As we learned about two different theories of leadership in this week’s lesson, Fielder’s Contingency model and the Path-goal theory, I was very interested in the way that the contingency theory explains leadership. Fielder’s contingency theory focuses on how the leader’s style fits the situation and recognizes that leaders have certain tendencies that may be more effective in certain situations than others (Hamel, 2021). This model uses the least-preferred-coworker scale to categorize leaders as either low LPC, high LPC, or in the middle range of the LPC . Low LPC leaders have behavioral tendencies that are motivated by task accomplishment first and maintaining relationships second. High LPC leaders show opposite behavioral tendencies in which they are motivated by relationships first and task accomplishment second (Hamel, 2021). This model also takes into consideration the variable of situational favorability that includes the three elements of leader-member relations, task structure, and position power (Hamel, 2021). This model uses this scale and these variables to determine how effective leaders will be in a leadership situation. I will be using Fielder’s contingency model to analyze Donald Trump’s leadership style as the 45th President of the United States.
Throughout Donald Trump’s presidency his leadership style had been displayed in many different situations that I will be using to evaluate his leadership style based off the contingency model. Although I cannot use the scale to measure his LPC, based off his behaviors his leadership style aligns most with high-LPC leaders. Throughout his campaign for presidency, he made many claims to his supporters about what he was going to do when in office to which many he did not end up doing by the end of his presidency. Considering how passionate his supporters were and still are even after he was voted out of office, it begs the question how is this possible since he did not accomplish a lot of what he promised. This could be explained through the contingency theory as his leadership style was more motivated by maintaining relationships with his followers rather than task accomplishment (Hamel, 2021). He focused on making his followers feel like they could relate to them and constantly isolated his followers from out groups by describing them as threats. In an article titled “The Leadership Tactics of Donald Trump” by Ronald Riggio, he points out how Donald Trump uses the “we-they effect” to make his follower become more loyal and devoted as they relied on him to save them from the threats of out-groups (2016). Examples of this include how he vilified out groups such as Mexico, China, and Muslims which will ultimately leads to his followers holding prejudices against these groups in the present and future (Riggio, 2016). His success in holding together such a dedicated and enthusiastic following regardless of his failure to accomplish the tasks he promised lies in the way he concentrated primarily on his relationship with his followers.
Donald Trump’s situational favorability was moderately favorable based on the three elements. The first element, leader-member relations, is the most powerful for this variable and in Trump’s case he had extremely good leader-follower relations considering how devoted and cooperative his followers were towards him. The second element, task structure, is much lower as he struggled with descriptions of specific tasks and objectives he aimed to accomplish while in office. The last element of position power was extremely high as he held the highest position of authority in the United States as President. With all of these elements taken into consideration, Donald Trump’s situation would be moderately favorable since he lacked task structure. According to this model, high LPC leaders are most effective in moderately favorable situations, which is Donald Trump’s case (Hamel, 2021). While many citizens did not support Donald Trump throughout his presidency, his leadership style was effective for those that supported him and he succeeded in gaining a loyal following that defends and supports his actions no matter what, which seems to be what he aimed to accomplish throughout his presidency.
References:
Hamel, R. (n.d.). Lesson 6: Contingency and Path-Goal Theories, 2021
Riggio, Ronald E. “The Leadership Tactics of Donald Trump.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 13 Mar. 2016, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/201603/the-leadership-tactics-donald-trump.