Management

Contingency Approach to Management

Contingency approach to management is a modern approach that has attempted to integrate findings of other perspectives . Contingency refers to the immediate (contingent or touching ) circumstances . This approach was developed during 1960s and 1970s and based on the idea that it is impossible to select one way of managing all situations , and for this reason managers have to identify the conditions of a task managerial job and persons as parts of a complete management situation and attempt to integrate them all into a solution which is most

appropriate for a specific circumstance . The main contributors are Fred Fiedler (1967 , Jay Lorsch , Paul Lawrence , Joan Woodward , etc (The Contingency Approach to Management , 2006 . According to contingency approach , the manager has to try systematically to identify which technique or approach will , in a particular circumstance or context best contribute to the attainment of the desired goals . The distinctive feature of this approach is that it seeks to apply to real life situations ideas taken from different schools of management thought . The problem is that there is no a universal approach to management , and for this reason different problems require different approaches . Also , the contingency approach stresses the need for managers to examine the relationship between the internal and external environment of an organization . Contingency analysis indicates , for example , that a set of complex tasks are necessary to bring about significant educational improvements , planners can sequence the tasks in ways that allow managers to focus on less complex problems before tackling more difficult ones (Amey , 1986 . Organizational requirements , culture and structure are constantly changing and needed continual efforts to maintain effective working relationships . The contingency approach examines each situation to find out its unique attributes before management makes a decision . This approach can be described as task-oriented , because decisions are made in each individual situation In spite of evident benefits and advantages , this approach is criticized because most of the decisions are intuitive and lack theoretical foundation (Amey , 1986

References

Amey , L .R (1986 . A Conceptual Approach to Management . Durham , NC Praeger Publishers

The Contingency Approach to Management (2006 ) Retrieved from http /www .referenceforbusiness .com /management /Comp-De /Contingency-Appro ach-to-Management .html

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Contingency Approach to Management...