Learning Activity 2 Theme Two: Leadership style should fit the person, the organization, and the job. It should be situational in nature.
You are the Package Distribution Manager for GDD. It has come to your attention that five drivers in your region have serious errors in their delivery report logs. The delivery report is key to controlling package flow and must be accurate. If not, GDD will not be paid by their clients and would quickly lose their business to Fed Ex or UPS. One of the drivers accounts for 60% of the errors. She is a nice person, reliable but occasionally late to work because of conflicts with getting her kids to school on time. She is a single mother. A second driver accounts for 30% of the errors. This driver is new to the company and while his error numbers are high they have declined from last month. The other driver’s errors hover around 10 to 15%.
After taking the quizzes below and using the course readings to delve deeper into your leadership style, answer the following questions using the style that is indicated in the test results.
- How will you go about correcting the problem? Will you meet with the workers individually? in a group? What will you say and how will you get the workers to listen?
- After your conversation, what would you do if the next set of reports show some improvement in the 60% employee but none in the 10-15% employees? What would you do then?
- What leadership style did you use? Was it easy to use the leadership style? Or Hard? Did you find that the leadership style might not really be helpful in your approach to each situation? Do you believe another style might be better in one or the other of the situations? If so which one and why? If not, why not?
Expert Answer
In the event that such errors recur to the next report, this would require establishing a commitment with the respective employees. The efforts would be geared towards creating formal relations that promote free exchange of information and the flow of ideas. Emphasize on the need to protect the company from bad reputation, from financial losses and all employees from being personally liable. To achieve such results, the manager needs to understand each employee’s needs first, concerns, and motivations, which can only be possible by establishing a free and fair channel for communication. By addressing each employee’s needs and emphasizing the importance of working towards achieving a common goal, the manager changes the values and the motives of the employee. The manager can establish contingent rewards that any employee can receive once they achieve to the expectations of the organization and the subordinate. The policies for the award have to be based upon accomplishment of reasonable results that aid in meeting the organization’s objectives strictly. By making such a promise, the employees strive to perform their duties to their capacity in order to be rewarded. Rewards inspire loyalty, commitment and a reasonable degree of involvement in the business environment.
If there is no improvement in the 10-15% employees then harsh and corrective measures will have to be taken. The drivers in this error bracket will be given a last chance to rectify their errors and improve their efficiency. They would be given all possible support and help. If they are still unable to improve then they will have to be fired.
This form of leadership is known as transformational leadership and it ensures that employees are aware of the significance of working together to achieve the set goals. It was easy to use this leadership style as the element of change being introduced was not radical but basic.
Transformational leadership helps the leaders and employee engage in a common enterprise, and establishes that regardless of the differences in opinions and personalities, the employees and the management are potentially united by the common goals that they seek to achieve. Such a leadership style creates a level of trust with the management that the employee are willing to contribute their best efforts to achieving positive output, such as profitability and increased sales. To effect change in an organization, the results of such a leadership style are reliable since it involves the gradual development of mutual relations that facilitate the employee contributing their maximum efforts to achieve the desired results. However, to effect change, such a style of leadership requires time and patience in getting the desired results in which case the time is not always available. In such cases, the commanding style of leadership is most effective since it effects change in a relatively short time.