Fiedler’s Contingency Theory: Practical Application of the Least Preferred Coworker (LPC) Scale

-- Maria Rosa Pires da Cruz, António João Santos Nunes
and Paulo Gonçalves Pinheiro

The present study aims at some considerations about leadership from the contingency perspective, focuses on the theory of Fiedler, whose basic premise is that group performance is contingent depending on the interaction of leadership styles and situations favorable to the leader. Leadership is an issue that has aroused much interest among people and is probably one of mankind’s most ancient concerns. Fiedler uses the distinction between task-oriented leadership style and relationship-oriented leadership style, relating these leadership styles with different types of situation, in order to determine the contingencies that make either style effective. Based on Fiedler’s theory, a case study was applied in Cape Verde at the University of Beira Interior (CABOUBI) (association of African students from Cape Verde) to confirm the applicability of the measures advocated by the theory (least preferred coworker).

© 2011 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Determinants of Psychological Contract in IT/ITES Industry

-- M G Shahnawaz and Md. Hassan Jafri

The present study is designed to investigate the influence of organizational culture and Human Resource practices (HR practices) on the development of psychological contract as such and two dimensions of it, transactional and relational. Data were collected from 95 full-time working employees based on convenience and snowball sampling from Information Technology/Information Technology Enabled Services (IT/ITES) companies situated in two metros in India. The results indicate that only HR practices, taken collectively, influence the psychological contract of IT/ITES professionals. The results further indicate that only maintenance and retention dimension of HR practices impacts relational contract and no dimension of culture has any influence on it. However, three dimensions each of culture and HR practices influence transactional contract. This suggests that HR managers need to ensure that the HR policies and practices and culture are all well in place to reap the positive benefits of a balanced psychological contract.

© 2011 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

A Study of Multiple Intelligence Among Postgraduate Management Students

-- Anubha Singh, Mihir Dash and Vivek Anand

There has been an increasing trend among companies to hire business executives from a variety of streams, especially from the broad stream of humanities and social sciences, and not just the stream of management and business studies. This reflects the increasing awareness about the role of multiple perspectives on the functioning of businesses. In such a scenario, individuals should be assessed in terms of multiple intelligence characteristics, rather than measuring them unidimensionally in terms of Intelligence Quotient (IQ). This study focuses on understanding the demographic patterns of multiple intelligence characteristics amongst postgraduate management students. It also considers the factor structure of multiple intelligence characteristics to assess their interrelationships.

© 2011 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Voluntary Turnover in Knowledge-Intensive Organizations: A Conceptual Framework

-- P Premalatha

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors impacting voluntary turnover based on a review of the literature. Job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job involvement and individual’s performance are identified as independent variables; alternate employment opportunities as moderating variable; and behavioral intentions to quit as intermediate linkage in impacting voluntary turnover. The paper presents a conceptual framework of voluntary turnover by identifying and examining the relationship among the major determinants, moderating factor and intermediate linkage. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research and suggestions for managers and organizations to devise appropriate strategies to retain employees.

© 2011 IUP. All Rights Reserved.