The 's Contingency Theory Of Leadership Effectiveness

Teams are an integral component of organizational success. They take on many forms and functions and can have various structures. Teams also conduct a wide variety of projects with goals of innovation or mitigation. An example, from my experience, of a project that required the execution from a team was the establishment of a finished goods inventory program within a paper manufacturing company. A project of this magnitude required that a diverse and multifaceted team be assembled.

Reid Hastie, in his book “Wiser,” discusses many of the common points of how groups succeed and fail mainly due to group think. Throughout his years of research, he found a number of attributes that effective teams have in common. From his book, we have extracted ten important lessons that we believe are the most important for teams to learn and implement to be high performing. These findings also relate to the “5 Dysfunctions of a Team” that are outlined by Patrick Lencioni. Teachings taken from “Wiser” are symptoms, or indicators, of dysfunctions within a team, and many of his solutions help teams to overcome certain dysfunctions.

In his book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, recognized analyst Patrick Lencioni (2002), employs the literary style of injecting tales to stretch out a down to earth message of the rights and wrongs of group leaders. Lencioni believes there are five dysfunctions at the focal point of why teams often fall short. Lencioni illustrates, through his fable, the common barriers presented, a dynamic model, and active steps that can be used to build an effective and powerful group.

When a team is developing, communication during all phases of the project is a key component, if team members treat their roles as independent ones, then communication suffers. If the team leader does not communicate with the team members the project flow suffers. Team meetings should be held to discuss the progress of the project and team members asked about their successes and their challenges to gauge the level of communication among the team members. Developing teams need leaders to offer a sense of purpose of direction. Lack of effective leadership challenges effective team development. Without a strong leader to guide the team and hold members accountable, the team may lose morale and momentum. If unable to be present at team meetings, I appoint my deputy to lead to prevent competition for the role from other team members. When team members lack an understanding of their roles or choose not to follow through with their roles the team cannot develop as a cohesive and well-functioning unit. As a developing team, develop specific well defined roles for each team member. By explaining to each team member their roles in detail it will avoid confusion, and monitoring team members to ensure they adhere to their assigned roles. When developing a team, conflicts are inevitable and how team member’s deal with conflict is critical to team development. Invest time on training staff in conflict resolution skills. With the skills to effectively resolve

Outside of the study of leadership, the words “group” and “team” are often synonymous. When applying these words to the study of Full Range Leadership Development, these two words fall on opposite ends of the synergy spectrum. Sosik and Jung (2010) explain that in a group, individuals are focused in a self-centered manner; the completion of their work is focused heavily on the good of the individual and there is not much consideration for how their work impacts the overall performance of the group (p. 305).

The concept of teams has evolved rapidly in our society today. A team consists of a small number of individuals whom work towards one common goal.  According to Hansen (2015), “teams are used in business and education because they can undertake more ambitious projects and their members can provide a greater variety of skills” (p 37). Teams can be successful or unsuccessful because of the lack of communication. Sometimes “communication barriers may arise in nationally diverse teams that are rooted in different languages of team members” (Wicker, 2016, p 26). Possessing the ability to open up to an

People tend to use group and team as the same term; however, they are very distinctively different. It is imperative that a leader knows the difference between the two in order to appropriately manage a group or a team. There are benefits and disadvantages of having groups and teams such as groupthinking and teamthinking. The end game for mostly all great leaders is to evolve a group into a team to gain the benefits of teamwork and to be a considerate productive in an organizational culture. Bruce W. Tuckman created 5 steps to assist with developing a group into a team. When leading a group or a team, a leader must possess the skills to be both a team player and a team leader. The proper choice of leadership styles is a dire need to the

It is Richard Hackman’s notion that using a team to complete a complex project may not be the best approach for an Organization. The purpose of this report is to provide my boss a well-researched report on Hackman’s comment. This report outlines the cons of why working together hinders the group. Due to the situation of working in teams, team members can sometimes find that they are not working effectively, which negatively affects their progress, and their ability to be successful. Some common problems identified by individuals working in teams are, getting started, ineffective communication and Unproductive behavior. Working together as a team doesn’t have to end in a catastrophe. To improve teamwork, I will disclose five recommendations; I will provide ways on how to better a team and methods on making the team effective.

Based on the contingency theory of leadership there are three strengths I am going to explore. Staying positive is the first. Since contingent management focuses on change and the idea of change, it is highly important to be a leader that withstand that change and show positivity. When faced with adversity being able to see the positive and portray that to a team is a sign of a good leader. In seeing the positive I can take what could be a tough situation and turn it into something good. I believe the glass is half full and that is how I choose to manage. There have been several studies published that state having a positive outlook does in fact increase your odds in almost every situation.

The profile demonstrates solid ethics and efficient communications traits that create a safe and trusting atmosphere. These aspects show commitment to justice, instilling confidence that makes followers honor the guidelines issued. Clear communication of the expectations prevents blindsiding other members and guarantees that all people are on a similar page. Provision of a safe environment ensures that the followers can relax, engage highly socially, and become innovative, creative and ambitious. Effective communication skills enhance real engagement with the daily operations. However, I have to perfect the communication relations with all people to ensure that each participant is well informed. Knowing the team and looking out for their wellness shows recognition of the significance of sincerity in caring for the workers.

I appreciate your brief summary of situational and contingency leadership comparisons but feel there additional similarities that can be pointed out. First, both theories are rather prescriptive in nature, meaning both have behaviors that can be categorized. In the case of the situational theory, it states that the leader adjusts their behavior based the directive need and supportive need of their subordinate, which relies on a four quadrant guide (Northouse, 2013, p. 101). Similar in the contingency theory, is the Lease Preferred Coworker (LPC) scale, where the leader’s task and relationship motivation are rated. Another similarity is that in both approaches the results of the “scale” drive a particular action.

The area of team leadership attracts a lot of attention in the modern world because of the need to assemble and deploy diverse teams for the completion of projects. The future of many corporations relies more and more on the kind of team leadership they have for their projects. This paper explores a number of facets that constitute effective team leadership.

Working in teams is considered to be a large part of the American culture. Marvin Weisbord, a well-regarded author and development expert said, “Teamwork is the quintessential contradiction of a society grounded in individual achievement” (1982). People are more successful when they collaborate and work together, which produces a strong team working together towards a common goal. A great part to having a strong leadership competency is to build and lead an organizational culture with a strong team. For teams to be effective, they must successfully perform both task work and teamwork which is done by capitalizing on the plethora of talents, skills, knowledge, and personalities that you find across the various members of your

In management a big part of success is having team work which includes both leaders and followers. A group with all leaders will be very unsuccessful. A group with all followers will also be very unsuccessful. Every successful group has to have a mixture of leaders and followers. In our book, work teams are defined as a small number of people with complementary skills who hold themselves mutually accountable for pursuing a common purpose, achieving performance goals, and improving interdependent work processes. A part of a work team is the leadership position which is defined as the process of influencing others to achieve group or organizational goals (Williams, 290). When looking at a work team there has to be a leader, and followers because it makes the team stronger. Businesses want to be strong and successful which can be accomplished through teamwork.

Project management in today’s challenging economy requires collaborative effort across an organization. Project managers are expected to make the most out of their team regardless of its composition. Therefore, unless the group operates as a high performance team, the project will not successfully balance the trade-off among cost, schedule, and quality. Relying strictly on the science of project management leads to an unspoken assumption that members on the project team would harmoniously work together to meet the project deliverables. We have seen time and time