Paper Example on Fiedler's Contingency Theory: Analysing Employee Performance

Question 1

A Leadership style is defined to be the way different managers achieve their specific goals by having an influence on their employees. For this question, Fiedler's contingency theory will help in analyzing an employee's performance under different circumstances depending on the leadership style ( HYPERLINK "https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=Sigrit%20Altm%C3%A4e" \o "Sigrit Altmae" Altmae, Turk, and Toomet 2013).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

In the early 1950s, studies were done in Michigan university to analyze the various leadership styles ( HYPERLINK "https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=Sigrit%20Altm%C3%A4e" \o "Sigrit Altmae" Altmae, Turk, & Toomet 2013). The outcome of these studies was that leadership does not necessarily depend on the leader but on the leadership styles. The studies also proved that leaders could be divided into two categories: those who care about the task and production and those who are concerned about their relationship with the employees (Greenberg and Baron 2012).

Fiedler's contingency theory was inspired by the Michigan studies. The theory is to the effect that a leader's effectiveness relies on the situational contingency and that based on the organizational structure, a leader may choose to achieve a given task over the relations in the employees or prioritize the relationship with the employees than attaining the task ( HYPERLINK "https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=Sigrit%20Altm%C3%A4e" \o "Sigrit Altmae" Altmae, Turk and Toomet 2013). Fiedler would describe Li Chang's leadership style as a task-oriented leader because she focuses on effective control of organizational production through control of employees instead of focusing on effective participation with employees for mutual group effort ( HYPERLINK "https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=Sigrit%20Altm%C3%A4e" \o "Sigrit Altmae" Altmae, Turk & Toomet 2013). Li Chang closely supervised the employees to make sure they kept the production on schedule. She believed that if she did not watch the employees closely and keep them informed of their output, they would slack off and miss production goals.

Question 2

Tannenbaum and Schmidt Continuum leadership styles

Leadership requires many characteristics, which include communication skills, leadership skills, and personal traits. The desired leadership style is developed by a leader through experience and learning. Decision making in leadership is based on a continuum with each end represented by two sides, which have been described by Tannenbaum and Schmidt.

Tannenbaum and Schmidt believe that a leader's actions are related to the degree of authority used, and the amount of freedom accorded to the employees in arriving at a decision. Therefore, Tannenbaum and Schmidt would have recommended one of the personal behavior theories, which is a "boss-centered leader" style and "subordinate-centered" style (Stanford, Oates & Flores 2014). The boss-centered approach involves minimal interactions with employees on decision making, and focus is put on the needs and desires of the boss. Subordinate-centered approach, on the other, had represented an increased employee freedom and independence based on their needs and desires.

Tannenbaum and Schmidt have stated that for a leader to be successful, he must be flexible on his/her capacity to decide. They could have recommended a subordinate-centered approach because an effective leader should be able to study a situation and adapt his/her leadership style so as to fit a given situation. Chang should understand that people are different, and as such, the circumstances will be different if the skills, knowledge, and abilities of employees are different. Therefore, her leadership style should change to accommodate her employees. She should also be able to understand their needs and capabilities.

Question 3

House's Path leadership style

The path-goal theory of leadership is to the effect that leaders are effective depending on their employees' motivation, the capacity to deliver effectively and satisfactions (Stanford, Oates & Flores 2014). The major concern of this theory is how the leader influences the employees' perception of their work, personal goals and paths, their work goals and the paths to goal attainment (Stanford, Oates & Flores 2014). House's path-goal theory suggests that a leader is tasked with ensuring employees are motivated, satisfied, and improved performance.

The theory has four leadership styles, but House would recommend two major styles for Chang and other mangers; supportive: the leader is required to be friendly and relation-oriented to his employees; participative; the leader should invite and use suggestions from employees; (Stanford, Oates & Flores 2014).

The supportive leadership style is characterized by a friendly leader. The leader should be approachable by the employees, and he should show concern on their welfare. Such a leader treats the employees with equality and puts little effort into ensuring the work is pleasant. (Altmae, Turk & Toomet 2013). It should have been done because her employees generally found the job to be boring with low pay.

The participative leadership style is another possible recommendation by House. The style is characterized by a leader who is ready to listen to his employees and ensuring their opinion counts before making a decision (Altmae, Turk & Toomet 2013). Li Chang and other mangers in the design department should appreciate the fact that the engineers are doing their work differently and as such their difference should be appreciated and their opinions should be invited before a decision is arrived at.

Question 4

Chang's personality

The big five models of personality are a broad category of personal traits. These traits include openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, agreeableness, and Neuroticism. All these factors of personality are believed to include many correlated but different lower-level traits. The big five models give an explanation of the difference in leader effectiveness and indicating that the effectiveness can be predicted from personality traits (Annebel, 2005).

In answering this question, Conscientiousness will describe Chang's character. Such a trait involves responsibility, dutifulness, dependability, achievement orientation, and deliberation (Annebel, 2005). The trait can be said to be part of charismatic leadership because conscientious leaders can inspire people to perform better by setting challenging standards and acting themselves dutifully.

Conscientiousness can be identified as an asset to charismatic leadership by helping an individual to set challenging goals. However, it can also be a liability in the sense that leaders may conform to the agreed regulations for getting to grasp the opportunities available (Annebel, 2005). For instance, in a dynamic work environment, leaders who conform to the letter the preset exchange relationships with employees and stress maintaining the status quo even when the circumstances have changed may be perceived as rigid. Conscientiousness is positively related to stable working conditions and not dynamic ones.

It is noteworthy that this personality has influenced Chang's leadership style because even after changing the work environment, she still uses the same leadership style. She believes that if she does not watch the employees closely and keep them informed of their output, they would slack off and miss production goals.

Question 5

Normative leadership styles

The Normative leadership theories inform leaders how they should act. The normative leadership theory is quite practical (Altmae, Turk &Toomet, 2013). It enables a leader to choose any of the five leadership styles, which include; consult group, consult individually, decide, among others. A leader can make a decision and communicate it to the employees, a leader may collect information from the group, and outside the group without pointing out the problem, a leader may consult individually where the leader explains to the employee the problem and gathers information before making a decision, he may also choose to engage a group by having a group meeting and gather relevant information before making a decision, a leader may act as a facilitator by holding a group meeting to define the problem and the limits within which a decision will be made. Finally, a leader can delegate: this includes allowing the group to identify the problem and make a decision within the stated limits (Altmae, Turk & Toomet 2013). The duty of a leader in this instance is to answer questions, give encouragement and resources.

The best normative leadership style I would employ during the meeting will be individual consultation. Such a leadership style will be in a bid to understand the root of the problem and offer an amicable solution. Li Chang was doing well in her previous department, and therefore she is also expected to deliver in her new department. Individual consultation will be a good starting point before advancing to group consultation.

I will handle the meeting with empathy. I will seek to understand why her department is performing poorly rather than critiquing her poor performance. My focus will be to encourage her to think of changing her style of leadership so as to improve the department's performance.

References

Altmae, S., Turk, K., & Toomet, O. S. (2013). Conflict management modes and their relationship to Fiedler's Leadership Styles (basing on Estonian organizations). Baltic Journal of Management. Accessed from https://doi.org/10.1108/17465261311291650

Broyd, A. N. N. A. B. E. L. (2005). How Are individual differences in Schizotypy related to type 1 (Automatic/Heuristic) and Type 2 (Reflective/Effortful) Thinking Processes? Doctoral dissertation, University of East London. Accessed from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2011.10.004

Greenberg, J. and Baron, R.A. (2012), Behavior in Organizations, 6th ed., PrenticeHall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, pp. 3809, 43167 retrieved from https://ugeb.pw/behavior_in_organizations_understanding_and_managing_the_human.pdf

Stanford, J. H., Oates, B. R., & Flores, D. (2014). Women s leadership styles: a heuristic analysis. Women in Management Review. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1108/09649429510077421