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Paper #1 – The Challenge of Old Leadership

John-Robert Stuart

Sandermoen School of Business, University of Fredericton

Professor Mona Engvig

MBA 5005b – Leadership Theory and Practice

December 17th, 2022

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Introduction

Leadership duties and positions can come from many different places and depending on

the preparedness and desire of that leader, the employee experience can vary. This paper will

discuss the challenge of being a new-to-the-workforce employee and the difficulties in dealing

with a leader who learned things ‘the hard way’.

The Challenge of Old Leadership

The author seeks not to denigrate their former leader, merely identify the ways in which

their relationship could have been better managed. In 2010, after becoming disillusioned with an

overnight corporate job that was incredibly monotonous, this author chose to part ways and take

a 30% pay cut to find an occupation with much more variety and social aspects. This occupation

ended up being an unofficial assistant manager of a university nightclub, with two primary

responsibilities: DJ’ing and ‘everything else’.

It was discovered very early on, that the manager trained retroactively, with very minimal

proactive training and when gaps were discovered, the employees were typically shocked to find

out that the manager questioned their intelligence and base knowledge skills. This was done by

comments relating to certain tasks or knowledge being ‘common sense’ in nature.

This brazen method of identifying faults rather than recognizing them as knowledge gaps

that management should be responsible for addressing and privately, led to friction, resistance,

some hostility and in some cases illegal behaviors from some former staff. This leadership style,

the author came to realize, was due to several factors, the most notable being the upbringing of

the manager by an emotionally stunted, hardened man.

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Contributing Factors

Make no mistake, the employer of the establishment was very clearly a manager, and

lacked significant leadership skills required to manage front line workers in a ‘people-first’

approach. In referring to historical theories of leadership, there are two that stand out, not

because they match in a positive way, but are inversely correlated.

Trait Theory

If you were to assess the manager in question against trait theory you may have a difficult

time trying to determine which characteristics are positive and which are not. Some to highlight

here are humility, judgement or decisiveness, cheerfulness, ability to enlist cooperation, fair-

mindedness, sociability and diplomacy (Daft, 2018).

As a manager, and as a man whose age was usually more than double the patrons and

staff, immediately there was a position of authority that not only came from being a boss but also

that of experience and age. The manager did not practice humility, he once entered the back

office, to find a staff member writing on a piece of paper the amount of each note in the till. She

was doing this to quickly identify a discrepancy. The manager promptly took the paper crumpled

it, and told her to use a calculator. She promptly quit. This example also shows that they

practiced poor judgment, simply imposing their will and methods without a discussion or

respect. The manager never needed to practice the ability to enlist cooperation, as even with

unruly patrons, they respected his authority as a manager and an older man. While they manager

tended to be cheerful at times, it was completely dependent on the outcome of every interaction

and could change quickly, making that cheerfulness a time-based event. In terms of sociability,

the manager could be social with staff and patrons, sometimes to a detriment as the invention of
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Facebook, he could request staff to promote the bar, which would hinder future employment for

some students who wished to portray a professional university career.

Relational Leadership

There are four stages to servant leadership: Control, Participation, Empowerment and

Service (Daft, 2018).

In the Control Stage “leaders set the strategy and goals, as well as the methods and

rewards for attaining them.” (Daft 2018, p.177). The nightly strategy and goals were to ensure

the alcohol stayed flowing and the patrons had a good time, the rewards for doing that, aside

from remaining employed were occasionally free drinks after a good shift. Never a guarantee,

never expected, but always welcomed for hardworking and thirsty university students on a

budget.

Participation stage explains “Employees are expected to make suggestions for quality

improvements, act as team players, and take greater responsibility for their own jobs, but they are

not allowed to be true partners in the enterprise.” (Daft, 2018, p.177). There were two examples

in 18 months that can be mentioned here. The first was the suggestion that after the night was

done, to have all the doormen stack the tables and chairs to make it more efficient for the

cleaning crew to spend more time on actual cleaning and the second was to add an additional

dishwasher to enhance cleanliness and safety.

At the Empowerment stage, the author’s experience begins to show a lack of data. One of

the tenets of this stage is to “Give decision-making power and the authority to act to those closest

to the work and the customer” (Daft, 2018, p.178). Any idea or change needed to flow to the
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manager beyond being allowed to give one free drink a night should there be an opportunity to

enhance business. The author cannot recall an example of this occurring personally or via peers.

The last component of Greenleaf’s Servant Leadership is to “Put service before self-

interest” (Daft, 2018, p.179), but the author must emphasize that rather than self -interest, service

was the paramount.

Leadership Roles

It may be apparent to some readers at this point to correctly assume that this manager

embodied an Operational Role. The official organizational structure of the business was the

Manager at the top, his spouse (who was a delight to deal with, truly) immediately below him

and then a large and flat front liner worker stable of employees. While the goals of the bar were

not as lofty as a Fortune 500 company with shareholders, the Manager used this structure to

maintain a stable work environment with little to no surprises in the operation. This was a not-

for-profit establishment, and while he was the Manager, he did have a ‘board’ to meet with

quarterly to discuss the finances and operation due to this status. Additionally, successful

operation and margins meant that the profits were actually returned to patrons in the form of

absurdly cheap drink prices, and regular upkeep of the establishment.

Autocratic Leadership

The study Who’s The Boss (2021) demonstrates that when it comes to leadership styles,

autocratic methods is perhaps the least effective when it comes to efficacy. The author must note

that the results did not necessarily turn out the same for the company. Imagine if you will, a bar

run by committee of under-educated, alcohol friendly university students. It would be pure

chaos. Who would listen to who? Who would plan the promotions? Who would set the schedule?
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In this environment, the author would argue that the autocratic style, with a bit of democratic is

actually the optimal operating method. With one central manager, they can control inventory,

foster vendor relationships with suppliers, ensure they are following occupational safety

regulations, be accountable and bonded for the cash in the operation. An easy example of

experience against inexperience was two separate promotions that were entertained by the

manager. First was a suggestion of having an Electronic Dance Music night, as this music was

popular in the mid-90’s and saw a resurgence in 2008 onward. This was a success. The Second

was called Sausage-fest, a sort of male focus night where we sought to treat it like a ladies night

and served sausages. This was a dud. We all think the manager knew it was going to flop, as he

scheduled us lighter than usual, but put on this event to teach us a lesson.

Approaches

Leadership Continuum – Autocratic to Democratic Leadership.

Exhibit 2.3 (Daft, 2018) shows us, on a left to right continuum, the scale that exists for

Boss-Centered Leadership and Subordinate-Centered Leadership. It is the opinion of the author

that the optimal performance of this manager should lie just center-right, between a manager

presenting a changeable decision and seeking suggestions prior to making a decision. This scale

only works on decisions with a less immediate timeline, as you certainly wouldn’t want to

discuss options for breaking up a fight or putting out a fire in real time. When it comes to

promotions or perhaps new products to feature, a feedback session for ideas could be had and

perhaps a tasting event could show what would be good as you have a wide sample size. This

would show trust and make the employees feel heard and that their opinions are valued.

Servant Leadership
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As it pertains to whether or not Servant Leadership could exist in this space, there is an

opportunity in any leader-subordinate relationship to allow for growth and new experience.

There were very few peers who were in the exact same program, we had Liberal Arts students,

future engineers, nurses, computer science and business students on our roster. Each one of them

learning a different discipline, but each of them could have had a real opportunity to learn how a

service industry operated. Regrettably, even in the authors position of unofficial assistant

manager and despite requesting such experience or exposure, it simply was not offered.

Leadership Evolution

Lastly, the most dramatic improvement in manager-employee relations would be for the

manager in question to move from straddling Era 1 and 2 environments to Eras 3 and 4 (Daft,

2018). Allowing delegation of duties, having shift supervisors who could be trusted with more

authority, creating a training program to ensure a consistent experience for all who visited but

also those who worked there would go a long way to increasing the overall culture. The manager

could also focus on what traits would truly help his relationships with his employees.

Conclusion

While the leadership and mentorship during this time left much to be desired in terms of

growth, the author was able to take some important components for their personal leadership

journey. There are certain directions the manager could have and still could take their leadership

style if they were so inclined to benefit their businesses, its employees and its patrons.

Regrettably, the lessons learned tended to be closely aligned with ‘what not to do’. It is the

opinion of the author that knowing what to avoid will allow them as a future leader to focus their

energy on what to embrace, to the hopeful betterment of themselves and their employees.
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References

Daft, R. &. (2018). The Leadership Experience (7th ed.). Boston: 2018.
Who’s the boss?: Evaluating charismatic, considerate and autocratic styles of leadership.
(2021). Development and Learning in Organizations, 35(1), 26-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/DLO-
11-2019-0270