Historical Concepts and Theories Case Studies 1

6 Case Studies Historical Concepts and Theories

Delia Cherachera

Trinity Western University

LDRS 302

Professor Micheal Sambrook

April 17 2023
Historical Concepts and Theories Case Studies 2

According to Northouse, leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a

group of individuals to achieve a common goal. Case Study 2.2, A Remarkable turn around

introduces Carol Bairns who took over her husband’s business when he passed away and

managed to grow the business from $200 000 in sales a year to 3.1 million in sales. Carol’s

leadership traits resemble the big five personality factors in how she operated and conducted her

business. Her traits included neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and

conscientiousness .“Kirkpatrick and Locke contended that leadership traits make some people

different from others, and this difference should be recognized as an important part of the

leadership process”(Northouse, 2016).

These traits allowed Carol to recreate the business leading it to success not only in the

business world but with the relationships she developed with her employees. Carol took over the

business without having any experience and managed to learn about the market, competition, and

the business itself. She showed great emotional intelligence when the employees bought into her

new vision for the company. Carol showed perseverance, determination, and genuine concern

toward employees and the business despite her personal hardships. “People have a need to see

their leaders as gifted people” ( Northouse,2016). This allowed her employees to be confident in

her capabilities. Carol also became part of the community by participating in events that meant

something to the people in her community, creating a family-like atmosphere and connecting

with the community. Carol would be a leader in other business contexts because of her ability to

learn, adjust, and create goals for success. She had no knowledge of the industry but was able to

become an influential leader in her business, and managed to put it at the same level where it

outpaced her competitors. Case Study 3.1 A strained research team, introduces Dr. Woods and

his research team and the challenges they are facing. Dr. Woods's leadership skills can be
Historical Concepts and Theories Case Studies 3

described using the three- approaches, it is clear that Dr. Woods possesses technical skills and

has the ability to use his knowledge and competencies to accomplish set goals and objectives as

indicated by previous accomplishments “. It includes competencies in specialized area, analytical

ability, and the ability to use appropriate tools and techniques” (Northouse, ). However, Dr.

Woods lacks human skills because this was his first time working with an entire team, and

seemed to be a challenge for him He lacked self-awareness, becomes defensive, and was

passive-aggressive towards his teams when faced with challenges. He does not pick up on the

team’s emotional cues and does acknowledge the hard work and sacrifices the team is making

toward the project, instead, he is negative about their contribution creating an uncomfortable

atmosphere.

Dr.Wood has some of the skills necessary to be an effective leader, in that he understands

the goals and objectives of the project, and understand the vision, but lacks the tools to reach the

goals. He works diligently to get funding for other costs indicating some level of

problem-solving skills but is unable to organize and manage his team by delegating effectively

and ensuring each team member knows what they should be doing to avoid tasks being left for

him to do. He also failed to motivate his team and continues to undermine their commitment to

the project.

Dr. Woods has two competencies that he needs to improve on and that is problem solving

skills and social judgment. Mr. Woods need to be able to identify issues that are preventing his

team from being cohesive, efficient, and effective, and come up with a plan to address them

“The skills include being able to define significant problems, gather problem information,

formulate new understandings about the problem, and generate prototype plans for problem

solutions”( Northouse, 2016). Including his team as part of problem-solving, allows trust to
Historical Concepts and Theories Case Studies 4

develop and positive professional relationships to form and flourish. Dr. Woods needs to change

his mindset, toward his team and towards himself, consider the efforts of his team, and improve

his communication skills to direct his team properly and delegate duties. Meetings should be

motivational, productive, and innovative, not derogatory towards his team.

Case 4.1 A drill sergeant, Mark exhibits two leadership styles, which are authority

compliance and team management. In the beginning, Mark was task-orientated, and his

leadership style was compliance authority which ensured that tasks were accomplished. “leader

is often seen as controlling, demanding, hard-driving, and overpowering” (Northhouse, 2016).

Given the responsibilities, slim error margin, and the environment, he needed to ensure control,

efficiency, and effectiveness. Over time Mark was able to transition to team management and

trust was established allowing him to make changes in his department and establish positive

relationships with his staff. Mark has learned to balance the tasks and relationships to a point

where they complement each other. Work is being done with the same high quality, but

relationships have also flourished to allow the exchange of ideas, and department growth Mark

would score high because he was able to establish work expectations and goals and meet the

emotional needs of the staff.

Case study 5.3, Getting the message across, Getting the students to understand the legal

responsibilities of being on air is the main problem at WCBA. Every semester, Mrs. Ann could

not understand the reason for this lapse despite her effort of handing out the policy handbook but

she is still having issues with students not following the rules.

Mrs. Ann has to change how she delivers the information in the handbook because

handing the book to students, does not guarantee that students will read the book in order to

understand the rules and regulations. She needs to change her style to S1, this will allow her to
Historical Concepts and Theories Case Studies 5

go through the rules with the students and give proper instructions while monitoring the students

carefully to ensure all instructions are being followed. Students believe that Mrs.Ann recognizes

their qualities, and this has sent a wrong message to the students causing them to ignore the rules

that have to be followed. The students have high motivation, but are not competent, changing

how the information is taught will change their attitude.

Analyzing the development dimension of the SLII model (Northouse, 2016), the students

are excited about their work, but they lack the understanding of job requirements and

expectations of policy and procedures. Once the students are aware of the requirements and

policies, she ensures she is supporting their socio-emotional needs. Mrs. Ann has not changed

her style of providing the information in the handbook despite the challenges she noticed,

Northouse strongly states that being a situational leader, one cannot restrict to one fixed style in

all contexts but need to adapt their styles to the followers and their situations ( Northhouse,

2016). Mrs. Ann should develop an orientation program that is interactive and identifies correct

procedures and consequences if they are not followed. Outlining consequences that may affect

employment status at WCBA would be most favorable as this will affect how rules are observed.

Knowing students at a personal level is still recommended, however, feedback on performance

positive or negative should be included to facilitate changes in behaviors. This will reduce the

amount of FCC infractions at the WCBA.

Case Study 6.1 Three shifts, three supervisors, based on the principles of path-goal

theory, Art and Bob appear to be less effective than Carol, because she demonstrates supportive

leadership within her approach to help her employees perform at their best in various scenarios,

which relates to enhancing the growth and success of the company. Carol offers an opportunity

to work and improve employees' performance and behavior conduct through challenging tasks
Historical Concepts and Theories Case Studies 6

and activities that allow them to contribute and assist in problem-solving any issues on their

shifts. Art’s followers appreciate his involvement in their work but Art failed to recognize the

boredom and unproductiveness of his staff. Despite his hands' own assistance he still has the

lowest output as compared to the other managers. Art’s staff seemed to have a lack of

understanding and uncertainty of expectations and goals, as a result, they have become subdued

with an uninterested attitude toward their assigned task. Bob’s followers appreciate his

friendliness and support, but there is no problem solving despiting the input they have provided,

and do not feel supported or listened to about the challenges they are encountering doing their

job.

Carol’s leadership provides motivation because she is involved as a participative leader,

allows her staff to be involved in decision-making to improve their work, and facilities personal

growth in her staff. Art’s leadership does not provide any motivation but lacks clarity and

defined goals. His leadership does not facilitate any personal growth or involve staff in

exchanging ideas, it is task-oriented but does not address the needs of the staff. Bob seems to

take the socializing route and concentrates his energy on that, it motivates the workers in staying

loyal to him, however, they are struggling to stay on top of issues at work, as Bob ignores their

concerns. If I were consulting Brako about their leadership, I would recommend that Art and

Bob change their leadership skills, to include the employees in problem-solving, especially Bob

who appears to concentrate on socialization and not the goals of the company. Art should meet

with his staff to figure out interactive ways of doing their jobs and changing things up a bit to

maintain motivation and encourage learning.

According to the LMX theory,(Northouse, 2016), Carly believes that developing

relationships with employees determine how productive those employees are. She has developed
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a good relationship with Jack and his team and trust has been established, making Jake’s team

invaluable to Carly, and makes effort to send challenging projects to them knowing they will

deliver. With teams, she has not established a relationship she does not seem to trust them or

offer the same opportunities she does with Jake. Carly has allowed the relationship to determine

different paths for the different teams promoting growth for some and holding back some. She

has greeted an in-group with Jack’s team but has excluded Terri, Julie, and Sarah.

Carly’s relationship with the four groups is both productive and counterproductive, that is

because it produces loyal, trustworthy, and skilled employees who are willing to go above and

beyond for the success of the company but on the other hand it creates unsatisfied employees

such as in the case of Terrie and Julie who believe they have as many capabilities as Jake but are

not given the opportunity to prove themselves. They both feel restricted and have no access to

the manager to receive the same opportunities as Jake. Sarah on the other hand does not want

extra work and is happy to go unnoticed.

Carly should make an effort to acknowledge that she has included in and out groups in

her teams and create an open-door policy to allow the other teams to have access to her. Jake is

comfortable asking for her input and the others are not. Carly needs to communicate with all her

teams and reestablishes relationships with them. Giving equal opportunities to her team members

will change the outcome of how they work and achieve goals. It will also remove the bias of

favoritism, and distrust of their manager promoting healthy competition and allowing the

organization to grow and be successful.

References

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). SAGE.