Success can lead to failure.  If a business gets a successful business idea, it gains new customers, makes more money, and can get complacent.  Meanwhile, new competition arises, develops better products, steal customers, and cause the original business to lose market share and money.  The same trend can happen internally for companies as well when they grow.  When the business was small, leaders and employees were closely knit, but as it grows, there is less interaction between employees and leaders as new organizational levels are added.  Rules and regulations replace relationships, and people don’t feel connected (Leader-Member exchange theory from Yukl addresses this in particular).  Personality-driven leadership approaches can fail, especially in larger organizations, because quite simply, there is not enough of the leader to go around and instead of authentic relationships with employees, leaders might be tempted to hype themselves in order to maximize their effectiveness.  But followers can, and often do, view this as hype, which in turn can lead to resentment and cynicism. 

This workshop in particular focuses on the challenges of growth and how leaders can create a meaningful and integrated workplace experience for employees, or, in the case of ministry, how leaders can create a meaningful, and integrated worship experience for church members.  This assignment will ask you to discuss ways for organizations to grow in a healthy way. 

• Download and read the Workshop Three PowerPoint Presentation.
• Based on the following scenario, prepare to engage in discussion around the questions immediately following.

Scenario: Your church had a very popular, charismatic pastor who drew a lot of new members to the church due to his winning personality and exciting sermons.  The church grew rapidly as a result.  But then the pastor left the church for a new position, and membership and attendance dropped.  You and other church leaders realized that the recent success of the church was largely personality-driven.  Based upon what you’ve learned about participative decision-making, empowerment, and delegation, answer the following questions.

• Fully discuss the following:
  • Describe what you can do to make your church more self-sustaining through the involvement and leadership of committed members and less reliant upon personality-driven approaches to church growth
  • How can you cast a vision that excites and motivates followers in contrast to the personality-driven approach?
  • Response posts should further the discussion by asking clarifying questions and sharing alternative views.

Support your work with scholarly academic resources, textbooks, or other sources provided.  Quoting or paraphrasing from any source in discussion posts requires APA format by including an in-text citation and listing the reference at the end of the post.