Contingency vs. Situational

Contingency Model

Fiedler concentrated on traits and behaviors to figure out if someone was relationship oriented or task oriented. He uses a model of Least Preferred Coworker to describe what type of leadership motivates an individual. I like how Fiedler describes the fact that one must look at situations and determine the effectiveness. According to the article neither task or relationship orientation is preferred. Both have good uses but depending on the situation. Fiedler describes the fact that we are looking at the effectiveness of leadership in a situational manner.

Situational Model

Within the situational model we look at developing management styles. This article focuses on four types of leadership styles. They are high task- low relationship (telling), high task- high relationship (selling), low task-low relationship (delegating), and low task-high relationship (participating).  These different leadership styles depend on the readiness of a group and also the ability and willingness to accomplish a task. The leader must look at the task at hand and use the best leadership style to produce effectiveness.



Looking at Both Models
Both of these models demonstrate situational leadership. As we look at a situation we can then see if we are concerned with a task that needs to get done or the relationship between the workers, groups members, etc. Under the contingency model during a certain situation working with people one is able to identify their motivation and leadership ways. They may be annoyed by someone because they are not getting tasks done. Or it could be that the person does not have a good relationship with the rest of the team. In the situational model, this article focused on how to use your leadership skills in certain situations. Both models demonstrated the task orientation and relationship orientation but in different ways.

Me myself and Tasks!

After reading about both models I found that I am task oriented. When I thought about my least favorite person to work with I remember I did not really care to be their friend. It was a group project and I mostly cared about the person doing their work and completing the tasks. With this situation, even though I was not the leader, I was high task-low relationship.

Also, I am apart of a sorority and when I held the position of historian it was my duty to put on an event for alumni and family. The people that were helping me out I made sure they were getting their tasks done and not really worrying about our friendship. I really took it as this is business and personal will come later. In the end, the group was a bit annoyed with me because I did not see they were competent enough with tasks that I should have focused on our relationship. I should have worked in low task-high relationship and seen this more as a participating situation.

I definitely like these models because they are situational and one can learn from their mistakes and change their leadership style.