The Twin Aspects of Leadership: Case Study 4 (Case Study of a DGM)

Abstract

Case Study 4 focuses on how this DGM saw his leadership role and how others saw him, rather than on the goals that he was seeking to achieve. This Case Study is very different from those in Chapter 9, which were based on a single interview, because it is an in-depth study deriving from the Templeton tracer study of DGMs. Peter Lawrence (a pseudonym) was a member of that study and was the subject of a case study written for NHSTA. This chapter uses some of the material from that Case Study — which was much more about the issues with which Peter was involved — but also draws on a later long interview with Peter on the subject of leadership. Frequent discussions were held with him over two years and four months and all his principal contacts were interviewed, some of them more than once. Their comments about him form part of this case. The DGM and his secretary also supplied a weekly record of his activities and contacts over two years.

The aims of this case study are to illustrate two key aspects of leadership and many of the subjects discussed earlier.