Contingency theory refers to any of a number of management theories. Several contingency approaches were developed concurrently in the late 1960s.

They suggested that previous theories such as Weber's bureaucracy and Taylor's scientific management had failed because they neglected that management style and organizational structure were influenced by various aspects of the environment: the contingency factors. There could not be "one best way" for leadership or organization.

Fred Fiedler's contingency model focused on individual leadership.

Other researchers including Paul Lawrence, Jay Lorsch, and James D. Thompson were more interested in the impact of contingency factors on organizational structure. Their structural contingency theory was the dominant paradigm of organizational structural theories for most of the 1970s.

Psychological theories | Organizational studies and human resource management

תאורית Contingency