Question $2($i$)$

The problems that transpired at Theranos in many aspects of Organizational Behavior can be used as an

example of what characteristics leaders of an organization should not emulate. While examining this case one

can deduce several causes of the problems faced at Theranos. These include: poor leadership, lack of

empowerment, lack of expertise due to their failure to diversify, unethical behavior due to the constant

secrecy and the resistance to change.

Elizabeth Holmes displayed poor leadership through her abuse of power. According to Von Glinow power is

the capacity of a person, team, or organization to influence others, it is the potential to change someone$$s

attitudes or behavior. Holmes possessed both coercive power and referent power. However she lacked expert

power which aids in prevention and cure. Her power was coercive in the cases where employees were fired or

intimidated if they sought to oppose her ideas while she displayed referent power as she ruled her

organization with an iron fist. As it regards power contingencies; centrality and lack of discretion was a major

part of her failure. Decisions being made independent of Elizabeth and the COO Balwani was not a part of

Theranos$$ culture. Subsequently the employees were not given the opportunity of autonomy.

Theranos lacked empowerment, empowerment can be referred to as the realization of the power within one's

self. Employers are encouraged to empower their employees. For example an empowered employee will feel

at liberty to suggest or discuss with their leader what they believe is a good motive for the company. Holmes

and the other leaders of the organization definitely experienced the consequences of abusing power which

included: Increase stress for employees, lack of employee commitment, job decline and high turnover.

Additionally there was a lack of expertise like suggested in the case study, as a $19$ year old college dropout it

was impossible for Holmes to gain the experience and skills necessary for operating Theranos. According to

the case study Holmes$$ vision for blood test was legitimate with a good cause, a major point where they went

wrong was that they lied about successfully meeting their goal and original vision when this was not the case.

Had they sought out experts and gave them enough autonomy to make profitable decisions for the company,

the results may have been better.

The stressful and toxic environment caused the employees to have a negative attitude towards their

workplace, affecting employee commitment, causing them to just be in compliance $,$ as they silenced their

voices just to keep their job. Holmes and Balwani went as far as controlling information shared between

employees, invading their privacy and requiring their signatures for non$-$disclosure.

Theranos operated on unethical behavior due to the constant secrecy this inevitably caused conflict.

According to Von Glinow, conflict is a process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed

or negatively affected by another party. Both the employees as well as Holmes and her associates perceived

that there were opposing interests.The employees feel like they're being bullied into coercion While Holmes

and perceived that the employees who did not believe in her ideas were conflicting to her cause hence she

fired them. Theranos$$ employees and employers went through the five stages of conflict found in text by Von

Glinow. Stage $1$: potential opposition, This stemmed from the lack of honest dialectic between Holmes and her

employees. Stage $2$: cognition and personalization, This is the stage where the conflict is realized, an example

of this was when Holmes encouraged teams to compete causing a hostile environment. Stage $3$: intentions,

the conflict went unresolved instead of properly handling the conflict Holmes chose to silence, intimidate and

micromanage employees. Stage $4$: Parties display their behavior, workers chose to quit and blow the whistle

While homes and Balwani chose to fire, stalk and prohibit their workers. Stage $5$ involves the outcome $,$ Being

the bad performance of the product due to disregarding other ideas, negative exposure and legal action being

taken against both the leaders and the company $.$

employees $,$

Holmes was resistant to change and did not include employee involvement in the development of the

product, she displayed horrible leadership skills. Rather than problem solving and making decisions for the

greater good, She was the cause of the problems. Change is inevitable, a company that cannot adapt to

change will suffer the consequences. A scientist at Theranos warned Holmes about tests that were not ready

for distribution, as well as inaccuracies in the technology. External factors such as scientists outside Theranos

spoke out, yet this was still not enough for Holmes to adhere to the suggestions of others.

In retrospect the lac