Management

Kudler Fine Foods-Leadership Styles

The two leadership styles I found prevalent in the Kudler Find Foods scenario is an autocratic and democratic type of leadership style. The autocratic style involves a leader who makes decisions on their own and announces them to subordinates, whereas the democratic style actively tries to solicit the input of subordinates, before making a final decision (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002). Based on the scenario, Kathy Kudler maintains a personal relationship with all of her employees. Kathy will also work the counter and make sure that every employee asks each customer did they find what they were looking for. This type of behavior represents a level of approachability for her employees, which points towards a level of receiving input from her employees whenever needed. For example: If the cashiers recommend opening up a 10 items or less line, they could approach management with this recommendation with the hopes of getting it done. This type of approach is also motivating to her employees. When they see the owner of the store working it makes them feel that she is no better than them, which plays an integral part in gaining respect of the people she hired. Nevertheless, Kathy Kudler is not a hands off leader when it comes to her company. Kathy still does all of the ordering for every store and she tends to hire experienced individuals to run her meat, bakery, wine and cheese departments. Kathy is not able to pay her specialty people a high salary so she allows them to take home some of the perishable goods every night if they would like. This can be a motivator for some of the employees, knowing that they do not have to pay for food each and every day.

The autocratic and democratic leadership style is a good fit Kudler Fine Foods. It allows for employee participation in the decision making process, when it comes to decisions affecting their jobs. Kathy and her managers have done an excellent job in making...