Organizational Behavior, Third Edition

CASE STUDY: A SEA CHANGE IN STAFFING AT Leapfrog Innovations, Inc.

Laurie L. Levesque, Suffolk University

Andrew S. Cheng, Barker Blue Digital Imaging

Court Chilton listened patiently to Dick Eaton's rundown on the potential staffing options at Leapfrog Innovations, Inc. (LFI), a small, Boston-based firm that Dick had founded ten years earlier to provide training to other companies. They had been friends since college. Dick hoped Court would provide advice on how to manage the imminent exodus of all three of LFI's full-time employees by drawing upon his MBA degree and work experiences as a consultant and a former employee of one of the largest training firms in the U.S. Dick's co-founder, Julia Douglas, had left to start her own consulting firm. The other two full-time employees had also announced their departures, one due to pregnancy and the other to attend graduate school.

Dick was unsure what role to take on partly because the three departing employees had handled oversight of the daily operations and coordination of LFI's training programs. He had absented himself from most management duties in order to focus on tasks that drew upon his creativity. Because he had worked very hard to build the firm's brand, he rejected outright the idea of selling LFI. It crossed his mind to run the company virtually and out-source all the work to facilitators and consultants. However, the most straightforward solution—or so it seemed—required him to get more involved and hire all new employees. ...