University Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Case Study Analysis

This case study analyzes the leadership challenges faced by the Sloan Women in Management Club in organizing their annual conference, highlighting the deficiencies in leadership skills of the co-presidents. The study focuses on the impact of poor planning, particularly regarding weather forecasts and adherence to previous year's plans, leading to organizational setbacks. It explores various leadership styles, including autocratic, coaching, strategic, democratic, charismatic, transformational, and laissez-faire, with a self-assessment identifying a democratic leadership style. The analysis emphasizes the importance of commitment, proactive planning, and adaptability in leadership, concluding with strategies to motivate teams and achieve organizational goals. The study underscores the significance of democratic leadership in fostering employee involvement and generating creative solutions, ultimately benefiting the organization. The case study underscores the importance of proactive planning, effective leadership, and adaptability in achieving organizational goals.

Running Head: GLOBAL LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour
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1GLOBAL LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Introduction
The study will focus on the case study regarding ‘Sink or Swim’. The study will provide a
clear overview of the major finding that can be note from the case study. The study will also focus
on the weakness in the leadership skill that has been note from the case study. It will also focus on
the leadership style in general. Lastly, the study will provide a clear idea about the leadership style
that have been use in the process according to the survey. In the end, the study will provide a clear
idea about strategies that have been use to motivate the team and lead the organization to earn huge
amount of profit in the near future.
Case Study
From the case study ‘Sink or Swim’, the main leadership problem which is recognize is that
the co-presidents who are working on the conference lacks in the leadership skills. They followed
the previous year plan to organize the conference, but were unable to match the numbers, which
was record in the previous year. The numbers in this context are financially, fundraising, planning
of the dates for the conference, increasing the sponsorship and setting up the place for the
conference along with confirming the speakers for the conference.
The weather forecast is being ignore by the leaders, which is one of the major drawback for
the trouble that have been face by the Sloan Women in Management Club. The planning should
have be made according to the weather. When the leaders have gone through the date of the
previous year, they should have organize the event 2-3 weeks prior of the previous year date. This
could have gave them suitable time to organize the event and surpass the previous year figures in
all respect.
There is also a lack of commitment in the leaders towards the job role or responsibilities
that have been deny by many of them. This is also a drawback in the leadership skill, as the leaders

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need to put commitment towards their job and responsibilities, which will automatically motivate
the people who are working under their leadership.
Planning is the key to conduct an event successfully and the new co-presidents are
inefficient in it. The first thing, which went wrong, is conducting the conference in the month of
February, which is marked to be the winter season in Boston in the United State with heavy
snowfall. The next thing, which went wrong, is that the leaders are following the same plan that is
been made in the previous year. This display the inefficiency of the leaders to form a plan on their
own to organize a conference. The next thing, which went wrong, is that there is no concrete
planning that is been made beforehand which might include the end of every internal work few
days before the event. The planning should have made in such a way that every aspect is been
achieve few days prior to the event date.
Therefore, it can said that there are many drawbacks in the leadership skill of the newly
appointed leaders. To achieve certain target a concrete planning along with the backup planning is
required if something went against the planning. The leaders made no such backup planning that
will help the organization to overcome the crisis. The leader should have mapped the pros and cons
beforehand, when the planning is been made to organize the annual conference which is considered
as an important event for Sloan Women in Management.
Leadership Skill
In general, leadership style is the way as well as the persons approach in guiding through
right direction, implementation of the plans along with motivating the people to put an extra effort
to achieve the goals and targets (Strom, Sears & Kelly, 2014). The leadership style was first
introduce in the year 1939 by Kurt Lewin, who led researchers to analyse and reveal the different
types of leadership styles that have been follow by the people (Ruggieri & Abbate, 2013).
There are seven types of leadership skills, which prevails around the world and they are
namely: 1. Autocratic style (it is a one dimensional leadership style where full authority in the hand

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of the leader) (Cooper, 2015). 2. Coaching style (in this the leader does not lead directly but
indirectly). 3. Strategic style (in this style leaders potential and capabilities are expressed for the
organization’s benefit). 4. Democratic style (it is participative in nature). 5. Charismatic style (in
this the leader attract the employees to work hard with their charisma). 6. Transformational style (it
focus on setting high goals and strict deadlines). 7. Laissev-faire style (gives scope top innovation
and flexibility) (Urick & Bowers, 2014).
The leadership style, which is present in myself, is the democratic leadership style as it is
identified from the survey that have been done by me and my score in the end is 23 (refer to fig. 1
and fig. 2 in the appendices section). In the democratic leadership, the more the employees who are
working under you are involve, the more production they deliver (Zhu, Newman, Miao & Hooke,
2013). This will automatically benefit the company as well leaders to achieve the goals. Based on
the score, it can be note that the leadership style, which is follow by myself, is similar to the
democratic leadership style.
The democratic leadership style help the employees to interact with the leaders as well as
take active part in the decision making process. This is execute by taking the inputs or perspective
from the employees who are working under the leader (Cunningham, Salomone & Wielgus, 2015).
This ultimately help the employees to take active part and feel important for the company as their
input or the leader also takes idea of the employees which ultimately motivate them and feel
important at the same time. This will automatically boosts the confidence of the employee and as a
result, the company or the organization along with the team and team leader will achieve their
target (Gonos & Gallo, 2013). Therefore, this style is quite effective in nature compare to the other
styles as this style involves the employees as well and anyone and everyone can generate creative
idea or solution. This will ultimately benefit the organization as a whole and there is a chance of
many options in terms of solution, which is present in the hands of the leaders (Al-Ababneh, 2013).

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Conclusion
In the end, it can be conclude, why there is a dispute in the leadership skill of the Sloan
Women in Management Club leaders. The study also gives the clear idea regarding the leadership
style that is been follow by myself. Lastly, the study conclude why the style, which is follow by
myself, is important for the organization to achieve the goals in the near future. This will
automatically help to execute the plans and the leaders of Sloan Women in Management Club lacks
in that skill. If they had follow that, they would have succeeded in organizing the conference.

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References
Strom, D. L., Sears, K. L., & Kelly, K. M. (2014). Work engagement: The roles of organizational
justice and leadership style in predicting engagement among employees. Journal of leadership &
organizational studies, 21(1), 71-82.
Ruggieri, S., & Abbate, C. S. (2013). Leadership style, self-sacrifice, and team
identification. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 41(7), 1171-1178.
Cooper, D. (2015). Effective safety leadership: Understanding types & styles that improve safety
performance. Professional Safety, 60(02), 49-53.
Urick, A., & Bowers, A. J. (2014). What are the different types of principals across the United
States? A latent class analysis of principal perception of leadership. Educational Administration
Quarterly, 50(1), 96-134.
Zhu, W., Newman, A., Miao, Q., & Hooke, A. (2013). Revisiting the mediating role of trust in
transformational leadership effects: Do different types of trust make a difference?. The Leadership
Quarterly, 24(1), 94-105.
Cunningham, J., Salomone, J., & Wielgus, N. (2015). Project Management Leadership Style: A
Team Member Perspective. International Journal of Global Business, 8(2).
Gonos, J., & Gallo, P. (2013). Model for leadership style evaluation. Management: journal of
contemporary management issues, 18(2), 157-168.
Al-Ababneh, M. (2013). Leadership style of managers in five-star hotels and its relationship with
employees job satisfaction. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 3(2), 94.

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Appendices
Fig. 1: Leadership Style Recognition

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Fig. 2: Score Interpretation