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RST CARPORTS AND METAL ROOFING
RST Carports and Metal Roofing
BMAL 501: Strategic Leadership and Management
Author Note
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to
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RST CARPORTS AND METAL ROOFING
RST Carports and Metal Roofing
In 1980, Jerry Jones founded a small business named RST Carports in Albany, Indiana.
From 1980 to 2017, this small business was a stable and profitable company working out of a
600,000 square foot building with office spaces for executive staff. The business started with
four versions of carports and increased this to forty-eight versions over time. In 2000, the
company ventured into metal roofing by providing eighteen versions of it in addition to the
carport versions.
During 2017, Mr. Jones sold the company to a large competitor for $60.8M. WXY
Corporation purchased the profitable business and assigned a new divisional manager named Art
Anderson. Mr. Anderson completed a one-month assessment of RST staff before making changes
to the management, employees, and operations of the business. Since those changes took place,
the once stable business is now struggling to survive and there are major problems which need to
be addressed for it to rebound.
Experience Levels of Employees
After the completion of the assessment, Mr. Anderson changed the structure of
management and the way employees were treated. Due to some of the changes, experienced
managers retired or quit. This forced the company to hire inexperienced management to continue
the operations. Mr. Anderson did not help matters with consolidating management duties with
some of the new positions. CFO was combined with HR, Engineering was combined with
Maintenance, and Purchasing was combined with Materials. Management went from a staff of
fourteen handling the operations to a staff of seven. The average manager had thirty to thirty-
seven years of experience with RST Carports and Metal Roofing. The average experience of the
new management team for RST was currently three years.
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The experience level of employees was drastically reduced due to a revolving door of
workers and the reduction of 30% in the manufacturing and installation workers. Employees
were being required to work weekends and overtime without adequate compensation. In-service
training for current employees and the new-hire training for new employees was cut. These
problems led to an increase in employee injuries, decrease in employee morale, and numerous
product quality problems. The collaborative group of employees were now combative towards
management.
How Leadership Styles Could Have Affected the Change at RST
Reviewing changes made in RST management includes the change in leadership styles.
RST management led with mostly transformational or servant styles for over thirty years. In a
dramatic shift, the new leadership style changed into mostly a transactional style. This drastic of
a change in leadership styles can be very difficult for employees to handle or to accept the
change. “Transformational and transactional leadership are two very distinct paths that can
ultimately determine the overall morale within an organization” (Satterlee, 2018, p 111).
Mr. Jones originated the business and therefore had a vested personal interest in the
success of the organization. This personal interest for the business to succeed allowed him to hire
managers with the same mindset. Transformational leadership was the style for over thirty years
and the employees had a feeling that management cared for them as individuals and valued their
inputs. The change in leadership to Mr. Anderson led to a change in leadership style to mostly
transactional. The transactional leadership had employees feeling that managers were
impersonal, rigid, and only cared about the success of the business. Antonakis (2014) explains
that leadership is important for motivating followers towards the fulfillment of the organization's
mission, but it is very essential for the organization to continue with innovation, adaptation, and
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performance. As the managers were no longer personally invested in the success of the business,
the employees found themselves to be with the same lack of satisfaction.
How Management Decision Styles Could Have Affected the Change at RST
The change in leadership style was not the only major change for employees to navigate.
The business change in management led to a change in the management decision style. RST
Carports had been led with for thirty years as a democratic style and the new management style
took on the forms of autocratic or laissez-faire. These styles can be dependent on the skill levels
of the employees. Most of the employees at the beginning of the transition were skilled and
experienced. Through turn-over and lack of experience, the employees skill level changed to
inexperienced as most were new or needing additional training.
The employees were used to a democratic management style that allowed for their input
and open communication between the levels. Satterlee (2018) demonstrates that a democratic
manager will value an employee’s input as well as group discussions, but does not lose sight of
their ultimate leadership of the group. Mr. Jones seemed to balance this well with his
management team. The change to Mr. Anderson management brought an all new staff of
management that was focused on productivity more than employee input.
Mr. Anderson initiated an autocratic management style that dictated to those what was
going to happen and expected all to follow the lead. RST Carports was already established and
running, there was no need for Mr. Anderson to enact an autocratic style of management. The
drastic change from having faith in your employees to know how to do their job to a style that
micromanaged led to several problems for the business.
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How Types of Power Could Have Affected the Change at RST
Changing the leadership and management styles of the business led to a change in the
type of power used over employees as a third issue with the downfall of RST Carports. The
experienced staff of RST Carports relied on an expert power type for persuading employees to
meet the business goals. They could do this because of the overwhelming amount of experience
the staff had where new employees sought for advice or guidance. The change in new staff with
only three years of experience in the business had many employees not able to seek advice
because the management was not experienced enough to guide the employees. The lack of
experience from management made them change to a coercive power structure which sought to
force employees to learn on their own in a swim or sink environment. The injuries, turn-over,
and seeking the assistance of a union to combat management were all clues that this new power
structure was problematic.
A Pareto Analysis of the Three Main Problems That Could Have Affected the Change at
RST
A Pareto analysis of RST Carports uses the theory that 80% of the problems are occurring
because of 20% in issues causing it. “Pareto analysis is applied not only to guide solving quality
problems, but also in different areas such as the identification of critical success factors” (Sarkar,
2013, p 642). Using this as a decision making tool, there are three main problems that have
affected the downward trajectory for RST Carports.
A Pareto analysis of RST Carports will show that 80% of the problems are arising from
20% of the problems including product quality, employee training, and lack of experience. One
problem found was in the customer service aspect with the quality of product. The product was
arriving to locations for customers with missing parts, misaligned holes, and problems with the
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quality of the parts due to a supplier change. A second problem arises from employees not being
trained properly with the training being reduced and the mentality of train-on-the-job. The issue
is that most training the new employees are new as well. The third problem relates to the lack of
experience in the employees and the management. The company has been operating for thirty-
seven years, but with all the issues arising it would be anticipated this was a brand new company
working out the bugs in the system not a seasoned business.
Recommendations
There are several recommendations in an effort to save the company and rebuild it to
being a profitable business. The first recommendation is to fire Mr. Anderson and hire a new
President. Mr. Anderson has been allowed three years to gain traction with the business and it is
time to find a new leadership for the business. The second recommendation is to hire three
additional managers and separate job responsibilities from a few that are double-tasked. The
business would need to hire a HR manager, Maintenance manager, and a Materials manager. This
would separate the job responsibilities to specific tasks and focus on quality management. As a
start, I would suggest a pay raise structure and hire Olga Older back into the HR position. David
Davis would be replaced as he was a sub-component of Mr. Anderson with causing issues within
management. The third recommendation would be hold employee meetings to allow them to
voice their side of things. This would include to increase training opportunities with new hire
training. Increasing the employee morale would be the ultimate goal of this.
Biblical Integration
Actions will speak louder than words. Management can say they will change, but until
real change occurs then it is not realized by the employees. Proverbs 14:23 “In all toil there is
profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty” (ESV). Caring about the business and the employees
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will lead to a better business and therefore profitability will return if those vested in it believe it
will.
Conclusion
Mr. Anderson changed the direction of the entire business with the overpowering
management and leadership style. The restructure of a business and poor management has led to
poor morale of the employees and therefore bad quality products. “To ensure that organizations
achieve success, it is imperative that they have leaders who empower their followers to meet
organizational goals in an effective manner that promotes healthy and lasting relationship with
all stakeholders” (Abdullahi, 2020, p 964). The business is not lost and can rebound, but only
with a restructure of leadership from the top down.
References
Satterlee, A. (2018). Principles of Management and Leadership, a Christian Perspective.
MMIZOO. https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/satterle_sn/data-uuid-
ea0de7cea61c4e878538ce159af6438a
Antonakis, J., & House, R. J. (2014). Instrumental leadership: Measurement and extension of
transformational–transactional leadership theory. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(4), 746-
771. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2014.04.005
Sarkar, A., Mukhopadhyay, A. R., & Ghosh, S. K. (2013). Issues in Pareto analysis and their
resolution. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 24(5-6), 641-651.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2012.704265
Abdullahi, A. Z., Anarfo, E. B., & Anyigba, H. (2020). The impact of leadership style on
organizational citizenship behavior: Does leaders' emotional intelligence play a
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moderating role? The Journal of Management Development, 39(9/10), 963-987.
https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-01-2020-0012
Wright, B., & Pandey, S. (2010). Transformational Leadership in the Public Sector: Does
Structure Matter? Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory: J-PART, 20(1),
75-89. Retrieved August 30, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20627893
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