MGTO BLR 24 Case Study Analysis

MGTO BLR 24
N Nishanth | 29 Jan 2023
Indian School of Business | N Nishanth Page 1 / 17

Test Name::
MGTO BLR 24
Finish State: Normal Test Taken on: January 29, 2023 01:01:37 PM IST
N Nishanth
NN
N_Nishanth_pgppro2024@isb.edu
Last Name: Nishanth
PGID: 92310086
Profile Picture Snapshot Identity Card Snapshot

Question-Wise Details
Section 1 1 23m 43s 0/1

Section #1 question(s) Time taken Marks Scored
Q.
Question 1 Not Attempted
1
Case Study Link - Bengalore Cohort
Click on the link above to see the case study.
Your questions starts from next section.
Response:
Answer:
Best answer Correct answer

Section 2 15 17m 50s 26/30

Q.
Question 1 Time taken: 17s Marks Scored: 2/2
1
When your subordinate asks you to make a decision on an issue that is part of his/her own work duties, an effective way to increase your discretionary
time as a manager is to tell the person that you will think about it and will get back to him/her later.
Response:
OPTIONS RESPONSE ANSWER
True
False
Q.
2
Which of the following is not a “soft S” within the McKinsey 7-S framework?
Response:
Shared values/culture
Staffing
Systems
Skills
Style

Q.
3
According to the ERG theory of motivation, if a role does not provide any opportunity for promotions into higher management or for higher pay,
management has no options available to use in motivating employees in that role.
Response:
TRUE
FALSE
Q.
Question 4 Time taken: 1m 32s Marks Scored: 0/2
4
At the time of the writing of the article, which of the following best describes the strength of the new culture at the level of the organization that Mr. Nardelli
has sought to implement at the Home Depot?
Response:
Strong, because the new core values are intensity held and widely shared
Medium, because the new core values are not intensity held but are widely shared
Weak, because the new core values are neither intensity held nor widely shared
Q.
5
In debriefing the “cult exercise” in class, we discussed six major blocks of factors that you must manage effectively (i.e., with clarity and alignment) in order
to manage organizational culture well. Out of these, which of the following has Mr. Nardelli changed or attempted to change since taking over?
Response:
Core values/beliefs
Behavioral norms
People/recruiting
All of the above
None of the above

Q.
6
The Mumblr Display Company has set up an R&D team that is charged with developing a new display product within 6 months. According to the
punctuated equilibrium model of teams, at roughly which of the following points of time is a manager most useful in helping the team?
Response:
1.5 months into the project
3 months into the project
Q.
7
All else being equal, which of the following teams will have the second-best level of team performance?
Response:
Team 1
Team 2
Team 3
Team 4

Q.
8
A collaborating (also called problem solving) approach is the best approach to handling conflict in all situations.
Response:
TRUE
FALSE
Q.
9
According to recent meta-analyses which were mentioned in class, which of the following is closest to the average correlation between cognitive (task)
conflict and affective (interpersonal) conflict in teams?
Response:
0.20
0.60
0.90
Q.
10
Please refer to the article “Renovating Home Depot.” Among the attributes that contribute to one’s personal power, which of the following does Mr. Nardelli
demonstrate the least?
Response:
Submerging ego
Energy and stamina
Focus
Track record.

Q.
11
Please refer to the article “Renovating Home Depot.” Based on the article, it would be accurate to say that Mr. Nardelli demonstrates a relatively high
tolerance for conflict (one of the sources of personal power).
Response:
TRUE
FALSE
Q.
12
You have just been sent from your company’s headquarters in Houston to its Moscow office to lead a change initiative in that unit. Having paid rapt
attention in your Management of Organizations class, you decide that you will use a pull approach in leading the change. Which of the following tactics
should you use?
Response:
Persuading and convincing the members of the unit with data that you have collected
on the profitable market opportunities in Russia
Stating clear expectations about each person’s expected contributions to the change
initiative and specifying how you will evaluate them
Using incentives and pressures to make sure that the members of the unit
understand that there will be consequences to not supporting the change
All of the above
None of the above

Q.
13
All else being equal, what are the likely advantages to you of having professional network A over professional network B?
Response:
Greater access to diverse, non-redundant information
Stronger emotional support
Greater speed to consensus when you need a group decision
All of the above
None of the above

Q.
14
One of the executives mentioned in the article on the Home Depot is Tom Taylor, executive vice-president for marketing and merchandising. He began his
career as a part-time Associate in the outside garden department of a store in Miami, Florida, and quickly rose through the ranks. In the process, over his
23 years at the Home Depot, he developed deep relationships with store managers throughout the company. Assuming that Mr. Nardelli has no other ties
within Home Depot when he arrives, which of the following types of centrality would building a strong tie to Mr. Taylor provide to Mr. Nardelli?
Response:
Degree centrality
Between-ness centrality
Eigenvector centrality
None of the above.
Q.
15
Good friends are more useful than mere acquaintances in connecting you to good job opportunities
Response:
TRUE
FALSE

Section 3 3 2h 14m 53s 0/70

Q.
1
In his article “ Leadership that Gets Results,” Goleman discusses six leadership styles and the situations under which each of them is appropriate. Please
identify the two leadership styles that Mr. Nardelli demonstrates the most (please name the styles), explain why you say so (2 sentences each), and
assess their appropriateness for the situation (2 sentences each). Then name two leadership styles that Mr. Nardelli is not using but should be using in
this situation, describe the styles (2 sentences each) and explain why he should be using them (2 sentences each). (20 points)
Name of the first leadership style that Mr. Nardelli demonstrates the most:
Why you say so (evidence that he demonstrates this style):
Assessment of appropriateness for the situation:
Name of the second leadership style that Mr. Nardelli demonstrates the most:
Why you say so (evidence that he demonstrates this style):
Assessment of appropriateness for the situation:
Name of the first leadership style that Mr. Nardelli is not using but should be using:
Why you say so (evidence that he does not demonstrate this style):
Why you say he should be using it in this situation:
Name of the second leadership style that Mr. Nardelli is not using but should be using:
Why you say so (evidence that he does not demonstrate this style):
Why you say he should be using it in this situation:
Response:
1. The leadership style exhibited the most by Mr.Nardelli is that of Coercive.
This is evident in the article wherein we observe that Mr.Nardelli was trying to set-up a high pressure environment and have his employees/corps
follow his orders, to an extent where they termed the weekly "The Same Page" live broadcast of their senior staff as "marching orders" for the week.
At one point, Izen pointed out that the MCDP 1 chapter, "developing subordinated leaders" indicates that Mr.Nardelli expected his employees to
follow his orders whilst also thinking on their feet while dealing with customers.

This type of leadership may not be best suited for Home Depot at the time of writing the article as they were not exactly going through a crisis, during
which, coercive leadership is the most useful. Second, since coercive leadership creates a negative climate, it would have been best for Mr.Nardelli
to avoid it altogether since he just got into the organization and took over from their "beloved founders".
2. The leadership style exhibited second most is Pacesetting. Mr.Nardelli constantly pushed his employees to do things as he did, for example,
expecting people to treat Saturday and Sundays as any other work day. Mr.Nardelli constantly pushed down "tips, executive messages, warnings" to
his employees which indicates that he wanted them to follow his lead and did things the way he did.
Pacesetting leadership is not best suited in this situation as the employees would have already been demotivated with the exit of their founders and
were not quiet happy with the "fear culture" that Mr.Nardelli was building. Coupled with the fact that the other type of leadership that he portrayed was
also a negative impact on the climate, this was a recipe for disaster considering that this type of leadership would be useful when the employees are
highly motivated.
3. The first leadership style that Mr.Nardelli should be employing is Authoritative.
This type of leadership is useful when the employees need to be mobilized towards a vision. Authoritative leadership is one of the most effective
leadership styles and also has a highly postive impact on the climate/environment.
As Arthur and Bernie were replaced Mr.Nardelli, it would have helped Mr.Nardelli if he employed an Authoritative style of leadership, moving the
people towards a collective goal of improving the standards of customer service at Home Depot which would have in turn helped him increase his
sales' numbers.
With the exit of two beloved founders that ran the company by their instincts and allowed managers to have autonomy, Mr.Nardelli had a tough job of
improving the climate to ensure that his employees were ever motivated - had he used Authoritative style of leadership, he could have improved the
climate at HomeDepot as well as getting some employees on his side.
4. The other leadership style that Mr. Nardelli could have used is Affiliate.
Affiliate leadership puts people first in most, if not all circumstances. This leadership style helps diffuses rifts between people and also motivates
them.
Home Depot is in the retail business where people/customer expereince is of paramount importanct - if Mr.Nardelli had put his employees/people first
and groomed them into doing the same with their customers, he would have witnessed a huge shift in how people felt about HomeDepot. Affiliate
type of leadership would have also helped Mr.Nardelli keep his employees motivated towards attaining a better customer service, better sales figures
etc.
Words : 565

Q.
2
The article on the Home Depot describes the company’s operations under Mr. Nardelli. Please assess what (i) the Job Characteristics Model (JCM) and
(ii) Vroom’s Expectancy Theory would each predict about the motivation levels of store managers who were in their roles prior to Mr. Nardelli’s arrival (not
the ones hired since he arrived), under the system implemented by Mr. Nardelli. Please support your assessment with specific application of the
components of each theory. (25 points)
(i) The Job Characteristics Model (JCM)
(ii) Vroom’s Expectancy Theory
Response:
(i) As per the Job Characteristics Model, a job is motivating when it hits a sweet spot in most of the below variables -
1. Skill Variety
A variety of skill set is important in helping the store managers feel like they are constantly learning and evolving. This was not the case at HD where
in the store managers seem to be only responsible to follow orders and ensure that the sales and profit targets are hit.
2. Task Identity
Tasks need to be identified and defined well for the store managers to feel a sense of accomplishment. This was lacking and may have been
demotivating.
3. Task Significance
How important the task is to the organization is a good motivating factor for the store managers to get it done and if not done, how motivated would
they be put in more efforts and accomplish it. As for store managers, the major task was to ensure that their stores hit the sales and profit targets set
by the senior executives. This would have been demotivating.
4. Autonomy
Autonomy was reduced under Mr.Nardelli's leadership so this must have also been less motivating for the store managers who enjoyed a greater
'sense of power' when they were responsible for operating the entire store.
5. Feedback
Prior to Mr.Nardelli's arrival, the store managers worked on "tribal knowledge" and knew what would sell and what would not. Under Mr.Nardelli's
leadership, we see that the feedback that was present was negative in nature - 'fire'. This lead to the culture of fear and must have demotivating.
Overall, as per JCM, the store managers at HD must have been less motivated than they were under the predecessors of Mr.Nardelli.
(ii) Vroom's expectancy theory assumes that the employees would maximize pleasure over pain and when they experienced pleasure or joy in the
work that they did, their motivation to do the work would also go up.
Three variables of Vroom's theory are Expectancy, Instrumentality and Valence.
1. Expectancy -
The managers who were in their roles before Mr.Nardelli would have expected the same amount of autonomy as a result of their services rendered
and the efforts that they put in. Under Mr.Nardelli's leadership, these managers have been motivated to ensure that their stores "made plan". Though
this made them nervous, they must have been motivated to hit their sales and profit targets.
2. Intrumentality -

It was imperative for the store managers to feel that the work that they were carrying out at Home Depot was important and instrumental. However,
this was not the case as they were expected to only followed orders from the senior staff. This would have brought their overall motivation level
slightly low.
3. Valence -
Valence is the measure of how much the employees' work is valued at their organization. Prior to Mr.Nadelli's arrival, most managers had complete
control over their aisle/department/store. But after he arrived, they lost their autonomy. This, along with the pinch when they found out Mr.Nadelli's
annual pay and bonus, they must have felt little about their work being valued.
According to Vroom's theory, if any of these varibles would be zero, the overall motivation of the store managers would be zero. Considering that the
instrumentality and Valence variables were zero or close to zero, we can safely deduce that the motivation of the said Store Managers were low as
per Vroom's Expectanct Theory.
Words : 561

Q.
3
Name the six aspects/components of a culture or cultural system discussed during the debriefing of the “cult exercise” in class. For each of the six provide
two examples (one sentence each) of how Mr. Nardelli has implemented it at the Home Depot. In addition, please discuss a connection between any two
of the six aspects/components that illustrates alignment/consistency/fit between the two (1 sentence). (25 points)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Illustration of alignment between two aspects/components:
Response:
1. People - Mr.Nardelli created a different type of hiring system. He specifically hired people from the military background to ensure that the
employees were disciplined and committed. Second, he hired senior citizens through AARP & Latinos through advocacy groups.
2. Structure - Mr.Nardelli created a structure in terms of how the the hierarchy worked, at Home Depot.
3. Critical Tasks - Mr.Nardelli brought in a lot of operational efficienices through his experience in the Manufacturing industry. He turned home depots
into "functioning factories".
4. Culture - He created a culture of people being obedient to him, if they protested, they would be fired (culture of fear). Through the to be launched,
25pg booklet called "How To Be Orange Everyday", he tried to imbibe the culture of the military like discipline to "align people on the same page" -
people were not worried about if they would be fired, but when, this became the norm at HD.
5. Strategy - Mr.Nadelli's strategy for Home Depot was to turn it into a more Centralized Organization. He did this by bringing in ideas, people and
platitudes from the military. His other strategy for Home Depot was to expand it's business into other countries alongwith the move to acquire multiple
companies under the Home Depot Supply by scaling back on the growth of new stores.

6. Identity - Home Depot, under Mr.Nadelli, was to be identified as a command-and-control, Centralized Organization which was almost run like a
military establishment. HD was also as a new company by the way it was being run - like a well oiled machinery, with sales improving by 12% each
year and yet the stock prices plummeting.
Mr.Nadelli's strategy was to make HD a Centralized Organization by inculcating the culture of the military. This is evident in the hiring process and
also in the number of people in the organization from the military (almost half) and the employees being culturally obedient, disciplined and following
orders.
Words : 318

About the Report
This Report is generated electronically on the basis of the inputs received from the assessment takers. This Report including the AI flags that are generated in
case of availing of proctoring services, should not be solely used/relied on for making any business, selection, entrance, or employment-related decisions. Mettl
accepts no liability from the use of or any action taken or refrained from or for any and all business decisions taken as a result of or reliance upon anything,
including, without limitation, information, advice, or AI flags contained in this Report or sources of information used or referred to in this Report.

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MGTO BLR 24

N Nishanth | 29 Jan 2023

Indian School of Business | N Nishanth Page 1 / 17

Last Name: Nishanth

Profile Picture Snapshot Identity Card Snapshot

Indian School of Business | N Nishanth Page 2 / 17

Section 1 1 23m 43s 0/1

Case Study Link - Bengalore Cohort

Click on the link above to see the case study.

Your questions starts from next section.

Best answer Correct answer

Indian School of Business | N Nishanth Page 3 / 17

Section 2 15 17m 50s 26/30

OPTIONS RESPONSE ANSWER

OPTIONS RESPONSE ANSWER

Indian School of Business | N Nishanth Page 4 / 17

OPTIONS RESPONSE ANSWER

OPTIONS RESPONSE ANSWER

OPTIONS RESPONSE ANSWER

All of the above

None of the above

Indian School of Business | N Nishanth Page 5 / 17

OPTIONS RESPONSE ANSWER

1.5 months into the project

3 months into the project

4.5 months into the project

5.5 months into the project

OPTIONS RESPONSE ANSWER

Indian School of Business | N Nishanth Page 6 / 17

OPTIONS RESPONSE ANSWER

OPTIONS RESPONSE ANSWER

OPTIONS RESPONSE ANSWER

Energy and stamina

Indian School of Business | N Nishanth Page 7 / 17

OPTIONS RESPONSE ANSWER

OPTIONS RESPONSE ANSWER

All of the above

None of the above

Indian School of Business | N Nishanth Page 8 / 17

OPTIONS RESPONSE ANSWER

Greater access to diverse, non-redundant information

Stronger emotional support

Greater speed to consensus when you need a group decision

All of the above

None of the above

Indian School of Business | N Nishanth Page 9 / 17

OPTIONS RESPONSE ANSWER

None of the above.

OPTIONS RESPONSE ANSWER

Indian School of Business | N Nishanth Page 10 / 17

Section 3 3 2h 14m 53s 0/70

Why you say so (evidence that he demonstrates this style):

Assessment of appropriateness for the situation:

Why you say so (evidence that he demonstrates this style):

Assessment of appropriateness for the situation:

Why you say he should be using it in this situation:

Why you say he should be using it in this situation:

1. The leadership style exhibited the most by Mr.Nardelli is that of Coercive.

Indian School of Business | N Nishanth Page 11 / 17

3. The first leadership style that Mr.Nardelli should be employing is Authoritative.

Indian School of Business | N Nishanth Page 12 / 17

(i) The Job Characteristics Model (JCM)

(ii) Vroom’s Expectancy Theory