Joe Brewster Case Study

Question #2- Which approaches to leadership do Joe Brewster and the two new supervisors use? How did these approaches impact the workforce? Leadership is essentially the abilities of an individual that can influence, motivate, and allow others to contribute to the success and well-being of organizations that they are members of. Leadership can be classified into different types and classes that are important in different styles of leadership. Some leaders may have different types of styles mixed in together, which can act as a negative or a positive between certain situations. In terms of looking at the Brewster case, we have Joe Brewster, the owner of the company and two new supervisors he hired to work with the crew. Joe Brewster hired …show more content…
Many of the existing employees were caught off guard by the sudden change in the business. These approaches not only affected the workers, but also affected the business. The change in leadership brought a different work ethic and view on how a business should run. The new leaders had little guidance and were allowed to conduct their own leadership process. A recent study by Tom Karp, from the Oslo school of Management, conducted a study in how the overall willpower of an individual is important in leadership. Willpower is the notion that one will commit to a certain course of action. The study found that there is essentially four parts to willpower. First being the promise of committing to a certain phase of leadership and second being the act of crossing the threshold of deciding. Next comes the power of acceptance and outer control that a certain style of leadership will work and fourth being that a style of leadership will be rewarding. In the case we found that the two new supervisors had committed to a style of leadership and promised that they will follow their own style no matter what the outcome. They then decided to act on certain aspects of the work lifestyle which ultimately negatively impacted the workers thoughts and feelings towards the supervisors and everyday work. The supervisors had no context from Joe of the previous leadership styles and had little leadership to work off. Willpower is about fighting for what you believe in, and that is exactly what the supervisors did, but in doing so, they were actually pushing the workers away from a happy work life. The fourth stage comes with a reward from the leadership presented and I believe that Joe saw little reward in the new supervisors and failed to act on the sudden change. The workforce can only benefit if they are on board with the