Frances Workman Case Study

The Two Presidents

Facts | Qualitative Statements | Problem Identification | Frances Workman had been president of Willard university for less than two years. | Frances was excellent speaker. | Frances was so busy with the external matters that she had little time to bother with the daily operations of the university. | She made the major operational decisions | She worked hard to build positive image of Willard university. | Alvin was not an effective speaker and did not spend much time dealing with the external affairs of the university. | She delegated the responsibility for daily operations to her three major vice presidents. | She started a new alumni club to help finance academic needs | Eastern was not involved in external funded research | Alvin Thomas was the president of Eastern state for about three years. | Alvin was not as popular as Frances | Faculty morale was declining in Eastern and faculty members did not believe they had an important
voice in the administration. | Frances efforts resulted in the increase in enrollment of more than a thousand students in the last year. | Al spend much of the time working on the internal operation of the university | Eastern was under censure by the AAUP and that the university had a large number of students without adequate faculty. | Willard received the largest budget increase ever from the state university board. | Al was committed in developing a quality university. | | Funds from alumni club totaled almost $2million in its first year. | She also worked on the internal structure of the organization. | | Eastern student enrollment declined slightly by almost 300 students. | | |
Question 1) Based on the information provided attempt to describe Frances and Al’s leadership styles.
Ans: Frances was considered as a transformational leader as case clearly highlights that she helped Willard over some its old problems. She was an excellent speaker and used every opportunity to speak to citizen groups statewide. Apart, from that she was worked hard to build good relationships with major politicians and business leaders in the state. Before arrival of Frances Willard had low faculty morale and poor public image but as Frances arrived she worked hard to build positive image. She worked on the internal structure as well as the external matters and also started a new alumni club. The results of her effort included the increase in enrollment and apart from that Willard received largest budget increase. Al’s leadership style was more of like a transactional leader. He delegated much of the responsibility to a vice president. He had high performance expectations from his staff and at the end of the day he reviewed every major decision made in the university but expected his vice president and deans to implement it effectively.

Question 2) What are the important factors that the leaders of Willard and Eastern must consider in order to be effective?
Ans: The important factor that the leaders of Willard should take into consideration is that she should delegate the authority not to just three presidents of the university but should also delegate it to others. Apart from that Frances is focusing more towards external affairs rather than internal affairs. Therefore, she needs to focus on internal affairs also. On the other hand Al delegated the duty to just a vice president he should involve faculty in the decision making also in order to improve their morale.

Question 3) Compare and contrast France’s and Al’s effectiveness as leaders of their respective universities.
What did each do well? What could each have done to be more effective?
Ans: Frances is a successful leader as she is excellent speaker, and she builds good relationship with politicians. When she came to Willard its public image improved remarkably. But the problem with Frances was that she didn’t focus on the quality of the education. Alvin was more of like an effective manager rather than a leader as the case highlights that he was no particularly effective speaker and he did not spend much time in dealing the external affairs of the university. He had more of like an authoritative leadership style. In order for Alvin to be more effective he needs to motivate his faculty. He should delegate more authority to the faculty and should speak to them in order to improve the image of university. Therefore, Al was more of like a good manager rather than a leader where Frances was an excellent
leader.