Path Goal Theory

One form of a contingency approach to leadership is the Path Goal Theory, formed by Robert House. This theory states that it is the leader’s responsibility to define their organization’s goal, define the path to achieve that goal, and to remove obstacles which prevent the attainment of these goals, by increasing their subordinates’ motivation by clarifying the behaviors necessary for both personal and organizational goal attainment (Landrum & Daily, 2012).

Path Goal Theory is a contingency approach to leadership which under Mary Kay’s responsibility is to increase subordinates’ motivation by clarifying the behaviours necessary for task accomplishment and rewards. Under Path Goal Theory it must be formed by tangible award. Mary Kay increases her follower motivation by either (i) clarifying the follower’s path to the rewards that are available or (ii) increasing the rewards that the follower values and desires.

A1. Leadership Style Upon conducting research, it is clear that the definition of “leadership” is not agreed upon. It is fluid, based upon many perceptions, situations, and surroundings. According to Robinson (2010), adopting a specific style of leadership is rather futile as it is, “contingent on the personal traits of the leader, the people being led, and the nature of the activity.” Tools are available to help guide potential leaders in determining a preferred style of leadership. For example, utilizing the “Leadership Self-Assessment

Hello James, I enjoyed reading the concepts you wrote about and how you applied them to your life. Leadership is critical in an organization and the path-goal theory suggests a reasonable way to get things done. The second concept of power is important to use if you want to accomplish objectives.

2. Can you find examples of where House’s path-goal theory of leadership can be confirmed or disconfirmed in the Zappos setting? Explain your answer.

The contents and assignment in this course has helped me understand the various theories of leadership and how different leadership styles can have a negative or positive effect on followers and organizations. The leadership theories helped me understand the concept of leadership better because it educates me on the different leadership options that are available. Leadership and followership is not based on specific characteristics. Leaders must draw from things and approaches to find the right style. A follower’s attitude determines the way a leader leads. According to Johnson (2011) “Being a good follower means ensuring your boss is supported, but only if he is making optimum decisions”.

Path-goal theory deals with the leader's style to motivate followers, to accomplish set goals (Northouse, 2010). The path-goal theory is simply the implication that a leader works with an individual to establish a goal. The leader does this by individual motivation to achieve the proposed goal, while working through obstacles that may hinder achieving that goal (Whitener, 2007). The basic assumption of path-goal theory is that the following motivates subordinates: the capability to perform the work, their efforts will result in a certain outcome, and the payoff will be worthwhile (Whitener, 2007). The path-goal theory is a pragmatic approach that the leader uses to motivate the followers to achieve the set goals.

In "Ocean’s Eleven" Steven Soderbergh did a great job as a director in keeping the audience interested throughout the whole movie time. Path-goal theory of leader effectiveness can be easily applied to the movie. The path-goal theory by Robert House holds that the leader can affect group’s performance, satisfaction and motivation by offering rewards for achieving goals, clarifying paths towards these goals and removing obstacles to performance.

In the path-theory preferring to “Jeanne Lewis case”, she used several behavior techniques to influence her staff. The staff behavior to the techniques will be explained in relation to path-goal theory. The “Jeanne Lewis Case”, will explain the aspects or relationship of staff behavior to characteristics of the path-goal theory. These techniques removed obstacles that interfered with goals accomplishment, provides and support needed by employees, and ties meaningful rewards to goal accomplishment.

Each of these leadership styles has its own benefits (advantages) & disadvantages and they are as follows:

Effective leadership is a key enabler as it provides the vision and the rationale for change. Different styles of leadership have been identified, for example coercive, directive, consultative and collaborative. These different styles may each be appropriate depending on the type and scale of change being undertaken. For example, when there is a large-scale organisation-wide change a directive style has been identified as most effective.

Path-goal theory was developed by University of Toronto professor Martin Evans in the 1960s but the idea was later expanded by Robert House who was formerly at University of Toronto, but now he is at Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania (Langton, Robbins, & Judge, 272). Path-goal theory is a leadership theory that says it is the leader’s job to help followers in attaining their goals and to provide the necessary direction and/or support to make sure that each individual’s goals are consistent with the overall goals of the group or organization (Langton, Robbins, & Judge, 272). Basically the leader’s job is to provide followers with information, support, or other resources that are necessary to achieve their goals (Langton, Robbins, & Judge, 273). The path-goal theory contains some elements from the Ohio State leadership research about initiating structure and the consideration and the expectancy theory about motivation (Langton, Robbins, & Judge, 273). In the path-goal theory, a leader should follow important guidelines in order to be effective. The first guideline is to determine the outcomes that the subordinates want. This can include good pay, job security, interesting work, and the autonomy to do one’s job (Langton, Robbins, & Judge, 273). The second guideline is to reward individuals with their desired outcomes when they perform well (Dr. Zina’s Notes). The third guideline is to let the individuals know what they need to receive rewards, which

Path-goal theory, originally developed by Evans (1970) and later modified by House (1971), was designed to identify a leader’s most practiced style as a motivation to get subordinates to accomplish goals, as commented by Leana Polston-Murdoch (2013). The theory builds strongly on two theories of work motivation: goal setting and expectancy theory. Goal-setting theory suggests that an effective way to motivate people is to set of SMART goals and to offer rewards if goal accomplished. Expectancy theory explains why people work hard and motivated to attain work goals. People will engage in behaviors that lead to goal attainment if they believe that their goal attainment leads to something they value, for example: increments or

The case study incorporates the multiple perspectives, including the industry, organizational, and employee-based remodeling tools (Layman, 2011), which may help the management of HIS domain to properly set goals which are meaningful, considerate and are in alignment with the department’s strategic goals, objectives and mission. In addition the study also provides three levels of consideration while devising efficient and effective goals to optimize the performance, process and work dynamics of jobs and responsibilities. These include the hard side of organizational theory dynamics—including specialization, departmentalization, unity of command, and span of control, soft side of organizational behavior and employee motivation (Layman, 2011)—including nature and type of job tasks, jobs’ characteristics and demands, and their contextual factors (Layman, 2011) which help organizations to effectively align its strategic values with the job and work redesign models.

The Path-Goal Theory of Leadership identifies four types of leader behavior: (a) supportive (relations oriented), (b) directive (task oriented), (c) achievement oriented, and (d) participative leader behavior (Seyranian, 2012). In addition, the Path-Goal Theory also identifies follower characteristics and task characteristics. The Path-Goal Theory predicts supportive leadership behaviors may increase the followers’ interest in accomplishing the task and further encourage the followers’ expectations in meeting organizational goals (Seyranian, 2012). In situations of a vague or complicated task, directive leadership behaviors could increase a followers’ positive expectations in attaining the goal (Goswami, Li, Beehr, & Goffnett, 2014; Seyranian, 2012). According to Huhtala and Parzefall (2007), a supportive work environment, as demonstrated by the Path-Goal Theory of leadership, positively influences employee innovativeness. Garcia-Morales et al., (2012) affirmed that a collaborative, supportive, and participatory leadership style is more likely to encourage innovation within the organization.