Date of Award

2020

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The present study is an experimental test of Fiedler's (1967) Contingency Model of Leadership Effectiveness across genders, as Fiedler's Contingency Model has been tested largely with male participants. The model predicts group performance based on four key variables: leadership style, as indexed by the Least-Preferred Coworker (LPC) Scale, and three situational variables, leader-member relations, task structure, and position power. In situations characterized by high leader-member relations, and low position power, Fiedler predicts a negative correlation between the leader's LPC score and group performance when groups perform a structured task (Octant II), and a positive correlation when groups perform an unstructured task (Octant IV). The focus of the present paper is on the relationship between gender, leadership style, and group effectiveness across these two unique situations outlined by Fiedler (1967). Results were expected to show that the Contingency Model would accurately predict the negative correlation between LPC score and group performance in Octant II and the positive correlation in Octant IV for male-led groups. It was unknown whether the model would accurately predict these relationships for female-led groups based on previous literature. Results for both genders indicated that there was no statistically significant relationship between group performance and leader's LPC score. Overall, these findings suggest that the Contingency Model may not accurately predict the relationship between group performance and LPC score in two octants as laid out by Fiedler (1967) in modern leadership contexts.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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