Introduction
This case explores the leadership style of Doug Rauch, who micromanaged his employees, and the effect it has on them. It discussed power bases of leaders in influencing employees, the benefits of delegation, and its relation to organizational politics. One could be a leader in one situation but may not maintain his or her leadership effectiveness in another situation. This case highlights the importance of contingency leadership approaches, and how empowering employees leads to positive effect on organization performance.
Analysis
Doug Rauch micromanages his employees at Trader Joe’s. When he hired an entirely new staff in the East Coast, he showed expert power teaching everyone what they needed to know about buying and the organization. Initially, his micromanaging was effective. However, he continued micromanaging and stifled the learning and growing of the staff. The staff became afraid of making mistakes, and job satisfaction and performance were affected.
Influence Tactics and Power Bases
Among the many influence tactics, those which use personal power includes rational persuasion, inspirational power, consultation, ingratiation, and personal appeals. When Doug started …show more content…
When Doug micromanaged the new staff and things were going the way he intended, he felt good achieving the result and his esteem need was met. Naturally he would not want to risk losing this sense of achievement. The new staff had not yet earned Doug’s trust so he did not wish to share the power with them. Based on McClelland need theory, Sparks and Repede (2016) wrote about three leadership shadows, namely the fear of failure, of rejection, and of betrayal. The fear of failure explains that a leader would become unproductive under stress, turning strengths into weaknesses. For example, organized becomes rigid, detail-oriented becomes being obsessive, and expert power turns to
This case explores the leadership style of Doug Rauch, who micromanaged his employees, and the effect it has on them. It discussed power bases of leaders in influencing employees, the benefits of delegation, and its relation to organizational politics. One could be a leader in one situation but may not maintain his or her leadership effectiveness in another situation. This case highlights the importance of contingency leadership approaches, and how empowering employees leads to positive effect on organization performance.
Analysis
Doug Rauch micromanages his employees at Trader Joe’s. When he hired an entirely new staff in the East Coast, he showed expert power teaching everyone what they needed to know about buying and the organization. Initially, his micromanaging was effective. However, he continued micromanaging and stifled the learning and growing of the staff. The staff became afraid of making mistakes, and job satisfaction and performance were affected.
Influence Tactics and Power Bases
Among the many influence tactics, those which use personal power includes rational persuasion, inspirational power, consultation, ingratiation, and personal appeals. When Doug started …show more content…
When Doug micromanaged the new staff and things were going the way he intended, he felt good achieving the result and his esteem need was met. Naturally he would not want to risk losing this sense of achievement. The new staff had not yet earned Doug’s trust so he did not wish to share the power with them. Based on McClelland need theory, Sparks and Repede (2016) wrote about three leadership shadows, namely the fear of failure, of rejection, and of betrayal. The fear of failure explains that a leader would become unproductive under stress, turning strengths into weaknesses. For example, organized becomes rigid, detail-oriented becomes being obsessive, and expert power turns to