Instructions for the Leadership Style Analysis (Group Analysis)

The analysis requires that you put yourself in a leadership position in each of 30 short cases. These were selected from several thousand actual cases which managers have provided me from their experiences. Each case depicts a manager in a decision making situation in which some action is required. Furthermore, the course of action decided upon is going to have effects on a group or team – typically direct reports who will have to execute the decision.

You have the option of reading the cases online and recording your answers or downloading a copy of the cases and then entering your choices online. Either way, you will have the opportunity to view your choices before submitting them for analysis. If you are uncertain we suggest that you start with the online method and if you find it unsatisfactory, just use the back button on your browser to return to the download option. If you are unable to complete the cases in one sitting (it normally takes between an hour and an hour and a half), just press submit and your choices will be saved so that you may return to this site and complete your work. All you will require to re-enter the site is your username and password.

For each of these cases, there is a set of leadership styles available to you. They will be described below as alternative ways in which you could go about making the decision, and they vary in the extent to which group members can participate in the decision.

Your task is to assume the role of the manager in each case and select the style that you would use in dealing with that situation. In some instances there may be a discrepancy between what you think you should do and what you believe you would do in a particular case. If that discrepancy occurs, it is what you would do that is of interest. In effect, you task is to predict your behavior.

It is important that you not regard this as a test or examination in which your objective is to get the "right" answer. Rather you should look at this exercise as an opportunity to learn about your reactions to managerial situations. Accordingly, you and you alone will receive the analysis of your behavior. No copy or report will go to anyone else in your organization.

In your analysis, your choices will be compared with your peer group and with an additional group called a comparison group. Your peer group will be all others who logged in with the same group name. Typically, these will be the set of people who are in the same training course or who work for the same organization as you. Your comparison group has been selected by your group administrator as a meaningful point of reference for you in evaluating your results.

Since you have registered as part of a group, you will not be able to access your report immediately. Processing of your results cannot be done until all of the members of the group (your peer group) have completed the analysis. Your group administrator will either send you your report when all group members have completed their submissions or, alternatively, distribute all reports at an appropriate time during a future meeting or training session.

You are asked for you name and demographic information. This demographic data is used for research purposes and to enable us to add your data to existing or future comparison groups.

You must provide an answer for all 30 cases before you can retrieve your report. Each time you retrieve your report, it will show you group information for the other members who have taken that report so far. You may want to wait to retrieve the final version until all members of your group have completed all 30 questions.

Register to a Group

If you have received a group name and password from a group administrator (e.g. trainer, coach, professor, etc.) you should enter it here. If you have already registered, login here.