Management and Organizational Behavior - Leadership Execution - Term Paper Example

first The Doom of Buddy Delight: Reflection on Leadership Execution Introduction Leadership is critical to the successof any business as it involves inspiring others to achieve the objectives of the business in a manner that not only benefits the business but also the individuals and, thus, the leader. This leadership was lacking at Buddy Delight, which ultimately resulted in the downfall of its business due to losses and employee turnover. Leadership is strengthened through relationships and understanding, and is characterized by certain qualities. Numerous theories have been proposed to describe leadership in terms of style, traits, personalities etc. However, effective leadership also depends upon how leaders mend their approaches to suit the characteristics of their followers. Drawing different leadership-related teachings from literature, the most applicable leadership to the situation at Buddy Delight will be identified and evaluated for its effectiveness and applicability. Issue at Buddy Delight: Buddy Delight, a fast food restaurant at the far end of the high street market in Brookshire, Colorado had to close its 5-year old business shortly after the sudden demise of its previous owner. Just before his death, the owner had expanded Buddy Delight to two more floors of the building; and had hired few employees. The owner’s son took over the business after his father’s demise, and brought about many changes, one of which included appointing a new manager in the restaurant section. During earlier years, all business related activities were managed by the owner, the sole manager of the restaurant. However, increasing number of customers and business resulted in high workload as a result of which the new owner decided to bring in more people to manage the business. New employees were hired again at various positions including managerial and reception, operations and for customer service activities. Dissatisfaction, frustration and low performance surfaced in the operations team within few weeks after they welcomed their new manager along with two new chefs in their team. The new manager was highly qualified management graduate and possessed years of managerial experience in the marketing division. He had the ability to command and get the tasks accomplished. The manager was young, energetic and highly innovative, which could have been the reasons that had pleased the owner’s son to hire the manager. This team comprised of 12 employees including 4 chefs and eight waiters that were responsible for working in the main restaurant section that was directly involved in preparing food items as per customers’ orders and providing customer service. Reduced and distributed workload did not seem to help the business. Business at Buddy Delight almost doomed within six months after the change; number of customers walking into the restaurant reduced; and the employees went on a verge of quitting their jobs and looked out for jobs elsewhere. The manager tried his level best by talking to his employees trying to retain them; however, manager’s approach did not seem promising and employees continued to walk their way out. Teachings from Literature: Cook and Hunsaker describe managers as personnel who hold authority, accountability and leadership in an organization, by virtue of their position. Authority is associated with decision-making, planning, organizing, and controlling functions; accountability is for achieving organizational goals and leadership deals with providing direction, inspiration and commitment of followers (471-474). Leadership is the ability to influence a group of people to achieve the goals set by the leader or the organization. Leadership is a complex process and has multiple dimensions to implementation as well as the outcomes (Northouse 89). Bennis describes leadership as the wise use of power, and power as the capacity to translate intention into reality and to sustain it (qtd. in McCreary, 20). Leadership has thus been described in numerous ways and as of many types. The contingency theories focus on leadership style, individual-leader relationship, task intensity, position power etc. More recently, types of leadership described include charismatic, transformational, and transactional leadership, and the situational leadership (Cook and Hunsaker 471). However, the most widely recognized and practically implementable leadership is the situational leadership, as described by Hersey and Blanchard (qtd. in Northouse 89). According to this model, effective outcomes are possible when leader’s style suits the followers’ abilities, learning level and readiness. It is not possible to point out one best leadership approach, but leadership approach that best suits the situation can be ideal. Therefore, leader’s effectiveness is dependent on how the leader interacts with different types of followers and manages the situations. Quality of this interaction can strongly influence the effort and behavior of followers (Hitt 260). Hitt (260) points out that Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership is based on the leader-member exchange theory. Leadership is both directive and supportive (Northouse 89). In their situational leadership II model, Hersey and Blanchard identify four types of followers and four situations according to which the leaders must change their approach. The four types of followers are described based on their readiness and level of development (in a particular task) (qtd. in Northouse 90). The first type of followers are new entrants to the task or work and are thus low on competence, but high on commitment. The second type includes followers that have developed some skills but low on confidence. The third type is the experienced ones with good knowledge but low confidence and commitment. The last type is the highly experienced and highly confident people. Accordingly, leaders must adopt telling, selling, participating and/or delegating style to suit the followers’ developmental level (Schermerhorn 320). However, Northouse (96) also argues that leaders’ knowledge and ability to identify the developmental levels of followers depends upon their own leadership qualities. A reflective thought: Most of the times, employee dissatisfaction, frustration, and low commitment are indicators for ineffective leadership. Leaders are responsible for guiding, inspiring, monitoring and controlling their followers and thus accomplish organizational tasks and objectives. Leadership role is highly critical and dynamic as it requires the leaders to assume various roles including authoritative personality, a guide and a coach, a model for inspiration and a supportive, understanding and appreciative friend. Almost all leadership studies emphasize these attributes. In short, leadership attributes include honesty, compassion, integrity, vision, commitment and expertise (Cook and Hunsaker 472). Considering the situation at Buddy Delight, there is no ambiguity in assessing the reason for its doom. Leadership had caused the failure of the business. Many factors can be identified in the case. Firstly, the change brought about at Buddy Delight was inappropriately executed and sudden, which the employees could not handle. The new owner, with lesser experience, did not wait to learn or check business performance after his father’s death. Instead, he decided to hire more number of employees to support the business. In the process, a manager was also hired and given the complete responsibility of one of the critical areas of the business, which was directly linked to customer satisfaction and, thus, profitability. Thirdly, the manager’s experience was incongruent with the situation at Buddy Delight, as well as the nature of the job. The new manager came with experience in marketing, which was more customer focused and probably had no inclination towards employee management. Lastly, and most importantly, the manager’s leadership effectiveness was incompetent with the situation. The operations team comprised of a members with varied levels of experience and skills. Moreover, a few members were highly experienced and were probably associated with Buddy Delight from the beginning. There were also new employees that had little or no experience in restaurant operations. Blending the manager’s leadership style, which was authoritative, with these different types of followers would certainly be highly challenging. The new employees were constantly directed with strict control by the manager. The same was followed with experienced employees in the team. Leaders that are authoritative tend to use power to get tasks accomplished through direction and controls; this limits employees’ ability to exercise their discretion as well as lowers their commitment to work (Cook and Hunsaker 481). Moreover, the outcomes of decisions taken by such leaders are also not effective as it prevents employees’ input (Daft 44). Under such leadership, employees tend to become frustrated and de-motivated, which further results in low commitment. In this situation, the ideal leadership would be that explained in Situational leadership by Hersey and Blanchard. The factors that necessitated this style include varied learning and experience of followers, new leadership role, challenging business environment within the restaurant. This model would enable the leaders to assume various leadership styles according to the situation, or the followers. The employees that were newly appointed should be directed, supervised, and controlled in addition to providing them adequate training, coaching and constant feedback. Such employees need to be monitored in order to improve their commitment as well as competence to perform their job. The other employees that were slightly more experienced than the new ones should be constantly coached and supported in order to improve their focus, confidence as well as competence. The third type of employees include the ones that are good at their work but lack confidence and commitment; such employees usually show signs such as being highly cautious, skilled, insecure, indifferent and self-critical. These employees should be reassured by the leader through different activities that promote facilitation, support, participation and appreciation. This approach will enhance their commitment. The highly experienced and skilled workers are usually highly confident, inspired, self dependent and possess the ability to direct, coach, and inspire others. These employees need to be empowered to take critical decisions related to the business; they need to be reassured and appreciated; however, these employees also encourage appropriate feedback. In fact, the business could have been handled well by existing experienced employees if they were delegated critical tasks of supervising operations of the restaurant. Appointing managers based on their qualifications and experience does not guarantee leadership qualities; moreover, leadership qualities can be developed under guidance from true leaders. More often, managers that are appointed as leaders, by virtue of position, tend to mimic their leaders. This would not guarantee leadership qualities. Exercising effective and true leadership requires strong and healthy interpersonal relationship and understanding with the followers. Leadership role is shared. Conclusions Situational leadership emphasizes that effectiveness of leadership depends upon the relationship and understanding between leaders and followers for which the leaders should be proactive in understanding their followers. At Buddy Delight, the manager failed to develop an understanding of his team members’ abilities and their expectations, which resulted in the team’s lowered motivation. Managerial position holds a critical leadership role and, hence, it is also important to coach, support and appreciate the followers in order to earn their commitment. It would be apt to state that the manager tried to perform his job through authority and accountability but failed to exercise leadership. Leadership becomes more effective when shared with others depending upon their skills and abilities; this sharing should be done based on the development level of the followers. Applying situational leadership concepts may be recommended to situations that are new to the leader; however, this would also require the leader to possess sufficient knowledge about the followers and their abilities. Moreover, situational leadership concepts cannot be the permanent solution to improve business profitability. The leaders must be good at changing their roles and behavior according to their followers’ development. Moreover, in situations where the highly experienced followers are given new tasks, they tend to assume characteristics of first developmental level, with low confidence and competence. During such situations, the leader will have to shift to corresponding situation. Works Cited Cook, Curtis W., and Phillip L. Hunsaker. Management and Organizational Behavior. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2001. Print. Daft, Richard L. The Leadership Experience. Mason, Ohio: Thomson Higher Education, 2007. Print. Hitt, Michael A., J. Stewart Black, and Lyman W. Porter. Management. 2nd ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2009. Print. McCreary, Jeffrey S. The "I" in Team: Building High Performing Teams with Intelligence, Initiative and Integrity. New Mexico: Sunstone Press, 2007 Northouse, Peter G. Leadership: Theory and Practice. 5th ed. California: SAGE, 2009. Print. Schermerhorn, John R. Management. 11th ed. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. 2010. Print. Read More