Where’s the Leadership?

Mauricio Bonilla
ESI 6224: Quality Management – Dr. Ahmad Elshennawy

Where’s the Leadership?

1. Discuss how the leadership failed to foster change in order to create a sustainable organizational structure and environment at Ablecor.

I consider there were several key factors as to why the leadership failed to foster change at Ablecor and as a result were unable to create a sustainable organizational structure and environment. Some of these were due to no employee involvement, senior management delivering an unclear message as to the purpose and goals of the reorganization, poor communication, no change in strategic objectives from year to year, which ultimately ended up being the same story of year to year, to name a few. All this caused dissatisfaction, especially to the employees, who did not feel part of the organization nor motivated to take on any initiatives. Consequently, and just like the case mentioned, if employees don’t feel a sense of right direction, this can ultimately lead to customer frustration. Let’s remember that without any customers, there’s no business. Ablecor’s senior management presumably thought that by announcing the yearly restructuring and reorganization plan, employees would automatically fully understand the plan and jump on board with the company’s implementation. From a company’s perspective, that is fully understandable as long as they provide a complete detail and timeframe of the plan, get the workforce involved for support and help set up new goals for managers and subordinates so they feel part of the change. Subsequently, this would also motivate employees and possibly empower them to drive the change. However, Ablecor’s management did nothing like this.

        Per Evans and Lindsay, leadership is the ability to positively influence people and systems under one’s authority to have a meaningful impact and achieve important results. Evans and Lindsay also mention that leaders also create clear and visible quality values and integrate these into the organization’s strategy. In essence, no one at Ablecor really had a leadership mindset nor did senior management or any of the other managers. The first-line managers, middle managers and junior executives didn’t even know if their job would be eliminated, and therefore they could not guarantee anything (job security, reason as to why was the restructuring/ reorganization was happening or any of the benefits associated with it) to any lower employee. They just wanted to have a job and get through the year and the unstable economy. Evans and Lindsay also point out that in order to foster a sustainable organization, companies can do so by creating: 1) an environment for organizational performance improvements, the accomplishment of the organization’s mission and strategic objectives, innovation competitive or role- model performance leadership, and organizational agility; 2) an environment for organizational and workforce learning; 3) a culture that fosters customers engagement; and developing and enhancing leadership skills and developing future organizational leaders.