BBA3351 Leadership Unit I & Unit II Assessments
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CHAPTER 3: CONTINGENCY APPROACHES TO LEADERSHIP
Leadership Development: Cases for Analysis
ALVIS CORPORATION Kevin McCa rthy is the manager of a production department in Alvis Corporation , a firm th a t manufactures office equipment. After read ing an a rticle that stressed the benefits of participa- tive management, Kevin believes that these benefits co uld be rea lized in his department if th e workers are a llowed to participate in making some decisions that affect them. The workers are not unionized. Kevi n se lected two decisions for his experiment in participative management.
The first dec isio n invo lved vacation sc hedules . Each s ummer the workers are given two wee ks' vacatio n , but no more than t wo wo rkers can go on vacation at the sa me time. In pr ior years , Kev in m ade thi s dec ision himse lf. H e wo uld first ask the workers to indi ca te th eir p referred da tes, and he con sidered h ow the work wou ld be affected if different peop le were o ut at the same time. It was important to plan a vacation sc hed ul e th a t wo uld en sure adeq uate staffing for a ll of the essentia l operati o ns performed by the depa rtment. W hen more than two workers wa nted the same time period , and they had simil ar skill s, h e usu - a ll y gave prefe rence to the wor kers wi th the hig hes t produ ctivity.
The second dec isio n in vo lved production sta nda rds. Sa les had been increas ing steadily ove r th e pa st few yea rs, and the co mp any recently insta ll ed some new equipm ent to in crease producti vity. The new equipm ent wo uld a llow Kevin's de partment to produce more w ith th e same number o f workers. The company had a pa y incentive sys tem in w h ic h wo rk ers recei ve d a piece rate for each unit produced above a standard a mount. Separate standard s ex isted for eac h type of product, based on an indu str ial engineering stud y co n- du cted a few yea rs ea rlier. Top management wanted to readjust the production sta nd a rd s to reflect the fact that the new equipment made it possible for th e w orkers to earn more witho ut wo rking any har der. T he savings fr o m hig her product ivity were nee ded to help pa y for the new equipm ent.
Kev in ca ll ed a I)1 ee ting of his 15 wo rkers an hou r befo re the end of the wo rkd ay. He exp lain ed that h e wa nted them to disc uss the two iss ues and make recomm endation s. Kev in figured that the wo rkers might be inhibited a bo ut part icip ating in th e di sc uss ion if he we re prese nt, so he left th em a lone to di sc uss th e issues. Bes ides, Kev in had an appo int- ment to meet wit h th e qu a lit y cont rol man ager. Qual ity prob lems had in creased afte r t he new equipment was in sta ll ed , and the ind ustria l eng ineers we re stud ying t he pro blem in a n attempt to determin e w hy quality had go tten worse rat her than better.
\V' hen Kevin returned to his departm ent just a t quitting tim e, he was surpri sed to lea rn that th e wor kers reco mmend ed keep ing t he stand ards t he sa me. H e had ass um ed they kn ew the pay in ce nti ves we re n o longer fa ir an d wou ld se t a higher sta nd a rd. T he s pokesman for th e gro up exp la in ed that their base pay had not kept up w ith infla ti o n a nd the hig her ince nti ve pa y restored their rea l income to its prior leve l.
On th e vaca ti o n iss ue, the gro up was dea dlocke d. Seve ral of th e workers wa nted to take their vaca ti ons durin g the same two-week per iod a nd co uld not agree on w ho sho uld go. So me worke rs arg ued that th ey sh o uld have priority because they had more se nio rit y, w hereas o th ers arg ued th a t priority shou ld be based on productivity, as in th e past. Since it was quitt ing time, the g rou p co ncluded th at Ke vin would have to reso lve th e di spute himself. After a ll, wasn' t that w ha t he was being paid for? 33
QUESTIONS
I . Ana lyze this situation using the H ersey-Bla nchard mode l a nd the Vroom-Jago mod el. What do these mod els sugges t as the appropriate lea dershi p or dec ision sty le? Explain.
2. Eva luate Kevin McCa rthy's lea ders hip sty le before a nd during his experim ent in p ar- ticip a ti ve ma nageme nt.
3. If yo u we re Kevin McCa rth y, wha t wo ul d yo u do now? W hy?
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