Arnold Schwartz is a call center team leader who is one of the best people in the organization for developing new employees in stressful call center operations.Schwartz knows when to provide clear directions for new recruits and when to provide support and understanding when the workload seems overwhelming or customers are angry.However, Schwartz has trouble working with skilled and highly experienced staff members.Some complain that he looks over their shoulder too often and offers too much advice.Others suggest that he wants to listen with sympathy to their unfavorable customer calls even though they don't feel they need this support.The vice-president of call center operations is concerned, based on this information, that Schwartz seems to be an ineffective leader overall even though he works very well with new recruits.Discuss the accuracy of the vice-president's conclusions about Arnold Schwartz.

This question refers to the issue of whether effective leaders adjust their style to the situation.Students might provide one or more of the following answers to the question.
Competency perspective.According to this perspective, Schwartz seems to lack the emotional intelligence (and self-monitoring personality), at least with respect to skilled and experienced employees.He has some of this competency because he adjusts his behavior for new staff members.But he is less responsive to skilled and experienced people.This may also suggest that he lacks the potential to adopt styles other than directive and supportive leadership.
Path-goal theory.According to path-goal theory, Schwartz is ineffective because he does not adapt his leadership style to fit the situation.Specifically, he should be using participative and achievement-oriented leadership for skilled and experienced employees and not directive or supportive leadership.(The latter may be useful occasionally, but not as much as he seems to be applying this style.) The key concern is that Schwartz is not as contingency-oriented as he needs to be in this job.
Probably the best answer is one that recognizes that we need to consider all of these alternatives.In other words, Schwartz isn't perfect, but we should try to optimize his leadership talents for new employees by changing his job accordingly.