The Impact of Path-Goal Leadership Styles on Work Group

Diversity is a wonderful asset to an organization and brings with it many benefits. Employees bring in their own personal experiences and knowledge to the team (Burns & Kerby, 2012). Having diverse teams allows for the possibility to fix a problem or perfect a process by using different employee’s experiences and past knowledge to find solutions. A diverse workforce can drive economic growth and capture a greater share of the consumer market (Burns & Kerby, 2012). With diversity as a core value, the recruitment pool is widened to find the most qualified candidate and reduces employee turnover as a result. An organization can be highly competitive with a diversity initiative by adapting to a changing environment (Burns & Kerby, 2012).

These characteristics may serve as the basis of stereotypes that obscure individual differences; prevent people from getting to know others as individuals; and acutely assessing their performance potential (Hunt, J., Osborn, R., Schermerhorn, J., 2005). On the other hand, the impact of demographic characteristics can promote team members to interact, which can contribute to high performance. Some teams who are subjected to demographic characteristics can learn to respect each member 's perspectives, and share the common organizational task.

The purpose of this paper is designed to introduce, educate, and promote diversity within your company. Your company will be shown the merits of diversity and how diversity within your organization can be a benefit. This paper will be broken down into three main areas: Benefits of Diversity, Challenges of Diversity, and Recommendations for an effective diversity within your organization..

With the data from the Leading With Intent survey it is difficult to refute the diversity gap, but why does it matter? There is a positive correlation between diverse workplaces and employee engagement; increased productivity, company morale, and higher retention rates. When employees are engaged they are more likely to feel personally invested in the success of the organization. There is also evidence that diverse groups arrive at more creative solutions than

It is very important for leaders and managers to embrace a diverse workforce. Because diversity could possibly add influence to the market share, and could widen the talent in the recruitment process for the organization. In addition, the organizations could benefit from the various perspectives and experiences; for example, different races, gender, and age groups within the workforce. However, a diverse workforce might also be challenging; for instance, leaders and managers may spend too much time in promoting

Diversity is what makes people different, not just culturally but in human differences. Having a multitude of differences in the workforce gives an organization the ability to use many ideas to reach a common goal. A person could say that a diverse group of people together in one room can accomplish greater achievements than a room filled with the same types of individuals. Managers understand the concept of diversity, and how important diversity is to the success of a company’s ability to implement programs that continue to develop a harmonious and diverse workplace. The recognition that diversity is a reality in the workforce has generated an enormous amount of activity over the years among leaders in business, government, and civil

One of the main advantages to having a diverse workplace is the synergy that occurs between people from different backgrounds, cultures and work values. Employees feel good about diversity that occurs naturally, instead of forcing diversity into the workplace. When diversity is the primary concern, members of nonminority groups sometimes feel excluded, and that minority groups are receiving preferential treatment. The opposition to diversity management manifests itself in many ways. The most detrimental is an employee who is resentful concerning diversity (Pros & Cons of Diversity). Drawing attention to a “problem” only makes it

It is essential to employ a heterogeneity in the workplace because a diverse population comes from different backgrounds, experiences, knowledge and understanding that would improve better conflict resolution and implementation of new ideas. There is a growing amount of evidence in the literature that indicates that maintaining a diverse workforce can contribute to a less workforce turnaround and increase productivity. Moreover, an organization with a diverse workforce responds better to

One major problem in the organization is the issue of appreciating diversity within the workplace. Most employees and some management personnel see this as a threat and therefore there cannot be efficient teamwork cohesion in doing projects. This may be due to the fact that they have reinforcing homogeneity perspectives or color-blind perspectives (Prasad, 1997). Leaders should try to make changes to this major issue since it affects operations where diversity is required to achieve strategic goals. The organization should plan to change the mentality of those rejecting diversity, to embrace Fairness perspective, access perspective, integration and learning perspectives which will ensure a unison move to prosperity of the organization (Clements & Jones, 2008). The organization’s vision requires diversity in place since diversity offers:

Today's workplace is more diverse than it has ever been in history. While the workforce has made strides in the direction of equality, it is still far from attaining total equality in the workplace. A company must value diversity. The main objectives of valuing diversity include awareness, education, and positive recognition of the differences among people in the workforce. Organizations are increasingly emphasizing group work or teamwork as a source of competitive advantage in a diverse workforce. It has been suggested that such organizations must target their recruitment efforts at applicants who are both diverse and amenable to working in teams ( Rau, Hyland 2003).

From our research, we identified three different perspectives on workforce diversity that people embrace, each with different implications for a work group’s ability to realize the benefits of its cultural diversity. We use these observations here to examine critically some of the themes and basic assumptions of previous research and to propose new directions for both researchers and practitioners interested in diversity (Ely &Thomas, 2001). When organizations have a diverse economy, it makes the company strong. Once our nation has embrace the changes from the demographics that reap the economic benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce. Burns et al. (2012) stated in their investigation that:

An effective leader influences their employees in a desired manner to achieve goals and objectives. Different leadership styles can affect an organization’s effectiveness and performance. The objective of this paper is to analyze the review of literature on various leadership styles over the past years and how effective and ineffective different leadership styles are in the workplace.

Dixon and Hart (2010) conducted a study among full time white and blue collar workers in a multinational manufacturing located in a Unites States firm to assess the effect of path-goal theory on work group effectiveness, and to determine the relationship between the various types of path-goal leadership styles and turnover intention. Participants were drawn from various sections of the company including production/ manufacturing, distribution, logistics, technology, cleaning, painting and recycling in other to have a good representation of the employees. The study utilized the Perceived Leadership Behavior Scale, Perceived work group effectiveness scale and turn over intention scale to measure the variables. The results showed that there was a positive impact of path-goal leadership styles on work effectiveness. The types of leadership styles tested were instrumental, participative, and supportive with the instrumental having the highest correlation with work effectiveness; followed by participative and lastly supportive leadership. The study also revealed that a negative correlation existed between instrumental and participative leadership and turn over intention; while

Organizations have been becoming increasingly diverse in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality. This diversity brings substantial potential benefits such as better decision making, greater creativity and innovation, and more successful marketing to different types of customers. But, increasing cultural differences within a workforce also bring potential costs in higher turnovers, interpersonal conflicts, and communicational breakdowns. The utilities of diversity training and the essential managerial skills required for effectively managing diversity will also be discussed.

Path Goal Theory also known as the path–goal theory of leader effectiveness or the path–goal model is a theory proposed by Martin Evans and Robert House, which is then developed by Robert House who is an