Page 50 - DCOM102_DMGT101_PRINCIPLES_AND_PRACTICES_OF_MANAGEMENT

Principles and Practices of Management

Notes Moreover, this approach does not recognize differences in systems. It fails to specify the nature
of interactions and interdependencies between an organisation and its external environment.

Task Identify the non-economic rewards given to the employees at any one
company of your choice.

2.9 Contingency Approach

A review of the earlier schools of management helps us to place the current approach to
management in perspective. The performance results of the management process school’s
universalist assumptions were generally disappointing. The behavioural approach to
management was incomplete. Certain quantitative techniques worked in some situations and
not in others. The quantitative people could not solve behavioural problems and behavioural
people could not overcome operations problems adaptable to quantitative solutions. Many
authors believe that systems based theory could solve this dilemma. But this approach is also as
yet incomplete. The latest approach to management which integrates the various approaches to
management is known as ‘contingency’ or ‘situational’ approach.
The contingency approach is not new. Pigors and Myers propagated this approach in the area of
personnel management as early as in 1950. However, the work of Joan Woodward in the 1950s
marked the beginning of the contingency approach to organisation and management. Other
contributors include Tom Burns, G.W. Stalker, Paul Lawrence, Jay Lorsch, and James Thompson.
They analyzed the relationship between the structure of the organisation and the environment.
Thus, contingency approach incorporates external environment and attempts to bridge the
theory-practice gap. It does so in the systems framework. In other words, contingency approach
as regards organisation as an open and dynamic system which has continuous interaction with
environment.
The contingency theory stresses that there is no one best style of leadership which will suit
every situation. The effectiveness of a particular leadership style will vary from situation to
situation. For instance, participative leadership may be more effective in an organisation
employing professional personnel in a high technology operation in an atmosphere of non-
materialistic orientation and free expression. On the other hand, authoritarian leadership would
be more effective in an organisation which employs unskilled personnel on routine tasks in
social values oriented towards materialism and obedience to authority.

Figure 2.2: Conceptual Framework of Contingency Model

THEN (Management Variables)

IF (Environmental Variables)

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