In the Path-Goal Theory of leadership, the best is effective once their habit has an influence on motivation. Follower satisfaction and gratification can be increased by offering rewards for goals, clarifying the way to goal achievement, and removing road blocks to activity execution. Path-Goal Theory is related to the Expectations model, which will concludes that folks are enthusiastic if they will see their particular efforts causing a preferred goal. The behavior of the follower and the head are linked, so the appropriate application of the Path-Goal Theory includes recognizing the situation of the follower and adopting a corresponding head behavior.
Jeanne Lewis held several different roles during her employment at Worn, Inc. (Suesse, 2000). You will find four innovator behaviors in the Path-Goal unit, each of which was used simply by Lewis at different instances and in several situations. The following examples include a discussion of Lewis’ behavior, how her patterns relates to the Path-Goal style, employees response to Lewis’ tendencies, and how the employees’ tendencies relates to the Path-Goal Theory.
Achievement Leadership In 1994 Lewis was offered to Fresh England Overseer of Businesses, inheriting an organization lacking in good leadership, good results . knowledgeable staff.
Lewis replaced some staff, set aggressive performance goals and questioned employees. These actions will be indicative in the Achievement management style, in which the leader is both challenging and supportive, sets challenging goals, attempts continuous improvement, expects high performance, and motivates workers to assume even more responsibility (Woolard, 2009). Lewis’ employees replied with increased determination; launching fresh training programs and setting high goals for themselves.
This kind of behavior is associated with the Path-Goal theory in which followers take up high desired goals leading to superior satisfaction and gratification (Hersey, 2008, p. 00). The Achievements Leadership style is used when there is a lack of job challenge in the follower. Directive Leadership Lewis was then relocated to Merchandising, one other area through which she got no direct work experience. Without having time for her reports to teach her the ins and outs of merchandising, Lewis adopted the style of a Directive Leader and told her personnel to “fix it and fix it fast”. The Directive Leader tells what is predicted, how so when to do it and communicates how a task suits with other tasks in the business. The response from her employees to this style was favorable.
That they expanded their thinking past just the cost of the product plus the selling price, growing strategic considering which resulted in a tripling of the direct product earnings. Lewis’ boss, Richard Gentry, remarked, “Jeanne demonstrated that you may be a good service provider but you can end up being strategic and think outside the 4 walls” (Suisse, 2000, s. 5). The impact to the fans of the Savoir leadership design is logic of the path to the aim. The employees extended their considering to encompass the extensive steps in all their path to anticipated unit functionality. Supportive Leadership
When Lewis was picked to replace the departing Professional Vice President of Marketing, Todd Krasnow, she yet again had to adjust her management style reacting to her group. Lewis was placed in demand of price tag marketing and small business to learn the ropes during Krasnow’s last time for Staples. The department was comprised of two different groups: marketing and a proprietary advertising firm. When the girl challenged an advertising program with all the direct, “rough and tumble” style she was comfortable with using in her previous assignments in operations and merchandising, the individual presenting the idea was devastated.
Lewis would have to adopt a Supportive style or could “have people leaving my own office in tears and end up achieving nothing”. Lewis made an effort to be approachable, with an open door plan. In this circumstance, where the follower lacks self confidence, a Encouraging or Relationship behavior is required. The Supportive Leader displays concern for the wellness of followers and is open and approachable. Employees responded favorably with her change in style. Supportive leader behavior provides in this the objective to improve confidence in the follower, therefore increasing all their productivity and gratification. Participative Management
When merger plans with Office Website were obstructed by the tennis courts, the Worn management staff refocused on growth and profitability of the Staples manufacturer. In Lewis’ mind, the marketing section was the “brand champion and key support for various other departments”. The department was divided, however , with a marketing and advertising side that did not function in concert. Lewis remarked, “the thought I would personally go home with at night was, if they will knew even more, then they would do a better job. ” Lewis started out holding personnel meetings in an attempt to share data and decision making and break down the wall structure between the departments. I was amazed that while we had this huge marketing finances that everybody shared, no one knew the actual other people had been doing” (Suesse, 2000, s. 8). A Participative Innovator approaches the job in a asking, group-wise method. They talk about work problems and solicit suggestions so that you can include the entire organization in the decision-making process. Lewis extended meetings with direct reviews in an attempt to boost group interaction and motivated advertising managers to share all their work around business product boundaries.
This style improvements reward and clarifies the needs in the followers. In Lewis’ case she was able to get important stakeholders in differing departments to buy directly into more strategic thinking. Jeanne Lewis was given ever increasing responsibility at Worn due to her ability to modify her command style to suit the changing needs of her subordinates. By following the Path-Goal Theory, Lewis could harness the power of her enthusiasts and achieve success for the organization.
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