A Contingency Model of Leadership Style
I turn now to a specific contingency model that I have been working on with colleagues for over a quarter of a century. This model deals not with all facets of leadership but rather with what has traditionally been termed leadership style. Historically, this term has been used to refer to the form and degree to which leaders involve their direct reports in decision making. Some refer to this dimension of leader behavior as empowerment. I prefer the term participation, which we define as the opportunity afforded direct reports to influence decisions.
The astute reader will note that I have shifted to the term “we” in describing the contingency model of leadership style. I use this term in two senses. First, ...
Get Organization 21C: Someday All Organizations Will Lead This Way now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
