Leadership Case Study Analysis: It Pays to Be Nice, Unit Code ABC123

This case study, titled "It Pays to Be Nice," explores the behavioral approach to leadership, focusing on the Ohio State theory and Michigan studies. The case presents a scenario where a collaborative work environment, emphasizing consideration and kindness, yields better results than a cutthroat, competitive one. The assignment addresses key questions such as whether leadership behaviors can be learned, the relative importance of initiating structure versus showing consideration, the impact of leadership styles on job satisfaction and organizational performance, the influence of occupation and organizational setting on leadership effectiveness, and the effects of leadership styles on employee stress levels and organizational commitment. Furthermore, the case examines potential differences in leadership styles between male and female leaders, drawing upon real-world examples and meta-analysis to support its conclusions. The study emphasizes the importance of considerate leadership in fostering positive employee attitudes and achieving organizational goals.

Case study
It pays to be nice
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Table of content
Table of content...............................................................................................................................2
Examine the concept of the case study............................................................................................3
It pays to be nice..........................................................................................................................3
Questions.........................................................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................7

Examine the concept of the case study
It pays to be nice
The case demonstrates that there are two types of environment which one can create at their
workplace, one is cut throat kind, where everybody is running behind results and competing with
each other, another one is collaborative kind where people work together towards achieving one
decided goal. The scenario at workplace is dynamic and complex. Hence the recent researches
says that its better to be nice, it would pay you in good terms. It is important to be considerate
with each other rather then pulling leg of each other. Collectively organization can grow well.
The case study has given few examples covering the truth. Lind and Robin were working
together. Linda was always nice with him even though there was a huge gap between then
positions. Robin was growing well in his career and its almost 25 years now, he has moved out
of that old company. While joining new company, Robin was supposed to work on advertising
contract, he recalls Linda and decided to give 40$ billion contracts to her company. Kind
behavior of Linda pays her back with a huge contract. This example emphasis on being
considerate with everybody in the business. The discussion relates the theory of Ohio state
theory and Michigan studies. The detail application of these theory would be done in the
questions. It says that leaders who support their subordinates and team members and look out for
their welfare are proved to be more effective leaders. However, initiating structure is still an
important predictor of leadership effectiveness. The author discusses in the case that being nice
with everyone and help each individual should be inbuilt in your behavior (Humphrey, 2014).

Questions
Questions 1: Can you learn leader behaviors?
Leaders are not only born they could be created as well. Yes one can leader behaviours if the
person possesses that passion and aggressiveness in his or her style. Leader behaviours are
something that could be learned either by being with a true leader or by following a leader.
Leader behaves as per situations. Leadership traits could be learnt by actually leading a group of
people and then trying to implement leadership traits which could be task oriented or relationship
oriented. Learning leadership behavior is not so simple as knowing leaders' behavior. A person
has to be considerate and patient enough to possess or learn the skills of a leader. Leadership
behavioural learning is very well possible if your own personality wishes to fit into that model.
Your personal traits and behaviour also decide if you can possess leadership skills or not but at
the same time, a person should be flexible enough to change his or her own style of managing
people. Leader behaviours could be learned with utmost dedication towards leading the
organization or a group of people.
Questions 2: Which is more important: initiating structure or showing consideration? How
are these two styles related to follower job satisfaction, satisfaction with the leader, and
group and organizational performance?
The case demonstrates that there are two types of environment which one can create at their
workplace, one is cut throat kind, where everybody is running behind results and competing with
each other, another one is collaborative kind where people work together towards achieving one
decided goal. The scenario at workplace is dynamic and complex. Hence the recent researches

says that its better to be nice, it would pay you in good terms. consideration is much more
strongly related to follower job satisfaction compared to initiating structure. Consideration is
even more strongly correlated with follower satisfaction with the leader. contrary to the early
perspective that task leaders most likely decrease employee satisfaction, leaders high on
initiating structure generally improve job satisfaction. It is evident that the employees will be
able to share their concerns and queries with their managers which can subsidize their stress
level where there is employee centric leadership. Hence, they will have more positive attitude
towards organization and results in to higher performance and job satisfaction. Moreover, for
group-organization performance, consideration and initiating structure were equally effective. It
is important to show consideration behavior at the workplace, however the rule changes with the
game, similarly style may change with the situation.
Questions 3: How does the type of occupation, business, or organizational setting influence
which leadership style is most effective?
Based on the meta-analysis theory, it can be said that the type of occupation, business, or
organizational setting influence the leadership styles of an individual. Such as in college, the
leader must be inclined towards maintaining relationship with students. It is important to show
considerate level of behavior to understand the concerns of the students and guide them
accordingly. Whereas in case of military, the cornel should be task-oriented leader. Here it is
important to create sense of seriousness and urgency at the time of war, initiating way of
leadership gets more effective here. One more example of government offices, here leader can
react as per the situation, the balance approach of consideration and intiating structure influences
more. Hence, an individual need to decide on his leadership behavior based on the organization

type and industry environment. The leadership style is positively related with job satisfaction of
the of the employees (iedunote.com, 2017).
Question 4: How does initiating structure and showing consideration influence employee
stress levels and organizational commitment?
Intiating structure inclined more towards task completion within stipulated time ignoring
employee’s concerns, whereas consideration is inclined more towards maintaining relationship
with employees and seen to be more employee centric. In case of consideration, the employees
will be able to share their concerns and queries with their managers which can subsidize their
stress level. Consideration behavior is much more strongly related with the job satisfaction of an
individual. The given case states that the workplace environment is dynamic and complex.
Hence the recent researches say that it’s better to be nice, it would pay you in good terms. The
meta-analysis and U and I theory states that task-oriented leaders do not have list of followers as
employee centric leader. But task-oriented leaders achieve more targets in comparison of others.
However, now the concept of leadership, target, success and profits have changed and
organization are observed to maintain their human assets more.
Questions 5: Do male and female leaders around the world differ in their use of
consideration and initiating structure?
Yes of course, both male and female tend to display different leadership traits at a moment,
based on their traits and emotions, they tend to react differently in the similar situation. Female

leaders tend to be employee centric. Customer centric are the leaders clearly leaders who support
their subordinates and team members and look out for their welfare. Female has that feminine
expression which makes her to be more considerate at workplace. And male leaders are tend to
be task oriented. There were the studies where male leaders were highly preferred due to this and
consideration of female was considered as weakness. Now, female are seen to be successful too
and the theory supports their view too.
References
Humphrey, R. (2014). ffective Leadership: Theory, Cases, and Applications. Sage publication.
iedunote.com. (2017). Ohio State Leadership Studies Explained with Examples. Retrieved from
https://iedunote.com: https://iedunote.com/ohio-state-leadership-studies