022. https://asana.com/fr/resources/fiedlers-contingency-theory
- JOHN R. P. FRENCH, JR., AND BERTRAM RAVEN. Studies in Social Power. 1959. http://www.communicationcache.com/uploads/1/0/8/8/10887248/the_bases_of_social_power_-_chapter_20_-_1959.pdf
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