CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT

You must provide a reference list, formatted in Harvard Style, at the end of your assignment
You must use a minimum of five references
The references are giving with the questions

Purpose: shows capacity to apply, the course concepts to real world cases. Increasingly, workplaces are looking for employees who can add value by providing insightful understandings about ways in which the organization can identify risks and respond to opportunities.

PLEASE NOTE: YOU WILL BE REWARDED FOR ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS, NOT FOR COPYING AND PASTING! Marks are allocated to insightful answers, not to the number of words in an answer. If you, for instance, copy and paste a one page summary of Kouzes and Posner’s five leadership practices, that will not earn you a single mark because that does not demonstrate any understanding of those five practices. You will not be asked ‘memory’ questions such as “What are the five key leadership practices of Kouzes and Posner?” Nor will you be asked: “What are the four quadrants of the CVF?” Nor will you be asked: “What are the four primary practices of the 4+2 formula?” Instead, you will be expected to know the answers to such questions and USE that knowledge to answer the case study questions.
Please make sure that:
• The wording is admirably clear and fluent.
• The level of expression would greatly impress if it was read as an example of your writing by a potential employer.
• The most relevant reading materials have been logically discussed, combined and applied, given the questions that were set.
• Relevant concepts are provided, and there is a clear and convincing explanation of why and how those concepts deepen our understanding of the set cases.
• Your answers address all aspects of the questions, and your use of the course materials demonstrates not only that you understand the course to date but also that you can use course materials to construct a fluent, logical, and effective set of answers to the case study questions.
# ( Case study questions & references ) :
1. Firstly, explain how Brenneman’s leadership actions addressed each quadrant of the Competing Values Framework, and each primary practice of the 4+2 formula. Secondly, explain Brenneman’s theory of Continental’s business.
Brenneman, G. 1998, ‘Right Away and All at Once: How We Saved Continental’, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 76, Issue 5, pp162-173.
Drucker, P. 1994 ‘The Theory of the Business’ Harvard Business Review, September-October, pp32-41
Nohria, N. Joyce W. and Robertson, B. 2003, ‘What Really Works?’ Harvard Business Review, July, pp43-52

Quinn, R. Faerman, S. Thompson, M. McGrath, M. St Clair, L. 2015, Becoming a Master Manager, Sixth Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken NJ 1-21

2. Firstly, explain the ways in which Brenneman’s leadership demonstrated the 5 key leadership practices identified by Kouzes and Posner. Secondly explain the obstacles to mastering cognitive and behavioural complexity (as discussed in Quinn et al) which might have prevented previous CEOs from doing what Brenneman did.

Brenneman, G. 1998, ‘Right Away and All at Once: How We Saved Continental’, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 76, Issue 5, pp162-173.
Kouzes, B. and Posner, J. 2012, The Leadership Challenge, 6th edition, Jossey-Bass, Chapter One: the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership.

Quinn, R. Faerman, S. Thompson, M. McGrath, M. St Clair, L. 2015, Becoming a Master Manager, Sixth Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken NJ 1-21
Quinn, R. Faerman, S. Thompson, M. McGrath, M. St Clair, L. 2015, Becoming a Master Manager, Sixth Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken NJ 333-336
3. Jack Ma says that “making money is simple; but making sustainable money – improving the world and meanwhile making money – is very difficult”. Firstly, explain the similarities between what Jack says about sustainability and purpose and what Indra Nooyi says about sustainability and purpose. Secondly, explain what Jack Ma is doing with TaoBao that could be described as making sustainable money; and explain what Indra Nooyi is doing with PepsiCo that could be described as making sustainable money.

“Alibaba’s Ma Reflects On 12-Year Journey at China 2.0 Conference”

“Conversation with PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi and David Bradley”

Craig, N. and Snook, S. 2014 “From purpose to impact” Harvard Business Review, May 2014, pp104-111

Drucker, P. 1994 ‘The Theory of the Business’ Harvard Business Review, September-October, pp32-41

George, B. Sims, P. McLean, A. and Mayer, D. 2007, ‘Discovering Your Authentic Leadership’ Harvard Business Review, February, pp129-138

# (Example)

Question: Use Peter Drucker’s notion of ‘the theory of the business’ to explain the demise of Fletcher Jones and Staff, and use the Fletcher Jones case to comment on the usefulness of the Competing Values Framework.

Answer: All three assumptions of Fletcher Jones and Staff’s business theory became dangerously out-dated as circumstances changed over time. Drucker emphasizes the importance of regularly comparing a company’s assumptions with reality by asserting that “what underlies the current malaise of so many large and successful organizations world-wide is that their theory of the business no longer works” (p.2). He also asserts that the task of establishing, maintaining, and refreshing a well-informed theory of the business is “what CEOs are paid for” (p.10). Where though, should a managerial leader look in order to regularly test and refresh his or her theory of the business? Drucker recommends studying “what goes on outside the business, and especially to study noncustomers” (p.8). The early Fletcher Jones assumptions about what customers want had a focus not only providing a perfect fit but also on durability, which became less important to people (women in particular), in the 1970s than it was in the 1940s.
Their assumption about the capabilities needed by the business had a focus on employing and developing staff who were highly skilled and highly motivated. Although that assumption was helpful when the company’s success depended upon making clothing that was a perfect fit, and durable, the accuracy and usefulness of the assumption began to decline over time as customers became more interested in fashion and cost. Those changes in customer desires and interests meant that Fletcher Jones and Staff needed new capabilities that would enable them to lower their production costs and increase the pace at which they could provide customers with new styles.
Finally, the assumption that success depended upon the capability of finding and motivating highly skilled staff led Fletcher Jones to give his staff a larger portion of shares than management. That decision resulted in the company’s downfall. The business was unable to respond to the lowering of tariff barriers and the consequent international competition because employees had the power to veto management decision making and they did not agree to the adoption of offshore manufacturing of Fletcher Jones’ garments (which would have dramatically cut costs, but which also would have been tantamount to voting themselves out of work).
Awareness of the Competing Values Framework and its embodiment of cognitive complexity would have ensured that management at Fletcher Jones thought about the long term implications of giving employees control over shares, because application of the CVF requires managerial leaders not only to attend to all four quadrants but also to consider the way that decisions in one quadrant (in this case, the Human Relations quadrant) can have a positive or negative impact on other quadrants (in this case, the Open Systems quadrant and the Rational Goal quadrant). In other words, Fletcher Jones and Staff, as a business organization, paid so much attention to excelling in the Human Relations quadrant that they did not pay enough attention to the other three CVF quadrants, particularly the Open Systems quadrant. One of the positive uses of the CVF framework is to remind managerial leaders that there are four competing areas of the organization that require attention.