RST Sells to WXY
Katy Ward
BMAL 501
July 10, 2022
Liberty University
RST SELLS TO WXY Ward 1
RST Carports and Metal Roofing
RST Carports began in 1980 as a private small business company and only had four
models of carports. By 2000, there were 48 versions of the carport and the company had added a
facet to the business, metal roofing, which produced 18 metal roofing options. In 2017, the
President, Jerry Jones, sold the company after being profitable for 36 years. RST was bought by
a WXY Corporation and was being run by Art Anderson. Anderson quickly cut employees on
every level, decreased wages, increased hours with no paid overtime, and cut all training
programs. Out of the fourteen previous managers, twelve of them either quit or retired after the
purchase. The company began to lose profit for the first time in 36 years and saw large turnover
rates through all levels of the business. After experiencing three years of profits losses, Anderson
has hired W2 Solutions Consulting Company to analyze the business and plan what needs to
happen to return to their high profits that it had before 2017.
Experience Levels of Employees
When RST was sold, there were six of the fourteen manager/leaders who had been with
the company since 1980. They had 37 years of experience separately and 222 years cumulatively.
However, none of them stayed on with RST after WXY took over. On the new leadership team,
there is only one member with more than three years of experience. Everyone else has three or
less years under their belts. How are employees supposed to feel confident in their leaders with
so little experience?
WXY cut trainings down from a previously required 48 hours of training annually, to
only two hours of diversity and sexual harassment training. Employees are given less than four
hours of job specific training and that training is done by a coworker, not a manager/leader.
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When people do not feel educated enough to do their job, there will be more mistakes and
accidents, proving to be true by looking at the accident statistics from 1980-2020. While RST
was run by Jones, there was an average of six accidents annually, over the course of 37 years.
Since WXY took over, there is an average of 56 accidents annually, over the course of three
years. The lack of training programs has drastically increased accidents and for every accident
there is a negative impact on profit.
How Leadership Styles Could Have Affected the Change at RST
Art Anderson came into RST with a strong transactional leadership style, and with him
came three other manager/leaders with the same exact style. Meaning that more than fifty
percent of the new leadership functioned in the similar fashions. The past leadership also had
similar leadership styles, but they were opposite to the new governance. The previous president,
Jerry Jones held a servant style and out of the fourteen previous leaders/managers, ten of them
held either a transformational or servant leadership style. A transformational style looks like,
“directing and inspiring individual efforts by transforming (and motivating) employees” (Jensen,
et al, 2019, p. 5), whereas a transactional style works by defining “the purpose of the
organization’s existence to followers and then provide them with the plans and means to attain
goals” (Satterlee, 2018, pg. 5). To go from one prominent leadership style to the opposite style in
such a short amount of time did not sit well with employees and instead of being inspired to do
their best, they began to be worked harder for fewer rewards in exchange. If Anderson had
brought in a more balanced leadership team and focused on employee retention, they would have
had a better outcome than they had from 2018-2020.
How Management Decision Styles Could Have Affected the Change at RST
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When new leadership took over, management decision styles did a complete flip from the
styles that were present before the selling of RST. All fourteen of the previous managers/leaders
shared a democratic management decision style. After RST was sold, the leadership team only
had one person who held a democratic style. More than fifty percent of the new team manages
with an autocratic style, meaning they “employ[s] a domineering approach to leadership” and
rather than gathering input from several sources, they make the decision themselves and then tell
their staff that it is happening (Satterlee, 2018, p. 104). James Caillier writes that, “citizens will
rate the performance of the democratic leader high while rating the performance of the autocratic
leader as low” (Caillier, 2020, p. 919). Employees who had been around before 2018, were no
longer given a voice in decision-making. They were told what to do, how to do it, and knew there
would be consequences for not following instructions.
How Types of Power Could Have Affected the Change at RST
Much like management decisions and leadership styles, the power types of the new and
old leaders/managers differ greatly from each other. The new president, Anderson, holds a
coercive style, along with two other members of the leadership/management team. On the
previous team, not even one of the 14 members used a coercive power. The employees felt this
change, most likely more than they felt the others because this is the most obvious. Going from
positive to negative reinforcement, the use of threats, and lack of intentional care from upper
leadership was one of the largest reasons that turnover rates have been growing in number
instead of decreasing. People do not like to feel threatened to do something, and if they must,
they will not produce as quality of work. It is obvious in the data that Anderson and his team did
not think through the “disadvantages that include resentment, fear, desire to withdraw from the
situation, and the need for constant surveillance” over their employees (Bailo, 2017, p. 5).
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While two of the seven new members utilize the expert power type, it could be shown
more and in a humble manner, to support employees using knowledge. Nine of the fourteen
previous leaders held an expert style, being the most prominent power type. They were able to
train up their staff more effectively, which prepared employees for the job at hand. However,
under the new leadership, trainings have been cut drastically and the expert power type does not
shine through as well.
A Pareto Analysis of the Three Main Problems That Could Have Affected the Change at
RST
PROBLEM ANALYSIS -
PARETO
PROBLEM DATA
PROBLEM AREA OCCURRENCES PERCENT OF TOTAL
CUMULATIVE
PERCENT
Quality (Rejects) Since 2018 318 26.37% 26.37%
Worker Overtime Since 2018 720 59.70% 86.07%
Accidents Since 2018 168 13.93% 100.00%
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Recommendations
Employee trainings need to be increased not only individually, but companywide. This
would help mediate a couple of major issues that RST is struggling with currently. By
incorporating more staff training, employees would be better qualified for their positions. This
would lower accident rates and boost their confidence in their job, leading to a happier, more
motivated mental state to do the job well. “It is of great significance to note that employees are
the backbone of any organization” (Halawi & Haydar, 2018, p. 25). RST would be wise to
remember this as they move forward, that their employees are the biggest reason why they are
currently losing profit and their greatest resource to climbing back to being profitable.
It would also be wise of Anderson to investigate either hiring a team that has a more
consistent leadership, management decision making, and power styles to create a unified force
that employees can look up to. If hiring new members is not possible, then redirecting current
power types among his existing team would be helpful. His employees are mostly being led by
those with coercive or reward styles and that is not proving to be beneficial. Refocusing power
types towards more expert or referent styles would improve the relationship between workers
and leaders/managers.
Biblical Integration
While this company has given no evidence of being a faith-based business, it would be
wise of them to remember the passage of Luke 14:28-30 during their climb towards profit.
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether
he has enough to finish it- lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who
see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?” (Nelson,
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1982). When WXY took over RST, they did not weigh out all their options. Anderson went in
and completely flipped the company over, thinking that by cutting costs, they would have a
higher profit. His initial methods failed, and he did not accomplish what he had set out to do.
They needed to spend more time understanding the company and why it was successful before
the transfer, before changing things drastically.
Conclusion
Before the sale of RST to WXY, the company had been profitable for 36 years and had
low turnover rates among their managers/leaders. After the sale, drastic changes were made, and
the company lost money for the first time in three decades. Employee training has been cut and
wages decreased. WXY needs to implement more trainings, increase wages, and change their
power structure in order to bring their business back to profitable.
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References
Bailo, P. (2017). Multi-generational Differences in Perception of Coercive Power in the
Workplace: Senior Executive Coercive Power. Journal of Management and Innovation.
https://jmi.mercy.edu/index.php/JMI/article/view/37.
Caillier, James Gerard (2020) Testing the Influence of Autocratic Leadership, Democratic
Leadership, and Public Service Motivation on Citizen Ratings of An Agency Head’s
Performance, Public Performance & Management Review, 43:4, 918-
941, DOI: 10.1080/15309576.2020.1730919.
Halawi, A., & Haydar, N. (2018). Effects of Training on Employee Performance: A Case Study
of Bonjus and Khatib & Alami Companies. International Humanities Studies, 5(2).
Jensen, U. T., Andersen, L. B., Bro, L. L., Bøllingtoft, A., Eriksen, T. L. M., Holten, A.-L.,
Jacobsen, C. B., Ladenburg, J., Nielsen, P. A., Salomonsen, H. H., Westergård-Nielsen,
N., & Würtz, A. (2019). Conceptualizing and Measuring Transformational and
Transactional Leadership. Administration & Society, 51(1), 3–
33. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399716667157.
Satterlee, A. (2018). Organizational management and leadership: A Christian
perspective (3rd ed.). Synergistics International Inc.
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