Path Goal Theory Of Leadership

A Leader is a person who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a goal. Leadership is what a leader does. According to Felix A. Nigro and Loyed G. Nigro in this book ‘Modern Public Administration’ they said that the essence of leadership is influencing the action of others: the essential quality of leaders is that they are convinced something must be done and they persuade others to help them get it done.

According to Hersey and Blanchard, “Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of an individual or a group in efforts toward goal achievement in a given situation.

Studies of leadership have produced so many theories based on trait, power influence, behavior, situation etc.

The trait theory was the most important leadership theory in the early ages. According to this theory a person must have some traits to be a leader which are inherited.

Then it was further developed by Robert House (1971). In 1996, it was again revised by Robert House.

According to House, the essence of the theory is “the meta proportion that leaders, to be effective, engage in behaviors that complement subordinates environments and abilities in a manner that compensates for deficiencies and is instrumental to subordinates satisfaction and individual and work unit performance”

The path goal theory identified four types of situation which are followers lack self confidence, ambiguous job, lack of challenging job and incorrect reward. This theory also identified four types of leadership behavior to cope with these situations which are supportive, directive, achievement oriented and participative. These four leadership behaviors are contingent to the environmental factors and followers characteristics. The main characteristic of path goal theory is its flexibility. The four leadership styles are flexible and a leader can adopt any of the four leadership style depending on what the situation