Leadership management

Nguyen Nhut Ho
MBAIU20005
Chapter 07 Contingency Theories and Adaptive Leadership

Contingency Theories and Adaptive Leadership

Chapter 7 mentions about contingency theories and some adaptive ways for leadership.
There are some sever contingency theories are, Path-goal theory, Situational leadership
theory, Leader Substitutes theory, Cognitive resources theory. In addition, there are also
some model to adapt these leadership types are, The LPC contingency model, The
Multiple-linkage model, The Normative decision model.
To understand the meaning of each theory, we can look at the definitions of theories
which are mentioned in the textbook. Path-goal theory is about task-oriented behavior and
relations-oriented behavior of a leader that influence subordinate satisfaction and
performance in different situations. Leadership Substitutes Theory is about the aspects of
the situation that make task-oriented behavior or relations-oriented behavior by the
designated leader redundant or ineffective. Situational Leadership Theory shows the
appropriate type of leadership behavior for subordinate in various situations. The
situational variable is also including the ability of a person and the confidence when they
do a task. However, there is another theory which called “Cognitive Resources Theory”, a
theory describes the conditions under which cognitive resources such as intelligence and
experience are related to group performance.
For models to adapt the theories, The LPC contingency model describes how the situation
moderates the effects on the performance of a group of a leader trait called the least
preferred coworker (LPC) score. Second model is Multiple-linkage Model, it talks about
managerial behavioral and situational variables jointly affect the performance of
individual subordinates and the work unit of leaders. There are four types of variable in
the model, managerial behaviors, mediating variables, criterion variables and the
situational variables. In addition, in mediating variables, there are six more determinants
of individual and group performance, they are task commitment, ability and role clarity
like what employees should do and their skills, organization of the work, cooperation and
mutual trust, resources and support such as tools, equipment and supplies, external
coordination such as suppliers and clients.
Situational variables can affect to the mediating variables to be less or more favorable.
However, there are some deficiencies of mediating variables, and leader must have some
actions to make the deficiencies correct. In a situation that subordinates are apathetic or
discouraged about the work, leader and give some example to make them clear about the
work, or we can provide recognition for employees and more ways to deal with these
deficiencies. In case of subordinates are confused about what to do or they don’t know
how to complete the task, we can make the assignments clear for them, set specific goals
and provide some feedbacks after their work.
Moreover, leaders can develop plans to accomplish objectives and identifying combine
with correcting coordination’s problems in case of the group is disorganized. When a
cooperation has less team working among members in firms, leaders can emphasize
common interests and encourage cooperation or increase group incentives and reduce
competition.
Every theory has their own weaknesses, so contingency theories also have some
weaknesses like over-emphasis on behavior meta-categories, these theories also
ambiguous description of relationships, lack of attention to behavior patterns and a lot of
other weaknesses. There are some guidelines for adaptive leadership, first is using more
planning for a long and complex task, consult more with people who have relevant
knowledge, monitor a critical task or unreliable person more closely or even to be more
supportive to someone with a highly stressful task.