Carlene's Dream Job - Developing Management Skills - Case Study Example

Assessment 1: Individual Report Carlene’s Dream Job: Review of the Workplace and Case Study Analysis 1. Review of the Workplace As the history of the Western Sydney subsidiary suggest, it had been profitable for many years most probably due to good management particularly in terms of policy which the case study claim was within the standards of the manufacturing industry. Moreover, it has a Human Resource Department that was supposedly efficient in supporting the organization’s goals and objectives. However, this does not seem accurate as far as the Operations Department is concern because there was intimidation, one man rule, and abuse of authority. According to Sears et al. (2006), a healthy workplace is one place where employees can have a sense of meaning in their work, caring and thoughtful relationship with their management, equitable, and respect the individual personhood of each employee. On the other hand, a bad and unhealthy workplace is characterised by low employee morale, communication problem, divisiveness, and unresolved conflicts (p.319). Moreover, workplace bullying contributes to an abusive work environment since it often results to physical or psychological harm (Einarsen et al. 2010, p.456). Along with lack of control, personal problems between staff, poor communication and management resulting to confusion and unreasonable workload, bullying is a workplace stressor that affects the quality of working life. Instead of managing or eliminating these stressors, the Operations Department leadership was creating them to the extent that he was at this capacity violates policies that he supposed to protect (Week 3 Seminar Notes, p.2). Clearly, considering the fact that the Operations Manager in the case study was almost at his retirement, employees of the Operations Department was being abuse for a long time. A part of this workplace or the Operations Department therefore was an unpleasant working environment, “toxic”, where moral well-being was not protected, inequitable, capable of causing physical and mental injury, unsafe, and unfriendly (Week 3 Seminar Notes 2007, p.2). 2. Actions, Skills, and Attitudes of Managers/Supervisors a. New CEO (Carlene) The case centres on how Carlene will handle her dream job in the face of challenges such as the one brought by the Operations Manager. Carlene was young and with a short track record but it does not necessarily mean that her performance as CEO will be poor. In fact, compared to the previous CEO, the HR Manager, and especially the Operations Manager, she is much better in terms of professionalism, interpretation of policy and procedures, enthusiasm and willingness to do her job appropriately, and determination to resolve matters detrimental to her employees and entire organization. It thus appear that Carlene, in the short period of her career developed self-awareness and important values that help her make more logical decisions at times of crisis. Moreover, being aware of her feelings and others or being emotionally intelligent is an uncommon skill that enabled her to maintain her calm during the confrontation. Compared to other managers depicted in the case study, Carlene has a higher level of optimism and capacity to control her impulses and emotions as shown by her desire to have another meeting with the operations manager in order to finally resolve the matter (Case Study, p.3; Week 2 Seminar Notes, p.1-8). For instance, the Operations Manager was working with the subsidiary for a long time but his attitudes, managerial skills, and actions are not comparable to Carlene which was calm, in-control, systematic, and determined to implement organization policies and procedures. More importantly, he resists change while Carlene was very open, enthusiastic, and can relate to anyone. Carlene’s values, which is a “stable and enduring characteristics” (Week 2 Seminar Notes, p.2) of a person seems responsible for her high motivation, interpersonal style, emotions, attitude to change, and the way she respond to information brought to her attention. For instance, she did not quickly condemn anyone or apply disciplinary action but instead summoned the Operations Manager in the hope that he would listen to reason and straighten out things altogether. The reason probably is her ability to manage interpersonal conflict which if done correctly is beneficial (Week 5 Seminar Notes, p.2). She did not assume that an Operations Manager with a bad behaviour is bad despite some undesirable information given to her but rather consider the impact of culture and diversity and becomes sensitive to mediating and coaching for resolutions (Week 5 Seminar Notes, p.7). According to Rossiter (2004), true leadership requires willingness to consider new approaches, confident, and does not need to put others down so he or she can rise. They respect employees’ rights, a team player, and sensitive to the feeling of others (p.11). More important, good leaders have “vision, strength, and commitment” (Bolman & Deal 2011, p.345) which other managers of the subsidiary do not have. Carlene’s leadership skills, attitude, and actions as described in the case were appropriate thus she deserved her new role as CEO. b. Operations Manager The controversial Operations Manager need no further introduction since bullying and harassment in the workplace is far from being an acceptable managerial or leadership practice. Clearly, this Operations Manager has no leadership skill at all since he was running his department through coercion resulting to a toxic workplace filled with stressors such as bullying, personal problems among employees, role confusion, and poor communication (Week 3 Seminar Notes, p.2). No wonder he was always meeting the organizations operational target on limited budget since dysfunctional acts of supervision often get the compliance of followers as escape from such leadership is too costly (Riggio et al. 2008, p.183). The unwillingness of the Operations Manager to accept any deviation from traditional practices was in itself a deficiency in leadership skills such as the lack of self-awareness and positive attitude to change (Week 2 Seminar Notes, p.4). His cavalier attitude towards other employees including the CEO is another as it appears that he does not have the values to motivate people, effective interpersonal style, emotional intelligence that can prevent him from hurting people and make better decisions (Week 2 Seminar Notes, p.4) More importantly, he did not exhibit any skill in managing interpersonal conflict as evidenced by his attitude toward his supervisors. He could have maximised the advantage diversity and understand that people in the workplace have different perceptions and expectations rather than depreciating the values and needs of his staff (Week 5 Seminar Notes, p.3). The actions he took, calling and threatening the Managing Director in Melbourne was disrespectful, unethical, and inappropriate for a manager who proudly claims that he knows the job well. His actions highlight the qualities of bad leadership, misuse of power that weakens the effective functioning of the organization and subvert positive working relationships (Marturano & Gosling 2007, p.160). More importantly, his actions demonstrate his lack of managerial skill particularly in the area of self-awareness which is key to personal growth and managing others (Week 2 Seminar Notes, p.2). By analysis, the Operations Manager’s resistance to change and arrogance seems brought about by his department’s previous successes using established traditional practices. It also appears that his over-confidence and disrespect was brought about by the lack of opposition or disciplinary actions from higher management. Specifically, his lack of supportive communication skill or being person-oriented rather than problem-oriented, invalidating others instead of giving them chance to prove themselves, and a bad listener (Week 4 Seminar Notes, p.2) resulted to more conflict and unpleasant workplace. Nobody had the courage to touch him except Carlene whom he misguidedly accused of interfering in areas she is not very familiar with. These hypocritical and distortive presentations of facts are part of the poisonous repertoire of toxic leaders which according to Marturano & Gosling (2007), has a destructive, serious, and long lasting negative effect on individuals and organizations (p.160). The Operations Manager’s actions were the result of his unwillingness to receive feedback or ideas from others as he seems to protect himself and his traditional practices from change. The lack of self-examination, self-understanding, and self-awareness makes him reject feedbacks even from his superior to the extent that he unknowingly showed his lack of emotional intelligence, optimism to resolve things peacefully, empathy to others, cognitive and information processing disability, and communication skills (Week 2 Seminar Notes, p.1-8). His attitude toward his staff was a reflection of erroneous values that contradicts the organizations hope to grow and prosper. He obviously cannot manage his emotions and responding without thinking of the consequences. His capacity to control his impulses was weak and his optimism toward mutually beneficial solution was inadequate to the extent that he did not care about the superiority of other managers above him (Week 2 Seminar Notes, p.3). 3. Recommended action for the Board of Directors in rectifying the situation and improving the organization in general The main problem with the Western Sydney subsidiary is the attitude of the Operations Manager who as discussed earlier went as far as insulting his superior, threatened the Managing Director, and refused to function under Carlene’s supervision. Bullying and harassment in the workplace, particularly between a manager and staff, is definitely unacceptable and by company policy, this behaviour is subject to immediate disciplinary action. According to Pammer & Killian (2003), addressing workplace bullying requires management commitment (p.163) thus it is essential for the Board of Governors to encourage open discussion on this matter and provide the necessary resources to address it. Specifically, the focus should be in the personal differences and understanding the various perceptions and expectations. The board should find a common ground to resolve the problem and ensure that everyone fully understand all views and clear about their individual responsibilities and goals (Week 5 Seminar Notes, p.2). Although light disciplinary action against the Operations Manager is not recommended, the conflict should be resolved in a compromising manner with an objective to quickly reach an agreement (Week 5 Seminar Notes, p.3; Baldwin et al. 2008, p.307-318 ) such as giving the OM counselling or a chance to learn and improve his managerial skills. These include but not limited to learning to build positive relationship, be tolerant and listen to others, and develop self-awareness necessary for change (Alexander 2007, p.16). The policies and procedures as indicated in the case are already there thus only effective monitoring and implementation is required. These include but not limited to enactive and proactive strategies that can pre-empt the occurrence of stressors and develop individual capacity of employees to withstand the effects of stress in the workplace (Week 3 Seminar Notes, p.3). Management should be able to communicate well with their employees as one the problem in the case study is the lack of employees about their rights, policies, and the support that they can get from management. It is therefore also necessary to be sensitive since communication will not succeed if management fail to acknowledge and respect the feelings of others. Coaching and counselling may be a good start to resolve attitude problems among managers and employees (Week 4 Seminar Notes, p.2). This is because as indicated in the case study, employees were unhappy about the way the Operations Department is being run thus additional motivation is necessary. However, since motivating other is a complex endeavour, management should recognize the value of diversity, individual perception, and appropriate recognition of performance. More importantly, management should focus on eliminating through a cooperative and productive workplace where employees are alive and energetic in a healthy and well motivated workplace (Week 4 Seminar Notes, p.4). As discussed earlier, leaders with coercive approach not only affect individual but the entire organization. More importantly, negative attitude towards change is detrimental to the organization’s expansion plans and to Carlene’s change proposals such as implementing a regular night shift to increase production output that requires some significant changes in the Operations Department. It is thus necessary that leadership in this important part of the organization is capable of managing a workplace free of stressors, equitable, and morally right. There are some remedial or short-term solutions but the best approach is to select the best leadership that can make change a reality. 4. Reference list Baldwin T., Bommer W. & Rubin R., 2008, Developing Management Skills; What great managers know and do, McGraw-Hill, New York Bolman L. & Deal T., 2008, Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership, John Wiley and Sons, San Francisco CA, US Einarsen S., Cooper C, Hoel H, & Zapf D., 2010, Bullying and Emotional Abuse in the Workplace: International Perspectives in Research and Practice, Second Edition, CRC Press, New York, US Kellerman B., 2004, Bad Leadership: What it is?, how it happens?, why it matters?, Harvard Business Press, Boston MA, US Marturano A. & Gosling J., 2007, Leadership: The Key Concepts, Routledge, New York, US Pammer W. & Killian J., 2003, Handbook of Conflict Management, CRC Press, New York, US Riggio R., Chaleff I., Lipman-Blumen J., 2008, The Art of Fellowship: How great followers create great leaders and organizations, John Wiley and Sons, San Francisco CA, US Robbins S., 2009, Organisational Behaviour: Global and Southern African Perspectives, Pearson, South Africa Rositter D., 2004, Leadership Skills, Infobase Publishing, New York, US Sears R., 2006, Consultation skills for mental health professionals, John Wiley and Sons, New Jersey, US Week 2 Seminar Notes, 2007, Management Skills: Developing Self-Awareness, Managing the Environment, Forming into Syndicate team, University of Western Sydney, Australia Week 3 Seminar Notes, 2007, Managing a Healthy Workplace, University of Western Sydney, Australia Week 4 Seminar Notes, 2007, Management Skills: Discussion of team Project Proposals, Communicating supportively, Motivating others, Workshopping the assignments, University of Western Sydney, Australia Week 5 Seminar Notes, 2005, Managing Conflict, Workshop on Assignment 1, Workshop on team project, University of Western Sydney, Australia Read More