1. What role did conformity play in this scenario?
2. What type of communication climate existed after Rita arrived?
3. What mistakes do you think Rita made as a leader in this case?
4. What specific communication practices and leadership strategies could Rita have used to be more effective with this team?

MGT 325 Group and Organizational Dynamics Course Packet Page 23 Group Expectations - Thirtyminute lunch rather than 24minute lunch. a Two 30-minute breaks rather than two 23-minute breaks. a Fifteen-minute wash-up period. at the end of the shift rather than five minutes. 0 Minimal supervision. - Allowing worker discretion on the job. a No busywark should be handed out. o No hassle for missing an occasional day now and then. Group Standards While on the job. every worker would perform to the utmost of his or her capabilities. Horseplay and slacking off were dealt with by the group. as were abuses of the tardiness and absenteeism policies. Training of new members was carried out by the group. Time and care were taken when breaking in these new workers. They were not left alone until they performed the job right. High attention was given to quality. Finally. this was a tightknit group that liked being known as the topproducing department. Therefore. if a person failed to work within these standards. he or she was ignored and maybe even asked to leave. As one can see by looking at Department 8101 . training. discipline. and even the standard according to which the work was to be performed were carried out by the group. The only thing the supervisor really had to do was to make sure the department had the materials to perform the work. The rest. the group would take care of. What was needed. after Hank. was a manager who could work within the system. What we got was Rita. The Case On Friday. Hank retired. On Monday. Rita arrived and was introduced to each one of us by the firstshift supervisor. As I shook her hand. I looked into her eyes to try to get a reading on her to see it she really was the person we had all heard about through the grapevine the last two weeks. Through Denny and his connections. we learned that Rita was a former marine sergeant. 46 years old. who had recently retired from the mitary. She had hired into the company as a supervisor and had spent the last 6 months as a llin supervisor. The word was she followed the book to the letter. If this were true. based on my experiences in Departmental 01. I knew our department would be in fora long. hot. summer. The first-shift supervisor stayed over four hours every night. and the third-shift supervisor came in four hours early every night for the first week. Rita observed and listened to them but made no effort at all to talk to the workers. She was. from the start. aloof. On Monday morning of week two. Rita called for a meeting to take place during our first break. During this meeting. Rita said she had observed a few things in our department that she didn't quite like. Terry immediately shot me an "I told you so" glance. Rita continued and discussed the MGT 325 Group and Organizational Dynamics Course Packet Page 24 things she didn't like and felt had to be changed. "Due to the fact we are losing one- half houra night in production time. this department will return to a 24-minute lunch break. a 23-minute break period. and a 5-minute wash-up period at the end of the shitl." Rita went on to say that the lackadaisical view taken regarding tardiness and absenteeism would not continue. She stated that it you were tardy. you would not be given your regular job. If you came to work and it you had been absent without an excuse. you could expect to be written up [with a reprimand]. Further. Rita said she would like to generate more exibity into the department and would like to begin jab rotation on an experimental basis beginning the tollawing week. She concluded the meeting by saying she looked forward to working with us and that she hoped the department could be even more productive than in the past. I couldn't wait for our 24minute lunch period at the comer bar to see the reaction. Terry: Who the hell made her a supervisor? She's nuts! We've got to get rid of her she's a power- crazy dyke. [These were some of the nicer things Terry was saying about our new supervisor.] Helen: That's the way all women supervisors are bossyl They have to go around proving who's boss. She has no business being a supervisor any more than I do. Denny: llnteriecting a calmer voice}: She's new and inexperienced. Let's give her a little time and see it she settles down and wises up. After a little more bickering. the group agreed with Denny. Rita would be given a chance to wise up before any \"radical'I measures were taken. However. as the days and the weeks passed. Rita was not wising up. She began applying the pressure harder and harder to do things her way. People were getting written up right and left for tardiness. absenteeism. coming back late tram lunches and breaks. and so on. Jim. a popular person in the work group. got a oneday suspension when he and Rita got into a heated argument over packing labels. Helen was put on notice for failure to clean up her work area. Terry was written up for drinking. tardiness. and almost anything Rita could nail him with. In addition to this. Rita started taking on more and more changeovers for our shift and wouldn't tell Denny and Terry about it until the last minute. Far unlike Hank. Rita wouldn't let Terry and Denny see the intershift report to nd out the day's activities. They were told what to do just like everybody else. Rita was in command. and she wanted everybody to know it. especially Denny. All of this activity took place during the course of .July. By August. I knew that a major explosion along the lines of Hiroshima would take place within our department soon. Around the middle of August. it happened. Teny got drunk during lunch and came back to work in a surly maod. Rita walked over to him and Denny and said that we were going to be changing over at 3 o'clock. Terry looked her straight in the eye and said. \"I'm not doing a damn thing.'I Rita then gave Terry a direct order. Terry promptly told Rita what to do with her direct order. and Rita suspended him on the spot. By this time the argument had heated up enough that everybody was watching the action. Denny stepped in to try to cool the argument down. but Rita told him. "Stay out of this. Denny. This is between me and Terry." I could see the angerin Denny. Terry grabbed his coat and made his way over to a neutral area to await a union committeeman. Rita then looked at Denny and simply said someone would be over to help him change over. MGT 325 Group and Organizational Dynamics Course Packet Page 25 That night in the bar the war council took place. Terry just sat there muttering how he wished Rita were a guy so he could punch her. Denny led the discussion. and a consensus formed quickly that Rita had to go and fast. But how? Ideas were kicked back and forth. and nally Denny decided that as a whole the group had to screw up all over the place. Mistake on top of mistake. It was to be a group sabotage of the entire department. Denny then asked the group it they were united in this plan of action. One by one. each member of the group nodded yes. until it got to me. lworked eight hours a day with these people. and I had grown to like many of them. I knew that if I didn't agree to this. I would no longer be a member of the group. I was stuck. and I knew it. I nodded my head yes. knowing that I would assist only in a limited way. The actions were to begin immediately. By the end of August. Rite was 0 basket case; she looked much older that her 48 years of oge. Rita had lost control. and she knew it. as did everyone else. Every day our department went down for one reason or another. end our production numbers reected this 05 they kept getting worse and worse. Quietly. unceremoniously. Rita was removed as supervisor of 810] just before Labor Day. A victory party took place at the bar the night we leamed that Rita would no longer be our supervisor. We had won. Rita not only ended up leaving our department. she ended up leaving the company. a What mistokes do you think Rite made as a leader in this cose? o What. specifically. would you have done differently if you had been Rita