Case study of Acorn Industries

Running head: CASE STUDY 1
CASE STUDY
Name
Institution

CASE STUDY 2
CASE STUDY: Acorn
Introduction
The Acorn Industries case study reveals fundamental issues that concern
organizational behavior and people management. Acorn Industries is a corporation that serves
by launching projects to its clients. In the case study, Acorn Industries undergo an
organizational change where they incorporated the Director of Project Management in their
new organizational structure. The case study describes the organizational changes that were
associated to project management between 1996 and 1998. Throughout the organizational
transition period, various leadership styles and approaches are overtly seen from some of the
company's leaders and managers. This paper will major in investigating, comparing and
critiquing the leadership styles used by managers and leaders during the transition of Acorn
Industries as well as those seen in the module’s course materials. Moreover, this paper will
refer to the Acorn Industry case study to discuss the concept of power in a contemporary
leadership situation. The techniques, tools, and strategies used by effective leaders and
managers will be considered in the formulation of effective appropriate and effective
recommendations that may help companies to alleviate underlying problems facing managers
in their respective companies.
Leadership Styles
General Manager, Ken Hawks, is said to have faced the problem of enforcing a new
corporate philosophy. The leadership of the general manager and his team are said to be more
concerned with the short-term goals. Ken Hawks, thus, practices transactional leadership
style. In the transactional leadership style, the leader is tasked with the responsibility to plan
for goals and clarify the roles, requirements and the expected outcomes of his/her followers
(Afsar, et al., 2017). Saravo, et al., (2017) assert that transactional leaders expect to achieve

CASE STUDY 3
organizational goals by “exchanging benefits” with their followers. Rewards and
punishments are common in the transactional style of leadership. A transformational
leadership style would have been more effective than the transactional leadership style. Han,
et al. (2016), define transformational leaders to engage and encourage their followers to
operate and perform at higher levels that may even exceed the followers' potential and
prospects. For leaders that may wish to motivate and encourage their followers towards
organizational change, the transformational leadership is preferred to other fixated styles. The
transformational style is more appropriate for firms that are in the improvement or transition
processes (McCarley, et al., 2014). The transformational leadership style would have been
more appropriate for Acorn Industries since the company is in its transitioning process.
Tools and Techniques
Acorn Industries should use negotiation would have been effective in sensitizing the
employees on the need to undergo organizational change. The use of crude transactional
methods used in the case study was inappropriate and that was the reason why many
employees left Acorn. The leaders responsible in the transitioning process failed to
incorporate and sensitize employees about the process. Bode, et al., (2015) assert that
employee participation and job retention have a positive relationship. Job retention is also
associated with the high performance of employees during their practices (Pittino, et al.,
2016). Employees that are involved and engaged in negotiations and deals concerning
organizational changes are likely to develop a tendency of attachment and loyalty to their
organization. If the project manager had involved Acorn employees in the organizational
change talks and discussions, the company would retain some of its bright talents.