Path – Goal Theory and the Jeanne Lewis Case Essay

Inside the Path-Goal Theory of leadership, the leader is beneficial when their particular behavior comes with an impact on motivation.

Follower fulfillment and performance could be improved by offering rewards pertaining to goals, clarifying the path to goal accomplishment, and removing impediments to task performance. Path-Goal Theory is related to the Expectancy style, which proves that people will be motivated in the event that they observe their attempts contributing to a desired objective. The behavior with the follower plus the leader happen to be linked, so the correct putting on the Path-Goal Theory contains recognizing the case of the fans and using a corresponding leader patterns.

Jeanne Lewis held many different roles during her career at Staples, Inc. (Suesse, 2000). You will discover four head behaviors inside the Path-Goal unit, each of which was used by Lewis in different instances and in diverse situations. The next examples include an analysis of Lewis’ behavior, just how her patterns relates to the Path-Goal model, employees response to Lewis’ tendencies, and how the employees’ behavior relates to the Path-Goal Theory. Achievement Management In 1994 Lewis was promoted to New Great britain Director of Operations, inheriting an organization lacking in strong management, but with experienced employees. Lewis replaced several employees, set aggressive functionality goals and challenged workers.

These activities are a sign of the Accomplishment leadership style, wherein the leader is both equally demanding and supportive, sets challenging goals, seeks continuous improvement, desires high performance, and encourages workers to presume more responsibility (Woolard, 2009). Lewis’ personnel responded with increased motivation; launching new teaching programs and setting excessive goals for themselves. This behavior is representative of the Path-Goal theory wherein followers adopt substantial goals ultimately causing improved satisfaction and performance (Hersey, 2008, g. 00).

The Achievement Leadership style can be used when we have a lack of job challenge in the follower. Savoir Leadership Lewis was then simply moved to Promoting, another place in which the girl had zero direct job history. With no time for her reviews to teach her the details of merchandising, Lewis followed the style of a Directive Head and informed her staff to “fix this and correct it fast”. The Directive Leader tells precisely what is expected, just how and when to accomplish and convey how the process fits in with other tasks in the organization.

The response from her workers to this style was favorable. They broadened their pondering beyond just the cost of the product and the value, developing strategic thinking which in turn resulted in a tripling from the direct merchandise profitability. Lewis’ boss, Rich Gentry, said, “Jeanne demonstrated that you can be a fantastic merchant you could also be proper and think outside of the four walls” (Suisse, 2k, p. 5).

The impact for the follower from the Directive leadership style is clarification in the path to the goal. Employees expanded all their thinking to encompass the broad stages in their path to expected device performance. Encouraging Leadership Once Lewis was selected to replace the leaving behind Executive Vice President of Marketing, John Krasnow, the lady once again needed to adapt her leadership style in response with her team. Lewis was put in charge of retail advertising small business to find out the rules during Krasnow’s final period at Worn.

The department was comprised of two different groups: marketing and an in-house promoting agency. Once she questioned a marketing software with the direct, “rough and tumble” style she was accustomed to using in her previous projects in procedures and promoting, the person presenting the idea was devastated. Lewis would have to adopt a Supportive style or perhaps would “have people going out of my business office in holes and conclude accomplishing nothing”.

Lewis built an effort to get approachable, with an open door policy. With this situation, in which the follower lacks self confidence, a Supportive or perhaps Relationship behavior is needed. The Supportive Head demonstrates matter for the well being of followers and it is open and approachable. Personnel responded beneficially to her enhancements made on style.

Supportive leader tendencies has in it the aim to increase assurance in the fans, thereby raising their efficiency and performance. Participative Leadership When merger plans with Workplace Depot were blocked by the courts, the Staples management team refocused on growth and success of the Worn brand. In Lewis’ mind, the promoting department was your “brand winner and crucial support for other departments”. The section was divided, however , with a marketing and advertising aspect that did not operate as a group, as a whole.

Lewis remarked, “the thought I would go home with during the night was, in the event that they recognized more, they would perform a better task. ” Lewis began holding staff conferences in an attempt to talk about information and decision making and break down the wall between departments. I was amazed that even though we had this kind of huge promoting budget that everyone distributed, no one realized what the other people were doing” (Suesse, 2k, p. 8). A Participative Leader techniques the task within a consulting, group-wise manner.

They share function problems and solicit ideas in an effort to include the entire corporation in the decision-making process. Lewis expanded conferences with immediate reports in an attempt to increase group interaction and encouraged marketing managers to talk about their job across business unit restrictions. This design changes praise and explains the requirements of the supporters.

In Lewis’ case she was able to acquire key stakeholders in varying departments to acquire in to more strategic pondering. Jeanne Lewis was given ever increasing responsibility at Staples because of her capability to adapt her leadership style to match the changing requires of her subordinates. By following the Path-Goal Theory, Lewis was able to funnel the power of her followers and achieve success for the organization.