Reference no: EM132824050

How would you describe Galwal's leadership style(s)? Why? Do you think this/these leadership style(s) is/are beneficial to the organization? Why or why not? Describe the difference between transactional and transformational leaders. Is Galwal transactional or transformative? Support your position. Why is it important for supervisors to be flexible in their leadership styles?

Case:
As chief executive chef of a national themed restaurant chain hoping to go international in the next five years, Koptra Galwal worked hard to inspire the restaurant's employees. He planned to expand the number of restaurants, improve profitability, and enhance all aspects of
customer service. His active leadership style matches his big plans, but many have commented on his ability to lead from both directions. That is, he inspires people from the top-down, and from the bottom up.

Galwal's top-down style was evident in his approach to the assessment of organizational decisions. His bottom-up approach was shown as he recruited from the nationwide chain of restaurants to find employees willing to participate in and report on benchmarking customer service, menu items, and competitive advantages. He knew in his heart that employees working in the company's restaurants were the ones who innovated on a daily basis, as he once had while working as a chef in the back of the house.

Galwal is confident working simultaneously in multiple directions, but not all of his supervisory management team was. It took a while for everyone to adjust to information flowing in from far-flung locations and from the bottom up as well as the top-down, but eventually, the culture took hold in the organization. His supervisors were also encouraged to develop and implement new ideas to add to the corporate body of knowledge. He sets the direction but he believes in the process he has developed and so he lets his people run with their ideas.
Galwal is also a stickler for detail. He reviewed companywide training procedures for front-of-the-house employees and found wide variation in the normative behaviours of multiple locations of the restaurant chain. He sought input then designed the menu as well as the script for hosts and hostesses in his restaurants in an attempt to provide a feeling of familiarity for customers regardless of where in the country they dined. He established back- of-the-house procedures for cooks and food prep and sanitation employees based on his considerable personal experience in the foodservice industry.