1.What researchers are most associated with path-goal theory?
Evans, House, House & Dessler, and House & Mitchell
2.What are the assumptions of expectancy theory and how do they undergird path goal theory?
It begins with the leader’s style of leadership; directive leadership, supportive leadership, participate leadership or achievement-oriented leadership. Then the follower’s reactions to these styles and lastly the outcome which is whether or not their motivation increased or decreased based on the leader’s style.
3. Explain each of the four leader behaviors considered in path-goal theory.
Directive Leadership – The leader gives followers instructions about their task including what is to be expected of them, how it is to be done and a timeline for when the task should be completed.
Supportive Leadership – The leader is friendly and approachable and attends to the well-being and human needs of his/her followers. They treat their followers as equals and give them respect for their status.
Participate Leadership – The leader consults with his/her followers, obtains their ideas & opinions, and integrates their suggestions into the decisions about how the group or organization will proceed.
Achievement-Oriented – The leader establishes a high standard of excellence for his/her followers and seeks continuous improvement. They show a high level of confidence in their followers.
4. Identify the follower characteristics that influence how workers interpret a leader’s behavior.
Followers need affiliation, structure preferences, control and self-perceived level of task ability.
5. How does each follower characteristic affect that interpretation?
Followers who have a strong need for affiliation prefer supportive leadership because friendly and concerned leadership is their source of satisfaction.
Followers who are dogmatic and authoritarian need directive leadership because it provides phycological structure and task clarity and they feel more comfortable when their leader provides a great sense of certainty in the work setting.
Followers who desire control depends on whether they have an internal locus of control (they believe they are in charge of events that happen in their lives) or external locus of control (they believe that chance, fate or outside sources determine life events). If the follower is internal, they need participative leadership so they may feel in charge of their own work and apart of integral decision making. If the follower in external, they need directive leadership because it parallels their feelings that outside forces control their circ*mstances.
6. Identify the task characteristics that influence how workers interpret a leader’s behavior. Follower’s task, formal authority system of the organization and the primary work group of followers.
7. How does each task characteristic affect how the leader’s behavior influences motivation?
If the task is clearly structured, has strong group norms and an established authority system then followers will find clear paths to their desired goal and won’t need a leader to clarify the goas or coach them on how to reach them. They build followers self-confidence in the work. If the formal authority is week, leadership becomes a tool that helps followers by making the rules and work requirements clear. If the groups norm is weak then leadership assists in building cohesive and role responsibility. The whole point is for leaders to assist the followers in overcoming their obstacles and if the plan is unclear, unsupportive and etc. it’ll all just fall apart and all the motivation will slip away because it would just become a waste of time.
8. Explain the conditions under which each of the four leadership styles is optimally used.
When the task demands are ambiguous, rules unclear and it’s all just complex, directive style is suggested.When a task is structured, unsatisfying, or frustrating, supportive style is recommended because it provides a sense of human touch when things get slow and repetitive. When a task is ambiguous, participative style is suggested because it provides clarity on what leads to what and it responds greatly to being involved in decision making and structuring of the work. When the followers are required to perform ambiguous task, achievement-oriented style is suggested.
9. What are strengths of path-goal theory?
Provides a useful theoretical framework for understanding how various leadership behaviors affect followers’ satisfaction and work performance, it attempts to integrate the motivation principles of expectancy theory into theory of leadership and it provides a model that in certain ways is very practical.
10. What are criticisms of path-goal theory?
The Path-Goal Theory is complex and incorporates so many various aspects of leadership that interpreting the theory can be confusing, it has received only partial support from many
empirical research studies that have been conducted to validate it, it fails to adequately explain the relationship between leadership behavior and follower motivation and lastly it places a great deal of responsibility on the leader and much less on the followers. The balance in unproportioned; the leader affects the followers, meaning followers can easily be dependent on the leader.
11. How does path-goal theory fit with the four components of leadership (process, influence, groups, common goals)?
Because it focuses on the behaviors of the leaders, the Path-Goal Theory automatically fits all four components of leadership. The goal of the theory is to see how well one can influence a group of people and it could be any of the styles stated.
