Participative Management and Change-Oriented Leadership

Your team of management consultants has been retained by Holographics Technologies International (HTI), a multinational conglomerate of 18 different hardware and software companies located in the United States, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and Canada that together represent the leading edge of holographic applications for government, industry and education. Current products include biomedical applications, research simulations, virtual classrooms, and 3D projections for entertainment parks. The future of holographic applications is wide open to aerospace simulations, virtual education, counterfeit security, 3D medical diagnostics as a substitute for invasive procedures, product and service advertising, and holographic storage devices. In fact, some marketing experts and futurists believe that holographic motion pictures and television sets are the next generation of entertainment.

Although HTI is a leader in technology, its current leadership style to global operations is quite antiquated, inconsistent with modern business practices, and inadequate to sustain the expected growth rates. HTI is managed and lead more like a military organization, with only a few executives from each of the subsidiaries influencing the research, design, prototyping, production, and distribution of current products. These executives meet primarily by teleconferences and emails. Working level interactions between programmers, hardware developers and engineers among these companies are funneled through the daily executive meetings. In fact a lot of valuable talent is being lost over frustrations generated by delays in executive coordination. Most employees feel that allowing for fast-pace communications among front-line workers is more effective for this type of industry.

Describe the advantages and disadvantages of change-oriented leadership, and some of the behaviors that can be expected during the transition.