Path Goal Theories Situational Factors And Leader Style Management Essay

‘The national trust’ is the biggest charity in the UK and it is completely independent of Government. They rely for income on membership fees, donations revenues and legacies. They have 3.6 millions members and over 55,100 volunteers, more than 14 million people pay entry for the property and over 50 millions visit their open air properties. National trust has too many historic houses, gardens and they look after forest, fens, farmland, downs and nature reserves.

Task 1 .P1: Analyze any two leadership theories or modules that reflect current thinking.

PATH- GOELS LEADERSHIP THEORY

The path-goal leadership theory states that by rectifying the path to attain high level performance and removing downfalls and increasing own satisfaction for the work, and he/se should be able to motivate and maintain performances to his subordinate in work

Path-goal theories Situational Factors and leader style

Directive

Supportive

Participative

Achievement oriented

1: Directive Leader- instructs the all subordinates and provides the proper and clear instructions and ideas to make their work perfect and perform well and finish their work within the given timeline and the job measured standard

2: Supportive Leader- works more with the well being and human need of his subordinates. And all subordinates are treated equally by the supportive leader

3: Participative Leader- the word participative defines itself that the participative leader participates and involves in ideas, opinions, suggestions and offers with the all subordinates about their job.

4: Achievement-Oriented Leader- the leader who motivates, encourages, and does everything for continuous performance and improvement. The leader motivates for the goals and gives the confidence to his subordinates to get their challenging goals.

Ups and Down of this theory

UP Side

CHOOSING AN APPROPRIATE LEADERSHIP

MOTIVATIONAL FACTORES

PRACTICAL

The theory tells leaders about which style should be used and how to choose a perfect leadership. The theory considerate motivational factors and it helps to define about leadership style for using in different situation.

Down Side

Broad Scope

Worker Motivation

Dependency

This theory has a broad scope. Trying to implement too many variables in the selected style to a specific task is really difficult to do

That theory does not explain how a leader can maintain standard, encourage employees to feel competent, it just tells the qualities about the leader

And also it places more responsibilities on leader then subordinates and which make them dependent of the leader and discourage them too.

(http://www.bealeader.net/107/the-path-goal-theory/)

CONTINGENCY APPROACHES

Contingency Approaches based on the concept that there is no single way of managing that works perfect in every situation. It attempt to isolate the key factors that should be considered and show how to cope with the situation when all key factors are present.

Some factors of the theory

Forces in the manager

This theory helps the manager’s confidence amongst his subordinates, his value system, leadership inclination and awareness of the security in bad situation.

Forces in the subordinates

It also helps subordinates for their expectation, also gives them independency, decision making tasks and gives them proper approach to solve the problems and get involve in every matter and maintain the standard of their company by helping the leader, and also their interest in every matter.

Forces in the situation

Types of the organizations, groups and their effectiveness, the tasks and time limit

In this theory manager make some decisions and before implementing them he/she refers them to the subordinates to get their suggestions and then implement the decisions which are the best approach to boost the organization and complete all goals.

(http://www.stewart-associates.co.uk/leadership-models.aspx)

Task.1 P1.2: Explain the expected impact of those theories on the organization that you have selected.

Expected impact of path-goal theory on ‘The National Trust UK’

Below we can find the expected impact of path-goal theory on the national trust

In some cases it can be very much appropriate for the ‘national trust’ to work under the directive system and they can expand their business more under the well established management. As I have worked within the organizations they already follow this theory. As this theory tells us where there leader take the more responsibility to boost the business and encourage all employees or subordinates and tells them to work properly. And not only work properly but also complete them within the time limit by this theory leader focus on the organization can be really good. He/she can assist all the team performance and can realize the performance of his/her employees and help them if they are having any kind of problem. And then by this theory leader’s support can be really helpful for the organization, where there leader does not differentiate employees and employees are equal to him and he/she treats them equally which can give a positive impact on subordinates and the organizations and employees can work by their hearts as they are being treated equally. As we know this theory encourages leader to participate with his/her team or subordinates and then leader can involve all employees in ideas and he/she can take opinion about the work and can suggest them to work in right way, which can be really affective for the national trust. And then this theory also boost leader to get continuously performance and motivation for the goals can be helpful for the organization to expand their donations and business. The only negative impact of this theory on the organization is that this increase dependency for employees and they remain bound to get orders and instructions from up side which may be a drawback for the organization because it discourages employees but apart from this it goes fine for the organization.

Impact of Contingency approaches theory on ‘The National Trust UK’

The impact of this theory on the national trust can be more reliable then path-goal theory the reason is why because the big part of the national trust is running by the volunteers, and this theory increase independency for the subordinates and then they can show their performances. The impact of this theory on the organization is good because it gives the security for the employees and volunteers in bad circumstances and they own take all responsibilities to complete all tasks and can work together with the managers. This theory involves all small employees to show their mutual performances and gives them full confidence which can take this type of organization too forward, and positive thing about this theory is that this allow leaders to get involve all employees in any decision before its implementation, so by this kind of act volunteers interest may become more about their jobs and this can give them surety that they are really getting good experience from the organizations and then by the volunteers support national trust expand their donations.

Task 2, P2.1:- Assess current requirement of leadership within the organization.

The leadership requirements of the national trust are nearly based on contingency approaches.

Competency:-

The most essential requirement of leadership is competency. The leaders must know each and every work. They can’t assess the employees if they don’t know about the job their employees are doing, if you know everything then you can suggest or help others. Without knowing their work they can’t expect their employees to do the job that they don’t do. So leaders should be an example

Loyalty:-

The leader should also take care of his subordinates. He should loyal to his employees as well as organization. He has to find out where the problem is, if the company is not doing what the best for the people with him. Leader should be cooperative and should ask their needs about their job and help them in every matter.

Respect:-

Working as a leader in the national trust will force you to respect people and employees as the national trust relies on volunteers so it essential for the leader to respect. Respect is really important in every nature of the job. And this is one of the main requirements of the leadership in any organization. Leader should respect his subordinates and should know the status of their subordinates; it is obvious that if you respect people you get respect back. Mostly in some organizations employees leave their job because of their self respect amongst managers.

Honest

‘Honesty is the best policy’. Leader must be honest. They don’t string their subordinates along by promising rewards the never come through. And lie is the fastest way to lose respect amongst people who work for you.

Integrity

A leader who has the integrity will not join the office joking and will pull the rug out. He will never shit blame to others when he will be responsible. He will always accept responsibility for his own action.

Learning, Listening and understanding others

No one is perfect. It doesn’t mean if you are leader and you know everything. Leader should listen and understand others and get the ideas from their subordinates. Leaders should welcome the ideas from down side. Goods leaders don’t discourage subordinates for their ideas. They listen to them and give them feedback.

In simple words I would say leader should be customer focused person who knows the value of the customers and deals with them properly and treats his employees as customers

These requirements are the current basic for the leaders in the organization and they have to follow them for better performance.

P2.2:- Develop an internally consistent ant plausible scenario of likely future requirement of leadership for the selected organization.

Type of staff

One of the future requirements of leadership is to hire the right and competent staff who may take the company too forward. National trust hires seasonal staff every year from February to October, so it is a big duty to judge staff and their mentality level, because most of the seasonal staff run away during the season to find out another job. So this is the main requirement for leadership to select right staff.

History of the business

National trust gets donations and money from historical houses, so it will be strong requirement for the managers to remember the history and maintain it for future because their business relies on their history houses and old places and its own history

Culture of the business

Same as its history culture is also more important. This might be a big challenge for them but leaders have to maintain the culture of the business for the new comers. If they come and they would be able to maintain as it was before.

Quality of the relationship

Members of this organization are the assets. National trust gets donations from its members. Members pay annual membership charges which makes a good relationship between national trust and them. So it is important for the leadership to maintain the quality of relationship in future for their future.

Nature of changes needed

Change is a part of every business. For attaining the goals and achievement some businesses try to change methods and rules which some time help them to go forward for their goals but some time not, and if they change circumstances at the right time and proper they get reward. So this is also a future requirement for the leadership to apply changes at the right time, for right thing and for right purpose.

Accepted norms within the organization

It might be required for the leadership to accept the standard within the organization. It can be a difficult task for the new leadership to follow the standard or pattern. Everyone tries to give their own suggestions. But the environment and modal of the company should be same which is running from company’s birth.