LEADERSHIP STYLE IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES: A TEST OF FIEDLER'S CONTINGENCY MODEL OF LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS

The primary purpose of this study was to expand the knowledge and understanding of leadership. This was accomplished by testing the validity of Fiedler's Contingency Model of Leadership Effectiveness for predicting the effectiveness of academic library department heads.; Selected for study was a total of 278 department heads in the areas of acquisitions, catalog maintenance, cataloging, circulation, collection development, processing, and reference. Of those selected, 209 returned usable questionnaires for a total response rate of 75%. Fiedler's Least Preferred Co-Worker (LPC) Scale and his situational control scales were used to collect data on leader motivation, leader-member relations, task structure, and position power. Bare's Group Effectiveness Scale was used to determine the effectiveness of group performance as the dependent variable. In addition, Morse and Wagner's Managerial Performance Rating Scale was used to determine the effectiveness of leader performance in an attempt to measure a more appropriate surrogate for the dependent variable. Analysis of variance and stepwise multiple regression analysis were used to test the hypotheses in the study.; Analysis of the data yielded the following results: (1) Different types of situational control exist in academic library departments. (2) There is no relationship between leader motivation and leadership effectiveness under different conditions of situational control in academic library departments, that is, task-motivated leaders are no more or less effective than relationship-motivated leaders in highly favorable situations. (3) When managerial performance is considered as the dependent variable, situational demands vary with respect to the following dimensions of the Contingency Model: task structure, position power, and LPC, in that order. When group performance measures are used as the surrogate for effectiveness, situational demands vary with task structure and position power, in that order.; The conclusions drawn from the study were that: (1) The Contingency Model, as operationalized in this study, can not be extended to academic libraries. (2) Task structure and position power account for some variance in effectiveness. (3) A new or different model of leadership effectiveness might be designed based on the effect of task structure and other factors.