Case
Jim Madison is senior librarian for the public library. The library serves a community of 200,000 people. The library has a staff of 30 employees. Jim has been the manager of the library for 6 years. During that time, he has made many improvements. People in the community have a favorable view of the library and have few complaints about the services it provides. On the annual community survey, the library receives consistently high marks for overall effectiveness and customer satisfaction.
Almost all the employees who work for Jim have been employed at the district office for 6 years or more. Although Jim takes pride in knowing all of them personally, he calls on a few of them more frequently than others to help him accomplish his goals.
When it comes to training new staff members, Jim relies heavily on Patti, who is very knowledgeable and competent. Patti views the additional training responsibilities as a challenge. Jim does not need to supervise Patti closely because she is highly respected within the office and has a history of being mature and conscientious about her work. Patti likes the additional responsibility because it gives her greater recognition and increased benefits from receiving positive job appraisals. Besides Pattie finds helping people learn the technical aspects of the job very rewarding.
To showcase the library’s services to the community, Jim calls on Ted. Ted serves gives presentations to local teachers about the library’s services and how it can be used to help them teach. Ted helps teachers develop programs that aid in the delivery of technical information while also making visits to the library fun for students. Jim also calls on Ted because of his willingness to take on the public relations challenge. Jim is a shy person, and he finds it quite threatening to be in the public eye. Being a field representative has its perks because Ted can function as his own bosses when he is not in the office; he can set his own schedules.
Jim also calls on a staff member to help him supervise the rest of the staff who are behind in their tasks. When even a few staff members get behind with their work, it affects the entire office operation. To fix this problem, Jim calls on Annie. Although it means taking on more work, Annie does it to be kind and to help the office run more smoothly. Annie is a very energetic person who can whip up excitement about the most menial tasks. Other than personal satisfaction, no additional benefits accrue to Annie for taking on the additional responsibilities.
Overall, the people who work under Jim’s leadership are satisfied with his supervision. There are some who feel that he caters too much to a few special representatives, but most of the staff think Jim is fair and impartial. Even though he depends more on a few, Jim tries very hard to attend to the wants and needs of each of his staff members. Moreover, the staff recognize that ever since Jim arrived six years ago, they have felt a greater connection to the mission of the library. Jim has challenged them to make the library a central part of the community again – even for the iPhone generation.
Show your understanding of Transformational Leadership by explaining the theory and explaining the case from the perspective of that theory.
Transformational Leadership
(4 points for theory)
• (2 point) About a leader who is interested in developing his/her followers into better people
o Improvement is focused on improving employees’ motivations, self-efficacy, and value fit (understanding of role)
o Cynic says the leader assumes that good output will follow as employees are new and improved. Moreover, more motivated employees need less supervision.
o Idealists says leader is driven by a need to have his/her followers become better people. This need far surpasses a need for output.
• (2 point) Leader uses four tactics to improve the follower (referred to as the 4-‘I’s)
o Idealized Influence: akin to charisma. A leader’s attributes and actions will provide motivation for follower to emulate the follower (social identity) and adopt the leader’s motivation, goals, etc.
o Individualized Consideration. A leader will develop one-on-one plans for each follower. This signals each person’s importance. It also builds career paths that offer more intrinsic motivation (autonomy, purpose, mastery, and challenge)
o Inspirational Motivation: A leader will communication high expectations which is motivating. The leader will also develop a strong vision which will be something to which one can become committed and motivated
o Intellectual Stimulation: A leader will promote one’s need for mastery and challenge by presenting a vision / goal that is a source of simulation. Who doesn’t like a challenge?
relating to case)
• Inspirational Motivation
o Jim has focused on making everyone more connected to the library mission à aligning staff to organizational vision / mission
• Individual consideration
o Jim takes pride in knowing all of them personally à assigned roles specific to their skills
o Jim knows Ted is shy à assigned program development
o Jim knows Pattie of the knowledgeable and competent one à she is assigned training
o Jim knows Annie is the motivator à she is assigned to energize team to do late and unwanted tasks
• Intellectual Stimulation
o Challenged them to raise the profile of the library
o He empowers Pattie to take on training as a challenge
o Empowers Ted to overcome his shyness
• Idealized Influence
o Everyone loves and would follow Jim