People Organisations and Leadership - Case Study Example

BUSS 5114 – People, Organisations and Leadership Study Period 3 2014 Assessment Task 3:Major Case Study 3000 words Student Name Student ID Number Leadership Style: Strengths and Weaknesses Leadership have great impact on the organisation performance. It has been proved that leaders who have emotional intelligence outperform their peers in organisation management (Adair, 2010). The main types of leadership styles are coercive, authoritative, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting and coaching (Timothy & Ronald, 2004). Each type of leadership has their strengths and weakness. At Ecological, the type of leadership practised is democratic. Sally can be described as a democratic leader whose style of operation is through consensus. The employees participate in decision making and acts on what they see best for the company. As seen in the case, she trusts each employee in decision making and only asks for her consultation where necessary. Employees can make their decision on ecological provided they are in line with the organisation goal (Dym & Hutson, 2005). The freedom accorded to the employees enables them to make major decisions without the need to consult her. The work is done as a team where everyone has to give an input. Democratic leadership is meant to get the best output from the employees. A democratic leader such as Sally utilises two way communications. This is between the leader and the subordinates. She is seen to use a friendly approach in communicating with the subordinates. Through this, it is possible to outline the tasks, decisions and other procedures effectively (Chen & Silverthorne, 2005). Strengths This type of leadership reduces office politics which in most cases affects the working environment. The fact that all employees contribute their ideas makes it hard for office politics. In the case of Ecological, all employees have different ideas which are debated in the meeting. There is also a reduction in communication gap. The frequent communication between the leader and subordinates reduces the fear of rejection. The subordinates do not fear the leader making them freer to give their inputs. In a leadership style where the employees fear the leader, contributing becomes almost impossible (Visagie et al. 2011). A democratic leadership ensures that there is a positive working environment (Mosadegh & Yarmohammadian, 2006). All the employees irrespective of their position have a fair amount of task to accomplish. This makes the working environment to be more enjoyable. At Ecological, all employees are given a fair responsibility. Each of the members in the organisation is fully involved in a fair share of work. Team work is an advantage in democratic leadership (Hirtz, Murray & Riordan, 2007).This involves all members coming together and giving their inputs. When ideas are put together, there is possibility to reap more benefits. In the Ecological, all members contribute during the meetings. Team performance in democratic leadership is strong and consistent. The style utilises what the subordinates says and the final say by the leader to come up with the best approach. This makes it possible for a democratic leader to manage the team in different situations. What the leader says is able to solve any disagreement that may occur. For example, when Rundra idea is turned down by Dane rudely, Sally is able to resolve the issues by promising to talk to Rundra later. Democratic leadership enables increased employees turnover. The employees are able to feel empowered at work and hence value their jobs (Kellerman, 2007). In case of Ecological, employees are motivated to work for the company. Weakness According to Kellerman (2007), the main disadvantage of democratic leadership is a long process in making up decisions. This is due to fact that consultations have to be engaged by all members. Every employee has their ideas and putting them together requires a great deal of time and patience. This may lead to some of the members making decisions and bypassing consultations. This is seen in Ecological when Ann orders a $25,000 equipment without consulting all the team members especially Rundra who is on the accounting department. This may lead to conflict where some members see as if their contribution is not valued or their tasks are assumed as in case of Rundra. How Sally can improve her leadership As a democratic leader, Sally is supposed to maintain a position of authority while at the same time allowing the team members to enjoy some decision making power. In this case, she will increase her control in the organisation. Sally has delegated much power to some team members and has little influence in the organisation. For example, Dane seems to have the most power in the organisation while Rundra has the lowest influence. This makes Rundra feel underutilised. Sally should work to improve her role in the organisation and make sure every member have fair share of power. She should be able to be an effective contributor and also perform the duty of overall administrator. This will improve situation at Ecologic. Motivation Types and the Impact of Performance Bonus Motivation is the drive to do work. A motivated person is highly involved and active when undertaking a task up to completion. Motivation varies among workers in both level and type (Kaplan, Bradley, Luchman & Haynes, 2009). Motivation can be divided into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. An intrinsic motivated person does a task due to interests and enjoyment that they gain. An extrinsic motivated worker is driven by the separable outcome associated with the task. According to Lyubomirsky, King & Diener (2005), for an intrinsic motivated employee, the opportunity to use their ability, being appreciated, recognition and a sense of achievement drives them in their job. This type of motivation has long term benefits as it is inherent to the individual. An extrinsic motivated work is driven by tangible rewards. These include salary, promotion, security, and the job environment among other external factors. In most cases, using external factors to motivate employees do not last. In most organisations, money is the most used extrinsic motivator. This is due to its ability to motivate workers and increase their productivity. This is due to fact that money is associated with power, prestige and success which have great motivating power (Latham, 2007). At Ecological, each employee is intrinsically motivated. This can be proved by looking at the drive behind each employee. Looking at Dane, he is intrinsically motivated. He is not inclined to monetary rewards but seems to enjoy positive recognition, sense of challenge and being appreciated. The organisation did not offer the best salary in the industry but accepted to work with them enthusiastically. He starts his tasks energetically and is able to secure a revenue generating contract for the firm. He is also seen to be active in all organisation meeting. Sally is a perfect example of intrinsic motivated person. She started her company as a voluntary organisation. This means that her main attraction to the organisation was not monetary value, but contribution to the society through environmental conservation. She is motivated to use her ability and gain a positive recognition in the society through the work of her organisation. This is what drives her activity in the organisation despite the challenges. Rundra is also intrinsically motivated but is on verge of losing motivation. Despite the challenges he meet in putting forward his ideas, he is concerned for the organisation success. He goes on his own way to do more research on Indian firms so that he can gain ideas that can help ecological. After his idea of employment creation is put off, he does not give up and tries to come up with more ideas for the organisation (Latham, 2007). Ella is an employee who is also intrinsically driven. Prior to joining Ecological, she had worked in a Christian charity. This shows that her drive to work is not money, but passion for the work. Ella efforts in gaining positive recognition are portrayed by her request for donation for the church camp. When her donation is turned down, she loses enthusiasm for the job. This is due to fact that her drive is being appreciated and having positive recognition. To her, the action by Ecological not to fund the church camp may have meant they were not recognising her efforts. Ann motivation seems to be intrinsic. This is due to fact that she is engaged in the organisation work and does not show loss of enthusiasm despite the situation. She seems to be content with the material reward she is getting from the firm (Latham, 2007). Performance bonuses If Sally introduces performance bonuses, there can be increase in performance but this may not be sustainable. This is due to fact that though financial rewards have direct impact on performance, they rarely last long. Most of the employees at Ecological are not motivated by money but are intrinsically motivated. All employees are more concerned about their job and gaining recognition in the organisation. The employees have been motivated by intrinsic factors hence introducing performance bonuses will have a temporary increase in performance. Instead of performance bonuses, Sally should focus more on making employee to enjoy their job environment (Porath & Bateman, 2006). According to Liao & Chuang (2004), intrinsic motivators such as job satisfaction have lasting effects than extrinsic motivators. This can be done by ensuring all employees are treated fairly and have a sense of belonging. Employees such as Rundra should be appreciated and their ideas listened to. This will enable all to have a sense of belonging and they will contribute more to the company. Organisational Structure – which one is present at Ecologic? For an organisation to have a clear communication and distinctive responsibilities among the employees there is need for an organisation structure. Organisation structure enables responsibility, authority and accountability in an organisation. An effective structure should enable the organisation to well established relationship, establish levels of authority and give reporting lines. At Ecologic, there is no clear organisation structure. This is no clear flow of authority and the employees are not aware who to report to. This is seen in several situations where there is conflict of roles. The most common types of organisation structures are line organisation, line and staff organisation and committee organisation (Brown, 2008). Line organisation is the simplest organisation structure. All the organisation units are involved in tasks of producing and marketing the organisation products. The structure has a clear authority flow and it’s easy to understand. Due to ease in understanding, this model promotes decision making. Managers using this form of structure may find themselves burdened due to increase in duties being allocated to them. Line and staff organisation structure involves a situation where the staffs are involved in the organisation line to offer support. The staffs contribute to the running of the organisation. The staffs are supposed to assist the line managers in enhancing the effectiveness of the organisation. The main draw back in this form of management occurs where there is conflict. The supporting staffs have limited authority in making recommendation which acts as a source of conflict. To handle this, the organisation should make sure that they train the support staff so that they are able to understand and appreciate their roles. For example, creation of research and development department can act as a support staff. Committee organisation structure involves where the organisation selects certain individuals to look at certain issues. The committee can be selected to be permanent of temporarily. In most cases, the committee is dissolves after they present their findings. The main disadvantage with committee is the fact that they consume a lot of time (Belassi, Kondra & Icmeli, 2007). For Ecological, the best structure that should be used is line and staff. This is where the organisation uses other support departments in managing its affairs. This structure enables the employees to participate. Employee participation help the management share the burden of decision making. This will enable all the members in the organisation to participate more actively. Having such a structure will work together with Sally democratic leadership style. This is due to fact that both the leadership style and organisation structure will support employee contribution (Brown, 2008). It will also define authority flow in the organisation. For example, apart from Sally who is the main leader, there is no clear distinction on who is second in leadership. Dane seems to have taken the position of assisting Sally but he also oversteps his mandate and acts as the leader. In order to have an appropriate organisation structure, the firm must look at its objectives and situation (Brown, 2008). This involves looking at the environment, change, type of management, and the size. Since Ecological is still a small organisation, the departments created should not be many. Ecological can create human resource and research and development department to add to the current departments. This will make the organisation to have Sally as the overall head and other departments assisting each other. The department that are needed in Ecological organisation structure are president, director for human resources, director research and development, deputy president operations and deputy president marketing. Human resource management and research and development department should assist the rest as support staff. Organisation structure is capable of reflecting the organisation growth (Brown, 2008). There are four distinct stages of growth that can be established using organisation structure. These are emergent, launch, consolidation and mature. At the emergent level, the organisation has a fragile management. There are few systems in place and the organisation runs at limited resources. This is the case of Ecological who lacks a definite organisation structure. Ecological at this stage is running on limited available resources and is yet to come up with an organisation structure. At launch stage, the organisation is able to stabilize its resources and it’s in the process of expanding. This will be the next stage that Ecological will be in after passing through the emergent stage. In consolidation, the organisation has high efficiency and has achieved a good level of sustainability. The mature stage is where the organisation is able to adjust itself in response to changes. At this point, the organisation can change its structure or goals in response to external challenges (Bryans & Cronin, 2005). Stages of Team Development and Effective teams at Ecologic According to Coetzer & Bushe (2006), team development consists of steps hence it’s referred to as life cycle. According to Tuckman model, the process of team development consists of four steps. The steps are forming, storming, forming and performing. Team forming refers to the initial stage of the group life cycle. Team members come together and try to look for ways in which they can interact. This helps them to bond and share a common purpose. At Ecologic, this corresponds to the first time the team members were hired. This was during their first meeting where sally spelled out her philosophy about the organisation. The members at this stage are trying to know each other and come to a common objective (Driskell et al., 2006). At this stage, the team members are trying to orientate themselves with the team. The members highly depend on the team leader mostly at this point. The second stage is storming. At this stage, there are issues regarding leadership, control and roles. Members at this stage have to contest and negotiate on roles. This can be illustrated in Ecological when there is conflict on decision making role. In one instance, Ann made a purchase decision with Dane without consulting Rundra. According to Rundra, purchases of that size should have been run through him. This shows a case where there is conflict of roles. There is also case where Elly and Ann discuss on lack of who they should report to. This shows conflicts of leadership and roles which are experienced during storming (Driskell et al., 2006). Norming is the third stage of group forming process. This is a stage where the roles of the group members begin to be established. At this point, it starts becoming clear what each employee is supposed to do. By critically analysing Ecological situation, the organisation has not yet reached this stage. The employees are still not sure who they are supposed to report to. There are mixed instructions as seen in the case of Elly who claim she sometimes receives contradicting information and have to do what she thinks is right. Rundra is still to perform his tasks effectively as his role is not yet appreciated. At forming stage, the group members are able to move from thinking about themselves and start working as a group (Driskell et al., 2006). Members are able to agree on the same purpose and work towards it. The group values are adopted by the members as their values enabling a better working environment. The last stage of group forming process is performing. This involves a stage where all the group processes are well established. At this point, the group members are able to work and deliver within the constraints in an effective way. The last stage involves collaborative work where each members works towards the group achievement. The roles of the members at this stage are clearly outlined and are according to their interests. Ecological is at the storming stage. There are conflicts as the team members tries to gain control and looking at who is taking the leadership. Members at this stage react as they tries to look at how they are valued, how they are appreciated and the feeling about others (Driskell et al., 2006). Rundra at one point contemplates why he was hired yet his decisions are not valued. He even asserts that the organisation should have hired a bookkeeper instead of a fulltime accountant. This shows that members are still in conflict with issues of leadership, roles and appreciation. Ann and Elly are confused on whom they are supposed to report to. This is due to fact that they receive contradicting instructions from different members of team. At this point, Sally is supposed to manage group differences to make sure there is no failure (Cook, 2009). During storming, group members try to experiment their hypothesis in order to be able to validate their contribution. This is seen as Rundra tries to prove that his suggestion to the organisation on employment creation could be created. The reception that the idea gets from Dane shows that there is conflict in leadership and recognition. The group members want their uniqueness to be valued while they forsake group commonality. Sally can act as a facilitator at this stage by encouraging sociality. This is by making the members understand each other needs, what motivates them and be able to appreciate them. According to Cook (2009), team members should be encouraged to accommodate different views at this stage. This is what sally sets as example when she promises to discuss with Rundra his contribution on employment contribution. References Adair, J. E. 2010, Develop your leadership skills, Philadelphia, Kogan Page Belassi, W., Kondra, A. Z., & Icmeli T. O. 2007, ‘New Product Development Projects: The Effects of Organizational Culture,’ Project Management Journal, Vol.38, no. 4, pp. 12- 24. Brown, C. J. 2008, ‘A comprehensive organisational model for the effective management of project management,’ South African Journal of Business Management, Vol.39, no.3, pp. 1-10. Bryans P. & Cronin T.P. 2005, Organisation Theory, Facts on File Inc. Chen, J., & Silverthorne, C. 2005, ‘Leadership effectiveness, leadership style and employee readiness,’ Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 280- 288. Coetzer, G. H., & Bushe, G. R. 2006, ‘Using discrepancy theory to examine the relationship between shared cognition and group outcomes’, Team Performance Management,Vol.12, no.1, p. 155-161. Cook, S. 2009, Building a High Performance Team Proven Techniques for Effective Team Working, Ely, IT Governance Pub. Driskell, J., Goodwin, G., Salas, E., & O'Shea, P. 2006, ‘What makes a good team player? Personality and team effectiveness,’ Group Dynamics: Theory, Research and Practice, Vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 249-271. Dym, B., & Hutson, H. 2005, Leadership in nonprofit organizations, Thousand Oaks, Calif, Sage Publications. Hirtz, P. D., Murray, S. L., & Riordan, C. A. 2007, ‘The effects of leadership on quality’, Engineering Management Journal, Vol.19, No. 1, pp. 22-27. Kaplan, S., Bradley, J. C., Luchman, J.N., & Haynes, D. 2009, ‘On the Role of Positive and Negative Affectivity in Job Performance: A Meta-Analytic Investigation,’ Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol.94, p.162-176. Kellerman B. 2007, What Every Leader Needs to Know About Followers, Business Source Premier Database. Latham, G.P. 2007, Work Motivation: History, Theory, Research, and Practice, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Liao, H., & Chuang, A. 2004, ‘A multilevel investigation of factors influencing employee service performance and customer outcomes’, The Academy of Management Journal, Vol.47, no.1, p. 41-58. Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. 2005, ‘The Benefits of Frequent Positive Affect: Does Happiness Lead to Success?’Psychological Bulletin, Vol.131, no.1, pp.803-855. Mosadegh Rad, A. M., & Yarmohammadian, M. H. 2006, ‘A study of relationship between managers’ leadership style and employees’ job satisfaction,’ Leadership in Health Services , Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 11-29. Porath, C.L., & Bateman, T.S.2006, ‘Self-Regulation: From Goal Orientation to Job Performance,’ Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol.91, no.1, 18, pp.5-192. Timothy, A. J., & Ronald, F. P. 2004, Transformational and transactional leadership: A meta analytic test of their relative validity, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 89, No. 5, pp. 755–768 Visagie, J., Herman, L & Werner, H 2011, ‘Leadership competencies for managing diversity,’ Managing Global Transitions. 9(3), p. 225-247. Read More