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?

The Case On Friday, Hank retired. On Monday, Rita arrived and was introduced to each one of us by the first-shift supervisor. As I shook her hand, I looked into her eyes to try to get a reading on her - to see if 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, 48 years old, who had recently retired from the military. She had hired into the company as a supervisor and had spent the last 6 months as a fill-in supervisor. The word was she followed the book to the letter. If this were true, based on my experiences in Department 8101, I knew our department would be in for a 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