1. How might top management have done a better job changing Elektra Products into a new kind of organization? What might they do now to get the empowerment process back on track?
2. Can you think of ways in which Barbara could have avoided the problems that her team faced in the meeting with department heads?
3. If you were Barbara, what would you do now? Why?

Barbara Russell, a manufacturing vice president, walked into the monthly companywide meeting with a light step and a hopefulness she hadn’t felt in a long time. The company’s new, dynamic CEO was going to announce a new era of employee involvement and empowerment at Elektra Products, an 80-year-old, publicly held company that once had been a leading manufacturer and retailer of electrical products and supplies. In recent years, the company experienced a host of problems: Market share was declining in the face of increased foreign and domestic competition; new product ideas were few and far between; departments such as manufacturing and sales barely spoke to one another; morale was at an all-time low, and many employees were actively seeking other jobs. Everyone needed a dose of hope.