Path Goal Style 

Week 3 Assignment Path Goal Style

• Define path-goal leadership.

• Identify the path-goal leadership style used in this situation; provide the tasks, and the subordinates’ characteristics.

• Support your position with specific examples.

• Explain whether the action taken was appropriate and effective.

• Discuss if the path-goal leadership approach would be useful in understanding the leadership applied to the situation.

In addition to the requirements above, your paper:

• Must be double-spaced and 12 point font

• Must be formatted according to APA style

• Must include an introductory paragraph with a thesis statement

• Must conclude with a restatement of the thesis and a conclusion paragraph

• Must reference at least two scholarly resources

• Must include a reference page written in APA format

Grading Rubric

Distinguished – Provides a thorough and clear definition of path-goal leadership. The definition explains the role of the leader according to the theory and addresses tasks and obstacles.

Distinguished – Clearly and comprehensively identifies the path-goal leadership style used in the situation.  Clearly describes the tasks and characteristics of subordinates

Distinguished – Thoroughly and comprehensively discusses the path-goal leadership style.  The discussion clearly applies the leadership approach to the situation and provides specific examples related to the situation.

Distinguished – Develops a logical, consistent plan to solve a problem, and identifies consequences of the solution and can clearly communicate the reason for choosing the solution.

Week 3 Lecture

Chapter Six

Let’s start with Chapter 6, Contingency Theory. According to our textbook, “contingency theory is a leader matched theory, which means it tries to match leaders to appropriate situations. It is called contingency because it suggests that a leader’s effectiveness depends on how well the leader’s style fits the context” (Northouse, 2013, p. 123). Another description that might be easier to understand is; “Contingency theories hold that leadership effectiveness is related to the interplay of a leader’s traits or behaviors and situational factors” (Seyranian, 2012, para1). Some may recall Cliff Notes, which basically provides an overview of what a book or topic was about. Similar to what Wikipedia does today, with the exception that Cliff Notes were published, whereas anyone can go online and update Wikipedia. The Cliff Note on Contingency theory is as follows; “Contingency theory proposes that for learning to take place, a stimulus must provide the subject information about the likelihood that certain events will occur” (Cliff Notes, 2013, para1).

Now that we have identified what Contingency Theory stands for, let’s dive a little deeper and look at the situational variables that impact this theory.

According to our textbook, there are three main factors; Leader-member relations, task structure and position power (Northouse, 2013).

• Leader-member relations is when there is a group of followers that have emotions for their leader (Northouse, 2013).

• Task structure is when there is a level of requirements of a task that are clearly provided (2013).

• Position power is the level of authority a leader has to either reward or punish followers (2013).

Chapter Seven

Chapter 7 focused on Path-Goal Theory. This theory is really about how a leader motivates followers to accomplish goals (Northouse, 2013). For those of you that follow the term empowerment, this is a leadership style that is often found. How many of you work with leaders that truly motivate you to want to do your job or want to do it better? How many of you are excited to go to work to see what your leader will challenge you with today? This is what a Path-Goal Leader works to achieve. It is recommended that you review Table 7.1: Path-Goal Theory; How it Works in the required text. This table provides a very clear outline of the behaviors of the leader, the characteristics of the subordinates and the task characteristics.

Below is a video that does a nice job of illustrating examples of Path-Goal Theory.

Path-Goal Theory Case Study-“Three Shifts, Three Supervisors” (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (http://youtu.be/dzVwnPj_na8)

Path Goal Theory – Explained (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (http://youtu.be/-Ow0U75uySk)

Chapter Eight

The final chapter this week was Chapter 8, which focused on Leader-Member Exchange Theory (LMX). The LMX theory “conceptualizes leadership as a process that is centered on the interactions between leaders and followers” (Northouse, 2013, p. 161). How many of you have interactions with your boss outside of work? How many of you have a good working relationship in that you can approach your boss on just about any subject? The LMX theory is one that brings up a lot of great elements, but it also has another side to it. I would like to share two videos with you that illustrate the LMX theory at work. The first is a cartoon and the second is a fraction of the movie Mona Lisa Smiles. See if you can identify how the leadership is interacting with the followers.

Leader-Member Exchange Theory (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (http://youtu.be/nXb0LZiPo7E)

In and Out 1 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (http://youtu.be/6ocAyCc2enw)

Forbes School of Business Faculty

References:

2Bwhiteboard (2013, January 3). Path-goal theory – explained  (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.[Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/-Ow0U75uySk

Callanan, B. (2012, December 29). In and out 1 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/6ocAyCc2enw\

Contingency theory  (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.(2013). Retrieved from http://www.cliffsnotes.com/sciences/psychology/psychology/psychology-learning/contingency-theory

Northouse, P. (2013). Leadership theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Seyranian, V. (2012). Contingency theories of leadership. Sage. Retrieved from www.sagepub.com/

Tod a (2013, April 9). Path-goal theory case study – “Three shifts, three supervisors”  (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.[Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/dzVwnPj_na8

Villum13. (2012, April 22). Leader-member exchange theory (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/nXb0LZiPo7E