Martha couldn’t help but notice the various grimaces on her employee’s faces as she gave out instructions that morning. She carefully explained in which order the windows should be cleaned and which safety harnesses they should use. She decided to improve their attitude with a promise.

“Hey,” she told her six-person crew, “if you do a good job, tomorrow’s coffee is on me.” She had expected a cheer or at least a few smiles but all she got was bored looks and rolled eyes. Martha decided to just let it go and get on with the workday.

She couldn’t believe how different her work experiences were last summer and this summer. She had worked for exactly the same company this year doing the same job, so she had no idea why things were turning out so differently.

Martha was a site supervisor for a window washing company that operated in the summer months, employing significant numbers of students. It was her job to direct and train new hires, plan the day’s work, assign tasks, and make sure everyone complied with safety regulations.

She also helped with the actual work. Martha had been given the supervisory role after her first year of college, after having worked there for three summers while in high school.

Her first summer as a site supervisor had been great! She had had a team of six high school students aged 15 and 16, four female and two male, for most of whom this was their first real job. Many of them were unfamiliar with basic safety gear and were happy to listen to her advice about the best way to complete a job.

This first crew were generally a good bunch, but they tended to get distracted and goof off. Martha had found it easy to minimize this by checking on them regularly (sometimes using what she called her “mom voice” to remind them to get back to work), and offering small rewards like free pop and coffee.

Her second summer she had been assigned to a level 2 crew. Such crews took on the more difficult assignments. For example, they would wash windows at multi-storey, sheer office towers, whereas other teams focused on suburban homes. Her level 2 crew consisted of college and university students who had worked there a minimum of two summers previously and had also taken a specialized ropes and harnesses course to learn about safety while cleaning skyscrapers. The average age was 21 and her crew included four males and two females.

Pleased by her success the previous year, Martha had done all the same things. She gave full and complete directions each morning, she used her

“mom voice” when she felt someone wasn’t performing, and she offered small rewards. Yet her team wasn’t responding the same way at all, and they didn’t seem to like or respect her much. Martha though about it for a long time and decided that she needed to …

Discussion Questions 

1. Why is the same leadership style leading to such different results year over year? Explain your answer in detail.

2. How should Martha adjust her leadership style for her new team?

Justify your answer using a contingency-based theory of leadership.

3. Does gender have anything to do with her team’s response to Martha? Explain and justify why gender might matter, and why it might not. If her team is indeed responding to her gender, what might Martha do about it?