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IS371 WEEK 7 Debate Preview A little
Leadership Exercise
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A little exercise . . . You have just become
the manager of the help desk. it is your first
managerial position.  Your background has been
as a lead analyst on the enterprise suite that is
used by 90 of the firm (only one location has
not gone online). There are 12 people in the
help desk group. Based on the Flamholtz
framework, what would you first want to know
about the staff? Why?  Should you ask others
about the staff before you meet them? Pros and
cons? What leadership style would you use when
you first meet with the group? Why?
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Another little exercise . . . Your friend, Billy
was recently promoted to Supervisor. Billy tells
you that he is having problems and he hopes you
can help. Billy gives you three examples. Use
the Flamholtz model to analyze each of the three
examples.   Example 1. I hired a new staff
assistant, Elaine, but she made a lot of mistakes
and it didnt work out. Elaine was fresh out of
high school and didnt have any experience or
training as an administrative assistant, but she
really wanted the job and I needed someone right
away. Administrative Assistant is a clerical job
and is very structured. When Elaine started I
went over the general goals of the job but I
didnt see any reason to go into a lot of
details.   What leadership style is Billy
using?   What leadership style should Billy
use?  
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Example 2. Murray, the technology planner, has
been doing this complex and unstructured job for
6 years. Murray is very thorough and does an
excellent job. Technology planning is pretty
important so I asked Murray to give me daily
reports on his activities and to check with me
before making any decisions. This seemed to
really upset him.   What leadership style
is Billy using?   What leadership style
should Billy use?  
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Example 3. Twice a month we need someone to come
to work on Saturday and Sunday to process data
from our overseas office. Scheduling this
responsibility among the staff can be a very
complex process and we need to be very careful to
treat people fairly. Natalie, the previous
department manager, always let the staff prepare
the weekend schedule by themselves. This
approach worked very well, but I wanted to be
sure that there wouldnt be any problems. I
worked for two weeks and made up a detailed
weekend schedule for the next six months. I
thought the staff would like the schedule and
thank me for my work, but they were very
upset.   What leadership style is Billy
using?   What leadership style should Billy
use?
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Who is Warren Bennis?
A CLASSIC