Review CASE: DGL INTERNATIONAL and discuss below:
When DGL International, a manufacturer of refinery equipment, brought in John Terrill to manage its technical services division, company executives informed him of the urgent situation. Technical services, with 20 engineers, was the highest-paid, best-educated and least productive division in the company. The instructions to Terrill: turn it around. Terrill called a meeting of the engineers. He showed great concern for their personal welfare and asked point blank: What's the problem? Why can't we produce?
Why does this division have such turnover?
Without hesitation, employees launched a hail of complaints. ‘I was hired as an engineer, not a pencil pusher', and ‘We spend over half our time writing asinine reports in triplicate for top management, and no one reads the reports'.
After a two-hour discussion, Terrill concluded he had to get top management off the engineers' backs. He promised the engineers, ‘My job is to stay out of your way so you can do your work, and I'll try to keep top management off your backs too'. He called for the day's reports and issued an order effective immediately that the originals be turned in daily to his office rather than mailed to headquarters. For three weeks, technical reports piled up on his desk. By month's end, the stack was nearly a meter high. During that time no one called for the reports. When other managers entered his office and saw the stack, they usually asked, ‘What's all this?'
Terrill answered: ‘Technical Reports'. No one asked to read them.
Finally, at month's end, a secretary from finance called and asked for the monthly travel and expense report. Terrill responded, ‘Meet me in the president's office tomorrow morning'.
The next morning the engineers cheered as Terrill walked through the department pushing a cart loaded with the enormous stack of reports. They knew the showdown had come.
Terrill entered the CEO's office and placed the stack of reports on his desk. The CEO and other senior executives looked bewildered.
‘This', Terrill announced, ‘is the reason for the lack of productivity in the technical services division. These are the reports you people require every month. The fact that they sat on my desk all month shows that no one reads this material. I suggest that the engineers' time could be used in a more productive manner, and that one brief monthly report from my office will satisfy the needs of other departments'.
1. What leadership style did John Terrill use? What do you think was his primary source of power? Discuss these two issues.
2. Based on the Hersey-Blanchard theory, should Terrill have been less participative? Should he have initiated more task structure for the engineers? Explain and discuss these two issues.
3. What leadership approach would you have taken in this situation? Discuss this issue.
Source: Samson, D & Daft, RL 2012, Management: Fourth Asia Pacific Edition, Cengage Learning, Australia, p587.
Requirements:
The following are guidelines which must help you as you plan and undertake your assignment:
• You are asked to carefully study the case as presented, and to research and read as much as you can from literature sources that relate to the various concepts evident in the case. Literature sources can include textbooks, academic papers and business journal papers. You may wish to use these reference sources to support the discussion you present in your assignment paper, as you respond to the three questions
• Identification: Please include your name and ID number at the top of the first page of your assignment paper
• Headers and footers are not necessary
• You may compile a nice cover page of your own for your assignment if you would like to - but do not include it in the word count.
• Word count: 2000 words, plus or minus
• Assignment weighting:
• References: 5 references minimum, 9 references maximum. Use Harvard Referencing Guide UniSA protocol. Do not include references in the introduction or conclusion of your assignment
• Assignment structure: Structure your assignment in the following manner:
o Introduction - this is a general introduction for the whole assignment. Do not have an introduction for each question. Approximately
o Discussion - discuss each of the three questions in sequence. There is no need to type out each question, just sub-head ‘Question 1' etc.
o Conclusion - this is a general conclusion for the whole assignment.
• Assignment format and presentation:
o Create your responses to the questions in prose style (essay), not dot points
o Times New Roman
o 12 point
o 1.5 line spacing
o Use margins so as markers can write comments in your assignment
o Word count - calculate the assignment word count and place after the conclusion and before your list of references. If you prefer not to include in-text referencing within the word count then please indicate this - it is permissible and useful if you are concerned about total word count for the assignment.