Ed Sullivan was general manager of the Plastics Division of Warner Manufacturing Company. Eleven years ago, Ed hired Russell (Rusty) Means as a general manager of the Plastics Division’s two factories. Ed trained Rusty as a manager and thinks Rusty is a good manager, an opinion based largely on the fact that products are produced on schedule and are of such quality that few customers com-plain. In fact, for the past eight years, Ed has pretty much let Rusty run the factories independently. Rusty believes strongly that his job is to see that production runs smoothly. He feels that work is work. Sometimes it is agreeable, sometimes disagreeable. If an employee doesn’t like the work, he or she can either adjust or quit. Rusty, say the factory personnel, “runs things. He’s firm and doesn’t stand for any nonsense. Things are done by the book, or they are not done at all.” The turnover in the factories is low; nearly every em-ployee likes Rusty and believes that he knows his trade and that he stands up for them. Two months ago, Ed Sullivan retired and his replace-ment, Wallace Thomas, took over as general manager of the Plastics Division. One of the first things Thomas did was call his key management people together and an-nounce some major changes he wanted to implement. These included (1) bring the operative employees into the decision-making process; (2) establish a planning com-mittee made up of three management members and three operative employees; (3) start a suggestion system; and (4) as quickly as possible, install a performance appraisal program agreeable to both management and the opera-tive employees. Wallace also stated he would be active in seeing that these projects would be implemented without delay. After the meeting, Rusty was upset and decided to talk to Robert Mitchell, general manager of sales for the Plastics Division. Rusty: Wallace is really going to change things, isn’t he? Robert: Yeah, maybe it’s for the best. Things were a little lax under Ed. Rusty: I liked them that way. Ed let you run your own shop. I’m afraid Wallace is going to be looking over my shoulder every minute. Robert: Well, let’s give him a chance. After all, some of the changes he’s proposing sound good. Rusty: Well, I can tell you our employees won’t like them. Having them participate in making deci- sions and those other things are just fancy man- agement stuff that won’t work with our employees. Questions  1. What different styles of leadership are shown in this case?  2. What style of leadership do you think Wallace will have to use with Rusty? 3. Do you agree with Rusty? Why or why not? 4. If “products are produced on schedule and of such quality that few customers complain,” why should there be any changes? B. On a Monday morning, April 28, George Smith was given the news that effective May 1, he would receive a raise of 13 percent. This raise came two months before his sched-uled performance appraisal. His manager, Tom Weeks, in-formed him that th.

1. Ed Sullivan was general manager of the Plastics Division of
Warner Manufacturing Company. Eleven years ago, Ed hired
Russell (Rusty) Means as a general manager of the Plastics
Division’s two factories. Ed trained Rusty as a manager and
thinks Rusty is a good manager, an opinion based largely on the
fact that products are produced on schedule and are of such
quality that few customers com-plain. In fact, for the past eight
years, Ed has pretty much let Rusty run the factories
independently. Rusty believes strongly that his job is to see that
production runs smoothly. He feels that work is work.
Sometimes it is agreeable, sometimes disagreeable. If an
employee doesn’t like the work, he or she can either adjust or
quit. Rusty, say the factory personnel, “runs things. He’s firm
and doesn’t stand for any nonsense. Things are done by the
book, or they are not done at all.” The turnover in the factories
is low; nearly every em-ployee likes Rusty and believes that he
knows his trade and that he stands up for them. Two months
ago, Ed Sullivan retired and his replace-ment, Wallace Thomas,
took over as general manager of the Plastics Division. One of
the first things Thomas did was call his key management people
together and an-nounce some major changes he wanted to
implement. These included (1) bring the operative employees
into the decision-making process; (2) establish a planning com-
mittee made up of three management members and three
operative employees; (3) start a suggestion system; and (4) as
quickly as possible, install a performance appraisal program
agreeable to both management and the opera-tive employees.
Wallace also stated he would be active in seeing that these
projects would be implemented without delay. After the
meeting, Rusty was upset and decided to talk to Robert
Mitchell, general manager of sales for the Plastics Division.
Rusty: Wallace is really going to change things, isn’t he?
Robert: Yeah, maybe it’s for the best. Things were a little lax
under Ed. Rusty: I liked them that way. Ed let you run your own
shop. I’m afraid Wallace is going to be looking over my

2. shoulder every minute. Robert: Well, let’s give him a chance.
After all, some of the changes he’s proposing sound good.
Rusty: Well, I can tell you our employees won’t like them.
Having them participate in making deci- sions and those other
things are just fancy man- agement stuff that won’t work with
our employees.
Questions
1. What different styles of leadership are shown in this case?
2. What style of leadership do you think Wallace will have to
use with Rusty?
3. Do you agree with Rusty? Why or why not?
4. If “products are produced on schedule and of such quality
that few customers complain,” why should there be any
changes?
B.
On a Monday morning, April 28, George Smith was given the
news that effective May 1, he would receive a raise of 13
percent. This raise came two months before his sched-uled
performance appraisal. His manager, Tom Weeks, in-formed
him that the basis for the raise was his performance over the
past several months and his value to the com-pany. He was told
that this was an “above average” increase. On the next day,
Tuesday, a group of George’s co-workers were having their
regular morning coffee break. The conversation slowly made its
way around to salary in-creases. One member of the group
shared that she had received a performance review in April, but
she had yet to receive any indication of a salary increase.
George made a comment about the amount of any such
increases, spe-cifically questioning the range of increase
percentages. Another co-worker immediately responded by
saying how surprised he was in getting an across-the-board 12
percent increase last Friday. Another co-worker con-firmed that

3. he too had received a similar salary increase. Shocked by this
information, George pressed for informa-tion, only to learn that
several people had received in-creases of “around” 11 to 13
percent. Confused and angry, George excused himself, went
back to his office, and closed the door. That evening, George
wrestled with his conscience concerning that morning’s
discussion. His first impression of his raise was that it had been
given based on perfor-mance. He felt he was being singled out
for recognition for his hard work and his value to the
organization. Now he wasn’t so sure. Several questions were
bothering him: 1. Why did his boss present the raise to him as a
merit increase when it was the same as everyone else’s? 2. Did
individual job performance really count for that much in salary
increases in his department? 3. Did his boss hide the truth
regarding the raise? 4. Can he trust his boss in the future? 5.
Will future salary increases be averaged across the board too?
Questions
1. Do you think George is right to be this upset? Why or why
not.
2. How do you think the information George discovered during
that morning coffee break will affect his per-formance from
now on?
3. How would you react if you were George? Why?
4. What can Tom Weeks do to regain George’s trust?
C.
Bob Luck was hired to replace Alice Carter as administrative
assistant in the admissions office of Claymore Community
College. Before leaving, Alice had given a month’s notice to the
director of admissions, hoping this would allow ample time to
locate and train her replacement. Alice’s responsibilities in-
cluded preparing and mailing transcripts at the request of stu-
dents, mailing information requested by people interested in
attending the college, answering the telephone, assisting stu-

4. dents or potential enrollees who came to the office, and gen-eral
supervision of clerical personnel and student assistants. After
interviewing and testing many people for the posi-tion, the
director hired Bob, mainly because his credentials were good
and he made a favorable impression. Alice spent many hours
during the next 10 days training Bob. He appeared to be quite
bright and seemed to quickly pick up the proce-dures involved
in operating a college admissions office. When Alice left,
everyone thought Bob would do an outstanding job. However,
little time had elapsed before people real-ized that Bob had not
caught on to his job responsibilities. Bob seemed to have
personal problems that were severe enough to stand in the way
of his work. He asked ques-tions about subjects that Alice had
covered explicitly; he should have been able to answer these
himself if he had comprehended her instructions. Bob appeared
to constantly have other things on his mind. He seemed to be
preoccupied with such problems as his recent divorce, which he
blamed entirely on his ex-wife, and the distress of his eight-
year-old daughter, who missed her father terribly. His thoughts
also dwelled on his search for peace of mind and some reasons
for all that had happened to him. The director of admissions was
aware of Bob’s preoccupation with his personal life and his
failure to learn the office procedures rapidly.
Questions
1. Could Alice Carter have done anything differently here? Why
or why not?
2. What would you do at this point if you were the director of
admissions?
3. Do you think Bob should keep his job? Why or why not?
4. Describe how you might effectively use a performance
appraisal in this situation.