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ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Qualities of leadership

Fiedler's contingency theory classes a leader by the least preferred co-worker (LPC) scale. A leader with a low LPC score is placed in a situation where leader-member relations are poor, the task is unstructured and position power is weak. What does the theory imply?

The task-oriented low LPC leader is likely to be most effective. Fiedler found task-oriented leaders do best in very favourable or very unfavourable situations, and this one has poor relations, an unstructured task and weak position power. He also treated leadership style as fixed rather than adaptable.

  1. AThe leader's task-oriented style is likely to be most effective in this very unfavourable situationCorrect
  2. BThe leader should adopt a relationship-oriented style by learning to be more participative
  3. CThe leader will be effective in any situation because style adapts naturally
  4. DThe situation is moderately favourable, so a relationship-oriented style is best

Explanation

Fiedler argued that task-oriented (low LPC) leaders perform best in very favourable and very unfavourable situations, while relationship-oriented leaders do best in moderately favourable ones. Poor relations, unstructured task and weak power make this very unfavourable. Fiedler also held that style is fixed, so the situation should be changed to fit the leader rather than the leader changing style.

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