The Fiedler Contingency Model was created in the mid-1960s by Fred Fiedler – a social scientist who studied the personality and characteristics of leaders. The model states that there is no one best style of leadership. Instead, a leader’s effectiveness is based on the situation. We all face unignorable moments in our lives; similarly organizations also face them. There are critical times in the life of every organization which faces challenges that cannot be sidestepped or ignored. Sometimes the crisis continues for months, or even years, it is at such times that leadership style matters. If the leadership is weak, the problems explode beyond imagination.
An unignorable moment signals that at some levels in organization a cultural or technical snag needs attention. The culture of an organization consists of people, their shared values and understanding whereas, the technical aspect refers to the way operations are carried out in an organization. Both cultural and technical aspects are supposed to be maturely handled; they are supposed to be saved from going topsy turvy against the volatility and constantly changing business realities. When culture is challenged in an organization, and people start questioning what their organization stands for, things can go either one of two ways: there can be organizational policy paralysis, or a release of incredible and productive energy, and which of the two happens depends mainly on style of leadership.
Contingency leadership refers to the styles of leadership in an organization – each leader handles situations as per demand of the situation. They need to show lot of flexibility while managing challenging and difficult situations. Leaders must command, demand, inspire, prompt, mentor, guide, coach, sell ideas, take part, act, build, and sometimes even reprimand. Often the leadership style may change as per need of the hour. Fred Fiedler’s Contingency Model of Leadership is famous for two types of leadership: Task-oriented leadership in which the leader deals with accomplishment and handling the unit by handing out tasks and the other is Relationship-oriented leadership which deals with the interpersonal skills and relationship of the leader with his subordinates.
James F. Parker, the Ex-Southwest Airlines CEO is an excellent example of task-oriented leadership. He has earned reputation for always putting the customer first, no matter what the situation. The September 11, 2001 tragedy led to an unmatched situation of forcing all airlines to shut down for days, which led to stranding passengers, pilots and flight attendants at airports across US. While other airlines sat and waited for situation to change, Southwest employees took the passengers for bowling or to the movies to pass the time. Immediately, Southwest earned customer loyalty owing to this quick thinking, resourcefulness, and flexibility. Southwest made the most out of this bad situation which helped its popularity soar leaps and bounds. Parker also announced Southwest would not only retain all their employees but also start a profit sharing payment to employees just three days after 9/11, when other airlines were contemplating a 20 percent cut in staffing. Southwest handled the crisis brilliantly than any other airline. This example goes out to show that authority the leader has over his subordinates and how much he can reward or punish his subordinates’ matters. Parker decided to retain all employees who worked in the crises of 9/11 tragedy and also declared profit sharing with them.
I wish to give a relationship-oriented leadership example here. On 26th November 2008 when Hotel Taj Mahal Palace – the iconic hotel in Mumbai was attacked by terrorist of Lashkar-e-Toiba in which material damage, killing of guests and employees occurred, the hotel was literally destructed in fire. Mr.Ratan Tata, the then Chairman of Tata Group of Companies, went all out to meet each and every employee of the hotel to help them recoup from the shock. All categories of employees including those who had completed even 1 day as casuals were treated on duty, for few days the hotel had to be shut down for redoing the damaged interior and exterior. During the shutdown, the salaries were sent by money order to the employees. A psychiatric cell was established in collaboration with Tata Institute of Social Sciences to support those who needed psychological help. The thoughts and anxieties in those employees’ mind were constantly tracked and helped painstakingly. Employee outreach centers were opened where all help, food, water, sanitation, first aid and counseling was provided. 1600 employees were covered by this facility. Mr. Ratan Tata personally visited the families of all those employees who were either injured or were killed. His caring and affection for his employees speaks a lot about the culture of Tata Group of Companies. Relationship shared by the boss with his employees matters.
Contingency theory holds that situational factors interact with leadership traits and behavior to influence leadership effectiveness. According to Fiedler, there is no ideal leadership behaviour. Both task-oriented and relationship-oriented leaders can be effective if their orientation (favorability) fits the situation.
Contingency theory was further developed and improved upon by many other scholars. The Path-Goal theory was introduced by Mark Evans and developed by Robert House. It proposed that a leader should help pave the way for his subordinates and clarify the ways to achieve success as group. The Normative Decision Model was developed by Victor Vroom and Philip Yetton which focuses on giving prescriptions to the leader so as to improve his leadership skills. The Situational Leadership theory developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard postulates that a leader’s skills and effectiveness depends on his ability to mould his behaviour according to what the situation demands.
