James Winthrope is the President/CEO of SU Medical Center, a 175-bed acute care hospital, a subsidiary of Hospitals R Us, Inc., a highly respected health care management organization. Accredited by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (Joint Commission or JCAHO), SU Medical has served the Holcomb community since 1979. Mr. Winthrope and his staff are committed to providing the highest level of quality care and advanced technologies to this growing community.

It has come to Mr. Winthrope’s attention that patients in the emergency room (ER) have consistently made complaints about the unsanitary conditions of the waiting room, the bathrooms, and most recently the overflowing waste bins outside the doors of the ER. After close investigation, Mr. Winthrope discovered that there were certain employees in environmental services (ES) department that regularly neglected their duties. Instead of performing their assigned tasks, they spend their time socializing on various floors and taking numerous breaks. Immediate action had to be taken to address this problem to avoid additional complaints and possible sanctions from state regulatory agencies.

Mr. Winthrope called the director of the environmental services department and requested that he provide a full review of all ES employees and the housekeeping rotation/schedule. After careful review of this information by Mr. Winthrope and the ES director, new rotation times were created for lobby and waste maintenance. A separate schedule was set up for bathroom cleaning and check-ups. Employees displaying poor performance were written up and issued a warning that the next offense would result in further action as per the facility’s disciplinary policy.

1. Based on the different styles of leadership, which style would be most appropriate to address the issue with the ES employees? Why?
2. How should leaders and managers address workplace issues based on specific styles of leadership?
3. What intrinsic and extrinsic rewards could management provide to motivate and increase productivity in ES employees?
4. How could perception, thinking, and behavioral characteristics influence the behavior of the ES employees?
5. What alternative methods could Mr. Winthrope use to improve communication between the director and the employees of the ES department?