Skip to content

ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Leadership and organisational culture

Halvern Engineering's managing director, Tomas, gives detailed instructions on every project, reviews all expenditure and rewards staff who follow procedures exactly. After a regulatory change, staff wait for orders and innovation has stalled. Which analysis best applies Zaleznik's and Kotter's leadership-management ideas to the situation?

Tomas is behaving as a transactional manager, relying on control, procedures and rewards for compliance, which suits stable conditions. The regulatory change calls for leadership that sets direction, empowers and inspires staff, so reliance on tighter control explains why innovation has stalled and staff wait for orders.

  1. ATomas is acting as an effective leader, and stalled innovation is due to weak staff
  2. BTomas is operating mainly as a transactional manager emphasising control; the change context requires more leadership that empowers and inspiresCorrect
  3. CTomas should increase controls further because change is best handled by management
  4. DTomas is using charismatic leadership, which always produces innovation

Explanation

Tomas's close supervision, expenditure review and reward for compliance are management and transactional behaviours that suit stability. Under regulatory change, leadership providing vision and empowerment is needed. Increasing controls would deepen dependency, and nothing indicates charisma.

Did you get it right without looking?

One question tells you little. A timed set on Leadership and organisational culture shows your real accuracy, how long you take and where you lose marks.

Practise Leadership and organisational cultureFree diagnostic mock

More Leadership and organisational culture questions