Management Fundamentals 5th Edition by Robert Lussier

Exercise 12

You read about the Vroom participative decision-making model in this chapter. Using the appropriate version of the model (time-driven or development-driven), determine which leadership style to use for each situation below.
Objective
To determine the appropriate leadership style.
Skills
The primary skills developed through this exercise are:
1. Management skill - decision making (conceptual, diagnostic, analytical, critical thinking, and quantitative reasoning)
2. AACSB competency - analytic skills
3. Management function - primarily planning (but decisions are made when organizing, leading, and controlling)
Situation 1
You are the manager of the production department for a company that manufactures a mass-produced product. You have two production machines in your department with ten people working on each. You have an important order that needs to be shipped first thing tomorrow. Your boss has made it very clear that you must meet this deadline. It's 2:00 p.m., and you are right on schedule to meet the order deadline. At 2:15, an employee tells you that one of the machines is smoking a little and making a noise. If you keep running the machine, it may make it until the end of the day and you will deliver the important shipment on time. If you shut down the machine, the manufacturer will not be able to check it until tomorrow and you will miss the deadline. You call your boss, but there is no answer; there is no telling how long it will take for the boss to get back to you if you leave a message. There are no higher-level managers to consult, and no one with more knowledge of the machine than you. Which leadership style should you use?
Step 1. Which version of the model should you use? (__________ time-driven __________ development-driven)
Step 2. How did you answer the model's questions? Did you skip any questions?
Step 3. Which leadership style is the most appropriate?
__________ Decide __________ Consult individuals __________ Consult group __________ Facilitate __________ Delegate
Situation 2
You are the leader of your church, with 125 families (200 members). You have a doctor of religious studies degree with just two years' experience as the head of a church; you have not taken any business courses. The church has one paid secretary, three part-time program directors for religious instruction, music, and social activities, plus many volunteers. The paid staffmembers serve on your advisory board with ten other church members who are primarily business leaders in the community. You develop a yearly budget, which is approved by the advisory board. The church's source of income is weekly member donations. The advisory board doesn't want the church to operate in the red, and the church has very modest surplus funds.
Your volunteer accountant, who is a board member, asks to meet with you. During the meeting, she informs you that weekly collections are down 20 percent below budget and that the cost of utilities has increased 25 percent over the yearly budget figure. You are running a large deficit, and at this rate your surplus will be gone in two months. Which leadership style will you use to address these problems?
Step 1: Which version of the model should you use? (__________ time-driven __________ development-driven)
Step 2: How did you answer the model's questions? Did you skip any questions?
Step 3: Which leadership style is most appropriate?
__________ Decide __________ Consult individuals __________ Consult group __________ Facilitate __________ Delegate
Situation 3
You are the new dean of the school of business at a small private university. The faculty consists of 20 professors, only 2 of whom are nontenured; on average, these faculty members have been at the university for 12 years. You expect to leave this job for one at a larger school in three years. Your primary goal is to start an advisory board for the business school to improve community relations and alumni relations and to raise money for financial aid. As you are new to the area and have no business contacts, you need help to develop a network of alumni and other community leaders fairly quickly if you are to show results at the end of your three years on the job. Members of the faculty get along well and are generally talkative, but when you approach small groups of them, they tend to become quiet and disperse. Which leadership style would you use to achieve your objective?
Step 1: Which version of the model should you use? (___________ time-driven ___________ development-driven)
Step 2: How did you answer the model's questions? Did you skip any questions?
Step 3: Which leadership style is most appropriate?
___________ Decide ___________ Consult individuals ___________ Consult group ___________ Facilitate ___________ Delegate
Situation 4
You are the president of a dot.com company that has been having financial problems for a few years. As a result, your top two managers left for other jobs, one four months ago and the other two months ago. With your networking contacts, you replaced both within a month, but the new managers don't have a lot of time on the job and haven't worked together for very long. They currently have their own individual approaches to getting their jobs done. However, they are both very bright, hardworking, and dedicated to your vision of what the company can be. To turn the company around, you and your two managers will have to work together, with the help of all your employees. Virtually all the employees are hightech specialists who want to be included in decision making. Your business partners have no more money to invest. If you cannot turn a profit in four to five months, you will most likely go bankrupt. Which primary leadership style would you use to achieve your objective?
Step 1: Which version of the model should you use? (______________ time-driven ______________ development-driven)
Step 2: How did you answer the model's questions? Did you skip any questions?
Step 3: Which leadership style is most appropriate?
______________ Decide ______________ Consult individuals ______________ Consult group ______________ Facilitate ______________ Delegate
Apply It
What did I learn from this experience? How will I use this knowledge in the future?
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Your instructor may ask you to do this Skill Builder in class in a group. If so, the instructor will provide you with any necessary information or additional instructions.