Situational and Contingency Theories - Essay Example

SITUATIONAL AND CONTINGENCY THEORIES Leadership of multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary team of professionals under the aspects of Management principals can be defined as the art of creating industrial relations of any kind, between people engaged in the industry, such as relation between employers and employees, relation between individuals entering into commercial contracts, relation between investors and debtors etc, in order to maintain true cooperation of all concerned along with motivating the entire deal into a positive favor.

In the context of nursing both Situational and Contingency, theories are implemented. However, these can affect the future of nursing particularly in the context of emergency or disaster planning in a hospital. (Maier, 2001)Contingency theories can be enumerated, as a part of the fundamental behavioral theory with states that each situation demands a different form of leadership quality therefore there can be no fixed definition of leadership. This becomes evident during emergency or disaster planning in a hospital.

It can be observed that leaders, who are efficient otherwise, may falter in these situations. Nevertheless, situations like emergency or disaster planning in a hospital are vital issue and a question of life and death. Thus, it can well be stated that contingency leadership in the context nursing is not always beneficial and it can affect the establishment severely. (Tannenbaum, 1999)On the other hand, Situational Leadership depends on situational factors. These leaders are able to mold themselves in accordance to the demand of the situation.

Efficiency of such Leadership of multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary team of professionals lies in not only making the employees to work, but to make them work willingly, sincerely and consciously, by employing new knowledge, new methods, new designs, new machines and novel techniques of production and by allaying mistrust and antagonism. Situational Leadership purpose takes account of a several activities, and the most important among them is making a decision what staffing requirements one have and whether to use autonomous contractors or take into service employees to meet these needs, appointing and training the most excellent employees, making sure that they are better performers, handling performance related problems, and ensuring that the human resources and administrational practices do the accepted thing to various set of laws.

However, it should be noted that such leaders are very hard to find and it is not always that proper training would prepare a person into an effective situational leader. Furthermore, situational leaders are not always specialists of all situations. A leader may be expert in dealing with emergency or disaster planning in a hospital but same person may prove inefficient while carrying out the day-to-day operations. Thus, the entire situation may affect the fundamentals of the establishment as a whole.

(Yukl, 2000)The increasing significance of competitive advantage and of the growing presence of multinationals has resulted in noticeable changes in sector of Leadership professionals ideologies. Globalization has led employers to push for implementation of fewer directives of industrial relations, less standardization of the employment affiliations, and a greater focus on the workplace as the centre of gravity of Leadership. Under such conditions none of the models, prove to be full proofed and both can be ramifying for a hospital is a mixture of the two models is not instrumented.

As for now it can be stated that Leadership of multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary team of professionals can be developed instead of specific Situational and Contingency leadership. Reference:Maier, N.R.F. (2001). Problem-solving discussions and conferences: Leadership methods and skills. New York: McGraw-HillTannenbaum, A.S. and Schmitt, W.H. (1999) How to choose a leadership pattern. Harvard Business Review, 36, March-April, 95-101Yukl, G. A. (2000). Leadership in Organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.