Question

Windwave Ornamental Grass Company (WOGC) has been in business for forty years. The business was started by George Reed as a small producer of ornamental grass used for soil erosion and to provide a maintenance-free ground cover along highway medians and banks. Windwave focuses on two types of grass: Fireweed and Blue Haze. When motorists pass by an area planted in Fireweed, they see a tall grass that resembles embers glowing as the red-bladed grass waves in the wind. Fireweed always garners top prizes for its unique color and hardiness at ornamental grass competitions. Blue Haze on the other hand is Windwave’s sleeper. Blue Haze is a low growing variety that does well in colder climates. When seen along the highway, Blue Haze resembles a blue-gray rolling carpet.

George has seen substantial growth since WOGC’s early days when he developed and propagated each variety of grass himself. With the help of his sons, Paul and Jared, he planted and tended to his stock and created well-thought out marketing materials to introduce the varieties to local and state transportation agencies. Slowly word got around and sales began to climb.

Now, Paul and Jared each supervise a crew of field workers. Paul stood over his workers and was not shy about letting his workers know what needed to be done and how to do it. He wants things done his way and didn’t any pushback from his workers. Jared believes the people doing the work could have helpful ideas to improve efficiency. He was often found working alongside his workers from the start of a job until it is finished.

WOGC wanted to expand the nursery to increase production of Blue Haze and move into new northern markets and had purchased an additional acreage for this purpose. It had been a wet spring delaying the progress on the clearing, tilling and planting the new acreage. Now WOGC was under a tight deadline to get the brush cleared, tilled and Blue Wave planted.

Identify the leadership style for Paul and Jared? Who should George put in charge of the project? Why?

Answer 1

Paul is an autocratic leader because he leads the team by giving clear instructions on what should be done and how to do it. He wants everything to be done on his way and does not accept any input from the workers. It is the trait of autocratic leader to give instructions requiring proper execution without any input from the workers. Jared is a participative leader because he works with the workers from start to finish accepting input from the workers to improve efficiency. In a participative leadership style, the leader takes the role of a coworker and accepts ideas from the employees while making decisions.

George should put Jared in charge of the project because WOGC needs to complete the work under tight deadline which requires employee commitment and ideas from the employees on how to complete the task efficiently. Paul cannot ensure employee commitment because of his autocratic style and he does things in his way without accepting ideas from employees. He only directs and hence may not understand the practical difficulties in performing the tasks and the methods to complete it efficiently. But Jared would have better idea on the same as he works with the workers from start to finish and also accepts ideas from them. The employees would be more committed towards Jared and would help him to complete the task within deadline.