Organisational Behaviour Analysis

LSE ID: 201511045

Word count: 1646

Organisations can be viewed as a nexus of contractual relationships and one of the key components to this construct is trust. Trust has emerged as a central theme instrinsic to organisational studies, including those focusing on performance (Kramer, 1999).  Research has dealt with the subject of trust through various referent types such as the employee, supervisor or the organisation. Concurrently, there is a growing body of literature that is building upon the idea of context-sensitive leadership that is transformational (Ogbonna and Harris, 2000) and its positive role in building trust (Manion, 2015). In this essay, we will critically evaluate the role transformative leaderships needs to play in negating the harmful effects caused by a wayward manager’s actions. The resultant loss of trust potentially impacts not only the firm’s reputation but also poses a risk to the psychological safety of the employee group in the Hong Kong office, impacting overall firm performance.

A deep dive into background of the case reveals that there were troubled waters right from the inception of the HK office. We can assume that the junior manager tasked with heading the office was European and can attribute at least some of the issues faced in HK to the lack of cultural intelligence and an ineffective leadership style not suited to that context. The fact that he remained at the helm for two years and embezzled funds undetected also speaks to a poorly designed governance structure that needs overhauling.

In order to be successful in her new role, Lorna needs to approach the problem with a short and longer-term horizon to finding a solution. To start with she ought to analyse the current situation from the lens of her most important resource, her people. A demotivated underperforming work force is detrimental to the viability of the firm and she needs to act quickly to mitigate further damage. Lorna understands that her firm cannot compete on salary and there are competitors who offer more. She ought to dedicate her initial efforts discovering the factors affecting staff motivation at work.

It is recommended that Lorna use a combination of Alderfer’s (1972) and Herzberg’s (2000) needs theories as a starting point. Alderfer’s needs based approach will help Lorna identify the most critical existential needs of her staff and find the gaps to be filled from the relatedness and growth perspectives. She may consider appointing a local Hong Kong support staff with good people skills, to run a series of one-on-one feedback sessions with her entire workforce. An analysis can help find patterns, which will inform the measures she needs to take on filling gaps from the intrinsic and extrinsic motivational elements. As firm performance is a function of the employees’ ability an motivation levels, we assume that the hiring process vetted for ability already and the only thing lacking under the circumstance, is motivation.