Outsourced

After a recommendation of my boss at work, I began watching "Outsourced," which is now in its second season. The show is based on Todd, an American whose call center in the United States was closed and outsourced while he was at management training. He was promoted to manage the call center, but the catch was it is now in India. The show follows his life and his challenges, especially culturally, managing the call center.

The characters I will examine to determine whether they lean more towards path/goal or LMX are Jerry (Todd's boss), Todd (Call Center Manager) and Rajiv (Todd's Assistant Manager). The clip below shows a glimpse of each leader's interactions with coworkers.

Jerry (Todd's Boss)

• Jerry displays path/goal leadership with his choice to send the call center to India. He had a goal, which was to reduce cost, and to achieve that goal he outsourced his company and laid off his US employees. His direction to Todd was clear, and that was to run the call center based on his training and that if he did not want to go to India he would not have a job.

Todd (Call Center Manager)

• Todd is a LMX leader. Immediately upon his arrival in India he works with the call center employees to ensure they understand US culture. The best display of his LMX leadership is towards the end of the clip when he encourages Madhuri (a quiet call center employee) to take a call on her own and speak up. After this first hurdle, Madhuri proves to be a valuable employee. By focusing on building these relationships, Todd has the most loyal call center employees in the entire building.

Rajiv (Todd's Assistant Manager)

• Rajiv is a path/goal leader who rules with an iron fist. If it were not for Todd, Rajiv would have fired all of the employees within season 1 of the show. He is very strict about quotas and policies and does not care to form relationships with them employees.