Week 5- Theories in Action

I think that the leader of my organization, Aristides Nshange, displays many elements of contingency theory. He is a very relationship oriented leader, rather than task oriented. I think this comes at least in part from the culture here in Tanzania. “pole, pole,” which means “slowly, slowly” is the motto here. Everything is taken very slowly, and relationships are usually put ahead of getting tasks done. Everything happens at a slower pace, and people are blessed with an abundance of time to get things done. This blessing can also be a curse—when faced with stressful situations, being relationship oriented can be detrimental to production/efficiency of the organization. Aristides cares deeply about his relationships with the women and children in Pippi House, and you can tell by the way he interacts with everyone. He knows each woman’s story, her hopes, dreams, shortcomings, and successes. However, when there is a shortage of money and there are things that need to get done/paid for at Pippi House, he has trouble dealing with these situations. Contingency theory predicts that relationship-oriented leaders are the most effective in situations with moderate control and predictability. When Aristides is in a situation with little predictability and little control, he seems to be less effective. For example, last week one of the Pippi House girls named Eliza who was away at boarding school fainted and was sent to the hospital. Aristides texted me in a panic asking if I would escort him to the hospital and pay the hospital bill.  When I said I didn’t have the money for this, he did not know what to do and was frantically making calls all day. Pippi House has a medical fund that was donated a few months ago, so there was plenty of money in the account to foot the bill. He eventually got to the hospital and paid the bill, but I think his relationship-oriented leadership style made this situation more difficult than it would have been if he was more of a task-oriented leader. I have noticed a lot of the business in Tanzania is done based on relationships rather than tasks/efficiency. There are so many people trying to occupy the same market space selling fruits, veggies, souvenirs, and taxi rides that it is almost impossible to base a buying decision on who is the most effective/efficient. They all try to get you to buy theirthing (even though everyone else is selling the same things for the same prices) by appealing to your relationships. They will call you sister and friend, ask for your name, and try to establish a brief relationship with you so that you will buy their product. The contingency theory plays out in an interesting way here in Tanzania. Many situations are moderate, so the relationship-oriented leaders thrive, but when there are very high-stress or very low-stress situation there seems to be a loss for what to do.