Lacrosse Industries

Q1.

There are several symptoms that indicates problems exist at LaCrosse Industries, Inc. According to the article, after selling majority of shares to Build-All Products Inc, there are lots of changes.

First, the communication between management and developers becomes more indirect. When LaCrosse is the management, he usually communicates with developers face to face several times a week, while the new production vice president, Jan Vlodoski, communicates with supervisors by memorandum.

Second, Involvement and enjoyment of employees in the company’s production decreases. Before the change of management, which they can judge by themselves for tossing out several pieces of warped wood in the production for quality control, but now, under the strict inventory guidelines and outlined procedures on using supplies for each shift which introduced by Vlodoski, the quality of windows drops. And, Vlodoski had taken out the involvement of production leader in the process of purchasing production supplies, which lowers the involvement of the employees.

        Third, company’s vision and culture is changed, before the change of management, the company’s vision is to ensureLaCrosse products had to be of the highest quality because they gave families a ‘window on life.’ However, after Vlodoski joins the company, the vision seems to change to maximize the profit, which a bit lower of quality is acceptable.

        Number of employees leave the company, employees quit for they did not feel comfortable about producing a window that would not stand the test of time, which shows the achievement of their job decreases.

        Complaints raises as some of the employees saying that they did not feel comfortable about producing a window that would not stand the test of time

        Number of Defect windows increases after the management changes, As the strict control of inventory and the change of purchasing process, the quality of windows decreases due to the lowered quality of materials.

        The points mentioned above showing the decrease in satisfaction and motivation of followers also with the performance and productivity.

The symptoms mentioned above is due to the change of leadership style and the change of culture, showing that there is problems exist at LaCrosse Industries, Inc.

Q2.

I will explain the leadership style of LaCrosse and Vlodoski in two theories, A, Path Goal Leadership Theory and B, Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership theory (SLT)

A. Path-Goal Leadership Theory

We can compare the leadership style of LaCrosse and Vlodoski, and how did they affecting the employees.

LaCrosse Leadership Style

LaCrosse’s leadership style seems to be a mixed style with explanation below.