What are the weakness of the path goal theory?

Path-goal theory is about fit between motivation, behavior, environment, tasks, and reward (Evans, 1970; House, 1971). It traces its origins to expectancy theory, situational leadership and contingency theory, and builds upon all three. Path-goal theory is therefore about flexibility. From expectancy theory, path-goal finds that motivation works best by encouraging followers in their strengths and rewarding them for their efforts. The leader identifies the development level of the followers as well as the supportive and directive behavior criteria to be filled. In the situational leadership model this corresponds to delegating, supporting, coaching and directing behaviors. Where path-goal deviates from situational leadership is in the leaders need to be able to adapt to the characteristics of the followers and the task at hand. Additionally flexibility is needed not only on the behavior of the leadership in understanding the needs of the followers, but also to the environment the organization is operating as well has the internal workings of the organization itself. This ability to adapt to environment and internal operational parameters is the foundation of contingency theory.

The objectives that path-goal theory follows to evaluate the surroundings and personalities are (a) define goals, (b) clarifies path, (c) remove obstacles and provide support. Based in the typology, path-goal theory offers,

"…a large set of predictions for how a leader's style interacts with subordinates' needs and the nature of the task. Among other things, it predicts that directive leadership [directive] is effective with ambiguous tasks, that supportive [coaching] leadership is effective for repetitive tasks, that participative [supporting] leadership is effective when tasks are unclear and subordinates are autonomous, and that achievement-oriented [delegating] leadership is effective for challenging tasks." (Northouse, 2004, p. 144)

Strength of path-goal typology is therefore based on the situational framework of understanding how achievement-oriented (delegating), participative (supporting), supportive (coaching) and directive (directive) behaviors affect the productivity and satisfaction of the followers. Additionally path-goal theory integrates the motivation principles of expectancy theory with the adaptation to environment and internal organizational parameters of contingency theory. Though flexible in nature, path-goal theory in itself is also complex and counter intuitive; herein lies its criticism. "Path-goal theory encompasses so many interrelated sets of assumptions that it is hard to use this theory in a given organizational setting"