Leadership

Current Concepts Leadership

Case study 2.1 Choosing a New Director of Research

Name: Ting Li

February 2, 2015

Questions

1. Based on the information provided about the trait approach in Table 2.1 and 2.2, if you were Sandra, who would you select?

According to table 2.1 and table 2.2，I would select Thomas Santiago for the newly established director’s position. Because he is often consult by his superiors regards strategic planning and corporate direction setting. Moreover he has also been very involved in creating the vision for the company. That means Thomas Santiago has determination trait. Due to his qualities is honesty and integrity that demonstrates Thomas has integrity trait. Also, employees who have worked under Thomas’s supervision say that they can trust Thomas and believe him to be fair and consistent. As a result, I select Thomas Santiago for the director’s position.

2. In what ways is the trait approach helpful in this type of selection?

In this type of selection people can recognize what trait employees have and whether the trait they do have are the best traits for leadership. First of all, it can demonstrate the needed from the position and help people to select who meet the required standards. The trait approach can help people make the right decisions and save a lot of time.

3. In what ways are the weaknesses of the trait approach highlighted in this case?

Trait approach is can help people to find the good traits from others，however it is can not help people to find the defects from others. Otherwise，every body is of different individual psychological features，and everyone will have the different views about work. It is difficult to say which traits from people are right or bad. Most important，it is not a helpful approach for training and development for leadership， because it focus exclusively on the leader，not on the followers or the situation. As a result，it is not a good way to analyze people who meet all of requirements for one...