Strengths of Contingency Approach
Northouse (2007, p.117) highlights the major strengths of the Contingency Approach:
- Contingency theory has survived over the decades as a a valid and reliable approach how to achieve effectiveleadership because it is grounded inempirical research. Researchers who have followed Fiedler have validated contingency theory with their own research.
- Contingency theory has broadened the scope of leadership understandingfrom a focus on a single, best type of leadership (e.g., traitapproach) to emphasizing the importance of a leader's style and thedemands of different situations.
- Contingency theory has also been proved to have 'predictive powers' indetermining the type of leadership that is most likely to be effectivein particular contexts.
- Contingency theory suggests not to expect leaders to be equallyeffective in all situations and therefore organizations should consider leaders in optimal situations accordingto their leadership style.
- Contingencytheory supplies data on leadership styles that could be useful to organizationsin developing leadership profiles for human resource planning.
Sirje Virkus, Tallinn University, 2009
