Module 4 - Case

Leadership and Decision-Making Styles

Case Assignment

Since 2013 there has been on-and-off talk of Sprint purchasing T-Mobile. (They are the third- and fourth-largest mobile phone carriers in the United States.) This move is led by Masayoshi Son, the chair of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, which owns Sprint. Mr. Son is a bold entrepreneur who is known for his penchant for risk taking and desire to be a global leader in the telecommunications industry. If the merger ever goes through it would result in a merger of the third and fourth largest mobile phone carriers in the United States.

Most recently, it appears that the merger will not go through. But the fact that talk of this merger has been rumored for quite a long time suggests it must have been a very difficult decision for Masayoshi Son. Such a large-scale merger brings great benefits in allowing a combined Sprint/T-Mobile to compete with industry leaders AT&T and Verizon. But mergers are always very risky and require a huge amount of debt to finance, not to mention overcoming numerous regulatory hurdles.

For this assignment, thoroughly review the background materials on the Vroom-Yetton decision-making style model. This involves answering seven questions relating to a decision and using the results from the model to determine your decision-making style. Make sure you understand the model, including the seven questions and the path diagram that you follow in order to find the preferred leadership style. The Vroom-Yetton model allows you to choose between different levels of autocratic, consulting, or group decision-making styles.

After you have reviewed the required background materials including Stanford(2007), Vroom (1976), and Rigolosi (2005), do some research on Sprint’s decision whether or not to purchase T-Mobile and think about what kind of answers you would give to the seven questions involved in the Vroom-Yetton model. Here are some articles on the rumored Sprint/T-Mobile merger to get you started:

Gelles, D., & De La Merced, M. J. (2014, Jun 05). T-Mobile and Sprint zeroing in on merger. New York Times [ProQuest]

Yao, D. (2014). Moody's: Sprint/T-Mobile merger faces negative free cash flow until at least 2018. SNL Kagan Media & Communications Report [ProQuest]

De La Merced, M. (2014, Aug 07). Sprint ends its attempt to purchase T-Mobile. International New York Times [ProQuest]

Once you have finished your research on the Vroom-Yetton model and on the merger, write a 4- to 5-page paper addressing the following issues:

1. Imagine you are Masayoshi Son and have to decide on which decision-making style to use. Go through the seven questions from the Vroom-Yetton model and give your answers based on what you think the main issues are in the decision of whether or not to purchase T-Mobile. Explain your reasoning behind each answer
2. Go through the diagram in the Vroom-Yetton model and, based on your answers to the seven questions from Question 1, see what kind of decision-making style is recommended for Masayoshi Son. Use the diagram (Figure 6.2) on page 118 of Rigolosi (2005). Are you surprised by this answer? Is it the kind of decision-making style you would personally recommend based on your own research?
3. Conclude your paper with a discussion of your own opinion as to the usefulness of the Vroom-Yetton model for choosing your decision-making style. Would you recommend that corporate executives receive training in this model? Is there any ways in which you think the model could be improved? Explain your reasoning.

Assignment Expectations

• Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all steps listed in the instructions.
• Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials.
• Make sure to cite readings from the background materials page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of information.
• Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13 and 14 on in-text citations.

Module 4 - SLP

Leadership and Decision-Making Styles

For this assignment think about a specific decision that was made by your supervisor in the organization you currently work for or have worked for in the past. Review the background materials carefully on the Vroom-Yetton model and think about how this model applies to this decision that you experienced. Then write a 2- to 3-page paper applying the Vroom-Yetton model to this decision:

1. Describe the decision that management had to make, and also whether their decision-making style was autocratic, consultative, or group-based. Explain your reasoning.
2. Go through Vroom-Yetton’s seven questions and apply these questions to their diagram to see what decision-making style their model suggests. Briefly explain the reasoning behind your answers to the seven questions.
3. Conclude your paper with a discussion of whether or not you would recommend this model to your supervisor and whether or not you were surprised by the recommendation given by this model regarding decision-making style.

SLP Assignment Expectations

• Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all steps listed in the instructions.
• Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials.
• Make sure to cite readings from the background materials page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of information.
• Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13 and 14 on in-text citations.

Module 3 - Background

Group Decision Making

Required Material

A good place to start is this interactive tutorial on group decision making:

Decision-making components and techniques. (2014). Pearson Learning Solutions. New York, NY

After you’ve gone through the tutorial, read up in more detail on this topic with the following readings:

Moshal, B. S. (2009).Chapter 7: Decision making in an organization.  Principles of Management. New Delhi: Global Professional Publishing Ltd. [eBook Business Collection. Note – you don’t have to read the whole chapter, just the section “Techniques of Group Decision Making” in the middle of the chapter]

Sims, R. R. (2002). Chapter 8: Decision making. Managing Organizational Behavior. Westport, CT, USA: Greenwood Press, pp. 205-210. [eBook Academic Collection. Note – you don’t have to read the whole chapter, just the section on group decision-making]

Anderson, D. R. (1990). Increased productivity via group decisionmaking. SuperVision, 51(9), 6. [ProQuest]