Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publications, 2021
Case 1.1: Open Mouth . . .
Case Synopsis and Analysis
As newly hired offensive coordinator, Coach Berger was interviewed by the student-led
school paper at Grand Valley State. His response to leadership questions posed in the
interview citing the accomplishments of Adolf Hitler’s “leadership” among others. When the
article was published, it created issues and the GVSU athletic department asked for the
online story comments to be taken down. The school paper initially obliged the request, but
then re-posted the comments. This forced the story to become viral and was picked up by
national media outlets and even late night television hosts. The coach eventually resigned a
week later citing bad judgement and remorse for the comments. This led to active changes at
GVSU to focus on more social justice-based curriculum.
Learning Objectives:
• Students will understand the morality found in effective leadership.
• Students will recognize the differences between leadership and pseudo-leadership.
• Students will further understand how their bias impacts their world view.
Answers to Questions in the Text:
1. Who are the leaders in this situation? How would you describe their actions as leaders
based on the definition of leadership in this chapter?
The definition of leadership found in Chapter 1 is, in short, “when one can motivate
many to a common goal.” That is very denotative as there are 1,000’s of other
connotative definitions of the word “leadership.” Based on this text definition, the
leaders are the coach in question, the athletic department, the head coach, the
university administration, the school paper, the Hillel group leaders, and the national
Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publications, 2021
2. Do you think it was wrong for Coach Berger to cite Hitler as a “great leader”?
Yes. However, students may agree with the choice; after all, Hitler led a country into
3. What is your reaction to Coach Berger resigning one week after signing a contract to
coach at GVSU?
To be at a high-level NCAA Division II football program like GVSU and then resign
4. Based on our discussion of morality and leadership in this chapter, would you say
Coach Berger’s comments are based on leadership as a neutral process or on
leadership as a process that has a moral dimension? Why?
Students, again, may want to argue that leadership is leadership and that efficacy
5. What does the university’s response suggest regarding how the university views
leadership?
The university, based on this case, spun this off as a “teachable moment” by working
6. If you were the president of the university and you were asked to define leadership,
how would you define it?
Leadership is always doing the right thing. While there may be debate on what is
Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publications, 2021
7. Bobby Knight was a coach who was known to use questionable leadership tactics. Do
you think Coach Berger would have been safe to ask Coach Knight to dinner? Why?
Bobby Knight may no longer be someone that Generation Z’s may remember, so it is
important to remind them of who he was. He coached the Indiana University Hoosier
Potential Teaching Approaches:
This case study is conducive to group discussions and exercises.
Below is a way to structure a class, based on Case Study 1.1:
• Lecture on Chapter 1 and the inherent continuums found in this chapter (leadership is
like this and also like that) inclusive of the morality aspects found in leaders.
Exercises for This Case Study:
1. In small groups, create lists of historical leaders who led for the betterment of society.
Also create a list of pseudo-leaders who did things to only benefit themselves. Have
2. Ask students to define these five words in small groups: ethics, morality, character,
integrity, and values. Tell them they cannot use any of these words while defining the
Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publications, 2021
3. As students to role-play the interview setting found in Case 1.1. Either the faculty
member or a student should serve as a narrator (Coach Berger’s conscience) to
4. Students can read the case and write a 150-200-word reaction to the coach’s choices