1. How would you describe Evelyn Gustafson’s leadership style? What were its strengths and weaknesses? What were the sources of her influence? “Be careful what you wish for,” thought Martin Quinn, senior vice president for service and operations for the Denver-based health insurance company, Mountain West Health Plans, Inc. When there was an opening for a new director of customer service last year due to Evelyn Gustafson’s retirement, he’d seen it as the perfect opportunity to bring someone in to control the ever-increasing costs of the labor-intensive department. He’d been certain he had found just the person in Erik Rasmussen.a young man in his late twenties with a shiny new bachelor’s degree in business administration.

A tall, unflappable woman, Evelyn Gustafson consistently showed warmth and concern toward her mostly female, non-unionized employees as they sat in their noisy cubicles, fielding call after call about Mountain West’s products, benefits, eligibility, and claims. Because she had worked her way up from a customer service representative position herself, she could look her subordinates right in the eye after they’d fielded a string of stressful calls and tell them she knew exactly how they felt. She did her best to offset the low pay by accommodating the women’s needs with flexible scheduling, giving them frequent breaks, and offering plenty of training opportunities that kept them up-to-date in the health company’s changing products and in the latest problem-solving and customer service techniques