MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES SP2 2014

ASSIGNMENT 2: CASE STUDY

Due Date: 25 May 2014, 11.55pm

CASE: DGL INTERNATIONAL

When DGL International, a manufacturer of refinery equipment, brought in
John Terrill to manage its technical services division, company executives
informed him of the urgent situation. Technical services, with 20
engineers, was the highest-paid, best-educated and least productive
division in the company. The instructions to Terrill: turn it around. Terrill
called a meeting of the engineers. He showed great concern for their
personal welfare and asked point blank: Whats the problem? Why cant
we produce? Why does this division have such turnover?
Without hesitation, employees launched a hail of complaints. I was hired
as an engineer, not a pencil pusher, and We spend over half our time
writing asinine reports in triplicate for top management, and no one reads
the reports.
After a two-hour discussion, Terrill concluded he had to get top
management off the engineers backs. He promised the engineers, My job
is to stay out of your way so you can do your work, and Ill try to keep top
management off your backs too. He called for the days reports and
issued an order effective immediately that the originals be turned in daily
to his office rather than mailed to headquarters. For three weeks,
technical reports piled up on his desk. By months end, the stack was
nearly a meter high. During that time no one called for the reports. When
other managers entered his office and saw the stack, they usually asked,
Whats all this? Terrill answered: Technical Reports. No one asked to
read them.
Finally, at months end, a secretary from finance called and asked for the
monthly travel and expense report. Terrill responded, Meet me in the
presidents office tomorrow morning.
The next morning the engineers cheered as Terrill walked through the
department pushing a cart loaded with the enormous stack of reports.
They knew the showdown had come.
Terrill entered the CEOs office and placed the stack of reports on his desk.
The CEO and other senior executives looked bewildered.
1

This, Terrill announced, is the reason for the lack of productivity in the
technical services division. These are the reports you people require every
month. The fact that they sat on my desk all month shows that no one
reads this material. I suggest that the engineers time could be used in a
more productive manner, and that one brief monthly report from my office
will satisfy the needs of other departments.

QUESTIONS:
1. What leadership style did John Terrill use? What do you think was
his primary source of power? Discuss these two issues.
2. Based on the Hersey-Blanchard theory, should Terrill have been less
participative? Should he have initiated more task structure for the
engineers? Explain and discuss these two issues.
3. What leadership approach would you have taken in this situation?
Discuss this issue.

Source: Samson, D & Daft, RL 2012, Management: Fourth Asia Pacific Edition, Cengage Learning,
Australia, p587.

Assignment Requirements:
The following are guidelines which should assist you as you plan and undertake
your assignment:

You are asked to carefully study the case as presented, and to research
and read as much as you can from literature sources that relate to the
various concepts evident in the case. Literature sources can include
textbooks, academic papers and business journal papers. You may wish to
use these reference sources to support the discussion you present in your
assignment paper, as you respond to the three questions
Identification: Please include your name and ID number at the top of
the first page of your assignment paper
Headers and footers are not necessary
You may compile a nice cover page of your own for your assignment if
you would like to but do not include it in the word count. Please do not
attach the universitys cover page
Word count: 2000 words, plus or minus 10%
Assignment weighting: 35%
References: 5 references minimum, 9 references maximum. Use
Harvard Referencing Guide UniSA protocol. Do not include references in
the introduction or conclusion of your assignment
Assignment structure: Structure your assignment in the following
manner:
o Introduction this is a general introduction for the whole
assignment. Do not have an introduction for each question.
Approximately 100 150 words
o Discussion discuss each of the three questions in sequence. There
is no need to type out each question, just sub-head Question 1 etc.
Approximately 500 550 words per question. Note: Each question
will not take the same amount of words to adequately discuss that
question, this is a guide for planning purposes only
o Conclusion this is a general conclusion for the whole assignment.
Approximately 100 150 words
Assignment format and presentation:
o Write your responses to the questions in prose style (essay), not dot
points
o Times New Roman
o 12 point
o 1.5 line spacing
o Use margins so as markers can write comments in your assignment
o Word count - calculate the assignment word count and place after
the conclusion and before your list of references. If you prefer not to
include in-text referencing within the word count then please

indicate this it is permissible and useful if you are concerned about

total word count for the assignment.

Lorraine Spiers
April 2014