Path_Goal_Theory

The Path-goal Theory William Washington MGT380: Leadership for Organizations Prof. Frank Bucaria July 7, 2013 The Path-goal Theory The Path-goal theory is helpful within an organization because leaders are supple and can modify their technique-when needed and helps leaders motivate followers to accomplish goals. The characteristics and traits contribute to effective leadership. According to our text, “An Introduction to Leadership”, the Path-goal theory focuses on the leader and the responsibility to motivate followers to reach personal and organizational objectives (Daft, 2011).The Path-goal theory is multifaceted, but practical. It supplies a set of assumptions about how leadership styles will work together with characteristics of followers and the responsibilities of influencing motivation. The theory provides away how leaders can help followers accomplish tasks. In order for leaders to be effective in their role of leadership- the ability to influence followers to achieve common goals through shared purposes (Rost, 1993; Rost & Barker, 2000), they must utilize four key elements; directive, supportive, participative, and achievement orientation. (Weiss, J. W., 2011). The directive-goal theory tells followers what is expected of them and how to plan, control, and monitor tasks, make schedules, and follow procedures (Weiss, J. W., 2011). The directive style is superlative for the responsibilities that are ambiguous, unclear organizational rules, dogmatic, and authoritarian. The supportive leader is cordial and helpful and shows concern for followers' socioemotional needs and well–being (Weiss, J. W., 2011). The supportive style is superlative for the responsibilities that are boring, not challenging, routine and mechanical, not satisfied, need relationship, and human touch. The participative leader consults with followers, solicits their input, asks for opinions and suggestions, meets with employees in their work spaces, and encourages dialogue and communication (Weiss, J. W., 2011). The participative style is superlative for the responsibilities that are vague, not clear, not structured, independent, need for power and clearness. The achievement–oriented leader sets clear and challenging goals for followers and expects high-quality performance (Weiss, J. W., 2011). The achievement–oriented style is superlative for the responsibilities that are vague, not easy, elevated expectations, and need to do extremely well. A leader who believes in the path-goal theory will give an explanation at the beginning of an assignment and at any given time when needed to keep followers on track of the specific goals. An example of this type of leader is one who provides a clear outline of what the organization needs to achieve and illustrates exactly to subordinates what they must do to help reach this objective. These targeted areas and the manner in which the employees work to secure them should be satisfying to each worker. Leaders tend to have much more of an advantage when it comes to power and influence of their followers within an organization. According to our text, “An Introduction to Leadership” power is the potential to influence others, directed towards reaching a desired set of outcomes, and influence is one who is able to affect or change the actions, behaviors, and opinions of the oppose in desired ways (Weiss, J. W., 2011). There are many problems when it comes to power and influence of an organization. The followers will only do enough work to satisfy the leader and does not focus on their full potential. The followers do not entirely partake in achieving the vision. The use of coercion is necessary to fulfill the organizations mission, vision, and goal. Followers will actively resist the attempt to influence. According to our text, “An Introduction to Leadership”, resistance is the least desired outcome, in which a request is not completed (Weiss, J. W., 2011). Followers will intentionally try to stay away from carrying out directives. Followers respond to soft, personal, and referent power- a form of power based on personality and personal characteristics (Weiss, J. W., 2011). Followers become partners or advocates, rather than refusing to give into the leader’s power of authority. We can consider this a commitment-A follower capacity that is part of Hersey and Blanchard's situational approach, indicating how willing followers are to take on various tasks. Also when a follower willingly embraces a directive and executes it, usually with a high degree of diligence and attention (Weiss, J. W., 2011). Organizational commitment and job satisfaction have received significant attention in studies of the work place. This is due to the general recognition that these variables can be the major determinants of organizational performance and effectiveness (Lok, P., & Crawford, J., 2004). Commitment is important when the leader is for change. Change can be a risk taking- behaviors that view gain through taking actions outside the norm or expected rules; can be harmful or dangerous, yet at the same time holds the potential for positive outcomes (Weiss, J. W., 2011). Having followers to commit helps to overcome trails and tribulations associated with change efforts. Follower commitment helps to overcome fear and resistance associated with change efforts. Successful leaders exercise both personal and position power to influence others.  I believe rewards and coercive power are the most influential attributes to leadership within the organization. With that being said, the followers will do a better job when they know they are getting something back in return for their hard work. When it comes to coercive power, the followers of the organization are sometimes open to the power and influence of the leaders because every leader needs to show some type of authority once in a while; if not, their followers will not take them seriously. Successful leaders exercise both personal and position power to influence others. When a leader of an organization use firm position power, we can consider this response compliance- when orders are followed just because they were given by a person with power (Weiss, J. W., 2011). They will comply with orders even though they may not want too. According to our text, “An Introduction to Leadership”, transactional leaders perform more routine but essential leadership and managerial tasks such as planning, scheduling, controlling, and working with followers detailed tasks (Burns, 1978). Transformational leaders influence, inspire, move, and literally transform followers to achieve organizational goals beyond their self-interests through introducing new business models, products, and services because of their ability to create new organizational visions, strategies, cultures, and structures through committed followers (Tucker & Russell, 2004). Transformational leaders are trusted, admired, and respected because of idealized influence (Bass, Avolio, Jung, & Berson, 2003). A transformational leader sometimes uses idealized influence, or charisma, which is based on the leader's personality, character, and behaviors, which followers wish to emulate. When it comes to the transformational leader, it can be characterized by the skill to make change in an organization as well as the follower. The leaders have the capability to guide change in the organizations vision, strategy, and culture as well as encourage modernization in goods and technology. The transactional leader identifies the follower’s wants and concerns and then explains how those needs and desires will be fulfilled in exchange for meeting detailed goals or performing assured task. In doing so, the followers can receive rewards and the leaders will profit from the achievement of the task. Transactional leader’s hub on the current attributions of the organization and do extremely well at keeping the organization running smoothly and efficiently. They are good at conventional management role such as planning, controlling and focusing on the impersonal appearance of job performance. They can be quite effective because they preserve strength within the organization. One way to continue the efforts of the followers is utilizing contract reward (or contingent reward) which is used to motivate followers to perform by promising rewards for good performance (Bryant, 2003);rewards of this type include exchange of rewards for effort contracted, rewards for achieving goals promised, and recognition for accomplishments (Weiss, J. W., 2011). Leaders are flexible in which they can change their approach when unforeseen circumstances occur within the environment and the followers characteristics that arbitrate the leader behavior-outcome relationship. External surroundings are outside the control of the follower-task structure, authority system, and work group. The factor of the environment determines the type of leadership behavior required if the follower’s outcomes are to be increased. The characteristic of the followers are locus of control, experience, and perceived ability. According to our text, “An Introduction to Leadership”, locus of control is an individual’s beliefs that his or her ability to achieve goals is determined by external forces or internal responsibility (Weiss, J. W., 2011). Personal characteristics of followers determine how the external forces and leaders are interpreted. Leaders clarify the path to help their followers achieve their goals and objectives, and make the journey easier by removing roadblocks and pitfalls that are getting in the way. Path–goal theory describes a task environment as a task structure, formal authority, and the follower's main work group. According to our text, “An Introduction to Leadership”, task structure refers to the characteristics of a task(s). Tasks may be complex and ambiguous with unclear rules, repetitive and unchallenging, or a mix of these two descriptions (Weiss, J. W., 2011). Formal authority refers to the leader: The team leader may be too authoritarian or too lax and vague in giving instructions (Weiss, J. W., 2011). A work group is self–explanatory; it encompasses those who work with a follower. Work–group members may be insensitive to an individual's motivational needs, or they may be caring and responsive (Weiss, J. W., 2011). According to “Personality traits play role in effective leadership”, leaders have to be careful with openness; being too innovative can frustrate followers who are looking for clarity and consistency (Shanghai Daily). Communication and Interpersonal skills are other characteristic of an effective team leader. When it comes to interpersonal skills, the leader is comfortable relating to the followers because they easily create empathy and are least more talkative than they are shy. This will allow leaders to be approachable, likeable, and comfortable in their position and those qualities contribute to followers wanting to cooperate with the leader and motivate the followers to do a better job because if they need help or do not understand what is needed to be done, they can always refer back to the leader. Followers feel that if the leader can relate to them, the leader is more concerned about them, with their performance and output. Leaders have self-concept; a person overall understands about themselves which includes their attitude, feelings, self-esteem, and self-confidence and see themselves as capable and in control of themselves and their environment, and have confidence in their judgments, ideas, and skills (Barry & Friedman, 1998; Robbins & Judge, 2011). Leaders are also viewed as a socialized charismatic leader. A leader who is autonomous, responsible, and empowered. Such leaders develop goals to meet the needs of the organization and team members (Weiss, J. W., 2011). Charismatic leaders ensure followers are extremely committed and perform accordingly, instill in their followers the necessary values, beliefs, and behaviors to realize their vision, and devise and execute strategic initiatives to further that vision (Conger and Kanungo, 1998). Characteristics have a main force on the way a leader's behavior influences followers; which includes the plan of the subordinate task, Hierarchy of the organization, and the most important work group of the followers. The characteristics can give motivation for the followers. Leaders use the Path-goal theory because it brings motivating perspectives to leadership thinking, supply a useful speculative structure for understanding how a variety of leadership behaviors influence the liking of the followers and their routine, it attempts to put together the motivation values of the expectancy theory into a theory of leadership, It is the only theory that deals with motivation, it supplies a representation that in a certain way is very useful, and reminds leaders of their reason which is to lead and coach followers as they move along the path to accomplish a goal. Leaders conclude that the path-goal theory was one of the first to specify four abstractly distinct varieties of leadership-not only task-oriented and relationship oriented leadership. According to our text, “An Introduction to Leadership”, the vision describes the future goal, the mission defines the organization's purpose, and strategy is a comprehensive plan for how an organization will fulfill its purpose and realize its vision (Weiss, J. W., 2011). The leadership role as it relates to vision, mission, and strategy is to motivate and encourage others to see the big picture of what an organization wants to establish and/or accomplish. Leaders are necessary because they are the ones who can make sure that a clear understanding of the organization's vision, mission and strategic plan exists through implementation. The leadership supports the vision, mission, and strategy in the organization by implementing certain procedures that will allow the followers to achieve the necessary accomplishments within their ability. The mission and vision are the typical and significant part s of an organizations strategy. The leadership of the organization has to be able to understand the organizations visions, mission, and strategy and serve as a foundation guide in which the organization established. Once this is mastered, the leadership of the organization can find ways of developing a strategic and tactical plan for the objectives. An organizations mission is mainly its statement purpose; it serves as a guide for the entire decision making. Shareholders, leaders, and followers usually are the intention of the mission. This will allow leadership of the organization, to know what decisions and task will be best with the alignment of the mission of the organization. The vision- as it relates to organization leadership, is sometimes perplexed or has the same meaning with the mission statement. Leadership uses more of a direction and includes a perspective of corporate values. Leadership provides a direction for the organization for the next 15 to 20years, while noting a commitment to integrity, transparency, openness and other such values. When it comes to leadership strategy within the organization, the leader generates short and long-term objectives using the mission statement. Objectives include market-share goals, returns and profit goals, customer satisfaction results. The leader develops strategies to accomplish objectives by implementing better training and monitoring feedback scores and achieving better customer satisfaction. If I was the leader of the organization, I would not change anything because the organization effectively meets the goals that are defined by those that it serves. The organization implements the necessary requirement- when it comes to the mission, vision, and strategy of the organization. Utilizing commitment, innovation, strategy, performance, leadership, and communication makes up a successful organization. In conclusion, The Path-goal theory is helpful within an organization because leaders are supple and can modify their technique-when needed and helps leaders motivate followers to accomplish goals. The characteristics and traits contribute to effective leadership. The Path-goal theory focuses on the leader and the responsibility to motivate followers to reach personal and organizational objectives. In order for leaders to be effective in their role of leadership- the ability to influence followers to achieve common goals through shared purposes, they must utilize four key elements; directive, supportive, participative, and achievement orientation. References Barry, B., & Friedman, R. (1998). Bargainer characteristics in distributive and integrative negotiation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74 (2), 345–359. Bass, B., Avolio, B., Jung, D., & Berson, Y. (2003). Predicting unit performance by assessing transformational and transactional leadership. 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