Introduction and Summary
The ability to lead and motivate are very important qualities for managers to have in today’s business world. The quality of leadership in an organization has a direct impact on the success of the organization. Leadership is the process of directing the behavior of others toward the accomplishment of some objective. Leaders need to be able to motivate their people to accomplish organizational goals. Motivation is what drives people to achieve goals, and it is the reason those people act the way that they do (Certo & Certo, 2012).
In this leadership scenario, Stephanie works for Jonathan who everyone generally admires for his friendly demeanor and relaxed management style. He assigns his employees different duties each week. His employees can be working at the checkout counter one week, stocking shelves the next, and in the store’s new culinary center the following week. Alex works for Dan. Dan believes the best way for his employees to master a job is to do it over and over again. Alex finds his assigned work to be very monotonous and boring, which leads to an unmotivated employee, waiting for the opportunity to quit this job. Dan’s management style is very directive and tyrannical; his employees experience little job satisfaction and suffer from poor employee morale. The two theories of leadership that best relate to this scenario were the Life Cycle and Path Goal Theories of Leadership. The Life Cycle theory deals with the leader matching a leadership style with the situation and maturity of their followers. The Path Goal theory deals with leaders giving rewards to members of the organization for reaching organizational goals. The two theories of motivation that best relate to this case are the Needs Goal and Equity Theories of Motivation. The Needs Goal Theory is a cycle where an individual feels a need, transforms their behavior