Participative Leadership

Path-Goal Theory assumes that leaders are flexible and that they can change their style, as situations require. The theory proposes two contingency variables, such as environment and follower characteristics, that moderate the leader behavior-outcome relationship. The leader must consider follower’s valences, instrumentalities, expectancies, equity of rewards, and accuracy of role perceptions when assessing the requirements of his followers. Additionally, personal characteristics of subordinates determine how the environment and leader are interpreted. Effective leaders clarify the path to help their followers achieve organizational goals and facilitate the journey by reducing roadblocks and pitfalls. This approach assumes that there is one right way of achieving a goal and that the leader can see it while the followers can not. This casts the leader as the knowing person and the followers as dependent, thereby limiting the development of the follower. While the path-goal theory has some validity, Bass argues that better leaders integrate a task-oriented and relationship-oriented approach (Blake & Mouton, 1964) as well as demonstrate their ability to clarify the path to the goals (Bass, 1960, 1990). Furthermore, this transactional

According to dictionary.com leadership is defined as, the position or function of a leader, a person who guides or directs a group: Its synonyms include guidance, influence, control, direction and supervision. These are all qualifications that are needed to be an effective leader. All characteristics are not necessarily needed at the same time and do no need to be used for each subordinate. This paper will identify my personal leadership philosophy along with theories to support my leadership style.

Leaders motivate and communicate with employees, this involves daily personal contact with people to guide and inspire them toward

J., & Mitchell, T. R. (1974). Path– goal theory of leadership. Journal of Contemporary Business, 3, 81–97.

The essay classifies leadership into four key approaches: (1) trait approach, (2) behaviour approach, (3) the

The supportive leadership role involves showing concern for subordinates' well being and personal needs. This type of leadership behavior is

The theory I chose to analyze and discuss is Path Goal. The Path Goal theory generally is about how a leader motivates subordinates to accomplish designated goals.The main focus on the Path Goal theory is to define the goals, designate the path that you are going to take, remove and overcome any obstacles that may arise and finally provide support. The main components of Path Goal Theory consist of leader behaviors, subordinate characteristics and task characteristics. Leadership behaviors are comprised into four components: directive, supportive, participative and Achievement oriented. Directive leadership is when a leader sets clear standards of performance and makes the rules and regulations clear to subordinates. Supportive leadership consists of being a friendly and approachable leader. In case a staff member needs your assistance they can come to you with no hesitation. Participative leadership is when the leader allows for input from subordinates and is not focused solely on their ideas. Last, achievement orientated is when a

According to How to Find Out Your Style of Leadership (n.d.), participative leadership is also called democratic or consulting leadership, the example which How to Find Out Your Style of Leadership (n.d.), used is Nelson Mandela. This kind of leadership includes building consensus through participation, but the leader makes the final decision after the team has given ideas through the decision-making process. Also, according to How to Find Out Your Style of Leadership (n.d.), a participative leader asks opinions from their teams and uses those opinions to make decisions in the future. Also through this process, the team is kept informed and encouraged to come to the leader and discuss or propose changes they think should be made to the policy. This kind of leadership isn’t a sign of weakness; it is a sign

The key strengths of participative leadership style are increased productivity and job satisfaction. When employees are afforded an opportunity to be involved in the organization’s decision making process, they are likely to develop a strong sense of commitment to the organization as well as increase their performance. Job satisfaction is another key strength of this leadership style. Most employees display high levels of job satisfaction when they notice their suggestions and/or recommendations are taken seriously and in some instances implemented within the organization. Additionally, this

The cornerstone of the participative leadership theory is the “shared influence and joint decision making between a leader and their followers” (Lam, Huang, Chan, 2015). Consequently, employees have access to privileged information and can exercise a certain amount of control over the decision-making and problem solving process of an organization. At its pure form the participative leadership theory “requires that leaders share or give up a certain amount of control over decision making” (p. 836) in return for potentially higher employee performance and commitment to the organization.

In providing leadership guidance to employees with the purpose to motive and influence employees, I would use the Participative Leadership Style. The Participative Leadership style addresses the improvements for increasing the productivity of employees as well as providing satisfactory to the employees. A leader can certainly appreciate the Participative Leadership Style because it is orientated to empower the employees by encouraging participation in the decisions process that directly affects the employees. As a manger if I utilize this style I will have the benefits of building trust with the employees, being able to have open communication with the employees and promoting job

Leadership has been studied from a wide range of perspectives and thus it means different things to different people. Some people view leadership as the focus of group processes, some others view it from a personality or skills perspective, to some others leadership is an act or behavior, some school of thought describe leadership in terms of power relationship while some view leadership as a transformational process (Northouse, 2012). Looking at the various definitions of leadership, there are various terms that are important; including the fact that leadership is a process that involves influence and the attainment of a common goal, and usually occurs in the context of a group (Northouse, 2012). The path-goal theory is one of the

3. Participative Leadership: This style of Leadership behavior gives a better outcome when the subordinates believe that they control their own destiny i.e. internal locus of control.

Overall, the path-goal theory, path-goal theory of leader effectiveness, or path-goal model can be considered as a variant on Transactional Leadership Theory, where the leader clearly is directing activity and the only factor that varies is the manner in which this is done. There are some aspects of Contingency Theory, as well, where various means of application vary with the situation. The leader sees a path that needs to be tread, one leading to the accomplishment of a goal and she or he attempts to clear it and get the group members to tread on it. The leader may cajole command, reward or punish, get suggestions from the group, or sugar coat the tasks, if necessary, but it is clear that democracy is not the hallmark of this method. The Path-goal of Leadership Effectiveness was created to rectify prior research and anomalies resulting from empirical investigations of the effects of leader/task orientation and leader/person orientation/relationship on worker satisfaction and performance (House 1971).

David’s study portrays that leadership theory has been considered as the field of macro-oriented perspective and organizational behavior. It uses path-goal theory and leadership theory, which focuses on the leadership actions that should be used to improve subordinates' motivation to attain personal and origination goals. The theory is applied to supervisory-level leadership behavior and subordinate performance, rather than the promotion of such higher-level organizational phenomena as CSR.