An important situational factor in the normative model is the importance of commitment.

Q: What does the situational leadership theory and the contingency theory focuses on?

More formally called Hersey and Blanchards Situational Leadership Theory, this contingency model focuses on leadership style and the maturity of those being led. Situational leadership theory puts forth the idea that leadership styles hinge on four behaviors: telling, selling, participating and delegating.

Victor Vroom, a professor at Yale University and a scholar on leadership and decision-making, developed the normative model of decision-making.[1] Drawing upon literature from the areas of leadership, group decision-making, and procedural fairness, Vroom’s model predicts the effectiveness of decision-making procedures.[2] Specifically, Vroom’s model takes into account the situation and the importance of the decision to determine which of Vroom’s five decision-making methods will be most effective.[3]

Inhaltsverzeichnis Show

Decision-making processes[edit]
Situational influence of decision-making[edit]
Application[edit]
References[edit]
Fielder’s Contingency Model
Low-LPC Leaders
High-LPC Leaders
The Normative Leadership Theory
Dimensions of Leadership – Situational Leadership Theory
What is situational contingency theory?
What does the situational leadership theory and the contingency theory focuses on?
Which of the following is the most recommended approach to leadership during a crisis?
What is contingency leadership theory?

Decision-making processes[edit]

Vroom[1][3] identified five types of decision-making processes, each varying on degree of participation by the leader.

Decide: The leader makes the decision or solves the problem alone and announces his/her decision to the group. The leader may gather information from members of the group.
Consult (Individually): The leader approaches group members individually and presents them with the problem. The leader records the group member’s suggestions and makes a decision, deciding whether or not to use the information provided by group members.
Consult (Group): The leader holds a group meeting where he/she presents the problem to the group as a whole. All members are asked to contribute and make suggestions during the meeting. The leader makes his/her decision alone, choosing which information obtained from the group meeting to use or discard.
Facilitate: The leader holds a group meeting where he/she presents the problem to the group as a whole. This differs from consulting approach as the leader ensures that his/her opinions are not given any more weight than those of the group. The decision is made by group consensus, and not solely by the leader.
Delegate: The leader does not actively participate in the decision-making process. Instead, the leader provides resources (e.g., information about the problem) and encouragement.

Situational influence of decision-making[edit]

Vroom[3][4] identified seven situational factors that leaders should consider when choosing a decision-making process.

Decision significance: How will the decision affect the project’s success, or the organization as a whole?
Importance of commitment: Is it important that team members are committed to the final decision?
Leader’s expertise: How knowledgeable is the leader in regards to the problem(s) at hand?
Likelihood of commitment: If the leader makes the decision by himself/herself, how committed would the group members be to the decision?
Group support for objectives: To what degree do group members support the leader’s and organization’s objectives?
Group expertise: How knowledgeable are the group members in regards to the problem(s) at hand?
Team competence: How well can group members work together to solve the problem?

Vroom created a number of matrices which allow leaders to take into consideration these seven situational influences in order to choose the most effective decision-making process.[4]

Application[edit]

Vroom’s normative model of decision-making has been used in a wide array of organizational settings to help leaders select the best decision-making style and also to describe the behaviours of leaders and group members.[4] Further, Vroom’s model has been applied to research in the areas of gender and leadership style,[5] and cultural influences and leadership style.[6]

References[edit]

^ a b Vroom, V. H., & Yetton, P. W. (1973). Leadership and decision making. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
^ Forsyth, D. R. (2009). Group dynamics. New York: Wadsworth.
^ a b c Vroom, V. H. (2003). Educating managers for decision making and leadership. Management Decision, 41, 968-978. doi:10.1108/00251740310509490
^ a b c Vroom, V. H. (2000). Leadership and the decision-making process. Organizational Dynamics, 28, 82-94. doi:10.1016/S0090-2616(00)00003-6
^ Eagly, A. H., & Johnson, B. T. (1990). Gender and leadership style: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 2, 233-256.
^ Ayman, R., & Korabik, K. (2010). Leadership: Why gender and culture matter. American Psychologist, 65, 157.170. doi:10.1037/a0018806

Situational Leadership Theories
- - More From Business Study Notes:- Leadership Responsibilities
Fielder’s Contingency Model
- Low-LPC Leaders
- High-LPC Leaders
The Normative Leadership Theory
- - The questions are:
Dimensions of Leadership – Situational Leadership Theory

Situational model of leadership is a factor that emphasizes the behavior of the leaders regarding different situations. Specifically, situational leadership theories or models are known to be an utilized, effective and the most recognized style of leadership. The beginning of this model was originally stated in the situational leadership theory proposed by Dr. Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard in the early 1980’s or late 1970’s. This theory will also be discussed on this page along with multiple other theories that comprise influence on this factor. At some point, these theories are helping millions of individuals across the globe, to recognize their potential, effectiveness, and leadership nature and utilize available resources with the aim to create a role model for upcoming times in the organizational environment.

More From Business Study Notes:- Leadership Responsibilities

Situational leadership theories are those leadership theories that emphasize certain specific situations that may cause lack of success. Actually, the lack of success regarding identification of efficient leadership style gave birth to the idea of situation factors as an effective and specific style of leadership. While on the other hand, contingency leadership theories are also similar to the situational leadership theories. The contingency theories cover a set of instructions for behaviors of leaders regarding relevant situations.

Fielder’s Contingency Model

It is a situational approach developed by Fred Fielder along with his companions, associates and subordinates. In this contingency model, Fielder introduced a new scale, named as LPC which is an abbreviation of Least Preferred Coworker, to measure the leadership efficiency and effectiveness of a leader. LPC Orientation of a leader is a personality trait that can be measured using LPC Scale. The scale contains 1 to 8 ratings for the leader of the individual with whom the leader may work least well. Typically, the interpretation of the LPC Scale seemed controversial, but nowadays, an orthodox interpretation has been found. There are two points on LPC Scale that are Low-LPC Leaders, and High-LPC Leaders.

Low-LPC Leaders

The Low-LPC point elaborates the least preferred coworker in similarly negative terms, whereas these leaders seem to be task-oriented.

High-LPC Leaders

The High-LPC point elaborates the least preferred coworker in similar positive terms, whereas these leaders seem to be employee-oriented.

Fred Fielder argued that the LPC Orientation management style is hard to change, so this makes it very critical to compare the personality and approach of the leader with relative situation factors. Taking this step very carefully shall lead to success. Further, following are a few key points that help in matching a leader’s personality with the situation entirely.

To elaborate the level of situational control of the leader, the situation must be assessed properly.
The most necessary as well as important situational element is a leader-member relation or in simple words, the relation by which a leader has strong group member’s support.

Besides, there are two other terms introduced by Fred Fielder, i.e. task structure and position power.

Task Structure: The neat specification of the task with respect to goals, manners of performance and methods.

Position Power: It is a limited quantity of the power or authority which is handed over to the leader in order to accomplish assigned tasks or organizational goals.

Regarding situational performance, Low-LPC leaders are either extremely low favorable or high favorable on the basis of the particular situation and tend to do the best. On the other hand, High-LPC leaders are moderately favorable.

The Normative Leadership Theory

It is a model that helps leaders in assessing such influential situational factors that comprise direct impact on the extent to which the leader should involve associates and subordinates for a specific decision. There are a few management methods for five different types stated in this model with the aim to solve group problems easily.

Autocratic (I): The leader solves the problem and makes a decision by self using available information.
Autocratic (II): The leader obtains information from subordinates or associates without involving them and eventually makes a decision by self.
Consultative (I): The leader shares the problems and relative information with a specific group of subordinates individually and then makes a decision that may or not be suggested by subordinates.
Consultative (II): The leader gets recommendations and ideas from subordinates through arranging a group gathering where the leader makes the decision by himself.
Group (II): The leader shares the problem with a group of subordinates and asks their different views and solutions to solve the problem.

These all five types can also be termed as AI, AII, CI, CII and GII. Along with the five types, a relative questionnaire was also given featuring eight different questions that will surely help the leader to know which type to choose from above given five.

The questions are:

What is the importance of the technical quality associated with the decision?
What is the importance of a subordinate’s commitment to the decision?
Does the leader know required information in order to make the effective decision?
Whether the problem is well structured or not?
Would subordinates be committed to the decision if the leader makes the decision by himself?
Do the subordinates hold the right to share goals in solving the specific problem?
Is there any conflict among subordinates?
Whether the subordinates know sufficient information to make an effective decision?

Dimensions of Leadership – Situational Leadership Theory

As mentioned above, the Situational Leadership Theory was originally proposed by Dr. Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard. The basis of the theory is the assumption that the leaders need to perform changes in their behavior depending on the willingness or readiness of the followers. There were two dimensions in which the leader’s behavior is considered to be independent, i.e. Task Behavior and Relationship Behavior, which are stated below.

Task Behavior is a term where the leader gets engaged in sorting out responsibilities and duties of a group or an individual.
Relationship Behavior is a term where the leader gets engaged in multi-way or two-way communication.

Further, Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard also introduced four levels of readiness in classification as from low to high that determine the effective leadership style. The following are the four main levels of readiness named as telling, selling, participating, and delegating.

Telling level is used in certain low readiness conditions when followers are not able and willing to obtain the responsibility for any particular task.
Selling is used in certain low to moderate readiness conditions where followers are not capable of a certain responsibility, but are confident and willing to get it.
Participating is used in certain moderate to high readiness conditions where followers are able for the opportunity but are unwilling to get it.
Delegating is used in certain high readiness conditions where followers are able, highly confident and willing to obtain the responsibility.

Hello everyone! This is Richard Daniels, a full-time passionate researcher & blogger. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics. He loves to write about economics, e-commerce, and business-related topics for students to assist them in their studies. That's the sole purpose of Business Study Notes.
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What is situational contingency theory?

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.

What does the situational leadership theory and the contingency theory focuses on?

More formally called Hersey and Blanchard's Situational Leadership Theory, this contingency model focuses on leadership style and the maturity of those being led. Situational leadership theory puts forth the idea that leadership styles hinge on four behaviors: telling, selling, participating and delegating.

Which of the following is the most recommended approach to leadership during a crisis?

One of the best leadership styles for managing an external crisis is transformational. Transformational leaders see the bigger picture to better understand the extent of the crisis before executing the response.

What is contingency leadership theory?

The contingency theory of leadership states that effective leadership is contingent upon the situation at hand. Essentially, it depends on whether an individual's leadership style befits the situation. According to this theory, someone can be an effective leader in one circumstance and an ineffective leader in another.