Read the following Case study and answer the questions thereafter.

Rohit joined hightech computers after one year of experience as an assistant programmer at
Zen computers. He had switched the job for better career prospects and faster progress
because Hightech was larger and growing much faster than Zen and also had international
clients. Rohit was sure he would do well here are just as he had done at Zen.

At Hightech, Rohit was a senior programmer and received the big salary hike. Upon joining,
he was assigned to Aparna's 5 member team. Rohit had met Aparna during his orientation,
and the rest of his colleague seemed warm, friendly, and comfortable with Rohit's work.
When Rohit asked his colleagues Deepti about their Boss, Deepti said, "She does not
interfere with her work. Don't be surprised if at times you even feel ignored." Rohit decided
that perhaps Aparna was the one who prefer to leave everyone alone in order to let them
realise their own potential.
After all, it was a fast-growing industry with a lot of scope for innovation, which could set
one company apart from others. At Zen also, his previous Boss, S.Reddy, had been his guide
and mentor apart from being a boss-always supervising and available, aware of exactly where
the work was headed, but never interfering. Reddy, would let Rohit make mistakes and learn
from them. He encouraged ideas from individuals, and allowed them to discover flaws in
those ideas through discussion which he seemed to guide in the right direction. With Reddy,
an individual was rarely responsible for a failure to deliver when he was a member in a team.
The team as a whole was responsible for what they did, and Rohit remember discussing at
Zen that an ideal boss is the one who does not interfere with his or her subordinate’s work. At
Hightech now, Rohit wanted to believe that Aparna was the non-interfering boss who would
let him perform and support him in his growth and delivery of results.

During the first week at work, Rohit thought that the work atmosphere was a bit dull.
However, he was himself quite excited. His team had been thinking of these problems and
their possible solutions till late night and was often reminded of the charged atmosphere at
Zen where his team members, similarly engrossed, would keep on Watsapp-ing and emailing
each other about ideas and opinions about others’ ideas, much after they had left the office.

Here he could not wait to discuss his overflowing ideas with Aparna and he smiled to himself
thinking about how Aparna would react to his thoughts once he shared them with her. Maybe
she would instantly call a meeting of all project team members. Perhaps everyone would
notice how he had started contributing to the project from day one. These thoughts spilled
into daydream about all the appreciation from Aparna and others.

Rohit waited for 15 minutes after he saw Aparna walk into her office, and then called her up
asking if he could see her. When he went into her cabin, she looked up at him blankly and
asked, “Yes?” Not sure if she had recognised him, Rohit introduced himself. She said, “Yes, I
know-but why did you want to meet me?” Rohit started to describe the problems with the
new software that his team faced. Before he could finish, Aparna told him that she was busy
with some other things and that she would send an email with the solutions to all members of
the team by the end of the day and that those could then be executed by everyone
immediately.

Rohit found himself taken aback. He came out of Aparna’s office and went straight to where
his team members sat. he thought it would still be nice to discuss all his ideas with his team
members. And hear what solutions others might have thought of in a technical manner. When
he spoke a little in this direction, he thought that everyone else also might chip in but again to
his surprise, others were disinterested. Salil, one of his team mates said, “What is the point in
discussing all this here? Aparna has no time to listen to all this. Yet she will have solutions
which is the point in discussing all this here? Aparna has no time to listen to all this. Yet she
will have solutions which she will tell us and we simply have to implement them regardless
of our opinion, so why bother?” Rohit was now feeling depressed. Is this how he was going
to work here? He refused to lose his heart and moved on.

Several days passed and Rohit realised that Aparna was a complete opposite of ready. In fact,
Rohit simply could not stop comparing the two. While she was efficient at what she did and
was extremely intelligent, she had no time for her subordinates. None of her solutions were
incorrect so far but she was never open to discuss or debate the merits or potential effects of
the ideas that her team members might have. She never held the team down to deadlines or
interfere with their execution of work. In fact she really said anything at all if the work was
not completed on time. To her superiors she would just blame her team and then dissociate
herself from them.

Rohit interest in work began to fade. His performance was becoming loose and he was
lurking dangerously close to quitting the job.

Q1. (a) Identify the strengths and weaknesses of Aparna as a leader? What impact does her it
have on issues like motivation and job satisfaction?
(b) What impact is the style having on effectiveness of the team?

Q2. Identify and explain the challenges business leaders have been facing in the post pandemic era.
Also, how leaders are navigating their organizations now? (Reflect on practices, strategies etc.)