After reading chapters six and seven of Northouse’s book, I think that his Path-Goal Theory's emph ...
After reading chapters six and seven of Northouse’s book, I think that his Path-Goal Theory's emphasis on leadership behaviors and the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory's focus on the quality of relationships between leader and subordinate to be fascinating. Both theories provide avenues for leaders to go down in order to motivate employees to do a task or job. The path goal theory is a method that innately provides supportive leadership and its most important task is “to use a leadership style that best meets followers’ motivational needs (Northouse, 2022, p 132). In addition, the path-goal theory’s approach to to supportive leadership is interesting because the leadership behaviors dictate the success of the leadership style. In other words, supportive leadership “consists of being friendly and approachable as a leader and includes attending to the well-being and human needs of followers,” illustrating the vital aspect of putting people first to create a friendly and inclusive environment (Northouse, 2022, p. 135). which involves showing concern for a follower’s well-being and creating a friendly work environment. There has been research conducted to show that supportive leadership can improve employee satisfaction as well as performance by letting your employees know his or her value (Haeckl & Rege, 2023, p. 348). In the Bible, there is a story where Paul encourages believers to "encourage one another and build each other up,” suggesting that everyone should be supporting each other and providing a keen sense of community. The aforementioned scripture illustrates the importance of having a community that builds you up, especially on the foundation of Christ (New International Version,1978/2018, 1 Thessalonians 5:11). Futhermore, there is a portion of the LMX theory that supports the concept that “positive LMRs (high LMX) reflect the mutual trust and honesty that develops between a leader and member over time,” illustrating the need for a lead to have a high quality leader-member exchange (London, Volmer, & Zyberaj, 2023, p. 275). The Bible provides many examples of high and/or low quality leader-member exchanges. For example, King Solomon is described to be a leader, who sought God for wisdom rather than power; his leadership approach supports the kings who exemplified or failed to embody supportive leadership traits. King Solomon is a leader who seeks God for widsom in order to lead his people appropriately.. His approach aligns with path-goal theory by illustrating how knowledge can serve both other people and himself (Northouse, 2022, p. 24-25). In conclusion, both Path-Goal Theory's supportive leadership style and LMX Theory's focus on relationship quality are vital for leadership practice today. References Haeckl, S., & Rege, M. (2024). Effects of supportive leadership behaviors on employee satisfaction, engagement, and performance: An experimental field investigation. Management Science, 71(1), 347-365. London, M., Volmer, J., & Zyberaj, J. (2023). Beyond LMX: toward a theory-based, differentiated view of leader–member relationships. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 38(4), 273-288. Merida, T., Platt, D., & Akin, D. L. (2015). Exalting Jesus in 1 & 2 Kings. Holman Reference: B & H Publishing Group. Northouse, P. G. (2022). Leadership: Theory and practice. SAGE Publishing. The holy bible: New international version. (2005). Zondervan.
