Leadership styles, behaviors and relevant situational factors. Maple Leaf Food - Assignment Example

? CRISIS IN LEADERSHIP Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Inserts 22 April Leadership is best shown during a crisis. The research focuses on the leadership skills of McCain. The research includes a study of the different leadership styles. Leadership in Crisis includes an unwavering support of all parties for a 180 degree turnaround from the current financial dilemma. Description of the leader’s company, formal role and length of time on that position Michael McCain is the Chief Executive Officer of Maple Leaf Food. McCain originally came from the McCain foods company, one of the big names in Canadian food processing. During the Crisis of August, 2008, McCain was instrumental in ordering the recall of all its tainted food products. Maple Leaf Foods (stock market symbol TSX:MFI) is one of Canada’s major food processing companies. As its chief executive officer, McCain holds the strings that control the subordinates. With the strings, Michael McCain can instruct the employees to give their best to produce high quality products to the company’s current and prospective clients. Michael McCain is new in the company. Formerly, Michael McCain was one of the owners of the very popular McCain food products company, which is located in the heart of Canada. Consequently, Michael McCain brings with him many years of experience as one of the managers of his former family-owned company. His former company is also engage in the food processing business. 2. Description of leader’s context (main constituents and the various situation forces at play) Michael McCain heads the company that sells food products to the Canadian public. The company’s original name is Canada Packers. It was Canada’s producer of the biggest volume of food products. The company’s major food product is grounded on hogs. The company ships hog-based products to the United Kingdom. The company also sells cheese products. The company ventures into hog and poultry based food business products. Robert Kelley (1988) 2insists that all corporations sometimes succeed or fail, compete or crumble, on the basis of how they are being management, in the case of McCain, the subordinates can sit back, relax, and enjoy the leadership of McCain as he steers the Maple Leaf Management outside the August 2008 food poisoning crisis smoothly and effortlessly. In 2008, the company ordered the recall of many of its tainted products. The tainted products came from one of its food processing plants. Consequently, Maple Leaf Management ordered the closure of its culprit plant. The closure was necessary to bring back the company’s tarnished image. With the announcement of the guilty plant facility, Maple Leaf Management sought to retrieve its former glory of being the producer of one of the most popular and high selling food processing plants in Canada. On that fateful August 24, 2008 date, Maple Leaf Management ordered the closure of its failed Toronto, Canada Plant. The spoiled Maple Leaf Management products cause the deaths of five individuals. In addition more than 24 individuals were treated for eating the spoiled food. Because of the spoiled food consequences, the Government of Canada issued warnings to the public to temporarily avoid buying some of the Maple Leaf Management products. The warning was in place until the cloud of spoilage hovering over the skies of Canada’s communities, is resolved. The Canadian government agency, Public Health Agency of Canada, emphasized that the bacteria, Listeria strain, was the culprit. Many of the customers of Maple Leaf Management either died or were hospitalized for food poisoning in August of 2008. In response to the August 2008 bacteria outbreak where four persons died and many others suffered from food poisoning, Maple Leaf Management ordered the recall of all its products. The move is a good marketing strategy. The marketing strategy was to prioritize the safety of its current and prospective clients, the food customers. The outbreak was called Listeriosis. However, Maple Leaf Management has other Canadian plants producing the same food products. To the customers, the failure of the Toronto Plant triggered a fear among the current and prospective clients of Maple Leaf Management that they could not distinguish which food products came from the ill-fated Toronto Plant or from the clean and unaffected plants of Maple Leaf Management. However, Maple Leaf Management only recalled the products which were manufactured in the Toronto manufacturing plant facilities. On august 23, 2008, the company did not order the recall of all its food products processed in its other Maple Leaf Management plants (www.canada.com). To the management of Maple Leaf Management, this is a very logical and correct move. However, the clients see a destroyed image of the Maple Leaf Management, including all the products from the plants not affected or infected by the deadly bacteria. 3. Leadership style(s) and / or Characteristics Leader Demonstrates McCain’s leadership style is grounded on combining knowledge and innovation. As its Chief Executive Officer, McCain combined the knowledge of food processing and use of innovative processing tools to ensure that the public interest is paramount over the company’s generating profits. Knowledge of ensuring all food products are not tainted with bacteria ensures the company a steady rise in revenues (Miles, 2007). McCain manages his work –life transition by prioritizing tasks (Higgins & Duxbury, 2005). In addition, McCain excellently empathizes with his clients by ordering the recall of the tainted Maple Leaf food products, despite reduction in the company’s revenues (Goleman & Boyatzis, 2008). In addition, by recalling the tainted products, McCain is sustaining the quality of excellence in the Maple Leaf image by presenting strategies for both the present and the future. (Abell, 1999). McCain does not suffer from confilicting leadership qualities or skills (Kaplan, 2006). McCain uses Heroic leadership in the August 2008 Crisis. He calls the shots to ensure that no further health issues will crop up, indicating authentic leadership coupled with responsibility (George et.al. 2007). McCain decides to impose the recall in order to avoid collateral damage to the reputation of the company, Maple Leaf Management (McCrimmon, 2010). Every type of action is related to the degree of authority used by the superior officer. In the case of McCain, his excellent leadership inspires the employees and managers of the company to keep their best shot to make a 180 degree turnaround from the current August 2008 debacle. Maple Leaf’s leader, McCain, adheres to client-based values in generating revenues (Kennedy, 2010). McCain’s leadership holds the entire Maple Leaf Management team and employees in a close-knit stance to weather the current loss of demand for the company’s food products (Robert Tannenbaum, Warren Schmidt, 1973). 4. Leader’s relationship to his Constituents. McCain vividly relates his instructions to his constituents. With his prior experience in McCain Foods, McCain has the expertise to persuade the constituents to happily comply with all McCain’s instructions. As proof, Maple Leaf’s foods Company still exists today. McCain’s able stewardship of the company shows that the company still stands to this day. McCain was a serious person on the job. He was a result oriented person. Just like other manager, McCain is goal oriented. This simply means that McCain implements synergy in the company. Synergy includes harnessing the scarce assets of the company to produce the highly salable food products to the Canadian market. With McCain’s leadership, the employees never lost hope. However, the closure of the Toronto Plant implies that many of its Toronto plant employees are being discharged for a lackluster performance. Because of the poor work output, the company, Maple Leaf Management, has to suffer. In terms of suffering, the image of recall is a very strong wakeup call. The recall indicates that the investors of Maple Leaf Management will start asking questions. Consequently, the investors will want heads to roll. In terms of heads rolling, the investors will demand punishment must be meted on the guilty employees and management officers for lack of foresight. 5. Characteristics, attitudes, behaviors and / or activities did that organization’s key followers demonstrate. Role the followership played in the negative crisis or the positive turnaround. The people of Maple Leaf Management continued to stay with the company, despite the closure of the Toronto Plant. The employees in the other plants did not resign from the company. These people knew that McCain’s astute leadership will bring the company back to its former glory, prior to the August 2008 food poisoning incident (Bob Gore, W L Gore Associates 1) by focusing on accomplishing both short term and long term goals (Gutfreund 1). The role of followership includes placing full confidence and loyalty on the shoulders of McCain, McCain assembles his leaders to brave the challenges of 2008. With such loyalty, Maple Leaf will surely survive its 2008 image destroying situation (Berry 228). The followers or employees of the Maple leaf plants that were not infected by the bacteria continued to give their best to process the same quality products for Maple Leaf Management. This is understandable. The employees know that the public will soon realize that the closure of the Toronto Plant will stop the further deaths and hospitalizations. In turn, the employees will have work to do. Reporting to work, the employees will have enough money to feed their families. The employees know that McCain’s good intentioned leadership will revive the company (Kellerman 1). With McCain’s leadership, he adeptly does many things to many people, while remaining true to himself (Goffee & Jones 1). McCain can harness the science of persuasion to convince its current and prospective clients to trust the revitalized Maple Leaf products (Cialdini 1). Consequently, the public is given a choice to buy remaining untainted food products, increasing trust in McCain’s company (Hurley 1). Cultural changes have shaped the followers’ image of the leadership of McCain as favorably invigorating (Kellerman 1). McCain has a vision of supplying the food needs of Canada (Kaplan 1). 6 Explanation of what went wrong. Why McCain, the leader, is not a good fit. In terms of the August 2008 food poisoning incident, the McCain failed to foresee the August 2008 food poisoning incident. McCain is partly to blame for the August 2008 debacle. McCain could have hired more hardworking quality control personnel. McCain’s principled leadership includes ensuring the quality control personnel successfully determining and eliminating any future food poisoning incidents (Seijts & Kilgour 1). The processing plant employees should have done their best to prevent the occurrence of the bacteria infection. Because of the failure, the company, especially McCain should suffer. Suffering is clear; the recall of the products from the store shelves located in the different groceries in Canada translates to lost revenues. The lost revenues translate to lost profits. The lost profits translate to lesser dividends given to the investors or stockholders of Maple Leaf Management. The employees must go their share, as great followers and future corporate leaders, to ensure the poisoning is not repeated (Musselwhite 1). Because of the Toronto food poisoning issue, McCain can be classified as a leader who is not of good fit, during the August 2008 poisoning incident. McCain, no matter what the reasons, must also take the blame as a management officer. It is in the power of the management officers, like McCain, to predict possible gloomy scenarios. After listing down all possible gloomy scenarios, the leader, such as McCain, can suggest alternative steps to remedy all possible problems. In this way, the company is better prepared to answer any unexpected incident in the future. Because of the bacteria outbreak of 2008, Michael McCain, who owns 32 percent of Maple Leaf Management, states that the He is focusing Maple Leaf Management on a strategic recovery plant that will cost $1.3 billion (Francis 1). McCain refuses to call it quits despite the August 2008 debacle. McCain shows signs of a true visionary leader as aptly shown in the quote “where the going gets tough, the tough gets going.” Based on the above discussion leadership is best displayed during a crisis. The leadership skills of McCain are excellent. Sometimes leaders fail, but the better issue is what a leader must do to bounce back from a gloomy economic situation; Michael McCain survived the 2008 food poison debacle with flying colors by recalling the spoiled Toronto food products. Indeed, leadership in Crisis incorporates a strong continuing support of all parties for a complete recovery from an unexpected crisis. REFERENCES: Abell, Derek (2011). Competing Today While Preparing for Tomorrow. Sloan Management Review: 1-12. Berry, L. (2004). Leadership Lessons from Mayo Clinic. Organizational Dynamics 33(3), 228-242. Cialdini, Robert (2001). Harnessing the Science of Persuasion. Harvard Business Review, 1- 12. 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