Fiedler’s Contingency Model: what is it and what is it for?

We explain what this theory that evaluates the effectiveness of leadership in companies consists of.

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

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

Fiedler Contingency Model: what is it?

Fiedler's Contingency Model, also called leadership effectiveness theory, is a model that we find within the Fiedler Contingency Model.is a model found in 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 leader who is sure and confident that the task can be accomplished. It is based on three dimensions, which we will see below: the leader's reliable relationships with members, the task being structured, and the leader's supervision and ability to reinforce/punish (i.e., power).

Characteristics

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

Fiedler's Contingency Model sets out to describe how high group productivity (i.e., results) is obtained through leadership (the way in which the leader "leads"), the characteristics of the leader and the situation in question.

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

Objective

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

Fiedler was of the opinion that a person's leadership style was something quite fixed, difficult to modify, although not impossible. This thought led him to consider the aforementioned, and that perhaps it was a good idea to match the different leadership styles 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. Leadership style of the leader

The leadership style refers to the leader's way of achieving his purposes and the purposes of the group. It is related to how he treats his workers (or followers) and how he achieves (or not) what he sets out to achieve..

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

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

On the other hand, the socioemotional leader will focus on promoting satisfactory relationships among workers in order to increase group performance. We will see later what relationship the type of leader has with situational control (the second component of Fiedler's Contingency Model).

2. Situational control

As we have already mentioned, the second component of Fiedler's Contingency Model is situational control, which has to do with the degree of control over the situation. 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. In the middle of the continuum is the "moderate" label.

The greater the situational control, the more confident the leader is that the task in question will be performed correctly.

Situational control depends, in turn, on three other variables or dimensions (necessary for analyzing situational control):

2.1. Reliable relationships 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 relationships between the leader and his followers. If these relationships are good, this will have a positive impact on the leader's effectiveness and power.

2.2. Degree of task structuring

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

2.3. Supervision and reinforcement/punishment capacity

Finally, there must be supervision by the leader of the group members, and the leader must also have a good capacity to offer reinforcement (rewards) and punishment based on results (group productivity).

This third dimension also alludes to the power that the leader has in his position. This power is legitimate. In addition, the following relationship has been found: the power of high positions facilitates the leader's task of influence, but the power of low positions hinders it.

Relationship between the components

But, how does whether the leader is task or socioemotional, and whether situational control is low, moderate or high, influence the leader's effectiveness? Let us explain these interactions.

Fiedler's Contingency Model proposes a kind of graph, which explains the relationship possibilities between the two previous components. There are 6 possibilities, which arise from the two types of leadership.

1. Socioemotional leader

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

• That the situational control is low: then the effectiveness will be minimal.
• That the situational control is moderate: then the effectiveness will be maximum.
• Situational control is high: then effectiveness will be minimal.

2. Task leader

On the other hand, when the leader is a task leader (focused on production), three other situations can also occur:

• If the situational control is low: then the effectiveness will be maximum.
• If situational control is moderate: then effectiveness will be minimal.
• If the situational control is high: then the effectiveness will be maximum.

Final Reflection

Fiedler's Contingency Model does not really have sufficient empirical support to back it up 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. In addition, it incorporates elements of the environment (situation), and not only of the leader's characteristics (leadership style, personality...), to explain the leader's effectiveness and its impact on results.

Bibliographical references:

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

• Palaci, F. (2005). Psicología de la organización. Spain: Pearson educación. "They are more effective in moderately favorable situations (some are favorable and some are unfavorable)".

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