Mgt 6720 Challenges of Leadership in Organizations Today

1.      Explain how the two case scenarios are similar. Which case best exemplifies the challenges of leadership in organizations today as you see them? Explain. Be sure to include connections to multiple course concepts.

In both cases, Tim and George are concerned about the bottom line and their impression to the board or investors. Additionally, both cases show examples of lack of trust of employees that are in a new role at a company and their leaders don’t seem to completely have faith in them that they will do what is necessary to get the job accomplished. Both employees in the new roles are also women, it appears from these two cases that the male leaders might not have faith or appreciation of the women’s experience and knowledge in their areas.

We believe the The Micromanager is the best case that shows the challenges of leadership in the organizations today. There are many managers in the organizations that are lacking trust in their employees and want to be in control of every decision. Lack of trust in employees will lead to not only loss of productivity and motivation, but also loss of employees and high turnover rates. The case starts out by describing George as a father and a leader in the family. “George prided himself on being a good father and a good corporate paterfamilias.” (The Micromanager, page 1) He has a big ego and prides himself as always being right. The case also describes him as a person that wants to be in control, not letting other people do something on their own and afraid that other people will get it wrong. For example, when his child is trying to pour a milk into a glass, he quickly grabbed the milk carton from him and poured the milk himself as well as assuring his child that it is too heavy for him to do it himself. At work, he is doing the same thing by not letting Shelley finish writing a press release herself, which she has experience in doing at previous employer. He kept giving her suggestions, telling her what to do, criticizing her work, and kept editing her work to make it the way he wanted it done.  

Micromanaging also leads to staff to becoming dependent and lacking confidence to perform their own work. The case talks about Shelley’s past experience and how she excelled at putting the trade show together and the reasons she was chosen for the job. People are hired because they bring something important to the table from their past experiences and skill sets. By not letting Shelley be creative and do her own thing, George puts a lot of pressure on her and as a result, “she seemed increasingly disengaged”. (The Micromanager, page 3)

2. Compare and contrast (similarities and differences) Tim, Kristen and George in terms of various leadership styles, approaches, or qualities as describe in the readings, connecting those styles with their eventual struggles and/or success in leading others.

Similarities:

• Tim and George both have a big ego and are prideful. Tim’s pride is getting in the way of hiring Alessandra back to finish the project, although he knows that she is beyond capable to do it. “Bringing her in would mean swallowing his pride- not to mention losing face in front of his superiors at Driscoll”. In The Micromanager case, George also puts his pride above everything else, “the quality of her work reflected directly on him”. He doesn't want anyone to make mistakes because it will reflect poorly on him, rather than thinking of it as an opportunity for them to learn.
• Tim and George also were both focused primarily on profit and revenues, “I know it’s asking a lot, but without this revenue we maybe looking at staff reductions next year”. (Is the Rookie Ready?, page 2) Tim is pressured to get the project done and promised the two week timeline because there might be employee lay-off if this project was not accepted. George was pressured to boost the revenues to impress investors. George’s stress impacted poorly on Shelley and causing her to feel the pressure and lose her productivity.
• Tim and George are knowledgeable and task-oriented people. George is a seasoned executive with impressive engineering credentials and significant experience in enterprise-scale system and operations. They both will do whatever it takes to get the job done. In Georg’s case, he was editing Shelley’s work to make sure it is correct and impressive. Tim will make sure that the company received the revenue that year by pressuring Kristen and the team to get the job done in 2 weeks without caring about the holiday and the employees.
• Kristen and George are similar in terms of being resourceful to the employees. They both are willing to talk and work together with the employees. Kristen is asking input on how to get the job done in two weeks and George is providing training to Shelley to keep her in the loop with the software & business industry. George is also helping her with suggestions on how to improve the quality of her work. George and Kristen communicate well with their employees, although sometimes it did not received well by the employees.

Differences:

• Tim does not communicate well with his followers. He made a quick decision without discussing it with the team members, as a result the company may or may not accomplish the project. Kristen was thrown in the middle of the assignment without getting to discuss it and if it's even possible to be completed in the timeframe that Tim promised the customer. George is more vocal and possibly even over communicative with Shelley. He is telling Shelley what to do and wants to know everything that is on Shelley’s plate.

• Tim is more passive and passes on the project to Kristen for her to handle instead of being hands on and helping to complete the job, especially with an unrealistic timeline. However, George is more integrated and involved in the day to day of Shelley’s work.

3. Given the opportunity, which of these leaders (Tim, Kristen, or George) is most likely to successfully work through their difficulties to improve their relationship? Explain why you think this is the case.

We believe that Kristen is most likely to work their differences to improve her relationships with her boss and direct reports. It appears that Kristen has more of an even split between task and relationship leadership style based on the case, therefore we believe she would be more agile and able to make changes in her leadership tactics when the situation dictates such.