The Search For Leadership Paper

User Generated

jnerntyr31

Business Finance

BUS 119 Principles of Personal & Organizational

ashford university

Description

You are the CEO of a major consumer technology corporation. The company is global and offers remote employment, in addition to numerous physical locations. It distributes the products through different global wholesalers to reach retailers who in turn sell to the ultimate consumer. Your job is to find a new president for the organization. The past president has retired after 25 years of service. You will have to explain to the board of directors what criteria will be used in the search for a new company president.

In your paper:

  • Explain what being a leader is, and what traits are needed to be an effective leader.
  • Describe the type of leadership style and skills needed for the position.
  • Analyze the importance of attending to tasks and relationships.
  • Explain the importance of a leader following and communicating a vision, and setting the tone.
  • Examine the necessity for a leader to have good out-group member skills, as well as the ability to handle conflict and overcome obstacles.
  • Justify the needed ethical leadership traits for this position
    • Must be five to six double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style
    • Must include a separate title page with the following:
      • Title of paper
      • Student’s name
      • Course name and number
      • Instructor’s name
      • Date submitted
    • Must begin with an introductory paragraph that has a succinct thesis statement.
    • Must address the topic of the paper with critical thought.
    • Must end with a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis.
    • Must use at least five scholarly sources

I wanted to encourage you, acknowledge that this is a challenging assignment, and I wanted to give you a little help.

1) As you determine what kind of leader you're recruiting for in this paper, consider the parameters set down in the assignment -- justify the qualities you are seeking with a rationale that points back to the specific needs of the organization. If you say you are looking for a task-oriented leader, tell me what it is about the organization that requires this kind of leader. The announcement I posted last week covers this in depth.

2) Don't be afraid to get creative. Add more parameters -- is this a company that's had problems with community relations in the past? Has there been a major scandal to deal with in the past five years? Has a new competitor entered the marketplace? The more you can describe your company, the more you will be able to target the kind of leader you will need. The more creative you are, the higher your critical thinking score will probably be. Again, I know I've already said this, but I think it bears repeating.

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Running head: MOTIVATION DURING CHANGE Used with the permission of the author. Motivation during Change Jason Pfohl MGT 425 Leadership & Motivation Dr. Andree Swanson April 18, 2017 1 MOTIVATION DURING CHANGE 2 Motivation during Change A difficult time for any leader is when they have to disrupt the work environment of their employees. Introducing change will have an effect on an employee’s performance at work, as well as their personal life. As a leader it is important provide a team with motivation and understanding of the reason for change. Providing guidance and direction will allow the group to understand that their leader is there to support them while dealing with change. As change comes about, it is important for a leader to develop a plan and seek the input of their team. Promoting the need for change can be a critical, but challenging task. While understanding the concerns of the group can provide a structured implementation of the change, staying focused on motivating the group to be effective during the change will be the key to its success. The Changes Taking Place at Von Hoffmann Printing Von Hoffmann is a printing company for educational and testing materials. The organization has grown because of their quality products and effectiveness of delivering on time. The use of educational books and testing materials has been an important part of how everyone from a small child to an adult is able to learn and expand their knowledge and skill sets. With the advancements in technology, a lot of educational material is available in a digital form. The changes in how an individual is able to view material has presented a reduction in the need of actual printed material. Publishing companies are ordering less printed material because the educational system is moving to a digital platform of providing material to their students. Testing and text books for multiple classes can be viewed from a laptop or IPad, reduce waste when books are no longer needed, and allow students to carry one device compared to multiple books. The change from printed materials to digital materials has presented a need for change at Von Hoffmann. With the reduction in sales of printed materials the organization is faced with MOTIVATION DURING CHANGE 3 some decisions in order to stay profitable. Von Hoffmann has developed a task force to implement a change, motivate the workforce through the change, and promote the need for buy in. The workers’ will need to adjust to the changes, their commitment is critical to the success of the changes implemented (Straatmann, Kohnke, Hattrup, & Mueller, 2016). If the employees’ are pushing back for every change, the organization will fail at implementing a change and struggle to succeed as a business. It is important to remember that the leaders and team cannot function on their own, they need each other to provide successful results. Motivating a team can be diagnosed and improved in more than one way, to organize a larger scale effort and achieve goals, it is recommended to define the project in four steps (Pritchard & Ashwood, 2008). A leader with the ability to motivate and guide a team, to understand the direction and purpose of change, allows an organization to transition quicker with limited struggles and push back along the way. Step 1 - Planning the Proposed Change The task force assigned to implementing a change has agreed that by reducing the work week by one day for the entire organization, they can still provide the needed materials to their customers on time. Working with the employees of the organization and understanding the possible impacts for each department has allowed the group to agree on reducing one day of work, compared to laying off several employees. The task force and group discussed the ability to work the extra day off if business needs require it. The task force challenged the sales group to reach out to other areas in need of printing services. To help support the organization and its workforce, the sales group would reach out to past customers that provided long term contracts in the past, in hopes of gaining more business. According to Muscalu and Ciocan (2016) “the term motivation is an internal state of emergency and it means conducting environmentally conscious behavior and direction to satisfy MOTIVATION DURING CHANGE 4 needs” (p. 153). Promoting a behavior that does not present a threat to achieving business goals will be critical to the success of the change. The task force will review current manufacturing processes to ensure that there is not room for improvement. Understanding how change will affect the employees, any process that can be improved for efficiency will be reviewed and implemented to ensure that the demands of the organizations customers will be met within the shortened work week. Allowing the group to understand where there may be road blocks the task force can help find solutions to eliminate those road blocks and allow the change to succeed. Step 2 - Investigating Strengths and Weaknesses of Connections The task force wanted to offer the employees a clear understanding of the purpose for reducing the work week and hours. There had been praise to the group for working very hard to ensure that the quality of the product maintained an acceptable level and that it was not the reason for the coming changes. The employees of the organization had been a devoted group of individuals with the least senior employee having eight years of service. The dedication to perform was appreciated by the key stakeholders of the organization, they encouraged the employees to stick with them through the trough of sales so that if business turns around, they would have the same dedicated group available to perform the necessary jobs. The involvement of the employees will help define other opportunities for improving the change of working hours. The employees input is valuable to understanding where there may be constraints that they have noticed during regular production. The employees always performed when the business was performing at peak, they accomplished this by having a clear understanding of their jobs and the processes involved with each position. The task force clearly detailed the reason for change and the efforts that are being used to provide the business to grow so that everyone will be able to return to a full work schedule. The input and concerns of the employees allows the group to work through each situation and provide understanding to why MOTIVATION DURING CHANGE 5 the motivation and engagement of everyone is needed for the organization to continue their success with their current customer base. Searching for involvement and understanding is focused on improving performance linked to a goal that in most cases could reasonably be linked with a wide range of specific practices (Nigam, Huising, & Golden, 2016). The reduction in the work week will be implemented by department to ensure that the change follows through to each department of the organizations process, and that the current orders are processed and delivered as promised to the customer. Gathering all of the employees to discuss the change allows the task force to show the value in shortening the work week. Presenting the plan to allow the employees to understand the purpose for change allows the task force to emphasize the need for continued motivation amongst the group. By working with the employees, the task force is able to understand the connections of why specific practices are performed a specific way. Looking for improvement allows the group as a whole to understand and develop plans that will ensure the change is going to provide the intended results needed. Step 3 - Identifying Solutions to Generate Employees Buy In According to Dotlich (2017), “Teams that take the time to understand the new priorities, vision, and purpose and their own reactions to a new situation have greater chances of long-term success” (p. 26). Understanding the capabilities of the shortened work week has to go beyond just understanding how the company will save by reducing the work hours. The task force in conjunction with the employees need to unite to ensure that everyone has the ability to perform the tasks at the levels being requested of them. By interacting and communicating with the employees, the leadership will be able to clearly understand the limitations and issues that need to be planned for. Taking the input of the employees and showing them that the leadership wants to make a transition with their input, will help with motivation and buy in from the employees. MOTIVATION DURING CHANGE 6 The task force is responsible for working with the employees so that the group can decide if there will be any resources that will have to be added for the changes in the operation schedule. Working as a group to identify needed resources allows the employees to understand the commitment that the organization has for making the chance succeed. This also allows for the leadership group to understand and see the efforts that are being provided from the employees that are most affected by the change. Developing relationships can take place in many ways, it is important that the relationships foster into a bond that is motivated from team work and success. The need for authority for the change is driven by the task force assigned to planning and implementing the change from a five day work week to a four day work week. With the reduction in hours, the ones with authority will also be reduced down to a four day work week. Identifying if there is necessity for additional resources or to reduce resources with authority will be analyzed and communicated to the stakeholders of the organization. The task force feels that by reassigning any resources and having justifiable cause for their need, will be better for when the business turns around and sales pick up. The work strategies that were used prior to the reduction in hours will allow for a starting point for the group to transition and improve at what they currently do. It is important to recognize, discuss, and support the changes associated with each employee (Dotlich, 2017). The managers and supervisors will be an important part of providing the employees with the guidance and resources that are needed to function with the use of any new resources. For the processes that do involve change, a leader will need to understand any concerns that an employee has with the new process that has been implemented. When the leadership shows their understanding for concerns, the employees will provide the needed feedback and understanding for the leaders to see that there is motivation for the group to succeed. MOTIVATION DURING CHANGE 7 Step 4 - Measuring Results with Employee Feedback Understanding what to look for allows a group to know when they are moving in the right direction when implementing a change. The change introduced to Von Hoffmann employees is because of the lack of sales and the need to reduce work hours so that the organization can show a profit for their hard work and services. The change in hours is also coupled with a review of processes to better understand if there is a way to improve and become more efficient. The indicators used to assess effectiveness and efficiency of performance and the potentials of performing at a higher level is provided over various dimensions (Zamecnik & Rajnoha, 2015). Aligning focus of quality of the products and the capacity allows for the team to ensure they are providing a product that satisfies the customer. As the changes take place, the team assigned to the task force will be responsible for understanding how the change is affecting the business and its customers. The feedback that is received from employees allows the organization to know if they are having any issues with the reduction in work hours. The changes can affect an individual on personal level because of their financial situation from the feedback received that the employees are enjoying the extra time with their families. There have been minimal remarks about the cut in pay that employees have been required to deal with. The majority of everyone impacted by the change enjoys their schedule changes and has embraced the involvement by the management group. Over the long term of reducing the hours, some employees have been able to find work outside of the organization to compensate them for the loss wages associated with the reduced work schedule. The group continues to show interest in the sales forecast and provides input to possible ways the organization can improve their processes. The group has been supportive and motivated to find solutions to not being consumed by the digital world and allow the business to stay competitive in the printing industry. MOTIVATION DURING CHANGE 8 Conclusion Promoting the need for change was a critical and challenging task because of the impact that it would have on the employees of the organization. There was a clear understanding of the concerns that the group provided to allow a structured implementation. Having direct focus on the motivation of the employees during the reduction helped ensure that the proper steps were used to continue operating Von Hoffmann Printing successfully. The reduction in working hours was managed with motivation in mind, to provide confidence in the employees to improve so that the organization could grow bigger than they were prior to the reduction in sales and working hours. By providing guidance and direction the employees were able to understand they were receiving valuable support from their company. The change helped the organization and employees develop a new respect for each other and show that during slow times the entire group has what it takes to be successful. MOTIVATION DURING CHANGE 9 References Dotlich, D. (2017). Leadership in times of transition. People & Strategy, 40(1), 24-27. Muscalu, E., & Ciocan, F. (2016). Attracting and motivating employees during changes in organization. The role of the human resources department. Journal of Defense Resources Management, 7(2), 153. Nigam, A., Huising, R., & Golden, B. (2016). Explaining the selection of routines for change during organizational search. Administrative Science Quarterly, 61(4), 551-583. doi:10.1177/0001839216653712 Pritchard, R. D., & Ashwood, E. L. (2008). Managing motivation: A manager's guide to diagnosing and improving motivation. New York, NY Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. Straatmann, T., Kohnke, O., Hattrup, K., & Mueller, K. (2016). Assessing employees’ reactions to organizational change: An integrative framework of change-specific and psychological factors. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 52(3), 265-295. doi:10.1177/0021886316655871 Zamecnik, R., & Rajnoha, R. (2015). Business process performance measurement under conditions of business practice. Procedia Economics And Finance, 26(4th World Conference on Business, Economics and Management (WCBEM-2015), 742-749. doi:10.1016/S2212-5671(15)00833-3
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