27 SEPTEMBER 2022

ICRISAT CASE
Janne Prins-500832885
Yapici Emre-Mihai-500825231
Eva Kingma-500804382
Britt van Oostrom-500797695
 Introduction:

In this case, we will discuss the company ICRISAT (International Corps Research Institute for Semi-
Arid Tropics). We will look closer into the company and the leadership tactics that are being used in
its management. We will start by answering five questions and will close off with a conclusion. 

What are the 4 components of transformational leadership? Describe them in your own words.

The 4 components of transformational leadership are idealised influence or charisma, inspirational

motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration. These components of
transformational leadership are visible in William Dar’s leadership style. He encouraged his team to
go beyond their own interest for the betterment of the organisation (BRON). This shows inspirational
motivation. Followers achieve more in the interest of the group than when they would do things for
their own benefit (Rowe, G. W., & Guerrero, L., 2018). William Dar also involved the deputy director
generals (DDG) in decision making. He was known for fostering active involvement of his employees
in all initiatives. (BRON) This shows intellectual stimulation. The leader supports his employees when
they challenge his beliefs and visions of the company (Rowe, G. W., & Guerrero, L., 2018). Thirdly,
Dar got the respect from his employees by setting a personal example. He summoned the chief
security officer and created a plan to clean up the Hyderabad campus, and to show his commitment
to the team. (BRON) This shows idealised influence or charisma. These leaders exhibit high morals,
and make ethical and moral choices (Rowe, G. W., & Guerrero, L., 2018). Individualised consideration
is about leaders understanding their follower’s needs. They treat a follower in a way that benefits
him/her. One of the followers needs more structure and the other needs emotional support for
example. The leader supports them to achieve self-actualization (Rowe, G. W., & Guerrero, L.,
2018.).

Is Dar a transformational leader? Why (not)? Use examples from the case to prove your findings.

A transformational leader inspires the company and its employees to change and evolve. It does so
by changing the individual and the social systems within the company. Dar believed in raising the bar
for the employees to keep them motivated and sharp. Dar was aware of the resistance to the
changing environment but kept going by trying to motivate the employees through involvement with
the changing of the company. Dar was very good at looking at the long-term and visualised how to
make ICRISAT a more profitable company. Dar believed that he was the right person to motivate the
employees to stop resisting change and to let these employees collaborate to perform better and
align with the goals of the company (Rowe, G. W., & Guerrero, L., 2018). It is safe to say that Dar is a
transformational leader, as he convinced the board of directors to go with his plan to help eliminate
hunger through agricultural science as he wanted to make farms self-sufficient. This idea is
transformational and the way he implemented the change needed to help his plan succeed is also
transformational as he helped the company change and evolve in a successful way (Rowe, G. W., &
Guerrero, L., 2018). 

Does Dar use task-oriented behaviour? Explain using examples from the case.

To achieve a certain performance standard, a task-oriented behavioural approach is used. Using this
behavioural approach focuses on achieving corporate goals rather than employee satisfaction. Dar
felt it was very important that there would be little to no poverty, with this attitude he ensured that
there would be a unified view and thus hoped to achieve goals more easily (Glenn Rowe, 2001).

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The core values of task-oriented behaviour are both clarifying the common goals and highlighting
the roles needed to achieve the goals. Dar was looking for a research strategy that could turn a study
into a blueprint. This was for the part of the organisation focused on farmers. This should improve
productivity and efficiency in the agriculture sector. This would lead to countering poverty (Glenn
Rowe, 2001). Furthermore, Dar felt it was important to improve communication channels to reduce
the adjustment time of workers. He also felt it was important to have good motivation and
satisfaction for both workers and farmers involved in the study. And this is also a characteristic of
relationship-oriented behaviour (Glenn Rowe, 2001). Which is what the following question focuses
on.
 
Does Dar use relationship-oriented behaviour? Explain using examples from the case

As mentioned above, relationship-oriented behaviour also exists. Relationship-oriented leadership

that supports the overall wellbeing, satisfaction and motivation of employees and team members.
Dar, in this case, shows that he very much supports and values this form of leadership. By using
these leadership qualities within highly professional competition, he managed to become the
director of the Bureau of Agricultural Research (Glenn Rowe, 2001).

During his leadership within this organisation, he ensured strategies that improved the quality of
research. Every time he mentioned how important cooperation and communication is within a team.
This is reflected in the concept of public-private partnership he advocates, an alliance of mutual
cooperation and mutual benefit. He also demonstrated this leadership policy by enhancing his skills,
drew up a plan to establish a campus in Hyderabad and presented his leadership policy to the
ICRISAT team. He narrated his vision and the ministers noted that he had a very clear idea of the
nature of the importance of the organisation's existence (Glenn Rowe, 2001).
 
According to Gobble’s (2017) there are five followership styles: identify one from the case clearly
explaining the rationale behind your decision.

When discussing the five followership styles: alienated, conformist, passive, pragmatist and
exemplary, we take into consideration two parameters, critical thinking and active participation. In
this case we can see that active participation is very low, because employees are unsatisfied and
unmotivated and that there is a high employee turnover rate. This can be explained due to the fact
that ICRISAT had 4 director generals in quick succession and four deputy director generals. This
didn’t allow for stability in the company and therefore this also discouraged employees to critical
think about the company, especially due to the fact that there was a high uncertainty about their job
security. When taking into consideration the fact even senior employees left the company we can
definitely argue that there was not active critical thinking because of lack of future perspective
(Rowe, G. W., & Guerrero, L., 2018).

Conclusion:

To conclude, in the 5 questions that have been answered we have discussed the four components of
transformational leadership, we have argued that Dar is a transformational leader, have presented
how he uses task-oriented behaviour, however he uses significantly more relationship--oriented
behaviour, to the extent of arguing that it is hard to use only one behaviour and completely exclude
the other type of behaviour. Lastly, we have briefly mentioned the five followership styles and have
argued why in the case of ICRISAT the followership style is isolate.

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 References:

- Guerrero, L., & Rowe, W. G. (2021). Cases in Leadership (Second ed.). Thousand Oaks,
California: Sage Publications; Inc.,2010.
- Sunita Mehta & Surya Kant Sharma. (N.D.) Transforming ICRISAT: The leadership of Dr
William Dar. Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation, 2012.
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How did this case contribute to my leadership and management skills?

Janne Prins:
This case taught me that having ideas that are out of the box is not necessarily bad and if
implemented the right way could lead to change and growth in the company. Pursuing your own
thoughts and your own management style, even if someone says no to you, is very brave and should
not be taken lightly. I have learned that change sometimes is necessary but should be implemented
in the right way to be fully acceptable to all employees.

Britt van Oostrom:

What I learnt from this week is that I do recognise myself in transformational leadership.
Subconsciously, I adopt this style when I take on leadership, but nice to recognise it now. I also often
take into account the needs of others when choices have to be made in a group. because I don't
always take the lead, I can also identify with followership. This more in how I make a choice to opt
for followership and who I would then follow in that particular situation.

Eva Kingma
The case of this week contributed to the development of both my leadership and change
management skills. I learned about leadership style approach, followership and transformational
leadership. I learned that transformational leadership is really effective in this case. I also learned
that it’s most effective to be both task-oriented and relationship-oriented, but in the case of William
Dar, he was more relationship-oriented. This made him a very good leader in the organisation. 

Yapici Emre-Mihai
This week’s case contributed to the development of my leadership and change management skills.
Firstly, I revised the concepts from the book leadership style approach, followership and
transformational leadership. I learned about the effectiveness of transformational leadership and
differences between task-oriented and relationship oriented behaviour and how it is hard to have
one of them alone without having behaviour from the other. Moreover, I learned about the 5 type of
followership and applied to the ICRISAT case.