Transformation and Change at Leeds Rhinos: A Leadership Case Study

This case study analyzes leadership and change management at Leeds Rhinos, focusing on the strategies employed by Hetherington and Blatt. It examines the pros and cons of Hetherington's customer-focused strategy, highlighting the importance of employee involvement and collaboration. The analysis extends to Greg Blatt's leadership style, emphasizing his listening skills and empowerment of business units. The study identifies vision development, motivation, and individualization as key leadership behaviors for innovative companies. It further explores Blatt's transformational leadership attributes, such as inspiring change and calculated risk-taking. Finally, it discusses organizational culture in the context of Hetherington's case and identifies variables affecting staff productivity, absenteeism, satisfaction, and turnover within the Rhinos organization. Desklib provides access to similar case studies and solved assignments for students.

Running head: TRANSFORMATION AND CHANGE AT LEEDS RHINOS
TRANSFORMATION AND CHANGE AT LEEDS RHINOS
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1) What are the major lessons that can be learned from this case study on leadership and
change? Discuss the pros and cons of the strategy developed and used by Hetherington at
Leeds Rhinos. What do you foresee as the major future challenges for Leeds Rhinos and how
would you go about dealing with these?
Answer- From the case study it has been assessed that leadership and change always goes
hand in hand. However, notwithstanding this fact, even at the times of the change in an
organisation or anything, the basic building blocks of leadership always stays the same. A
leader should always focus his action for making the change as smoothly and as quickly as
possible. A leader always has a completely different vision for his organisation or company
and it is almost different from that of a manager possess (Jensen, 2017). Managers usually
fear change as it upsets and challenge their carefully structured manner of life. On the other
hand, the leaders embrace the change as they know it very well that the change would be
leading to new opportunities to accomplishment and growth of the organisation. It is the
opportunities and the threats that call for change in any organisation and how an organisation
change, is completely based on the leadership, the philosophy of the leaders and their
knowledge. Furthermore, it is also to note that change is always constant (Kerber & Buono,
2018). A leader has the potential to direct the change for improving the bottom line of the
company or they could also change the company for improving the well-being of their
collaborators, their customers and the communities. It is to state that leadership is a term that
is highly argued as much as any other organisation term. The leaders of change in this age of
knowledge work need to be different from the autocratic and the bureaucratic leaders. They
are the ones who need followed to collaborate and innovate in the organisation. Moreover, it
is also to mention that to gain collaboration, the leaders have to welcome change and they
need to change the way people think and the thing that they do in the very organisation.

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The pros of the strategy developed by Hetherington at Leeds Rhinos are that
collaboration would definitely be resulting in outstanding roles by the team members. He also
ensured that the facilities that he was offering is continuously improving the quality of teams
and is satisfying the visitors, the teams, the public and the fans who come to experience and
enjoy their time at Leeds Rhinos. His strategy is customer focused. But the major cons of his
strategy is that while developing this strategy, Hetherington has neglected the wish and the
acceptance of his people in Leeds Rhinos. He did not found it important to ask or make a
discussion with them before implementing his strategy. Also, being more customer focused
could lead to the downfall of the company as it is the employees first who helps any business
to flourish and who helps in satisfying the needs of the customers. Furthermore, it is to note
that the major challenge for the Leeds Rhinos is that their battle of avoiding the Qualifiers are
still to come. In order to cope up with the challenge they need to team up and work
collaboratively.
2) How would you describe Greg Blatt’s leadership style? Discuss
Answer- Greg Blatt used to believe in talking less and listening more. He was a very good
listener. He was on the mission to ensure that the people who were in charge of the IAC have
many and diverse business units. It was one of the parts of his strategy in order to keep a 4
billion dollars conglomerate from getting lapped by the competitors of the smaller Silicon
Valley. He was the one behind the rise of the revenues by 32% and also, the company got the
earning per share of about 172%. The stock price of IAC was tripled since the year 2008. It
raised from 15$ to 50$ which was a notable change. With the same, it is also to note that
Blatt has exercised the authority with utmost care. Blatt used to ensure that the business
leaders of theirs have every resources that they need in order to succeed and also that they are
not dragged down by any of the business competitors who used to come with running a firm.
He was a leader who was more like an advisor who was always prepared for the process of

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consultation whenever required. He helped Mr. Diller to spin off the companies that did not
fit and he started from Expedia. It is to note that the leadership and the management style of
Blatt is clearly informed by the ones who are his mentors.
3) What sort of leadership behaviour do you think is more conducive for innovative
companies?
Answer- I think developing a vision is more conducive for innovative companies. It is to note
that developing vision refers to the behaviour of developing or creating a compelling vision
that is also realistic in nature in order to attain an attractive goals. The leaders who possess
this skill of vision development has the potential to make it relevant and personal to their
circumstances and environment. With the same, I think motivation too plays a very great role
in this context. Motivation requires more than just a moving speech. It needs to be
inspirational and encouraging. Inspirational motivation refers to the intentional stretching of
the thinking of an individual (Amabile & Pratt, 2016). The leader models behaviour which
others desire to attain while giving a meaningful and clear goals is very necessary. It is to
mention that simply leading the people from a boardroom has the potential to disconnect the
very business from its clients and customers (Anderson, Potocnik & Zhou, 2014).
Furthermore, I would also like to state that individualisation is very necessary as it provides a
space that is required to try and have the permission to make mistakes. No one is perfect in
this universe. Men can only learn from making mistakes and the same also goes with the
employees working in any organisation. Hence, leaders need to welcome and celebrate
mistakes and also at the same time, should guide their followers so that they do not repeat the
same in the future.
4) What attributes of transformational or transactional leadership does Blatt displayed at
IAC?

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Answer- A leader who possess Transformational leadership always seek to create a positive
change among the ones who follow him. Blatt too, was such type of leader. He used to keep
his ego always in check and in under control. He used to try and guide his followers to
enhance their performance level, morale and motivation. He always inspired change within
the organisation that used to be driven by a strong purpose. With the same, he is always able
to create a culture of innovation and trust within the organisation. Also, Blatt never seek for
direction from others and is able to manage himself very well. He in fact, used to guide
others. He is highly motivated and use his motivation for directing his organisation towards
the right path. He used to shout and do what he actually love to and all his values were
aligned with the ones of his organisation which he used to lead. Furthermore, it is also to note
that Blatt has the potential to take the right risks always. This ability of taking calculated risks
is a significant characteristic of a transformational leader. It is this type of leaders who used
to trust their instinct and use their intelligence that are collected by his team members for
making an informed decisions. Moreover, it is also to note that being a leader, Blatt is not
always smooth sailing, He often have to make difficult decisions but he never gets shy away
from those difficult decisions and make his decisions with a proper and clear focus on his
vision, goals, objectives and values of the company. Moreover, he used to share a collective
organisational consciousness. He understands and shares those collective consciousness of
the whole organisation. It makes him particularly attuned to the feelings of his team members
and followers and gives him a clear idea of what actions to take for eliciting the desired
actions from the employees. Lastly, he was the most inspiring of all. He have the potential to
inspire and motive others in the company to rise to the occasion. His style of inspiration is not
only limited to the formal acknowledgement of a job that is well done. In fact, he treat each
employee as individual who is valued and also, take time that is required to understand the
things that motivates them.

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5) Culture is sometimes seen as something an organisation is, whereas others argue that it is
something that an organisation has. How does the Hetherington case relate to these two
views?
Answer- In the case of Hetherington, the organisation of his, has a culture and at the time,
also is a culture. It is to note that as stated by Bolman and Deal (2017), if any organisation
has a culture then it can change its culture but if it is a culture itself, then it becomes difficult
to change itself. Culture is not something that is created. Instead, it is something that emerges
by means of transference of ideas, norms and values as well as social interaction. The
managers in in this case of Hetherington have an impact on the organisation but it is also to
mention that these managers have the potential to change the systems of the people of the
norms, attitudes and beliefs. As per Huhtala et al. (2015), culture is a homogenous element
and that it is centred around and is created by the management department of an organisation.
The organisation in this case study is a culture itself as because of the fact that Hetherington
was unable to change it with the help of his peers but at the same time, it is also to mention
that Blatt when taken the grip of the organisation, then he changed the culture of
organisation in way that was never before.
6) The mnemonic ‘IGOPAST’ refers to how individuals, Groups and Organisational Culture
are the variables that affect the Productivity, Absenteeism, Satisfaction and Turnover of staff
in an organisation. Can you identify one of each of the seven variables in the Rhinos story?
Answer- The individuals, groups and organisational culture of the organisation in this case
study did influenced the productivity, Absenteeism, Satisfaction and Turnover of staff in the
organisation. Individual like Barry Diller is the one who is responsible for the downfall of the
organisation and the one who decreased its productivity level. Again, it was individual like
Greg blatt who took the power and responsibility to make the organisation stand again,

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motivating and inspiring the staffs in the organisation with his great leadership style.
Hetherington created a group or team that is collaborative in in that team he works closely
with the individuals. One of the notable example to mention in this context is that of the
coach named, Brian McDermott, with whom Hetherington worked for developing and
sustaining the supportive culture. His aim has always been to build a sense of belonging
among the players who work for each other in securing victories for the team as a whole.
They gradually recognised the importance of self-motivation, self-inspiration and how what
motivates one person may not motivate another. With the same, they also realised that the
non-critical feedback in providing constructive analyses of performance and of the clear
processes on retention, recruitment, replacement, releases are based on the cultural
motivations instead of financial incentives. They also gradually noticed that it were these
variable that were influencing the level of productivity with the organisation and was
resulting in staffabsenteeism. Furthermore, these variables were also effecting the
satisfaction level of these staffs due to which their interest in working for the organisation
were going on decreasing with each passing days and for which, there was a high rate of
turnover in the organisation.

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References:
Amabile, T. M., & Pratt, M. G. (2016). The dynamic componential model of creativity and
innovation in organizations: Making progress, making meaning. Research in
Organizational Behavior, 36, 157-183.
Anderson, N., Potočnik, K., & Zhou, J. (2014). Innovation and creativity in organizations: A
state-of-the-science review, prospective commentary, and guiding framework. Journal
of management, 40(5), 1297-1333.
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and
leadership. John Wiley & Sons.
Huhtala, M., Tolvanen, A., Mauno, S., & Feldt, T. (2015). The associations between ethical
organizational culture, burnout, and engagement: A multilevel study. Journal of
Business and Psychology, 30(2), 399-414.
Jensen, M. C. (2017). Value maximisation, stakeholder theory and the corporate objective
function. In Unfolding stakeholder thinking (pp. 65-84).
Kerber, K. W., & Buono, A. F. (2018). The Rhythm of Change Leadership. Organization
Development Journal, 36(3), 55.