Contingency theory

Essay from the year 2005 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: A, University of Otago (Department of Management), course: Business Policy, language: English, abstract: This work answers the question What are the strengths and weaknesses of the systems approach as used by contingency writers in analysing organisations? To provide a sound insight into the strengths and weaknesses, the notion of contingency theory needs to be de-fined and its development understood. So, the first chapter displays the most significant ideas and characteristics of contingency theory and briefly follows the developmental steps of how contingency theory found its way into management on the basis of some of its most influential writings. The second and the third chapter take the contrary positions for strengths or for weaknesses of the contingency approach.

Nevertheless, this paper does not provide a complete or conclusive view of contingency theory, the selection of the writings and the deliberate focus on uncertainty and envi-ronment as contingency factors with just a short reference to other factors like strategy, tech-nology and size is intended. The interpretation of strengths and weaknesses can, if not derived from the literature, be considered as biased by my personal subjective view and is, therefore, a limitation of this work. The essay, finally, concludes with a brief appreciation and evaluation of contingency theory.