CASE STUDIES

Case Study 1: LEADERSHIP

Laura is the Associate Director of a non-profit agency that provides assistance to children and
families. She is the head of a department that focuses on evaluating the skill-building programs
the agency provides to families. She reports directly to the agency leadership. As a whole, the
agency has been cautious in hiring this year because of increased competition for federal grant
funding. However, they have also suffered high staff turnover. Two directors have left as well as
three key research staff and one staff person from the finance department. Laura has a
demanding schedule that requires frequent travel; however, she supervises two managers who
in turn are responsible for five staff members each. Both managers have been appointed within
the last six months.

Manager 1: Kelly has a specific background in research. She manages staff that provide
research support to another department that delivers behavioral health services to youth. Kelly
supports her staff and is very organized; however, she often takes a very black and white view
of issues. Upper level leadership values Kelly’s latest research on the therapeutic division’s
services. Kelly is very motivated and driven and expects the same from her staff.

Manager 2: Linda has a strong background in social science research and evaluation. She
manages staff that work on different projects within the agency. She is known as a problem
solver and is extremely supportive of her staff. She is very organized and has a wealth of
experience in evaluation of family services. Linda is very capable and can sometimes take on
too much.

The managers are sensing that staffs are becoming over worked as everyone takes on increased
responsibilities due to high staff turnover. Staffs have also mentioned that Laura’s “glass half-
empty” conversation style leaves them feeling dejected. In addition, Laura has not shared
budgets with her managers, so they are having difficulty appropriately allocating work to staff.
Laura said she has not received sufficient information from the finance department to complete
the budgets. The finance department said they have sent her all the information they have
available. As staff become distressed, the managers are becoming frustrated. They feel like they
are unable to advocate for their staff or problem solve without key information like the
departmental budget.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Q. 1.How can Laura most effectively use both management and leadership skills in her role as
associate director? What combination of the two do you think would work best in this setting?
Q. 2. What steps could be taken to build staff confidence?

Q. 3.What advice would you give Laura on improving her leadership skills and to the managers
on improving their management skills?

Case Study 2- Decision Making:

Let us examine the problem faced by Mr. Nataraj, Regional Manager of Alpha Pvt. Ltd. Alpha
makes and distributes products from more than 10international pharmaceutical and health
care companies. Mr. Nataraj is responsible for managing existing clients and also to get new
clients. He manages a number of sales representatives. Important customers have dedicated
sales representatives, while other sales representatives try to get new clients. One day an
important customer (Good Health Hospital) called Mr. Nataraj and complained that Mr. Bhavan
(the sales representative) was ineffective and insisted he be removed, or else they would not
give any business. Here are Mr. Nataraj's thoughts: • The track record of Mr. Bhavan was good
and he was liked within the company. Dismissing him or even transferring him to a new region
will affect the morale of the work force. •Good health hospitals is a major customer and gives
good business. Losing the hospital is not an option. Therefore the demands of the hospital
have to be met.

Q.1. If You were Mr. Natraj, how will you solve this issue? Here are some sample options:
1.Good Health Hospital is a major customer and cannot be displeased. I will remove or transfer
Mr. Bhavan.

2.Mr. Bhavan is a loyal and hard working. I need to keep people like him even if it means
loosing customers.

3.I will stop answering calls, act ignorant of the whole episode. 'Time will solve the problem'.

4.I will try to get Mr. Bhavan and the Hospital Superintendent together for discussion and try
to compromise over the differences.

5.I will move Mr. Bhavan to a new and more importa no problem with the new sales
representative.

SWOT analysis example Here's a sample SWOT analysis for an online tailored shirt business.
Although many more factors came up during brainstorming, these were deemed to be the most
important. S = Strengths W = Weaknesses O = Opportunities T = Threats Strengths
Locally made shirts mean faster turnaround on orders Many repeat customers who promote
the business Good search engine rankings drive free traffic Weaknesses Pricing on locally made
shirts is not competitive  Higher costs mean fewer fabric options due to inventory costs .
Customers don't like taking their own measurements Opportunities Using technology to
simplify the measurement process could increase conversions  New paid advertising channels
such as Instagram and Pinterest could be effective Custom made clothing is currently trending
Threats Several competitors are currently undercutting prices  Website is difficult to use on a
mobile device even though mobile traffic is increasing A strong dollar could drive down
international sales.

Case study 3. - Business opportunity with SWOT analysis

Syed runs his own enterprise in an area on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He manages a
collective of people with disabilities who make Bangladeshi puppets in a traditional style,
mainly selling to tourists through local shops, and pays them a basic salary as well as a profit
share. The puppets are all made to Syed’s own designs, and are quite different to the standard
items in most tourist stores. His quirky designs and their popularity with shoppers have come to
the attention of Muhammad, who runs a relatively large factory producing puppets and other
tourist-friendly wares. Muhammad approaches Syed to suggest that he buy his enterprise,
including his designs, and that Syed and his employees all come and work at Muhammad’s
factory. He is offering a lot of money, and Syed doesn’t know whether he wants to maintain his
independence or go for the security offered by a lump cash sum and guaranteed employment.
He uses a SWOT analysis to take a snapshot of his current situation and help him consider the
decision:

STRENGTHS : My designs are popular and sell well.  I have a small skilled work force of
committed colleagues and we work well together. I am independent and can make my own
decisions about my business. I have a good relationship with local traders based on mutual
trust and respect. We can respond quickly to trends for example last year suddenly everyone
was selling baby horse puppets and we got our new design into the shops within a weak. We
work from a room in my own home which is very convenient for family commitment.

OPPORTUNITIES : Several new stores have made enquiries about carrying our lines. Tourist
likes to support social enterprises we could put more emphasis on this element of our brand.
We recently had an enquiry about exports quantities A new NGO in the area is offering
financial support to help grow social enterprises.

WEAKNESSES : My employees are dependent on me and if something happened to me their

families would suffer. Likewise I am dependent on them – if one were to leave it would take
time to recruiter and train someone new and our output would fall significantly. The business is
still young and cash flow makes it hard to expand as quickly as I’d like.

THREATS : We are dependent on one key supplier for our raw materials and he is becoming
increasingly unreliable. Competitors who use factory production are able to charge cheaper
prices for their goods.
Case Study 4 - PERCEPTION

Krishnamurthy, plant manager of frame manufacturing company, is the chairperson of the ad

hoc committee for space utilization. The committee is made up of various departmental heads
of the company. The general manager of the company has given MURTHY the responsibility for
seeing whether the various office, operations and warehouse facilities of the company are
being optimally utilized. The company is beset by rising costs and the need for more space.
However, before Okaying an expensive addition to the plant, the general manager wants to be
sure that the currently available space is being utilized properly. MURTHY opened up the first
committee meeting by Reiterating the charge of the committee. Then MURTHY asked the
members if they had any initial observations to make. The first to speak was the office manager.
He stated “well I Know we are using every possible inch of room that we have available to us.
But when I walk out into the plant I see lot of open spaces. We have people piled on top of one
another, but out in the plant there seems to be plenty of room.” the production manager
quickly replied, “We do not have a lot of space. You office people have the luxury facilities. My
supervisors don’t even have room for descend a file cabinet. i have repeatedly told the plant
manager we need more space. After all, our operation determines whether this plant succeeds
or fails, not like you people in the front office pushing paper around.’ MURTHY interrupted at
this point and said, “Obviously we have different interpretations of the space utilization around
here. Before further discussion I think it would be best if we have some objective facts to work
with. I am going to ask the industrial engineer to provide us with some statistics on plant and
office layouts before our next meeting. Today’s meeting is adjourned

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSIONS

1. WHAT PERCEPTUAL PRINCIPLES ARE EVIDENT IN THIS CASE ?

2.WHAT CONCEPT WAS BROUGHT OUT WHEN THE PRODUCTION MANAGER LABELLED THE
OFFICE PERSONNELA BUNCH OF “PAPER PUSHERS” ?
3.DO YOU THINK THAT MURTHY’S APPROACH TO GETTING “OBJECTIVE FACTS” FROM
STATISTICS ON PLANT AND OFFICE LAYOUT WILL AFFECT THE PERCEPTIONS OF THE OFFICE AND
PRODUCTION MANAGERS

4. IF YOU WERE IN MURTHY’S POSITION, HOW WOULD YOU HAVE HANDLED THE SITUATION ?

Case Study 5:

Training One Monday morning Sanjay Nagpal, a recent recruit from a reputed management
institute in Chennai walked into the sales office at Manipal as a new sales trainee. Raghavan,
the zonal sales manager for a large computer hardware firm was there to greet him. Raghavan’s
job consisted of overseeing the work of sales officers, field executives and trainee salesman
numbering over 50 of three areas namely Manipal, Bangalore. Trivandrum. The sales growth of
computers, parts and other office equipments in his area was highly satisfactory, especially in
recent years – thanks to the developmental initiatives taken by respective state government in
spreading computer education in office, schools, college, banks and other institutions.
Raghavan had collected several sales reports, catalogues, and pamphlets describing in detail
the types of office equipment sold by the company. After a pleasure chat about their
backgrounds, Raghavan gave sanjay the collected material and showed him to his assigned
desk. Thereafter Raghavan excused himself and did not return

Q: what do you think about Raghavan’s approach for training Programme?

new trainee Sanjay Nagpal by giving him complete freedom to handle his assigned work.

Case Study-6: Motivation at Xerox

As of 2010, Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) is a $22 billion, multinational company

founded in 1906 and operating in 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk,
Connecticut, and employs 130,000 people. How does a company of such size and
magnitude effectively manage and motivate employees from diverse backgrounds and
experiences? Such companies depend on the productivity and performance of their
employees. The journey over the last 100 years has withstood many successes and
 failures. In 2000, Xerox was facing bankruptcy after years of mismanagement, piles of
debt, and mounting questions about its accounting practices.

Anne Mulcahy turned Xerox around. Mulcahy joined Xerox as an employee in 1976 and
moved up the corporate ladder, holding several management positions until she
became CEO in 2001. In 2005, Mulcahy was named by Fortune magazine as the
second most powerful woman in business. Based on a lifetime of experience with
Xerox, she knew that the company had powerful employees who were not motivated
when she took over. Mulcahy believed that among other key businesses changes,
motivating employees at Xerox was a key way to pull the company back from the brink
of failure. One of her guiding principles was a belief that in order to achieve customer
satisfaction, employees must be interested and motivated in their work. Mulcahy not
only successfully saw the company through this difficult time but also was able to create
a stronger and more focused company.

In 2009, Mulcahy became the chairman of Xerox’s board of directors and passed the
torch to Ursula Burns, who became the new CEO of Xerox. Burns became not only the
first African American woman CEO to head a Standard & Poor’s (S&P) company but
also the first woman to succeed another woman as the head of an S&P 100 company.
Burns is also a lifetime Xerox employee who has been with the company for over 30
years. She began as a graduate intern and was hired full time after graduation. Because
of her tenure with Xerox, she has close relationships with many of the employees, which
provides a level of comfort and teamwork. She describes Xerox as a nice family. She
maintains that Mulcahy created a strong and successful business but encouraged
individuals to speak their mind, to not worry about hurting one another’s feelings, and to
be more critical.

Burns explains that she learned early on in her career, from her mentors at Xerox, the
importance of managing individuals in different ways and not intentionally intimidating
people but rather relating to them and their individual perspectives. As CEO, she wants
to encourage people to get things done, take risks, and not be afraid of those risks. She
motivates her teams by letting them know what her intentions and priorities are. The
correlation between a manager’s leadership style and the productivity and motivation of
employees is apparent at Xerox, where employees feel a sense of importance and a
part of the process necessary to maintain a successful and profitable business. In 2010,
Anne Mulcahy retired from her position on the board of directors to pursue new projects.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. How do you think Xerox was able to motivate its employees through the crisis it
faced in 2000?
2. How does a CEO with such a large number of employees communicate priorities
to a worldwide workforce?
3. How might Ursula Burns motivate employees to take calculated risks?
4. Both Anne Mulcahy and Ursula Burns were lifetime employees of Xerox. How
does an organization attract and keep individuals for such a long period of time?