Situational Contingency

Examples of Situational Contingency in the following topics:

• The Contingency Viewpoint

  • The contingency viewpoint of management proposes that there is no standard for management; instead, management depends on the situation.
  • Instead, the optimal course of action is contingent or dependent upon the specific internal and external situation management may find itself in.
  • Fred Fiedler takes this a step further to identify three leadership styles and empirical situation measurements to assess the degree of favorability a given contingency offers:
  • In other words, leadership needs to ensure that it is able to assess a situation, determine the task structure, and obtain a position of formal authority in order to be able to adequately manage a contingency situation.
  • An example of the contingency viewpoint in action is a manager facing a situation with an employee who regularly shows up late to work.

• Leadership and Situational Context: Fiedler

  • This situational contingency understanding of leaderships suggests, for instance, that a leader in a strict, task-oriented workplace would have different qualities than a leader in a more open, idea-driven workplace.
  • The Fiedler situational contingency model measures leadership traits with a test that provides a leadership score corresponding to the workplace where the leader would be most suited.
  • The situation analysis has three components:
  • Fiedler's contingency theory has drawn criticism because it implies that the only option for a mismatch of leader orientation and unfavorable situation is to change the leader.
  • Also, the contingency model does not take into account the percentage of situations that might be somewhat favorable, completely unfavorable, or even extremely favorable.

• Four Theories of Leadership

  • Theories of effective leadership include the trait, contingency, behavioral, and full-range theories.
  • These findings also show that individuals emerge as leaders across a variety of situations and tasks.
  • Stogdill and Mann found that while some traits were common across a number of studies, the overall evidence suggested that persons who are leaders in one situation may not necessarily be leaders in other situations.
  • In other words, contingency theory proposes that effective leadership is contingent on factors independent of an individual leader.
  • Fiedler's contingency model of leadership focuses on the interaction of leadership style and the situation (later called situational control).

• Forecasting

  • The practice helps businesses create plans for different situations, in addition to contingency plans for adapting if and when necessary.
  • As the management team implements the broader strategy, it must continuously monitor the current environment for deviations and use forecasting to adapt both the primary strategy and contingency plans for potential shifts.

• Overview of Strategic Planning Tools

  • By benchmarking this situation against reality, strategists can see in which situations value can be captured.
  • Contingency planning can be simply described as the back-up plan, while participatory planning is the primary plan.
  • An excellent tool for strategists pursuing a particularly risky venture is to develop the primary objectives and strategy while simultaneously constructing a contingency plan that will limit the negative effects of failure.

• Leadership and Decision Making: The Vroom-Yetton-Jago Model

  • The Vroom-Yetton-Jago model is a contingency approach to group decision making that is designed specifically to help leaders select the best approach to making decisions.
  • The model uses a decision-tree technique to diagnose aspects of the situation methodically.
  • By answering the questions honestly, the decision tree provides the leader with the preferred decision style for the given situation.
  • The Vroom-Yetton-Jago model utilizes decision trees to determine the best leadership style for a given situation.
  • Apply the Vroom-Jago decision-tree model to guide leaders in a decision-making situation

• Leadership and Task/Follower Characteristics: House

  • In 1971, Robert House introduced his version of a contingent theory of leadership known as the Path-Goal theory.
  • According to House's theory, leaders' behavior is contingent upon the satisfaction, motivation, and performance of their subordinates.
  • Because individual motivations and goals differ, leaders must modify their approach to fit the situation.
  • House defined four different leadership styles and noted that good leaders switch fluidly between them as the situation demands.
  • This behavior is especially needed in situations in which tasks or relationships are psychologically or physically distressing.

• Fulfilling the Leading Function

  • Debate is fairly common about whether the use of these terms should be restricted and generally reflects an awareness of the distinction made by Burns (1978) between "transactional" leadership (characterized by emphasis on procedures, contingent reward, management by exception) and "transformational" leadership (characterized by charisma, personal relationships, creativity).
  • In this situation, more than one person provides direction to the group as a whole.
  • In some situations, the team members best able to handle any given phase of the project become the temporary leaders.
  • Different situations call for different leadership styles.

• Internal and External

  • The control process can be hindered by internal and external constraints that require contingency thinking.

• Employee Compensation and Benefits

  • It is often contingent on performance or results achieved.
  • Variable pay is contingent on discretion, employee performance, or results achieved.