Northouse, Leadership 8e
SAGE Publications, 2019
Case 2.3: Recruiting for the Bank
Case Synopsis and Analysis
Pat Nelson is the assistant director of human resources tasked with recruiting college
graduates who can be groomed for higher-level leadership positions within a bank. He hires
people with strong interpersonal skills, confidence, integrity, and work ethic. He also looks
for applicants with analytical and technical skills.
Unfortunately, 25% of new hires leave the bank, and upper management has asked Pat to
reevaluate his hiring criteria. The case asks students to consider the traits that are needed in a
banking job and to evaluate how recruitment may influence retention.
Learning objectives:
• Students should evaluate key traits needed for novice, yet high-potential
employees in a financial institution.
• Students should begin to understand the relationship between retention and
recruitment and analyze how traits of applicants may influence retention.
Answers to questions in the text:
1. Based on the ideas described in the trait approach, do you think Pat is looking for the
right characteristics in the people he hires?
Trait approach suggests that leaders typically have high levels of intelligence,
2. Could it be that the retention problem raised by upper management is unrelated to
Pat’s recruitment criteria?
Yes. Retention could be related to recruitment. It could also be related to poor
Northouse, Leadership 8e
SAGE Publications, 2019
3. If you were Pat, would you change your approach to recruiting?
Some students may argue that Pat’s criteria for selection are grounded in research.
Potential teaching approaches:
This case study is conducive to group discussions and exercises.
Below is a way to structure a class based on the trait approach and Case Study 2.3:
• First, break the class into small groups and ask the groups to develop a list of the top
5 (or 10) major traits they believe are important for a strong leader. Students should
prepare this list without referring to the book, based on their experiences.
• Large-group discussion of the top 5 (or 10) lists, followed by a lecture on the trait
approach.
Exercises for this case study:
1) In small groups, students will write new criteria to help Pat in his hiring process. Each
group will come up with 5–10 traits that should be considered and rank those traits in
order of importance. Then students will share and debate the findings in the larger
class. If time permits, students could draft questions that Pat could ask the candidates
to help discern their suitability for the job.
Northouse, Leadership 8e
SAGE Publications, 2019
work to find new hiring practices. This “mock” discussion could begin with the hiring
process but also include other ideas for retention if time permits.
4) Students should discuss and list the traits that may be missing from the new hires