Upon reading the lesson materials on the Path-Goal Approach of leadership theories, I was intrigued by its idea and was motivated to apply this theory in many of the leadership events that I’ve experienced. In my opinion, this is a theory that could bring morale and integrity to a group of people.
According to Northouse, path-goal approach focuses on leader’s ability to motivate and encourage the team members towards accomplishing a common goal (Northouse, 2013). Although this quality of leader is also touched briefly by other leadership theories as one aspect of social/human skills (as in trait approach and skills approach), path-goal theory has emphasize this aspect of the leader by saying that leader’s effectiveness is dependent on the support and motivation he/she has provided to the followers (PSU WC, 2013). By definition, an effective leader would provide not only the “goal” and the “path” for the followers, but also emotional support when needed (PSU WC, 2013). In my opinion, this emotional support is very important especially when the team members are frustrated by a difficult goal, and is essential for bringing the team together.
When I was working in a local volunteer organization, there are many situations when a leader’s emotional supports for the members are crucial for us to work though the problem. As a student-founded organization, our lack of organizational experiences has brought problems and frustrations to our work, and there are times when members are feeling thwarted. However, our chief director, Xin, is a very compassionate leader. She was able to stay clam when others started to complain and would express her understanding and support of the difficulties that we have. Her compassion and support has led to my feeling that we are facing all these trouble as a team, and that I’m not fighting alone. I believe that this is very important for a group’s morale and for increasing our sense of belongingness for the group.
According to the path-goal model, four types of leader behaviors are specified: directive leadership, supportive leadership, participative leadership, and achievement-oriented leadership. It is also encouraged that a leader should adopt different behaviors depending on two groups of contingency variables: environmental factors and individual factors (Martin, 2012). The environmental factors concern the factors that can’t be controlled by the subordinates (i.e. authority system, task structure), and the individual factors are the inherent qualities of the subordinates (Martin, 2012). In our chapters, these variables are categorized as group members’ factors and task characteristics (Northouse, 2013). In all situations, all behaviors are targeted to motivate the followers on accomplishing goals. This is perhaps the most important aspect of path-goal model: integrating the motivation principles into a theory of leadership (PSU WC, 2013). In fact, this theory was built heavily on two theories of work motivation: goal setting and expectancy theory (Martin, 2012).
In my opinion, recognizing the importance of motivation of group members is a shining point of the path-goal models because motivation is usually highly correlated with group performance (Shepperd, 1993). While people can be motivated by many external factors such as gaining rewards, grades, earnings, internal motivation can also be crucial. This is particularly right in volunteer organizations. In our training sessions held for new volunteers, the first thing we do is to tell them the values of our work to the society and to the volunteers themselves. By simply pointing out these values, they can gain motivations and would therefore devote more into the team.
Reference:
1. Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
2. Pennsylvania State University. (2013, January 23). Angel Psychology 485 Leadership. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp13/psych485/001/content/03
3. Shepperd, J. A. (1993). Productivity loss in performance groups: A motivation analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 113(1), 67-81.
4. Martin, Robin. “PathGoal Theory of Leadership.” Encyclopedia of Group Processes & Intergroup Relations. Ed. John M. Levine and Michael A. Hogg. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2009. 636-37. SAGE Reference Online. Web. 30 Jan. 2012.