Rafa works in the human resources department at Golden Arrow Publishers, and in the evenings she is working towards a business degree at the local community college. In one of her classes, Organizational Psychology, the most recent lecture dealt with path-goal theory. The following week, for an assignment, Rafa asks her co-workers questions about what makes a person successful in business. Based on the responses of her co-workers and what you know about leadership styles, which of Rafa's co-workers would benefit most from a participative leadership style?

Question

A) Zinnia, who believes most successful people come from supportive family backgrounds
B) Herschel, who believes that some people are naturally more talented at business than others
C) Teri, who prides herself on her ability to adapt to and learn from difficult situations
D) Ivy, who believes that success is a combination of luck, talent, persistence, and hard work
E) Angel, who credits his own hard work for his successes but blames his failures on others

Answer 1

C) Teri, who prides herself on her ability to adapt to and learn from difficult situations
Explanation: Path-goal theory specifies which follower and environmental characteristics are important. There are three key follower characteristics. Authoritarianism is the degree to which individuals respect, admire, and defer to authority. Locus of control is the extent to which individuals see the environment as responsive to their own behavior. People with an internal locus of control believe that what happens to them is their own doing; people with an external locus of control believe that it is just luck or fate. A participative leadership style is more appropriate for people who have an internal locus of control because these individuals prefer to have more influence over their own work (and lives).