Contigency Approach to Leadership Essay

Fiedler’s research focused on self-reported interactions with their least preferred co-worker (LPC) and assigning a number value to their responses. Although he indicated over 800 work groups were involved, neither he nor others could develop a correlation between groups scoring high and related leader effectiveness (1967). Although no publication of hers (310) has been cited a tenth as often as Fiedler’s work, beginning in 1988 Dian Hosking has been independently and in collaboration with others a prolific scholarly writer and researcher on this topic. Her early work set forth to disprove Fiedler’s work. Hosking identified four key points of contention, all of which focus on Fiedler placing too much emphasis on one person, the leader, and not enough in the context or environment (Sage Chp 33). In the remainder of the chapter 33 (Sage), Hosking highlights her work and that of others that corroborates her work. Of particular interest is her work on the conversation and it components: the people, the domain (public or private), and the content (verbal and

The role of the follower and the quality of the relationship itself are informally negotiated between followers and their leaders over time (Gils, Quaquebeke, & Knippenberg, 2009). Based on the LMX theory, leaders build a special relationship with an inner circle, or “in-group”, of followers, who often get high levels of responsibility and access to resources. The in-group members work harder and are more committed to task objectives. They are also expected to be totally committed and loyal to their leader. Conversely, other followers fall in the “out-group" and are given low levels of choice or influence. Aggression, sarcasm and a self-centered view are qualities seen in the out-group. The quality of the LMX relationship varies and is better when the challenge of the job is extremely high or extremely low (Graen et al., 1982).

According to Business Dictionary.com, leadership is defined as the individuals who are the leaders in an organization, regarded collectively. It also can be define as the activity of leading a group of people or an organization or the ability to do this. Leadership involves the establishing of a clear vision, sharing the vision with other so that they will follow willingly, providing the needed information, knowledge, and methods to realize the vision and coordinating and balancing the conflicts interests of all members and stakeholders.

The Webster Dictionary defines leadership as an office or position, the capacity to lead, the act or an instance of leading (Merriam-Webster, 2011). Leader is defined as; a person who directs a military force or unit, a person who has commanding authority or influence (Merriam-Webster, 2011). The Army defines leadership as the process of influencing people by

Leadership can be defined in many different ways. Some people are saying that leadership is “the behavior of the individual…”(Hemphill & Coons, 1957, p. 7), some others may describe it as “the influential increment over and above mechanical compliance with the routine directives of the organization” (Katz & Kahn, 1978, p. 528). I have to admit that I completely agree that every one of them but I personally believe that that the leadership is “the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization...” (House et al., 1999, p. 184). As I mention in my first paper that good leaders care not only about their personal best, they always want to get the best out

In my opinion the term leadership is a very broad and various definitions are given by authors. One definition of leadership is that it is

Leaders have a “the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals” (Robbins & Judge, 2007, p. 402). In the past leaders have been described by certain traits or characteristics. These traits can help an organization identify potential candidates who may be strong leaders. Later behavior approaches of leaders were identified that could be taught. In short, leaders could be made. Situations have an impact on which leader behaviors will be most effect at any given time. Several contingency theories have been formulated over the years to identify how situations influence leadership behavior. Each style has strengths and

The definition of "leadership" as defined in Wikipedia means "the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others."

What is leadership? Leadership by definition is the ability of an individual or organization to guide other individuals, teams, or organizations. Without leadership many would just follow one another's actions like blind sheep. Many of the powerful shifts in American history were started by men and women who made the decision to guide and instruct one another rather than being a follower.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, leadership is the power or ability to lead other people, the act or instance of leading. I believe that Leadership is an art, the art to get others to follow and accomplish a common goal or task in a harmonic manner. A leader can be shown in all kinds of shapes and forms. To be a great leader many people believe it consists of modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart. Over the course of me learning how to become a better leader and being in leadership roles, I’ve learned that all these are very necessary to be a great leader.

The definition of leadership has not changed over the course of time. Through a compare and contrast method of analysis, one can glean the common traits of a leader from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Thomas More’s Utopia, and Queen Elizabeth’s speech to the Spanish Armada. Leadership can be defined as a person who is able to relate to their subjects, accept their responsibilities as a leader, and has a following of supportive people.

Leadership is defined in many different ways by many different academics and professionals. A few words that resonate with the meaning include management, control, guidance, headship, direction and governance. My basic definition for the word describes it as a technique used to manage and guide individuals or groups of individuals in a specific direction to achieve a common goal. However this is a bit too basic for my liking. While conducting the research for this manifesto I found two definitions that I thought were more interesting and quite charming. Tom Landry defines leadership as “getting someone to do what they don’t want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve” (Murphy, 2010). Alternatively Otto Scharmer stated, “at its core, leadership is about shaping and shifting how individuals and groups attend and subsequently respond to a situation” (Scharmer, 2007).

Leadership is a difficult word to define and according to the Miriam-Webster Dictionary leadership is the “office or position of a leader” (Miriam-Webster, 2010). This definition is definitely not one that I would ascribe to when discussing leadership. My definition of leadership is “the ability someone has to motivate and empower others to achieve a goal.” Some may add to this definition, others may discard it altogether and have a completely different definition. In the end, leadership takes on many different forms depending on who is doing the defining and we end up asking ourselves, what is leadership and why do we care?

Taking a deep further look at the definition, we can consider Leadership as ‘the process of influencing an organized group’, engaging them to maximize group effectiveness, ‘towards the accomplishment of a goal’. (Hughes, Ginnet & Curphy 2015, p. 5)

Leadership does not have one universally accepted definition; it is according me an ever-evolving concept. I firmly believe that even though individuals can be groomed and trained to be leaders, however some leaders could motivate and influence individuals around them more effectively/easily then others and direct an organization into a coherent and cohesive way in order to accomplish objectives and targets. This exact school of thought is actually a common thread or an existing element in various theories and