Discussion Summary of the Vroom Model of Leadership

Christine Cambruzzi

MGT/230 Management Theory and Practice

April 6, 2015
Professor Quinton Murphy

Discussion Summary of the Vroom Model of Leadership

The Vroom Model of Leadership places various points of situational questions on a scale to be rated high or low. Then it places styles of leadership along a continuum of potential leadership behaviors and bases them on the degree of authority exercised by the manager and the degree of importance to employees in making decisions. The theory finds that successful leaders have a clear understanding of the organizational forces and have good personal awareness. The Fiedler Contingency Model was created in the mid-1960s by Fred Fiedler. He was a scientist who studied the personality and characteristics of leaders. His model states that there is not one best style of leadership. It states instead that a leader's effectiveness is based on the situation. This is the result of two things which are the leadership style and situational favorableness.

The Results With the Vroom method the researchers found there were three factors that influence the choice of a leadership style. They are the leaders own personality, beliefs, values, knowledge, experience and confidence in the employees. Next was the employees need for independence, ability and readiness to take feedback about the importance of the issue. Lastly was the organizations culture, pressures and effectiveness. In the Fiedler model identifying leadership style is the first step in using the model. Fiedler believed that leadership style is fixed, and it can be measured using a scale he developed called the Least-Preferred Co-Worker. The scale asks you to think about the person who you have least enjoyed working with. This can be a person who you have worked with in your job, or