What is Robert House's Path-Goal Theory?
The next significant leadership theory to emerge in the Situational/Contingency category was Robert House's Path-Goal theory, in his 1971 paper: A Path-Goal Theory of Leader Effectiveness, which he refined three years later in cooperation with T R Mitchell.
House said that the main role of a leader is to motivate his followers by:
- Increasing or clarifying the (group's/followers') personal benefits of striving for and reaching the group's goal.
- Clarifying and clearing a path to achieve the group's goals.
Hence the theory's name: Path-Goal Theory.
House's theory matched four ways of behaving to four sets of circumstances, or 'situations'.
- The circumstances in Path-Goal theory are driven by 'follower characteristics' and 'workplace characteristics'.
Follower Characteristics
- What they believe about their ability - Do they feel they are capable of fulfilling the task well?
- Where control resides - Do group members believe they have control over the way they approach the task and the chances of achieving the goal? Or do they see themselves as being controlled by other people and outside events?
- Attitude to power and those in power - Do members want to be told what to do and how to do it... or not? What do they think of those in the organisation who have more official power than they do, especially the leader?
Workplace Characteristics
- The kind of task - Is it repetitive? Is it interesting? Is it predictable or structured? Is it unpredictable, creative or unstructured?
- The leader's formal authority - Is it well-defined?
- Group cohesion - Do those working in the group feel a sense of unity?
House took these two external dimensions and matched them with four leadership behavioural styles, as the below table summarises.
Behavioural Styles
|
Leadership Style |
Workplace Characteristics |
Follower Characteristics |
Directive |
Unstructured interesting tasks
|
|
Supportive |
Simpler, more predictable tasks
|
|
Participative |
Unstructured, complex tasks
|
|
Achievement-
|
Unstructured, complex or unpredictable tasks
|
|
Leadership Styles
|
Leadership Style |
Description |
Directive |
|
Supportive |
|
Participative |
|
Achievement-
|
|
In the grid diagrams above Robert House effectively describes four different 'situations' (in this case combinations of 'workplace characteristics' and 'follower characteristics') which he matched to four different leadership styles.
Summary and Comparison with Other Models
Essentially, House's work implies that leaders need to adapt their leadership style based on both the characteristics of the workplace environment and also the characteristics of the team. By implication, Path-Goal theory assumes that a leader can vary his or her mindset and behaviour as needed.
- Unlike Fiedler's Contingency model, House's Path-Goal theory asserts that leaders can and should vary their behaviour according to the situation and the problems or opportunities that each situation presents.
- In this way, Path-Goal theory is similar to Tannenbaum and Schmidt's Continuum and to Kurt Lewin's Three Styles model.
Acknowledgements
James Scouller Biography
We are grateful to James Scouller for his help, patience, and expert contribution to producing this leadership guide.
James Scouller is an expert coach and partner at The Scouller Partnership in the UK, which specialises in coaching leaders. He was chief executive of three international companies for eleven years before becoming a professional coach in 2004. He holds two postgraduate coaching qualifications and training in applied psychology at the Institute of Psychosynthesis in London.
James Scouller's book is called "The Three Levels of Leadership: How to Develop Your Leadership Presence, Know-how and Skill" which was published in May 2011.
- You can learn more about James Scouller's book at three-levels-of-leadership.com.
- Details of James Scouller's executive coaching work are at TheScoullerPartnership.co.uk.