Contingency Approaches to Leadership: A Review and Synthesis.

Definitions of leadership are presented to establish a common frame of reference for discussing the area of leadership. Three approaches to leadership are presented, followed by a discussion of leadership related literature, and eight contingency theories or models. The literature discussion and the contingency theories serves as a basis for the development of a new ninth model of leadership. The author concludes that leadership can be depicted as a decision-making process which involves the leader, the followers, the situation, and the criterion of effectiveness. Some of the key elements of the above components are the style of the leader, his expectations and those of his followers, the leaders position and power, and the situational environment in which the leader and followers operate. The decision-making leadership process is a dynamic one where the components are in interdependent, and their relationships are frequently changing.