Alice in Wonderland

The case “Alice in Wonderland” provides us with a clear example of an organizational change made by Marike van Lier Lels. Marike has become a managing director at Van Gend & Loos (VGL) in late 1995. Due to her interpersonal approach she has succeeded in turning around the future of the company, making it a successful enterprise. Even though she was not familiar with land transportation, she has had an enormous impact on the organization and delivered great results quickly. Now that VGL will merge with Deutsche Post, Marike is taking a look back on past years and reflects on what has happened.

1) From what leadership perspective/s can the case be analyzed? Why?

1.1) Trait-Skill-Approach

The trait approach refers to an efficient favorable leadership behavior based on attributes which a person is born with. Throughout the text, many of Marike’s attributes that are describing her personality and character are given (“Marike’s drive and ambition” p.13). In contrast to traits of character one is born with, we are also able to learn different skills during our lives, this would be considered as skill approach.

1.2) Participative Leadership

Participative Leadership states that subordinates and company workers should have influence over the leader’s decision and to be actively participating. Marike regularly meets with her management team to discuss various decisions and to focus on a common vision. “[...] people at all levels of the company discuss their views.” , “People should be able to challenge their boss!” (p.9) As a manager she is also open to receive feedback from her fellow workers. By using this approach we can easily see that Marike applies participative leadership.

1.3) Ethical Leadership

Ethical leadership is defined through many different aspects of behavior and motives, like honesty, trustworthiness and fairness. It is also used as a tool to influence the behavior and motives of others for example of subordinates. Going out from the aspect...