Hello

1. At a family gathering, your uncle comes to you with a problem. He says “I was just promoted. I am the new Division Soupervisor. So far, I like the job; it s challenging but in a way that makes me stretch. I DO have one problem though – I must chair (lead, develop, whatever) a biweekly meeting. I have never done that and I am a little anxious. I am sure you had courses on this in your MBA program, so I hope you can help me. What do I do? What and how do I prepare? How do I get people involved? What do I have to concentrate on before, after, and during the meeting? Any advice you can give me will be greatly appreciated.” How do you answer him?

2. You know a lot about groups: how they are defined, what characteristics are common to all groups, the stages of development groups go thorough, group norms, group roles, etc. Suppose you are called in to an organization as a consultant and asked to determine what is wrong with the organization’s groups. USING what you know about groups, what would you look for in diagnosing the ailments of the groups? How would you describe and interpret it to the person who hired you as a consultant?

3. Contingency leadership theory suggests that the optimal (best) leadership style depends on the personality of the leader, qualities of the subordinates, and characteristics of the situation. The contingency theories of leadership we discussed include the path-goal style and the Situational Leadership style. Use one of those theories to explain – with examples – how contingency leadership works.

4. This time, it is your sister. She just took on her first (and quite low) supervisory position. She says to you ‘I have more power than I ever expected! My mentor says that I can use authority, coercion, expertise ++. BUT, my mentor also says that I should choose my power base with care because people react differently to different bases of power. Can you explain what he might mean by that?”

5. We talked about 4 different...