Read the Federated Industries case from chapter 15 on pages 402-403. Respond to

Question

Read the Federated Industries case from chapter 15 on pages 402-403. Respond to the case questions.

Text book Leadership in Organizations, ISBN-13: 9780132771948.

CASE

Federated Industries

Patricia Paterson is the new vice president for human resources at Federated Industries, a conglomerate with several diverse subsidiaries. Her primary responsibility is to provide support and advice to each subsidiary and monitor their personnel practices to ensure they are consistent with corporate policy and strategy. She reports directly to the CEO of Federated. The CEO is
concerned that not enough capable leaders are coming up through the ranks. The subsidiaries have complete responsibility for their own internal management development, but the CEO wonders whether it is time for a more uniform approach. The CEO asked Patricia to find out what each subsidiary is doing to develop leadership skills, then report back with recommendations for improving leadership development overall at Federated Industries. Patricia arranged to meet with the personnel directors of the three major subsidiaries and asked each director to prepare a short briefing. The first director to speak was Peter Proskin, from an engineering company. He explained that his company provides only technical training, because they lack the staff to provide management training. All management training is done outside the company. A manager (or an employee who wants to become a manager) can look at the listing on available training and request any seminar or workshop that appears relevant. If the employee’s boss approves the request, the manager is sent to the training at company expense. Some employees are enrolled in the evening MBA degree program at the local university, and they are reimbursed for half of the tuition cost. Peter said they do not pay complete tuition for degree programs, because it is too costly. After some employees finish their MBA, they leave for higherpaying jobs at other companies eager to get people who have managerial as well as technical skills. The second director to report was Alice Alston, from a company that makes consumer products. She explained that the company provides a program to develop leadership skills in highpotential managers. Managers at each level are encouraged to identify a promising subordinate to mentor. The protégé gets lots of personal coaching and is given special, developmental assignments. For example, a couple of junior managers are put on each executive committee to learn about strategic issues and observe how the senior managers work. Other assignments include serving on crossfunctional project teams and carrying out improvement projects such as studying work processes and recommending ways to make them more efficient. Alice said that most of the mentors and protégés like the program. However, people not in the program (roughly twothirds of the employees) sometimes complain about the lack of developmental opportunity in the company. The last director to speak was Hal Harwick, from an electronics company. Hal explained that they concentrate their training on managers who previously demonstrated their executive capacity. The six most promising managers below the top executive level are selected to participate in a series of seminars held once a month. Each seminar is conducted by one of the top executives, who talks about company activities in his or her area of expertise. Three or four times a year, Hal arranges for an outside consultant to conduct a training workshop on a specific topic such as project management, budgeting, or delegation. The participating managers know they are fasttrackers in line for promotion to top management. They like the program and have told him it is very worthwhile. When one of them is promoted, another promising manager is selected for the program by the top management team. The only drawback is the political infighting that sometimes occurs when executives try to get their protégés selected for the program. Copyright © 1996 by Gary Yukl

Questions

1. Identify strengths and weaknesses in leadership development at Federated.

2. What types of changes are most likely to improve the leadership development?

3. What additional information is needed to make a good report to the CEO?

Explanation / Answer

Solution:-
1. Engineering Company ( directed by Peter Proskin)

Strengths:

a. Employee Participation in selecting the management training workshop , thus leading to more value addition for the employees as they show prior interest in it .

b. Management Training provided through specialized firms

c. MBA program is in place, which helps in developing leadership skills as well as career development of employees'

2. Consumer Goods Company directed by Alice Alston

Strengths:

a. Concentrated effort on potential managers selected through their manager who have been overlooking their work.

b. Personal Coaching given by the superiors

c. participation in executive committees in order to observe and learn through their seniors

d. Working on cross-sectional project teams helping the employees to obtain knowledge and understanding of how the company as a whole works.

Weakness

a. The process and on what basis the managers are selecting the suitable employees for the program is unclear.

b. More opportunities need to be created even for those who are not in the program

3. Electrical Company directed by Hal Harwick

Strengths

a. High concentrated efforts on employees who demonstrate executive abilities

b. Seminars related to the company by different executives leading to understanding of overall company process and problems by everyone

c. Specialized Trainings conducted to develop managerial and executive skills

d. Continuous exercise , if manager is promoted a new promising manager is selected to participate

Weakness

a. Non clarity on how individuals are selected

b. A limited number of employees are selected, development of others is ignored

c. trainings conducted by specialized concerns are too less in number.

ANSWER 2

Changes required in Engineering Company

1. Job rotation exercise needs to be conducted

2. Personal Coaching is required by assigning Mentors

3. Seminars and Conferences can be conducted on managerial issues

4. Action Learning required which is done by a group of workers working together to come out with solutions to some existing company problems

Changes required in Consumer Good Company

1. Specialized workshops and seminars need to be conducted to give formal training and improve knowledge of the learners

2. MBA program should be created to give a formal education and skill set for the learners

3. Some basic Development training should be done for other employees as well

Changes required in Electrical Companies

1. Increase the number of Formalized training sessions conducted by specialized agencies

2. Corporate University Tie-ups to give a formal education for potential top level managers

3. Personal Coaching by the seniors is required

4. Action Leaning

ANSWER 3

Additional Information required is :

1. Process on the basis of which candidates are being selected for leadership development trainings

2. How is the relevant training list made available for the employees to chose from in Engineering Company

3. If and How is Career Development exercise being performed for employees

4. If and How the KSA analysis is being done to select the right candidates for the training

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