An empirical verification of Fiedler's leadership contingency model

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorBrowne, Thomas Josephen_US
dc.date.accessioned2024-08-13T00:06:24Z
dc.date.available2024-08-13T00:06:24Z
dc.date.copyright1974en_US
dc.date.issued1974
dc.degree.departmentFaculty of Education
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Curriculum and Instruction
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en
dc.description.abstractThis study, conducted in elementary schools on Vancouver Island, attempted to determine whether the Contingency Model of Leadership Effectiveness, proposed by Fiedler (1967a), would predict the effect of experience on the effectiveness of elementary school principals. Research has shown that performance is not always improved by experience. The performance of some leaders is improved, and that of others is impaired, by experience. The Contingency Model predicts that an interaction between the leader's leadership style and his years of experience can account for this phenomenon. More specifically, it predicts that among elementary school principals those with a "relationship-oriented" leadership style will lead more effective schools while they are relatively new to the job, and, that principals with a "task-oriented" style will lead more effective schools as they become more established in their positions (Fiedler, 1972b). This relationship between leadership style, exper­ience and effectiveness was found to exist in Alberta schools by McNamara (1968). The present study attempted to validate those findings and extend them to schools in British Columbia. If such a relationship could be confirmed it would have very important implications for the theory and practice of appointing and transferring school administrators. Leadership style was measured by the Least Preferred Coworker Questionnaire (Fiedler, 1967a). Effectiveness of schools, on broadly stated criteria, was determined by school district supervisory staff who volun­teered as raters. Data was collected in six Vancouver Island school districts in May and June, 1974. Hypotheses testing the predictions mentioned above were examined by analysis of variance. Findings failed to support the Contingency Model predictions, in fact, they tended to suggest that the opposite relationship might exist.
dc.format.extent85 pages
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1828/17106
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.titleAn empirical verification of Fiedler's leadership contingency modelen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
BROWNE_Thomas_Joseph_MA_1974_308191.pdf
Size:
20.09 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD)
 
University of Victoria Libraries

We acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.