The Situational Perspective

Another useful viewpoint for understanding behavior in organizations comes from the situational perspective. In the earlier days of management studies, managers searched for universal answers to organizational questions. They sought prescriptions, the "one best way" that could be used in any organization under any conditions, searching, for example, for forms of leadership behavior that would always lead employees to be more satisfied and to work harder. Eventually, however, researchers realized that the complexities of human behavior and organizational settings and outcomes are contingent; that is, the precise relationship between any two variables is likely to be situational-dependent on other variables.