Question

Ten years ago, Sully Truin formed the Academic Recycling Company (ARC) to offer a specialized waste recycling service to schools and colleges. The company has been very successful and has expanded rapidly. To cope with this expansion, Sully has implemented a tight administrative process for operating and monitoring contracts. This administrative procedure is undertaken by the Contracts Office, who track that collections have been made by the field recycling teams. Sully has sole responsibility for obtaining and establishing recycling contracts, but he leaves the day-to-day responsibility for administering and monitoring the contracts to the Contracts Office. He has closely defined what needs to be done for each contract and how this should be monitored. ‘I needed to do this’, he said, ‘because workers in this country are naturally lazy and lack initiative. I have found that if you don’t tell them exactly what to do and how to do it, then it won’t get done properly.’ Most of the employees working in the Contracts Office like and respect Sully for his business success and ability to take instant decisions when they refer a problem to him. Some of ARC’s employees have complained about his autocratic style of leadership, but most of these have now left the company to work for other organizations. A few months ago, conscious that he was a self-taught manager, Sully enrolled himself on a week’s course with Gapminding, a training consultancy which actively advocates and promotes a democratic style of management. The course caused Sully to question his previous approach to leadership. It was also the first time, for three years, that Sully had been out of the office during working hours for a prolonged period of time. However, each night, while he was attending the course, he had to deal with emails from the Contracts Office listing problems with contracts and asking him what action they should take. He became exasperated by his employees’ inability to take actions to resolve these issues. He discussed this problem with his course . They suggested that his employees would be more effective and motivated if their jobs were enriched and that they were empowered to make decisions themselves. On his return from the course, Sully called a staff meeting with the Contracts Office where he announced that, from now on, employees would have responsibility for taking control actions themselves, rather than referring the problem to him. Sully, in turn, was to focus on gaining more contracts and setting them up. However, problems with the new arrangements arose very quickly. Fearful of making mistakes and unsure about what they were doing led to employees discussing issues amongst themselves at length before coming to a tentative decision. The operational (field) recycling teams were particularly critical of the new approach. One commented that ‘before, we got a clear decision very quickly. Now decisions can take several days and appear to lack authority.’ The new approach also caused tensions and stress within the Contracts Office and absenteeism increased. At the next staff meeting, employees in the Contracts Office asked Sully to return to his old management style and job responsibilities. ‘We prefer the old Sully Truin’, they said, ‘the training course has spoilt you.’ Reluctantly, Sully agreed to their requests and so all problems are again referred up to him. However, he is unhappy with this return to the previous way of working. He is working long hours and is concerned about his health. Also, he realizes that he has little time for obtaining and planning contracts and this is severely restricting the capacity of the company to expand.

QUESTIONS 1. Analyze Sully Truin’s leadership style before and immediately after the training course

. 2. Explain why the change of leadership style at ARC was unsuccessful.

Answer 1

1. Sully Truin the founder of Academic recycling company follows an autocratic style of leadership before the training. Autocratic leaders also are known as authoritarian leaders provide clear expectation what must be done and when it should be done. Sully is managing the business by directing the employees and making decisions unilaterally. He defines what needs to be done for each contract. He also has the sole responsibility for establishing and obtaining recycling contracts. He also tells employees exactly what needs to be done.

Post the training for a short while he follows a democratic style of leadership. Democratic leaders offer guidance to group members. All team members are part of the decision making process. After the training, he empowers employees to make decisions. He asks them to take responsibility and take control of their actions rather than direct all problems and depend on him for decision-making.

1. The democratic leadership style failed at ARC because they are used to Sully making all the decisions. The employees though empowered lacked the confidence to take control. The employees were not allowed the opportunity to think for themselves. The decision making became slow and Sully went back to his old autocratic leadership style. Here we see the employees being unsure and lacking the ability to make decisions as they have not been allowed to take responsibility and feel burdened to take on the new responsibility assigned. Further Sully also seems happy to take on the role and is more comfortable going to older ways of doing business even though it is impacting his health and restricting the business growth.