From 1998 to 2001, Andreas Francesco was enrolled for a degree in Information Technology at a local university. During this time, Francesco worked as a part-time salesperson in a computer shop and was later appointed sales supervisor. Doing such a challenging course and working simultaneously taught him to set clear goals, manage his time effectively and focus on priorities. After completing his full-time studies, Francesco found employment as a systems development manager at Didata, a listed computer software developer.

While working at Didata, Francesco completed an MBA (Masters in Business Administration) and immediately applied his newly acquired knowledge to the work situation. He called his employees and explained to them how he planned to make their unit the best performing in the company. Not only would the company benefit from this effort, but each employee also stood a chance to develop to their fullest potential and share in the glory of success. The idea was that each employee would be assigned a specific product to create and would have the freedom to be creative and innovative. Employees would make their own decisions and take full responsibility for the outcome of their efforts. Francesco also created a forum through which employees could share their insights, problems and ideas to improve the overall product and service of the organisation. This worked very well. Francesco's department became known as an outstanding, high-performance unit and, as a result, received the highest accolade from senior management.

In 2006, Francesco decided to start his own company, Compuworld, a computer company that sold all computer equipment and computer-related office furniture. The company also offered computer training and coaching to individuals and organisations. Francesco employed 56 people, ranging from administrative personnel, part-time cashiers, salespeople and computer technicians to highly skilled computer trainers. He decided to apply the same management principles that he had applied at Didata to his new company. He gave employees the freedom to take responsibility for their own work. This time, however, he ran into problems. The part-time cashiers used this freedom to do as little as possible. Customers started to complain about slow and poor quality service, incorrect amounts on their slips and rude behaviour from the cashiers. The salespeople only helped customers when the customers cornered them and did very little to promote the products in the shop. The administrative staff were very motivated and hardworking but made many errors that cost the company time and money. Francesco had very few problems with the computer technicians and trainers, who took responsibility and delivered excellent results. Francesco believed something was wrong with the cashiers and salespeople because if his system worked for the computer technicians and trainers, surely it should work with everyone.

1. Discuss the key leadership elements demonstrated by Francesco.

2. Discuss Francesco's behaviour and style according to the University of Iowa and Ohio State University. Justify your answer with examples from the case study.

3. When Francesco opened his own business, he was less successful as a leader than at Didata. Recommend one appropriate contingency leadership theory and model that Francesco can use.

• Provide a detailed discussion of the theory and model.
• Outline a plan with examples of how Francesco can implement the theory and model.

4.Make Francesco aware of the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory by discussing the main ideas of the theory and highlighting with examples the benefits and challenges of differentiated leadership on followers.