The history of contingency theories of leadership goes back over more than 100 years, with foundational ideas rooted in the mechanical thought of Taylorism.
[1] With this profession a formal interest developed in labor relations, motivation of a work force, and efficiency in production.
Frederick Winslow Taylor developed the scientific theory of management which he published in the journal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1895.
His consideration of motivation was primarily limited to the scientific determination of fair financial incentives for worker performance.
[4] Edwin A. Fleishman published one of the first taxonomies of leadership behavior in 1953 with top level categories of consideration and initiating structure.
In 1957, Robert Tannenbaum [de] and Warren H. Schmidt [de] developed a leadership continuum with relationship orientation characterized by high employee freedom on one extreme and task oriented behavior characterized by high use of leader authority at the other extreme.
In 1969 Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard published Management of Organizational Behavior: Using human resources detailing their situational leadership theory.
Leadership theories, provides a guide on outlining their relevance to school leaders and business managers, highlighting their importance in understanding human behavior and organizational dynamics.
[10] After the development of situational leadership, a third taxonomic category was recognized independently by Goran Ekvall and Jouko Arvonen in 1991 and Gary Yukl in 1997.
Descriptively, these taxonomic categories align with historical terms as shown: Towards a more complete prescriptive theory, love leadership suggests that the degree of prophet, priest, and king behaviors be varied for a given situation.