BBA3351 Leadership Unit I & Unit II Assessments
phibbs1987
CHAPTER 2: TRAITS, BEHAVIORS, AND RELATIONSHIPS
What is sim il ar a bo ut the traits yo u lis ted for th e two lea ders? Different ? Interview anot her student in class about traits he or sh e admires . W hat do the traits tell you about th e perso n yo u are interviewing? What are the common themes in yo ur list and the other student' s list of tra its? To what extent do you displa y the same traits as the ones on yo ur list ? W ill you deve lop those traits even more in the future ?
Leadership Development: Cases for Analysis
CONSOLIDATED PRODUCTS Co nso lidated Products is a medium-sized manufacture r of co n sumer products w ith nonunionized production wo rk ers. Ben Sam uels .was a plant ma nager for Co nsolidated Products for 10 yea rs, and he was ve ry we ll liked by the emp loyees there. T hey were grateful for th e fitness center he built for emplo yees, and th ey en joyed the soc ia l activities sponso red by th e pl a nt severa l times a year, incl udin g company picnics and holiday par- ties. He knew mos t of th e workers by name, and he spent part of each day walking a ro und the plant to vis it with them a nd as k about their fami lies or hobb ies.
Ben believe d th a t it was im porta nt to treat emp loyees properl y so they wou ld have a sense o f lo ra lty to the co mp an y. H e tried to avo id an y layo ffs wh en prod uct io n demand was slac k, figuring tha t th e company cou ld not afford to lose sk illed workers rh a t are so difficult to replace. T he workers kn ew that if th ey had a specia l problem, Ben wou ld try to help them. For examp le, when someone was injured but wa nted to cont inu e workin g, Ben found a noth er job in th e p lant that the p erson cou ld d o des pite ha ving a disa bility. Ben believed th at if yo u treat people right, they wo uld do a good job for you withou t cl ose supervision or prodding. Ben app lied th e same principle to his superv isors, a nd he m ost ly left them alone to run their depa rtments as they saw fir. H e did not se t ob ject ives a nd sta nd ards for the plant , and he never asked th e supervisors to deve lop plans for imp roving productivity and product qu a lit)'.
Under Ben, the pl a nt h ad the lowest turno ver among the company's five pla nts, but the second wo rs t record for costs and production levels. W hen the company was acquired by anot her firm, Ben was asked to take earl y retirement, a nd Phil Jones was brought in to rep lace him .
Ph il had a grow ing reputa tio n as a mana ge r wh o co uld get things d o ne, and he quickly began mak in g changes. Costs were cut by trimming a num ber of activities such as the fitness ce nter at th e plant, company picnics and parti es, and the human re lat io ns training programs for superviso r s. Phil believed that human relations training was a waste of ti me; if emp loyees d on't want to do the work, get rid of them a nd find somebod y else who does.
Supervisors were instr ucted to esta bli sh hi gh perform ance sta ndards for their deparc- ments and insist th at peop le ac hieve them. A computer mon itoring sys tem was introduced so that the o utput of each worker cou ld be checked close ly aga in st the stand ards. Phil to ld his supervisors to give any worke r wh o had substandard performance one wa rning, and then if performance did not improve w ithin two weeks, t o fir e the p er so n. Phil believed that workers don't respect a superviso r who is weak and passive . When Phil observed a worker wasting ti me o r making a mistake, he would reprimand the person right on th e spot to set an exa mple. Phil a lso checked closely on the performa nce of his superviso rs . Demanding object ives were set fo r each department, a nd weekly meetings were held w ith each supervisor to rev iew department performance. Fin a ll y, Phil in sis ted th a t superv isors check with him first before taking a ny significant actions th at deviated from es tab lished plans and policies.
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PART 2: RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES ON LEADERSHIP
As another cos t-cutting move, Ph il reduced the fr equ ency of eq uipment m aintenance , wh ich required m achines to· be idled when they could be pro ducti ve. Sin ce the mac hines ha d a good reco r d of reli a bl e operation, Phil believed that the current m a inten a nce schedule w as excessive and w as cutting into produ ctio n. Fi nall y, w hen bu siness was slow for one of the product lines, Phil laid off workers rather th an finding so mething else for them to do .
By the end of Phil 's fir st yea r a s pla nt ma nage r , produ ction costs were r edu ced by 20 percent and productio n o utput w as up by 10 percent . Howeve r, three o f hi s seven s uper viso rs left t o t ake oth er jobs, a nd turno ve r was also high am o ng th e machine ope ra to rs. Some of the turno ve r w as due to wo rkers w ho wer e fir ed, but comp etent ma ch ine operator s were also quitting, a nd it wa s becoming increasingly di fficult to find any rep lacem ents for them . Finall y, there was increa sin g ta lk of union izin g a mong th e w orker s. 53
QUESTIONS
1. Compare the leadership traits and behav iors o f Ben Samuels and Phil J o nes.
2. Which leader do yo u think is more effective? Wh y? Which lea der wo uld yo u prefer to work for ?
3 . If yo u we re Ph il Jo nes' boss, w hat would you do now?
D. L. WOODSIDE, SUNSHINE SNACKS D. L. Wo odside ha s recently accepted the positi on of resea rch an d deve lopment di rec tor for Sunshine Sn acks, a large snack foo d comp any. W oo dside has been ass istant di rector of research at Skid 's, a competing company, for several years , but it became cl ea r to him that hi s chances of moving hi gh er were slim. So, w hen Sunshine was look ing fo r a new director, Wood side jumped at the chance.
At Skid 's , Woodside had worked his way up fr om the mail ro om , go ing to school at night to obta in first a ba chel or's degree and eventu a ll y a Ph.D . Ma nage ment admired his dri ve and determinati on, as well as his ability to ge t alon g w ith just a bo ut a nyo ne he ca me
, in contact with, and th ey gave him o pportunities to wo rk in va rio us p ositi o ns aro und the compan y over the years. That's w hen he discove red he had a love for developing new prod - ucts. H e had bee n a lmost single-handedly res ponsibl e for introdu cing fo ur new success ful produ ct lines at Skid' s. Woodside's techni cal knowledge and understanding of the needs of th e resea rch and development depa rtment were excellent. In addition, he was a tireless worker-when he started a pro ject , he ra rely rested until it was fi n ished , and finished w ell.
Desp ite his ambition a nd his hard-ch argin g approac h to wor k, Woo dside was con- sid ered an easy-goin g fell ow. H e liked to ta lk and joke a ro un d , and w henever a nyon e ha d a p ro bl em th ey' d come t o W o o dsid e rather th a n go to th e direc tor. Woo dsid e was al w ays willing to li sten to a research ass istan t's perso n a l pro bl ems. Bes ides tha t, he w ould often stay late or come in o n week end s to fini sh an ass istant's work if th e emp loye e was ha ving pro blems a t hom e o r difficult y w ith a p arti cul a r pro ject. Wo odside knew th e direc to r was a hard tas kmaster, and h e didn ' t wa nt anyo ne gettin g into troubl e ove r thin gs they co uldn ' t help. In fact, he' d bee n cove ring th e mi sta kes o f Geo rge , an employee w ho ha d a drinking pro blem, eve r sin ce he'd been app o inted ass ista nt direc- tor. W ell , George was o n his ow n no w . Woo dside had hi s own ca reer to think a bout , and th e position at Sun shine was his chance to fin a ll y lea d a department ra ther than pl ay seco nd fiddl e.
At Sun shine , W oodside is repl ac ing H enry M ead e, wh o h as been t he directo r for almost 30 yea rs. H owever, it seems clea r that Mea de has been slowing down o ver the p as t few ye ars, turning more and more of hi s work ove r to hi s ass istant, Harmon D avis. W hen W oodside was fi r st introduced to the peo ple in the research dep ar tment at Sunshine, he sensed n ot o nly a loyalty to Da vis, w ho' d been pa ssed ove r for th e top jo b beca use of his lack of technical kno w ledge, but also an underc urrent of res ista nce to hi s own se lection as th e new director.