Donny Is My Leader

Donny Is My Leader The Path-Goal Theory states that, “leaders motivate subordinates to achieve high performance by showing them the path to reach valued goals or results.” In the case study Donny Is My Leader it shows what Donny perceived as motivation was, in fact, demotivating to some of the members of the group thus affecting the productivity as a whole. His autocratic, coercive and often inconsistent leadership style was the deterring factor that influenced the lack of production from the team. His “break ‘em down to build ‘em up” philosophy minimized some of the effectiveness and productivity of the team thus damaging the entire team structure.
An autocratic leader is defined as one who has unlimited authority, power, or influence in any group. Donny’s power was in an unofficial capacity although the group accepted him as their leader. His constant pushing, pulling and prodding was beneficial to some but not all of the team. One day he’s encouraging and comforting and the next day he’s belligerent, inconsiderate, spiteful and coercive. That kind of inconsistency led to an emergent leader in Herb although
The emergent leadership qualities in Herb immediately challenged Donny’s power and influence although Herb was reluctant to accept his new role. Despite the path-goal theory building upon a motivational theory, path-goal theory does not fully explain how leadership styles affect follower motivation. Zach Bunn stated that, “The path-goal theory is a contingency theory, in that it predicts how a leader’s style will interact with follower needs and the nature of the task. It argues directive leadership for ambiguous tasks, supportive leadership for repetitive tasks, participative leadership for unclear, autonomous task and achievement-oriented leadership for challenging tasks.” (Bunn,