You are part of a team made up of the warden and assistant wardens of a medium-to-large close-security prison. You know inmates tend to riot or have sit-ins over the subject of food and medical care. You have been receiving information from your correctional officers that the inmates are starting to complain about the food. The chicken is not thoroughly cooked, the food is bland, and several inmates who have dietary restrictions are having problems with the kitchen staff. You want to stop things before they escalate into a full-blown problem.
You are to write a paper of 2-3 pages to consider this problem from the perspective of the following 3 management styles, and give a solution to the problem in all 3 styles:
- Authoritarian style: This is characterized by 1 leader who acts like a dictator and makes every decision. What the leader states is then passed as the directives to subordinates who will carry out these directives under very close supervision.
- Democratic style: This is characterized by a cooperative approach to decision making, which is still structured in nature.
- Laissez-faire style: This is very different than the authoritarian style in which there exists a void of any type of leadership and everyone does as they please.