In What Kinds of Situations Might It Be Especially Important for a Leader to Focus on Motivating Subordinates (as Outlined in Path-Goal Theory)?

　　It is especially important for a leader to focus on motivating subordinates when they have low beliefs or expectation in what they do. Like the example given in chapter 12 of the book. Through directive behavior, manger is able to provide effective working method to his subordinate that helped clearing out the obstacles during work, and the result itself is motivating.

　　People generally have four stage during his or her development in any given company: Green hand, experience accumulated, experienced, and expert. During the very first stage, which is the rookie days of one’s career, is essentially important for someone to get motivation, so is the last stage.

　　The reason being that with someone working in a company for the first time, you don’t expect them to figure out their own principle of working, and get discouraged along the way, unless this process is what motivates them. So people during this stage, demand more directive, and support behavior. Telling them how most people perform during work to save them time from beating around the bushes and get right into the core of the tasks; trim down unnecessary effort in figuring out a standard way of performing. Show them constant care, so they know they are not cast outs in this company. This will help them move up in the stage of his or her development.

　　Once you get to experience accumulated stage, achievement-oriented behavior can be used to help them acquire experience faster, expressing confidence in their work so that they know you have high expectation on them, and they should do the same, rather than just trying to give them a hard time.

When it comes to the experienced stage and expert stage, directive behavior should be spared or carefully used so they don’t feel like they are being bossed around, but participative behavior can be applied to motivate them into taking greater responsibility and acquiring the feeling of being empowered.