cy Leadership (Podsakoff and McKenzie, 1995). This particular theory is explicated in Fiedler's 1967 text, A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness. His model postulates that the performance of groups is dependent upon the interaction between leadership style and situational favorableness. Leadership is viewed as a relationship based on power and influence. The model considers two important questions:
1. To what degree does the situation provide the
leader with the power and influence needed to be
effective? Or, how favorable are the situational
2. To what extent can the leader predict the effects
of his or her style on the behavior and performance
After a very extensive series of studies covering some fifteen years of professional work, Fiedler determined that leadership style alone was not sufficient to explain the effectiveness of leaders. He posited the degree of certainty, predictability, and control possessed by the leader as the most important dimension of situation. To measure leadership orientation, he developed the Least-Preferred Co-Worker Scale (LPC) to measure two leadership styles:
1. Task or controlling, structuring leadership.
2. Relationship or passive considerate leadership.
Respondents to the complete LPC sum their ratings on 18 bi-polar scores to obtain a score between 18 and 144. Fiedler's research led him to conclude that someone with a score of 64 or higher is a high LPC person; such a leader can work with difficult people, is sensitive to other's needs and is classified as a relationship-motivated leader (Shields and Milks, 1994; McNally and Gerras, 1996).
Fiedler then proposed three situational factors that determine whether a high LPC or a low LPC leader is more likely to be effective. These factors are:
1. Leader-member relations, or the degree of trust
and support which followers give the leader;
2. Task structure, or the degree to which the goals
and ...