Triumphant Leadership?

Airiel manages a team of $19$ people in an in$-$store bakery. One of the key

challenges or Ariel's job is to ensure his team produces the right products to meet

demands at key times. His usual management approach is to allow the team to take

responsibility for achieving the desired results. In this way, the team not only buys

into the activity, but also develops new skills.

For example, when the bakery expanded its product range, Airiel needed to

think of a way to ensure that all the products would be on the shelves by $8$:$00$ a$.$m$.$

However, rather than enforcing a solution, Airiel turned to his team for ideas. He

asked them to generate as many ideas as they could to solve this issue. The team

managed to solve the problem by agreeing to split break times, so that productivity

could be maintained. Airiel's approach produced a positive outcome and increased

the team's motivation.

On the other hand, Emily is a talented sales representative. She is quick to

close sales deals, but she has a habit of answering the telephone in an

unprofessional manner. Sometimes when she has no idea what a customer wants,

instead of trying to remain patient and professional by saying, 'let me look into it for

you and get back to you' she would simply reply, 'I don't know'. This clearly

demonstrates her lack of interest and unwillingness to help, which make many

customers frustrated and angry.

Emily boss is aware of this behaviour, but he is waiting for her year$-$end

perform review to tell her where she is going wrong. Unfortunately, this means that

Emily will continue putting potential customers of$.$ Meanwhile, as Emily boss waits to

provide her with feedback, the rate of customer complaints has increased and this

has tarnished the image of the organization as a whole.

CASE STUDY QUESTIONS

Contrast the characteristics of transactional and transformational leaderships.

What leadership skill does Ariel use in handling the problem? Explain your

answer in detail.

Do you think Emily's problem can be resolved? what should her boss do after

getting to know about this situation?

Based on the situations above, which leader would you choose to work with?

Why?