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218 PART 3: THE PERSONAL SIDE OF LEADERSHIP
In Class: The instructor can ask students to volunteer to play the role of the plant
manager and the production supervisor. A few students can take turns role-playing the
production supervisor in front of the class to show different approaches to being a fol-
lower. Other students can be asked to provide feedback on each production supervisor’s
effectiveness and on which approach seems more effective for this situation.
Source: Based on K.J. Keleman, J.E. Garcia, and K.J. Lovelace, Management Incidents: Role Plays for Management
Development, (Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 1990), pp. 73–75, 83.

Leadership Development: Cases for Analysis

General Products Britain
Carl Mitchell was delighted to accept a job in the British branch office of General Products,
Inc., a multinational consumer products corporation. Two months later, Mitchell was
miserable. The problem was George Garrow, the general manager in charge of the British
branch, to whom Mitchell reported.
Garrow had worked his way to the general manager position by “keeping his nose
clean” and not making mistakes, which he accomplished by avoiding controversial and
risky decisions.
As Mitchell complained to his wife, “Any time I ask him to make a decision, he just
wants us to dig deeper and provide 30 more pages of data, most of which are irrelevant.
I can’t get any improvements started.”
For example, Mitchell believed that the line of frozen breakfasts and dinners he
was in charge of would be more successful if prices were lowered. He and his four prod-
uct managers spent weeks preparing graphs and charts to justify a lower price. Garrow
reviewed the data but kept waffling, asking for more information. His latest request for
weather patterns that might affect shopping habits seemed absurd.
Garrow seemed terrified of departing from the status quo. The frozen breakfast
and dinner lines still had 1970s-style packaging, even though they had been reformu-
lated for microwave ovens. Garrow would not approve a coupon program in March
because in previous years coupons had been run in April. Garrow measured progress
not by new ideas or sales results but by hours spent in the office. He arrived early and
shuffled memos and charts until late in the evening and expected the same from every-
one else.
After 4 months on the job, Mitchell made a final effort to reason with Garrow. He
argued that the branch was taking a big risk by avoiding decisions to improve things.
Market share was slipping. New pricing and promotion strategies were essential. But
Garrow just urged more patience and told Mitchell that he and his product manag-
ers would have to build a more solid case. Soon after, Mitchell’s two best product
managers quit, burned out by the marathon sessions analyzing pointless data without
results.

QUESTIONS
1. How would you evaluate Mitchell as a follower? Evaluate his courage and style.
2. If you were Mitchell, what would you do now?
3. If you were Garrow’s boss and Mitchell came to see you, what would you say?

Trams Discount Store
“Things are different around here” were the first words Jill heard from her new manager.
Mr. Tyler was welcoming Jill back to another summer of working at Trams, a nationwide
discount store. Jill was not at all thrilled with the prospect of another summer at Trams,
but jobs were hard to find.