There are a number of characteristics of Kolind's leadership style that can be inferred from reading this case study. First, the style is consultative, rather than authoritarian (Vroom and Yago, 1988). Kolind ensured that many of the employees had an opportunity to participate in the planning process for the reorganization. Employees were also involved in meetings that provided them with current information about the restructuring process, allowing them the opportunity to ask questions and give input. However, this was still primarily a top-down process, a leader-participation model that still vested decision-making power in senior management. It seems to be a transactional, rather than transformational, leadership approach, even though employees were involved and the resulting structure eliminated some levels of the hierarchy.
A more participative model would have involved employees more, possibly bringing them all into the planning process, or having formal employee groups to get together and consult about the restructuring. Maximum participation would have involved sharing the problems with the group as a whole and having the group as a whole generate and evaluate alternatives and reach resolution to the situation. In looking at Vroom and Yago's (1988) decision-tree leader participation model, it appears as though Kolind's decision to use a consultative, rather than authoritarian or consensus model was an appropriate one.
This would have been a more transformative model, involving consensus, and a new vision of the organization itself. While the structure that Kolind created was a transformed structure, the process of arriving at that structure resembled older-style decision-making.
Organizational Structure, Communication, and Culture
The present forms of the above are easier to identify and describe than the current ones since there is not as much information about them.
The current organizational structur...