Reference no: EM133293725

Leadership Case Problem A

Ray, the Empowered Athletic Club Director

Ray was moving along well in his career in sports administration, having graduated from college with a degree in sports and health administration five years ago. He spent the first two years after graduation working as a fitness instructor at one health and fitness club. Ray then found a position as an assistant manager at a chain of athletic clubs, Modern Fitness. The manager suddenly resigned to move to an athletic club in Las Vegas. Ray was then asked by the CEO of the chain to accept the position as manager of the local Modern Fitness. The CEO, Larry, said to Ray, "You've got the smarts and the charisma to great job as manager." Ray was flattered, and he saw the management position as a splendid opportunity to make a contribution in his chosen field.

Five months into the job, all was going well with the Modern Fitness staff. The group appeared to be well motivated, customer complaints were at a minimum, and only one person had quit voluntarily. Yet the local Modern Fitness was facing a problem of declining club enrollment, rather than experiencing growth. New club memberships enrollments were not coming in fast enough to make up for existing members not renewing their enrollment.

Larry, who carefully reviewed enrollment data each month, scheduled a meeting at Ray's club to discuss the enrollment picture. Larry told Ray that he was pleased with the operations of the club, but not with the enrollment figures. "I am empowering you to boost enrollment to a net gain," said Larry, "do what you need to do."

Ray replied, "Larry I am doing all I can. We send out flyers. We advertise on social media. We encourage word-of-mouth advertising. This town is saturated with athletic and fitness clubs. It's tough for our Modern Fitness club to get a bigger market share. What advice can you give me to boost enrollment?"

Larry responded, "Ray you are empowered as the manager to boost enrollment working within your advertising budget. Boosting enrollment is your responsibility, not mine. We'll talk about your enrollment figures again in thirty days."

How effective is Larry's approach to empowering Ray to boost enrolment?

Which political tactic or tactics do you recommend Ray to use to deal effectively with his empowering boss?

What might Larry do to help Ray boost enrolment, within the limits of empowerment?

Leadership Case Problem B

Team Leader Tanya Wants to Be Truthful

Tanya is the team leader of a cross-functional product-development group in a consumer products company. The group meets from time to time to discuss new ideas for products. Another of its key activities is to help develop a product after agreement is reached by higher-level management that a product idea is worth pursuing. Tanya enjoys her role as the leader of a cross-functional team, and she hopes to use the experience as a springboard to a marketing executive position.

Tanya prides herself in being candid and direct in her interactions with coworkers in marketing department in which she works as a senior marketing analyst and assistant to the department head. Tanya is also proud of how she is candid in her interactions with members of the product-development team.

Two weeks ago, the team was meeting to discuss the merits of introducing a multifruit flavored energy drink to the market. The CEO was attending this particular meeting to get a direct feel for how the product-development team operates. Ten minutes into the meeting Tanya said, "We have to carefully evaluate whether an energy drink has any chances of success. As we all know, our company has had far too many flops. I remember we once introduced an instant-spaghetti product to the market that was a total bomb. I think we lost $10 million on that idea, and we were ridiculed by food critics." In response to Tanya's comment, the CEO shook his head from side to side but made no spoken response.

One week ago, Tanya posted the following comment on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: "Name of company is getting ravaged by house brands. But not to worry, we make a lot of those house brands for large supermarket chains and bog box discounters." The vice president of marketing, asked a staff member to investigate whether Tanya was really the person responsible for this post, and to report back to her with the answer.

At a product-development meeting today, a food-packaging scientist named Obdu Wobegun attended because there would be some key issues about package design likely to surface. Tanya welcomed Obdu to the meeting, and then asked, "Obdu are you sure you are a United States citizen? We can't afford to have any foreign spies at our meeting."

Later today, Tanya received a text message from her immediate manager Gus that read: "We must talk in person. You are out of control."

In what ways might Tanya be committing political blunders?

If Tanya is committing political blunders, to what extent might they hinder her chances of becoming a vice president of marketing?

How should Tanya's boss deal with her with respect to the type of political blunders she has committed?