Fiedlers theory and Behavioral Theory of Leadership (Essay Sample)

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March 27, 2015
Leadership is a social process of influencing a group of people towards attainment of certain goals and objectives. A leader can emerge either by appointment or from within a group. Any organization or business enterprise requires strong and effective leadership for optimal performance. In our society, leaders play a crucial role of creating future visions and inspire people to work together towards achieving them. They question the status quo in society and initiate change that society desires to have .This research paper analyzes Fiedler's theory of leadership and evaluates its validity. It also makes a comparison between Fiedler's theory and Behavioral Theory of Leadership.
Following the results of the “Least Preferred Co-Worker” test; I can deduce the following leadership style about myself. I am a visionary leader who does not make effort toward analyzing tasks (Fiedler, 2015). I find it difficult to lead others, though; I have full capability of handling any external changes so as to attain the company’s goal. I lead people by motivating them to live by certain standards, despite not being able to manage them myself. I perceive other people as a threat. This explains why I find it difficult to lead them. I take calculated risks, hence feel responsible for people and tasks I do. My leadership to management ratio is 10:4. My least preferred co-worker score is eighty three. My leadership style is a relationship-oriented one. I view my least preferred co-worker with a lot of positivity. I strongly believe in building good relations with people.
The leadership style of person is fixed (Judge, 2015). It can either be relation-oriented or task oriented. This implies that, if a situation requires a relation-oriented leadership and the person in charge is task-oriented, then the person is either replaced or the situation modified to match with the person’s style of leadership. As mentioned before, my relationship style is relation-oriented. This is because I describe the person I can least work with using favorable terms, unlike the task-oriented leadership. There are three situational dimensions that give birth to three categorical situations that match effectively with my leadership style. The dimension includes; the leader-member relations, position power and task structure. In my leadership situations, the first two applies effectively. This is because; good leader-member relation yields a well structured job with a strong position of power. This implies that, as relation-oriented leader I will have more control of favorable situations like having a great deal of control of the payroll manager, whom the employees have full confidence in. The other favorable situations in relation to the strong position of power are having considerable freedom to punish or reward employees (Green, 2005).
These dimensions combine to give rise to three favorable situational categories that augur well with my leadership style. As a relation-oriented leader, I perform better in category four, five and six of the eight categories produced by the three dimensions. In a normal circumstance, I find Fiedler’s model very inaccurate. This is because; the results of my quiz says “I don’t analyze tasks” however I do analyze and sometimes over analyze, especially in group situations. For instance, when doing a team project at the University, I am the person that breaks the tasks down and asks for volunteers until students have to be assigned because time is running out. Not only that but I will actually do the entire project on my own so that in case a classmate does not do their part, we still have something to work with. The logic behind the least preferred co-worker questionnaires is quite ambiguous. The variables of contingency are considerably complicated (Sage Reference, 2005). This explains why most practitioners experience difficulties in accessing them. However, studies seeking to establish the overall validity and accuracy of this model demonstrate substantial evidence that supports the major part of it. Therefore, I can partially give the model a benefit of the doubt as I wait for more studies to unveil the logistics behind the above mentioned weaknesses, instabilities and complexities.
A critical analysis of the Fielder’s theory and behavioral theory shows that, there are significant similarities and differences between the two. Both theories firmly believe that, leadership effectiveness and, styles are governed by both external and internal factors of an organization. That is, the...