The author believes that the behavior of the leader is determined by the qualities of the leader himself, and by the situation that he encounters. In other words, the extent to which the leader shares his decision making powers depends on the situation, as no type of leadership is ideal for all situations.
The author has developed a contingency model to deal with the situation variables. Some of the factors that will determine how decisions should, and should not, be made are whether the problem needs a quality input, whether there is sufficient information to make a decision, and whether the problem is structured.
Whether the decision that is arrived at is acceptable to the subordinates is equally important. The leader must determine whether the decision would be acceptable if he makes it himself, whether the subordinates share the organizational goals to be obtained, and if conflict among subordinates is likely as a result.
The author states we should be aware that the time required to make a decision generally increase with the level of participation. On the other hand, participation contributes to both individual and team development.
The leader should be autocratic or participative, as the situation demands. The author cautions that as organizations are open systems, with risk inherent in each decision, the decisions arrived at will not always be successful.
How is the contingency (unforeseen events) model to be used in the training of managers? The author would like the manager to discover his own management style, before applying this model to optimize decision quality and acceptance. The manager should know what methods he uses more frequently, and what methods less frequently. And to what extent the manager’s behavior agrees with the model. The author believes that managers can learn to be more effective managers if they can match their leadership style to the demands of the situation.
One conclusion that the author draws is that differences between managers are small in comparison to differences with individual managers. Another important finding was that decisions are likely to prove ineffective because subordinates do not accept them – and not because the decision is wrong. And, not surprisingly, managers are seen to be more autocratic by their subordinates than what their behavior suggests.
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