Running Head: MICHAEL PATTERSON A

Michael Patterson Case A
MBA 680 – Leadership and Change Management
Mary Mathews
October 26, 2015

Jim Allen, owner of Confederation Kitchen, initiated a succession plan that quickly shifted the culture across organization. This shift caused the organization to experience not only a drop in revenue, but more importantly a cultural identity crises, leaving the staff confused and feeling that operations were unorganized, inefficient and chaotic.
This culture shift stemmed from Allen slowly removing himself from the day to day operations and the new onset and leadership of Aaron Rouse. Rouse’s leadership style was very different from Allen’s, thus creating a very different environment for the organization. The staff liked Rouse, but were often irritated with his inability to make a decision and stick with it. Often times he would reverse a decision because someone was not happy, making him appear weak and non-confrontational. When sales and profitability declined, Allen was forced to remove Rouse from his role and downsize the staff by twenty percent. The removal of Rouse led Allen to hire an external candidate, Ericka Malden, as the general manager, yet another change in leadership and vision for the staff to adapt to. Malden and William Peake, a new manager hire from the outside, both demonstrated very different leadership skills than that of Allen. They were number and data driven, and the staff often “felt uncomfortable dealing with their issues” (Michael Patterson (A) Harvard Case Solution & Analysis, 2010).
New and changing succession plans meant a constant rotation of department leaders and the culture they envisioned, which caused confusion for staff. Michael Patterson, an engineering technician at Confederation Kitchen, is directly impacted by the ever changing culture that comes with