Fred Fiedler developed the first comprehensive contingency model for leadership. The Fiedler contingency model proposes that group performance depends on the proper match between the leader’s style and the degree to which the situation gives the leader control. According to this model, the individual’s leadership style is assumed to be stable or permanent. The least preferred coworker (LPC) questionnaire identifies whether a person is task-oriented or relationship-oriented by asking respondents to think of all the coworkers they have ever had and describe the one they least enjoyed working with.

If you describe this person in favorable terms (a high LPC score), you are relationship-oriented. If you see your least-preferred coworker in unfavorable terms, you are primarily interested in productivity and are task-oriented. After finding a score, a fit must be found between the organizational situation and the leader’s style for there to be leadership effectiveness. We can assess the situation in terms of three contingency or situational dimensions:

Leader–member relations is the degree of confidence, trust, and respect that members have in their leader. Task structure is the degree to which the job assignments are regimented (that is, structured or unstructured). Position power is the degree of influence a leader has over power variables such as hiring, firing, discipline, promotions, and salary increases. According to the model, the higher the task structure, the more procedures are added, and the stronger the position power, the more control the leader has.