This case deals about the three supervisor, working in a three different shifts in a small manufacturing company and their leadership behaviors which effects to their follower performances.
Issues:
• Workers of first shift are demotivated as they think there work is pretty much repetitive and monotonous.
• Second shift is suffering from high rate of absenteeism and turnover.
• Upper management is not solving the problem of second shift that they are facing on their job.
• Third shifts workers who worked with Carol are not able to adjust in other shifts.
Analysis:
In this case, there are three shifts with three different supervisors. There work is different with each shifts but are related to each other. First shift supervisor Art is directive in nature and often directs his employees to follow the correct procedure even though their work is repetitive in nature and employees doesn’t need to take any decision on that. They are demotivated because of their monotonous job. Second shift supervisor Tom is very much supportive in nature and is always concern about his employees. He enjoys his work and thinks same about his employees. But his shift problem is high rate of absenteeism and turn over which is because of complexity of the task that workers have to do. Third shift supervisor Carol is very different in nature with that of other supervisor. She is mixture of task and people oriented leader. She knows how to lead in a different situation and use the style that best meets subordinates’ motivational needs and demands of the work setting. The problem of the third shifts worker is that they cannot work in other shifts once they have worked under Carol.
Conclusion and Recommendation:
Path-Goal Theory of Leadership formulated by Robert House proposes that the leader can affect the performance, satisfaction, and motivation of a group in different ways: offering rewards for achieving performance goals,