Reference no: EM132651678

Answer the questions below relating to this case study:

Sparks would fly every time there was a meeting of executive housekeepers from the different hotels, particularly between Frieda and Consuela. Frieda was a legend. She had been with the company for 12 years and had worked her way up the housekeeping hierarchy to become a domineering, no-nonsense manager. She told the others that her style was not negotiable. She was working with a group of low-level, low-skilled employees from a wide range of cultural backgrounds who had no career aspirations. She accepted that staff turnover would always be high in the housekeeping department and insisted that this should be taken into account when dealing with staff. She said that she needed to be tough and task orientated - she and her staff were there to get the job done and not to socialise. They all had families to go home to. Consuela, on the other hand, was an ex-school teacher and a people-focused person. She and Frieda had major discussions about 'team building' and providing support for staff self-development. Frieda always told Consuela she was wasting her time. Housekeeping was too busy, with too much pressure, to suit anything but an autocratic (authoritarian) style.

1. Define all the styles of leadership outlined in the above case study:

2. Whose approach do you favour, Frieda's or Consuela's? Please explain your answer using the concepts you learnt about leadership styles :

3. Given that most operations have certain periods in which work pressures are extremely high, how do you think that this should be taken into account by supervisors when thinking about their leadership style?