Similarities and Differences between Situational Theory and Contingency Theory

下面为大家整理一篇优秀的essay代写范文- Similarities and Differences between Situational Theory and Contingency Theory，供大家参考学习，这篇论文讨论了情景理论与权变理论。权变理论和情境理论有一定的相似性，这两种理论都是领导模型行为群体的延伸，从情境效应的角度来寻找更有效的领导。这两种理论都认为，没有一个最好或正确的方式来领导一个组织或团队成功。另外，领导力的有效性可以受到组织外部环境和内部因素的影响。相对于权变理论，情景理论更关注的是当追随者的行为被给出时，领导者应该采取的行为，而权变理论的视野更开阔，考虑了领导者的能力、技能等因素。

The study of theories of leadership in western societies has gone through three major stage. In the first stage, scholars tend to understand leader and leadership from the traits of leaders, and they tried to summarize the general traits of successful leaders. In the second stage, scholars mainly research what behaviors are helpful for leaders to lead others effectively. In this stage, researchers believe that only the leaders who behave that they not only care about the job but also the employees can lead others in a most effectively way. In the third stage, scholars find that, both trait theory and behavior theory seek the best traits and behavior patterns of leaders, but ignore the influence of specific situation on the leadership. In this way, contingency theory and situational theory appear on the scene. In general, both contingency theory and situational theory attach importance to the effect of situations, they hold different opinions on leaders.

For one thing, contingency theory and situational theory share certain similarities. In the first place, both of the two theories are extension of behavioral group of leadership models. Behavior theory mainly research the influence of leaders’ work style and behaviors on the effectiveness of leadership. It seeks to find a best behavior for more effective leadership, but it does not consider how contingency factors affect success and failure. The contingency theory and situational theory fill in the gap and believe that effective leadership depend on contingency variables. Both of the two theories try to find out more effective leadership in the view of effects of situations. Secondly, both of the two theories believe that, there is no one best or right way of leading an organization or a group successfully. These two theories pay attention to the effects of situations; therefore, a leadership style can be effective in one situation but ineffective in another one. Thirdly, both of the theories content that, the effectiveness of leadership can be influenced by external environment and internal factors of the organization. For instance, the two theories hold that, the maturity levels of the employees or followers as well as the leader skill play important roles in leadership.

For another thing, contingency theory is different from situational theory in certain aspects. Firstly, compared to contingency theory, situational theory pays more attention to the behaviors that the leader should adopt when the followers’ behavior is given, while contingency theory takes a broader view which considers the capability, skills and other factors of leaders (Peretomode, 2012). In the second place, situational theory is much more flexible than contingency theory. According to contingency theory, it is possible for a person to change the situation rather than the leader himself or herself. For example, Field argued that, leaders tend to be naturally fixed in how they handle situation (Northouse, 2013). Moreover, it can be difficult to judge the style of leaders if they are fall in the middle of the LPC scale (Peretomode, 2012). At the same time, based on situational theory, the style of leadership can be changed when the leaders use different skills to attend or resolve a situation. For instance, a task oriented leader can positively change his or her style of leadership and become an employee oriented leader. It is also possible for a democratic leader becomes a dictator leader. However, the situational theory also has its limitation. As the style of leadership tends to be flexible, it is difficult for people to judge the average duration for the change of leadership.

In conclusion, contingency theory and situational theory share some similarities and reserve certain differences in the meantime. Both of the two theories concern situations, they hold different opinions on the leaders.

References:

Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: theory and practice (Sixth Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Peretomode, O. (2012). Situational and contingency theories of leadership: are they the same? Journal of Business and Management, 4(3), 13-17.

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