Individual Deliverable 2
Jermayne Gordon
University of Maryland Global Campus
1 July 2024
BMGT 365
, I. Identify and discuss the primary leadership style of Michael Brown in his handling of
this crisis.
The echinacea crisis brought out different leadership styles. Michael Brown's leadership style
can be called authoritative or autocratic. According to Leadem, such leaders are decisive,
authoritative, and confident, making it very clear they are leaders and not followers (Leadem,
2018, para. 3). An example of such was when he fired Henrietta Higgins without bringing the
management together to discuss whether firing her was the right decision to make in light of the
disaster. Though he said he had discussed it with his managers, the impression is that the
decision was made without their consent or regard for them.
In the same breath, there was also an autocratic stint in Mrs. Higgins's decision to change
suppliers without support from management. She took a unilateral decision and accepted the
consequences herself (Gandolf & Stone, 2017, para 32). This parallels Mr. Brown's decision to
employ Mrs. Higgins and later resolve to terminate her without seeking other opinions. It is this
autocratic leadership that proved detrimental and caused a death, and an employee's termination,
and created the need to build a culture ready for crisis to avoid such incidences from happening
again.
II. Discuss an alternative leadership style that could have been used by Michael Brown
that could have been better suited than the one he used.
This scenario would have greatly benefited from the participative leadership style in this case.
Participative leaders guide others but allow others to help in accomplishing tasks and projects by
leading through example as explained by, (Leadem, 2018, para. 4). This leadership style would
Jermayne Gordon
University of Maryland Global Campus
1 July 2024
BMGT 365
, I. Identify and discuss the primary leadership style of Michael Brown in his handling of
this crisis.
The echinacea crisis brought out different leadership styles. Michael Brown's leadership style
can be called authoritative or autocratic. According to Leadem, such leaders are decisive,
authoritative, and confident, making it very clear they are leaders and not followers (Leadem,
2018, para. 3). An example of such was when he fired Henrietta Higgins without bringing the
management together to discuss whether firing her was the right decision to make in light of the
disaster. Though he said he had discussed it with his managers, the impression is that the
decision was made without their consent or regard for them.
In the same breath, there was also an autocratic stint in Mrs. Higgins's decision to change
suppliers without support from management. She took a unilateral decision and accepted the
consequences herself (Gandolf & Stone, 2017, para 32). This parallels Mr. Brown's decision to
employ Mrs. Higgins and later resolve to terminate her without seeking other opinions. It is this
autocratic leadership that proved detrimental and caused a death, and an employee's termination,
and created the need to build a culture ready for crisis to avoid such incidences from happening
again.
II. Discuss an alternative leadership style that could have been used by Michael Brown
that could have been better suited than the one he used.
This scenario would have greatly benefited from the participative leadership style in this case.
Participative leaders guide others but allow others to help in accomplishing tasks and projects by
leading through example as explained by, (Leadem, 2018, para. 4). This leadership style would
