Leadership Styles and Employee Motivation: Path-Goal Theory

This essay provides an overview of leadership, defining it as the art of motivating and influencing people towards a common goal. It highlights the significance of leadership in organizational success and discusses the Path-Goal Theory, which emphasizes the leader's role in motivating follow...Read More

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LEADERSHIP
By (Name)
Course
professor
Institution
Location of the institution
date

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Organizations success is highly attributed to the organization leadership sectors.
However, most managers and leaders don’t really understand their roles and end up playing roles
that are not meant for them. This affect the workers’ motivation and performance. The term
leadership is ambiguous in that several scholars have given several definitions to it
(Clement2014, p.3). Leadership can be defined as the art of motivating, inspiring and influencing
a group of people towards achieving a set goal. Since the major roles of a leader are to develop
plans, to organize on how to achieve the plan, to give directions to the relevant teams on what to
do and to control all activities within an organization,for one to be an effective leader on should
posses a set of skills. A good leader should be trust worthy, creative, be in a position to motivate
the workers, solve problem and be a team player. Since organization leadership have been of
great interest to the researchers, several theories have been developed to facilitate leadership.
Path goal theory of leadership is an approach based on the leader’s ability through his behavior
to motivate his followers and consequently affecting their performance positively. This theory
therefore implies that unskilled leader would lead to the under performance of the workers and
eventually the failure of the organization. This has highly contributed to organizations to be over
managed and under led. The question still remains, are leaders born or made? Research has
indicated that three-quarter of leaders are born and a quarter are made. Therefore, leadership
skills can be learnt or acquired.
In the path goal theory, the leader is the pivot that helps the followers to achieve the set
goal by following a certain path to success. Here, the leader’s motivational skill is crucial
(George,George and Caren2016, p.120). His behavior should create a conducive working
environment for his worker so that they can show their full potential at their duties. The path goal

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theory involves four leadership style. they include: directive leadership, supportive leadership,
participative leadership and achievement-oriented leadership.
Directive leadership style involves a leader giving instruction to the followers on what to
do and how to do it. The leader set the expectations that he makes them know to the workers and
establishes the timeline within which the goal should be achieved. In most case leader may tend
to be authoritative and command on what to be done. however, this has shown that commanding
leaders create fear in their workers and therefore become unapproachable for consultations. This
has led to low productivity and failure in attaining the set goal. This style applies when the
workers are new in an organization and are not sure of hoe to do their job.
Supportive leadership style the leader provides psychological support. That is, he
provides an environment that reduces stress to the workers. The leaders treat workers with
respect and listens to their ideas. Therefore, the workers feel appreciated and valued. In this
leadership style, high performance of the workers is seen and highly contributes to the success of
the set goal. The leader here is approachable. This style is applicable when the work to be done
is challenging to the worker. The leader support in showing how it should be done.
Participative leadership style the leader involves the workers in setting the goal and in the
decisions making on how to achieve the set goal. This make the workers to understand the
direction of the organization, own the idea and they are motivated to work toward achieving the
set goal.
Achievement oriented leadership style involves where the workers have professional
knowledge of their work and the leader involve the in setting the goal. The workers are expected

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to use their professionalism to exhibit great performance. This style is highly applicable in senior
managers’ positions in organizations.
SUMMARY OFARTICLES FROM SCHOLARLY JOURNALS
Title and reference of the article Bell, C., Chan, M. and Nel, P., 2014. The impact of
participative and directive leadership on organisational
culture: An organisational development perspective.
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(23), p.1970.
Purpose of the article To determine the impact of participative and directive
leadership on organizational culture from an organizational
development perspective.
Sample, location, method of
data collection and analysis
A sample of two hundred and forty-six administrative
employs was used at Fort Hare university. A five-point
rating scale was used to collect data. Data was analyzed
using statistical technique such as descriptive statistics.
Findings /interpretation
reported in the article
The research suggested that the participative and directive
leadership styles have significance in organizational
culture and leads to achievement of the set goal. However,
the directive style does not facilitate adaptability of the
workers to the work
Significance/contribution of the
article in relation to your other
articles and your topic
The research therefore elaborates that participative
leadership style is recommendable to organizations
Strengths of article The research was conducted in a setup whose results can
be applied in many fields
Weaknesses of article The study focused on one organization culture. The results
may not apply to organizations with a different culture.

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Title and reference of the
article
Lumbasi, G.W., K’Aol, G.O. and Ouma, C.A., 2016. The Effect
of Achievement Oriented leadership Style on the Performance of
COYA Senior Managers in Kenya. International Journal of Novel
Research in Marketing Management and Economics, 3(2), pp.118-
125.
Purpose of the article To investigate the effects of achievement-oriented leadership style
on the performance of senior managers of the company
Sample, location,
method of data
collection and analysis
A sample of thirteen companies in Kenya was used, questionnaires
were used in the data collection and the data was analyzed by the
descriptive and inferential techniques. The statistical program for
social sciences (SPSS) was also used.
Findings /interpretation
reported in the article
The research found out that achievement-oriented leadership style
directly affects the employees performance positively.
Significance/contribution
of the article in relation
to your other articles and
your topic
The research advises the organizations to apply achievement-
oriented leadership style for quality performance.
Strengths of article The research was conducted in a setup whose results can be
applied in many fields
Weaknesses of article The study did not consider other professional fields from different
working environments.

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References
Bell, C., Chan, M. and Nel, P., 2014. The impact of participative and directive leadership on
organisational culture: An organisational development perspective. Mediterranean Journal of
Social Sciences, 5(23), p.1970.
Lumbasi, G.W., K’Aol, G.O. and Ouma, C.A., 2016. The Effect of Achievement Oriented
leadership Style on the Performance of COYA Senior Managers in Kenya. International Journal
of Novel Research in Marketing Management and Economics, 3(2), pp.118-125.