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    House's Path Goal Theory

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    ABIGAIL CHAYA BANDA
    House's Path Goal Theory proposes that a leader's effectiveness depends on their leadership style and on contingencies related to employee characteristics and the work environment. The theory identifies four leadership styles - directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented - which may be more or less effective depending on whether employees are skilled/unskilled, motivated, and whether the work environment has high or low structure. The leader's role is to select a style that clarifies paths to goals and removes obstacles to employee performance and satisfaction.

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    House's Path Goal Theory

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    ABIGAIL CHAYA BANDA
    291 views6 pages
    House's Path Goal Theory proposes that a leader's effectiveness depends on their leadership style and on contingencies related to employee characteristics and the work environment. The theory identifies four leadership styles - directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented - which may be more or less effective depending on whether employees are skilled/unskilled, motivated, and whether the work environment has high or low structure. The leader's role is to select a style that clarifies paths to goals and removes obstacles to employee performance and satisfaction.

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    House's Path Goal Theory proposes that a leader's effectiveness depends on their leadership style and on contingencies related to employee characteristics and the work environment. The theory identifies four leadership styles - directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented - which may be more or less effective depending on whether employees are skilled/unskilled, motivated, and whether the work environment has high or low structure. The leader's role is to select a style that clarifies paths to goals and removes obstacles to employee performance and satisfaction.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    291 views6 pages

    House's Path Goal Theory

    Uploaded by

    ABIGAIL CHAYA BANDA
    House's Path Goal Theory proposes that a leader's effectiveness depends on their leadership style and on contingencies related to employee characteristics and the work environment. The theory identifies four leadership styles - directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented - which may be more or less effective depending on whether employees are skilled/unskilled, motivated, and whether the work environment has high or low structure. The leader's role is to select a style that clarifies paths to goals and removes obstacles to employee performance and satisfaction.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    House’s Path Goal Theory

    What is House’s Path Goal Theory

     In 1971, Robert House introduced his version of a contingent theory of


    leadership known as the Path Goal Theory. According to House’s theory
    leader’s behavior is contingent upon the satisfaction, motivation, and
    performance of their subordinates.
     has its roots in the expectancy theory of motivation. 
     The theory is based on the premise that an employee’s perception of
    expectancies between his effort and performance is greatly affected by a
    leader’s behavior.
     The leaders help group members in attaining rewards by clarifying the paths
    to goals and removing obstacles to performance. They do so by providing the
    information, support, and other resources which are required by employees to
    complete the task.
    House’s theory
    advocates servant
    leadership.
    As per servant leadership theory,
    leadership is not viewed as a
    position of power. Rather, leaders
    act as coaches and facilitators to
    their subordinates.
    According to House’s path-goal
    theory, a leader’s effectiveness
    depends on several employee and
    environmental contingent factors
    and certain leadership styles. All
    these are explained in the figure 1
    below:
    Figure 1: Path-Goal Leadership Theory 
    The four leadership styles are:
     Directive: 
    o Here the leader provides guidelines, lets subordinates know what
    is expected of them, sets performance standards for them, and
    controls behavior when performance standards are not met. He
    makes judicious use of rewards and disciplinary action. The style is
    the same as task-oriented one.
    o The work will normally be complex and unstructured, and
    Leadership followers will usually lack experience and accept a high degree of
    outside control. There is little emphasis on personal payoffs for
    reaching the goal because the work is inherently satisfying.
    Styles
     Supportive: 
    o The leader is friendly towards subordinates and displays personal
    concern for their needs, welfare, and well-being. This style is the
    same as people-oriented leadership.
    o The supportive style puts more emphasis on improving the work
    environment and looking after individuals’ welfare. It makes sense
    to adopt this approach when the followers can perform their tasks
    skillfully with confidence and do not want close supervision but do
    need someone to help reduce the stress that may arise from doing
    a repetitive task.
     Participative: 
    o The leader believes in group decision-making and shares information
    with subordinates. He consults his subordinates on important decisions
    related to work, task goals, and paths to resolve goals.
    o The leader adopting the participative style is facing followers who are
    similar to those in the supportive style, however, here the work is
    much less structured, repetitive and predictable. With this approach,
    the leader consults their colleagues on decisions and takes their
    opinions and ideas into account, strengthening the path-goal
    connection in three ways;

    Leadership  Achievement-oriented: 

    Styles o The leader sets challenging goals and encourages employees to reach
    their peak performance. The leader believes that employees are
    responsible enough to accomplish challenging goals. This is the same as
    goal-setting theory.
    o The leader adopting the participative style is facing followers who are
    similar to those in the supportive style, however, here the work is
    much less structured, repetitive and predictable. With this approach,
    the leader consults their colleagues on decisions and takes their
    -According to the theory, these leadership opinions and ideas into account, strengthening the path-goal
    styles are not mutually excusive, and connection in three ways;
    leaders can select more than one kind of a
    style suited for a particular situation.
    Contingencies
    The theory states that each of these styles will be
    effective in some situations but not in others. It

    Conclusion
    further states that the relationship between a
    leader’s style and effectiveness is dependent on the
    following variables:
     Employee characteristics: These include factors
     The theory has been subjected to empirical
    such as employees’ needs, locus of control, testing in several studies and has received
    experience, perceived ability, satisfaction, considerable research support.
    willingness to leave the organization, and
    anxiety.
     This theory consistently reminds the
    leaders that their main role as a leader is
     Characteristics of work environment: These to assist the subordinates in defining their
    include factors such as task structure and team
    dynamics that are outside the control of the
    goals and then to assist them in
    employee. accomplishing those goals in the most
    efficient and effective manner.
    o When team cohesiveness is low, a supportive
    leadership style must be used whereas in a  This theory gives a guide map to the
    situation where performance-oriented team leaders about how to increase subordinates'
    norms exist, a directive style or possibly an satisfaction and performance level.
    achievement-oriented style works better. Leaders
    should apply directive style to counteract team
    norms that oppose the team’s formal objectives.

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