A CONSIDERATION OF TWO ASSUMPTIONS UNDERLYING FIEDLER'S CONTIGENCY MODEL FOR THE PREDICTION OF LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS

Abstract

An attempt was made to explore two of the basic assumptions underlying Fiedler's (1964, 1965) Contingency Model: (1) the assumption that different group-task situations 'require a different leader-group member interaction,' i.e., 'demand' different types of leadership behaviors; and (2) the assumption that these 'demands' will covary systematically with the three dimensions of the group-task situation specified by the Contingency Model. One hundred forty-one male undergraduates rated the way they believed the 'Most Effective Leader' (MEL) should perform in each of eight group-task situations on a Behavioral Description Questionnaire. The results indicated that although these ratings of the MEL's behavior did vary across the different group-task situations, the ratings were significantly influenced by only two of the three group-task dimensions isolated by Fiedler, namely, the leader-member relations and the position power dimensions. Additional hypotheses related to the Contingency Model were also investigated and discussed.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1967
Accession Number
AD0655102

Entities

People

  • Eva Landy
  • Grace Hatch
  • Martin Fishbein

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Ambiguity
  • Analysis Of Variance
  • Contracts
  • Directives
  • Efficiency
  • Group Dynamics
  • Hypotheses
  • Illinois
  • Interpersonal Relations
  • Leadership
  • Military Research
  • Orientation (Direction)
  • Psychological Phenomena And Processes
  • Psychology
  • Questionnaires
  • Social Psychology

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

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  • Military Leadership and Professional Education.
  • Organizational Psychology.
  • Theoretical Analysis.