vity when workers are aware that they are being observed and measured (Scanlan & Keys, 1983).
After the Second World War, a new perspective emerged. This approach acknowledge that organizational behavior cannot be explained by using the simplistic approaches of either the scientific or the human relations schools. The contingency approach did not abandon the search for principles which could be used to explain or predict behavior, but it sought to identify the conditions under which specific relationships are likely to exist. Contingency researchers recognize the interdependency of personal and situational factors in determining employee behavior (Youndt, et al, 1996).
The contingency approach did not seek to integrate the two approaches that preceded it, scientific management and human relations. Instead, it replaced them as providing a dominant perspective for the study of organizational behavior. Both scientific management and human relations continue to have their advocates, and outgrowths of these approaches to organizational behavior can be found in industry today.
The contingency approach does not seek a single best answer to a particu
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