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Module 4

Path-Goal and Leader-Member Exchange

Leadership is the capacity to guide, direct, and influence the work and behavior of others

towards achieving specific objectives and visions. Peter Northouse (2010) describes leadership

as any process where an individual influences other people to achieve a common objective.

Robert House, who was a graduate of Ohio State University, developed the path-goal theory in

1971. This theory was initially based on how leaders would increase employees' motivation and

empowerment to work better and comfortably towards achieving the desired goals. On the other

hand, Graen, George, and Mary developed the leader exchange theory in 1970. The theory

emphasized how leaders should establish a good relationship with their followers, thus creating a

conducive and successful working environment.

The path-goal theory ideals are based on the expectancy theory whereby people will

behave in a certain way depending on the fulfilling nature of the outcome of his or her activity.

This theory involves leaders selecting specific behavior that is favorable to the employee's needs

and the working environment, which helps them to coordinate and direct employees in a manner

that they will achieve the objectives and goals (Northouse 2013)." This theory comprises three

phases: evaluation of employees and the working environment characteristics, selecting an

appropriate leadership style, and formulating motivational factors that would lead to employee

success. The leader determines a clear and achievable path that the employees should follow and

also provide the critical support needed for the employees to achieve the desired goals. The

theory offers four forms of leadership that can be adopted, namely: directive, achievement-

oriented, participative, and supportive (Northouse, 2007). The path-goal goal theory entails

selecting a leadership style depending on employee characteristics and work setting to guide

employees along the goal path to reach objective accomplishment.

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The leader-member exchange theory evolved from the vertical dyad linkage model,

which focuses on leadership relations. This theory seeks to show how the different types of

relationships that leaders have with their workers affect the outcome of their work. The theory

brings out the fact that all employees are not treated the same. The different exchanges that

managers have with their staff results in two groups of workers designated as in-group and out-

group. The in-group engage more closely with their leader, is more dependable, and is highly

involved in all sorts of activities (Graen & Uhl- Bien, 1991). The out-group is less engaged with

the leader; they do their work and go home as per the contract. LMX theory emphasizes

leadership making, which is an approach that leaders are expected to develop a good relationship

with their employees and strive to make every individual feel like part of the in-group. It

comprises the three leadership-making steps that start with a stranger phase, acquittance, and

mature partnership phase. The leader-member exchange process aims to have a leader and

follower engagement develop from a stranger phase to a mature stage (Graen & Uhl- Bien,

1991). Leadership making is a perspective that stresses that a leader should evolve a great

relationship with all of her or his followers rather than just a few.

I have personally had experience with both the above leadership theories. With the

motivation to become a member of the school's tennis team, I had to train harder and put more

effort into practicing every evening. The games coach in charge of recruiting the team was more

supportive and participated in all the training required. Becoming a member of the team was the

great motivation behind the dedicated training. As a member of the students' council, I got to

experience the leader-member exchange leadership theory whereby I strived to make every

student feel free and comfortable to communicate any of the issues with the council for the

betterment of school policies. After taking the LMX questionnaire as a follower, the resulting
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score was high, indicating I am an in-group member. Upon taking it as a leader, the score was

very high, meaning I work closely with the in-group members. I think this is because I am

involved in striving to build good relations between the leaders and followers to ensure that

everything runs smoothly and efficiently to achieve the expected objectives. The results I

obtained after taking the path-goal leadership questionnaire are as indicated in the table below.

LEADERSHIP STYLE SCORE

Directive style 25

Supportive style 23

Participative style 22

Achievement-oriented style 24

The above results show that the leadership style that I apply most is directive, while the

least used is the participative style. The scores for all the techniques do not have a wide gap,

meaning I try to incorporate all the techniques in my leadership. The directive style means that I

inform the people I lead on what is expected from them, I give instructions on how the tasks are

to be done, and I coordinate the work to ensure they deliver as expected. A supportive style is

when a leader is friendly with all his followers and is approachable for any queries and

consultations. The participative leadership style is when the leader consults and involves his

followers in any decision-making that needs to be done. The achievement-oriented style is where

the leader has confidence in his or her followers to achieve any challenging goals that he sets for

them.

In all the above theories, the leaders are the critical factors in ensuring that the employees

are motivated and positively influenced to achieve all the set objectives. Path–goal theory is
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Module 4

focused on a leader implementing a leadership style that meets the employee's needs and works

set up to help the employees achieve the set goals. The Leader-member exchange theory is

focused on the relationship of the leader and employee depending on their level of interaction,

which guides the leader in adopting effective leadership. These theories can be applied at any

management level in an organization and any business setup, be it a large-scale or small-scale

setup. Organizations whose leaders understand the above theories reap benefits, including

improved job satisfaction, less turnover, the enhanced attitude among employees, improved

performance and efficiency, cohesiveness among work units, trust, and respect between leaders

and employees (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1991; Northouse, 2007).

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References

Graen, G. B., Uhl-Bien, M. (1995). The relation-based approach to leadership: Development of

LMX theory of leadership over 25 years: Applying a multilevel, multi-domain

perspective.

House, R. J. (1971). A Path-Goal Theory of Leader Effectiveness.

Northouse, P. (2013). Leadership Theory and practice.