Analysis and Recommendations Report 1
Analysis and Recommendations Report for RST Carports and Metal Roofing
Lucas Woods
School of Executive Leadership, Liberty University
Author Note
Lucas Woods
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to
Lucas Woods. Email: ltwoods@liberty.edu
Analysis and Recommendations Report 2
RST Carports and Metal Roofing
Experience Levels of Employees
Employee experience from the top to the bottom of the organization has been declining
since 2018. Manager experience before the purchase averaged 24 years, while after the
experience level of leadership averaged just 3.7 years. The worker experience levels have also
steadily declined over the last three years. Due to the exodus of experienced workers, the number
of safety violations has increased 100% year over year since 2018, which exacerbated the
retention problems for RST Carports and Metal Roofing. Additionally, a decreased experience
level of workers has led to quality control issues. Before the buyout, the company averaged less
than 11.3 defects per 1000 from 2007 to 2017. While defects from 2018 – 2020 averaged 106 per
1000, the trend continues positively. Lastly, conducting training is a critical element to increasing
the experience levels of employees, especially within technical/manufacturing jobs. Efficiencies
of scale can be utilized when large portions of the workforce has to have the same baseline
knowledge to conduct operations. ("Lifting the lid on the secrets of workplace learning," 2022).
With training only encompassing diversity and sexual harassment training and no work related
training experience levels will continue to fall.
How Leadership Styles Could Have Affected the Change at RST
The transactional leadership style alone is not a "bad" style for leaders. It helps guide
workers toward meeting goals and aids in clarifying roles and requirements. Nevertheless, it is
also a more rigid style and decreases workers' commitment to invest personally in the company.
(Satterlee, 2018). Furthermore, the drastic change from having most leaders utilize
transformational leadership vs. transactional leadership after the purchase caused a shock to the
employees. Switching from leaders who care about the organization and its people to be more
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focused on just productivity would cause a drop in job satisfaction, motivation, and dedication to
the company. Also, leaders exhibiting the transformational style can aid in talent development
and talent retention. (Kafetzopoulos & Gotzamani, 2022). Which is another example of how the
change in leadership style has negatively affected RST through poor employee retention.
How Management Decision Styles Could Have Affected the Change at RST
The shift to autocratic and laissez-faire management decision-making styles has fostered
an environment filled with negative overtones. The management style changed how the
employees interacted with the leadership within the company. They are no longer involved in the
decision-making, and the managers are not getting the vital information they need to make
informed decisions. This can be seen by the increase in defect rate and the switch to substandard
supplies. If employees were still involved in the decision-making, they would have brought these
concerns to leadership. Due to the autocratic management style, the managers made unilateral
decisions and handed down those decisions to the subordinates. There will be low job
satisfaction, weak organizational commitment, and citizenship behaviors in organizations where
even the perceived decision-making style is autocratic. (Siddique & Siddique, 2019).
How Types of Power Could Have Affected the Change at RST
The results can be mixed with leaders exhibiting coercive, reward, and expert types of
power. However, the two critical positions in the company (President and Operations Manager)
utilize coercive power. This will profoundly affect managers and employees further down the
line. Coercive power focuses on fear; when this type of power is overutilized, it can create many
problems. When managers and workers fear their leaders, they will be less likely to voice
feedback and their safety concerns. This is why the workers tried to bring in a union to establish
safe working conditions instead of working within the company to correct the issue. Also, due to
Analysis and Recommendations Report 4
the manufacturing process's technical nature, previous leaders' use of expert power was
beneficial in fostering an environment of knowledge sharing. While the environment currently
contributes to knowledge hiding. (Issac et al., 2022)
Pareto Analysis of the Three Main Problems That Could Have Affected the Change at RST
1 2 3
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
47%
80%
100%
The three main problems that have affected RST are the management decision styles that
are used, the types of power leaders utilize and the leadership styles of the managers/leaders of
the organization. If the management decision styles and types of power being utilized are
corrected, then 80% of the problems RST is having will be solved. If all three are solved then it
is our analysis that the company will be moving in the right direction to be back on track to past
successes.
Analysis and Recommendations Report 5
Recommendations
The first recommendation would be bringing the management decision making styles
back into alignment with the democratic style. The previous success of the company was largely
due to the democratic nature of the decision making. This style opens communication and creates
buy in from the managers and the workers. One way to obtain the necessary decision-making
style would be to train the current leaders within the organization. The second way would be to
hire new staff that are more naturally inclined to utilize the democratic decision-making style.
With retraining staff there is the risk that they will fall back into old routines and habits and the
problems that the company has been facing can come roaring back. It would be our
recommendation that new leaders are found that exhibit the democratic style of decision making.
This leads to the second recommendation which would be to also find leaders that are experts
within the manufacturing of carports and metal roofing.
With having leadership and management that are experts they can then lean into utilizing
the expert power instead of other powers like coercive. Within manufacturing it is important that
the leaders know what they are talking about and how to accomplish the job, in other words they
are experts. This is necessary because subordinates can then learn from those leaders. Eventually
those subordinates will become leaders themselves and then there will be little to no loss in job
knowledge. Just like how Proverbs 27:17 says “as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens
another.” Furthermore, when the leaders within the organization are experts on manufacturing
the there will be a common level of respect and communication will flow easier. Finally, with
expert power it would be most beneficial to have leaders who are transformational instead of
transactional.
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The last recommendation would be transformational leadership instead of transactional.
This leadership style will aid in healing the wounds that the organization has inflicted upon itself
over the past three years. Having leaders that are transformational are focused on employees’
quality of life. These leaders believe that taking care of their people will have long term benefits
like increased productivity, job satisfaction and motivation. Because of this the old wounds will
be able to be healed and the transformational leader can begin to establish a vision for the future
of the organization and the workers will be more likely to buy into that vision with a
transformational leader. Finally, they develop a collaborative culture which ties into the
democratic decision-making process. If there isn’t collaboration than bringing everyone together
to solve problems will be a bumpy road.
Biblical Integration
Besides Proverbs 27:17, Romans 12:12 “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be
constant in prayer.” Sticks out to me as I was reading through the case study. That if I was a
leader within this organization and I was trying to make things better this verse would help me to
be steadfast in doing what is right according to scripture for my people. Tribulations in our lives
should be joyful moments because God has placed these periods in our lives to develop us for a
greater future. Without tribulations and trials, we won’t develop as Christians or as leaders.
Additionally, prayer is a powerful thing and many organizations could use more prayerful leaders
especially during tribulations.
Conclusion
The leaders have a major impact on organizations at all levels. The decision-making
styles we utilize, the types of power we lean on and the leadership styles we rely on can
positively affect those around us or negatively affect them. We are all humans as leaders and are
Analysis and Recommendations Report 7
always not always the best democratic decision makers or transformational leaders or even
referent or experts in our field. But it is important to understand these concepts and how to
analyze situations so that way we can make the corrective actions before they get to the level
displayed within this case study. The new owners lost the picture on what made the old
leadership so successful. Because of the poor decisions that were made they affected many of the
people who seemed to love their job and forced many to quit or retire. Hopefully, with the
recommendations above the company can be put back onto the right track in what made them
successful for almost 40 years.
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References
Issac, A. C., Bednall, T. C., Baral, R., Magliocca, P., & Dhir, A. (2022). The effects of expert power and
referent power on knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding. Journal of Knowledge
Management. https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-10-2021-0750
Kafetzopoulos, D., & Gotzamani, K. (2022). The effect of talent management and leadership styles on
firms’ sustainable performance. European Business Review, 34(6), 837-857.
https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-07-2021-0148
Lifting the lid on the secrets of workplace learning. (2022). Human Resource Management International
Digest, 30(7), 40-42. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid-09-2022-0236
Satterlee, A. (2018). Principles of Management and Leadership: A Christian Perspective. Synergistics.
Siddique, C. M., & Siddique, H. F. (2019). Antecedents and consequences of managerial decision-making
styles in the Arabian Gulf. Management Research Review, 43(7), 811-845.
https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr-02-2018-0047
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