Twelve Oclock High Case Study Fiedlers Contingency Theory Essays

Twelve Oclock High Case Study Fiedlers Contingency Theory Jonathon McNeil Organizational Psychology 4/27/2014 12 OCLOCK HIGH: A LEADERSHIP STUDY 1.By applying The Fiedlers Contingency Theory of Leadership, it appears Colonel Davenport showed high levels of LPC, while General Savage displayed low levels of LPC. According to the model strong leaders in wartime are ones that exhibit low levels of LPC. Colonel Davenport had weak skills as far as leading a military crew because of his relationships with his subordinates. He felt they were more than just numbers. His concern was more focused on the group than the task. General Savage changed the mission by restructuring the mission at hand. 2.At the beginning of the movie the mission was failing. The soldiers had weak morale and if something did change immediately the mission was destined to be a failure. Colonel Davenport was trying his best to direct the bomber crew but he was too concerned for his group emotionally that he lost sight of the task at hand. While there was structure it was unfocused and misguided by Davenport. Davenport displayed poor positional power and as a result he lost his rank. When General Savage was appointed he was not concerned with the emotions; he was more concerned with the task and task structure. He proved to take positional power and use it to guide the group. 3.Colonel Davenports ultimate failure was forgetting the serious task at hand. He was too busy worrying about the well-being of the group. There was a great need for task focus. Davenport failed his platoon because he was too relationship oriented. As morale was lacking and subordinates wanted to quit, he was willing to allow them to take leave. Because he had high level of LPC, he was not an effective leader. The best recommendation for Davenport would be to not focus on relationships and to pay special attention to the task at hand. He was well liked by his subordinates and had group unity, therefore; he needed to focus on getting the task completed. Because of his misguided focus he was unable to redirect his group to succeed in the mission due to lack of morale and too heavily focused on his relationship with his subordinates. 4.General Savage turned around the group. He completely restructured the way in which task needed to be performed. His stern leadership does not at first make him well liked. He did not want to hear excuses and refused to have his subordinates to transfer. He made the group do practice mission bombings to gain precision. He demoted people when he felt it was necessary. His tight formation improved group performance. Because of his low level of LPC, he turned out to be a more effective leader than Davenport in this situation.