Study Case chapter 9

Having been offered some very attractive extra retire-ment benefits by top management, Arthur agreed to take early retirement at age 62. Once an ambitious young junior executive for the company, Arthur had, in recent years, taken a rather relaxed, anything-goes attitude as director of his division. As a result, his team showed the lowest productivity record in the company, and the employees under his supervision did not receive attractive salary increments and other rewards from top management. Morale was very low, and the employees were discontented. Hoping to rejuvenate the group, management re-placed Arthur with an extremely bright, dynamic, and aggressive young manager named Marilyn. Marilyn's instructions were: "Get your team's productivity up by 20 percent over the next 12 months, or we'll fire the whole group and start from scratch, with a new man-ager and new employees." Marilyn began by studying the records of em-ployees in her group to determine the strengths and weaknesses of each. She then created goals and objectives for each employee and made assignments accordingly. She set a rigid timetable for each em-ployee and made all employees directly accountable to her. Employee response was overwhelmingly posi-tive. Out of chaos came order. Each person knew what was expected and had tangible goals to achieve. Employees felt united behind their new leader as they all strove to achieve their objective of a one-year, 20 percent increase in productivity. At the end of the year, productivity was up not 20 percent but 35 percent! Management was thrilled and awarded Marilyn a large raise and the company's certificate of achievement. All of her team members received a handsome bonus. Feeling that she had a viable formula for success, Marilyn moved into the second year as she had into the firstsetting goals for each employee, holding them accountable, and so forth. However, things went less smoothly the second year. Employees who had been quick to respond the first year were less respon-sive. Although the work Marilyn assigned was usually completed on time, its quality declined. Employees had a morale problem: Those who had once looked up to Marilyn as "Boss" were now sarcastically calling her "Queen Bee" and reminiscing about "the good old days" when Arthur was their manager. Marilyn's behavior as a manager had not changed, yet her leadership was no longer effective. Something needed to be done, but what? Questions for Analysis 1. What are the important elements to consider when diagnosing Marilyn's leadership problem? How would you describe her leadership style? 2. What situational variables changed from the first to the second year of Marilyn's leadership? 3. Why was Marilyn's leadership successful in the first year but not in the second? 4. How did team goals change from the first to the second year? How about stress levels? Were they the same, or did they change? 5. What would you recommend to Marilyn to help her be more successful? First, use David Korten's model and language to make your recommenda-tions. Then, make recommendations based on the Hersey and Blanchard mode