Milestone 1: Problems and Issues
Organizations face many leadership-associated problems during the transition period. Leaders have a significant impact on the progress of an organization; therefore, a change in leadership can disrupt the normal functioning of an organization. Leaders employ different approaches and strategies for managing organizations. Leaders with similar leadership styles can differ greatly in their ways of management because of the different use of approaches and strategies. For this reason, the three aspects of leadership, including leadership style, leadership approach, and leadership strategies are equally important in running the organization (Austin, 2012).
Fortuga artisan Inc. faced a series of problems after the retirement of its founding manager Mr. Fortuga. The leadership saw it fit to hand over the headship of the organization to Mr. Jeffers, a renowned leader. However, regardless of the many positive attributes that the new leader possessed, the organization went through a series of issues because of poor leadership. The leader was ambitious and driven, but he did not find it worth to include his subordinates in the planning and managing process. Big corporations exist through participation and collaborative management.
Most of the people involved in the business transactions in big corporations like Fortuga artisan Inc. are competent enough. The strategy that Jeffers used to lead the organization could have worked in a smaller institution where people depend on the leader for all directions. The leader’s strategy and approaches greatly contributed to the organizational problems (Burns, 2014). Jeffers became more concerned with running the organization and achieving success at the business level that he forgot the importance of maintaining close relationships with his subordinates. The gap between the leader and the employees contributed about ninety percent of all the problems at the Fortuga artisan Inc.
The major problem at the company was employee turnover. People continually left the organization, including top management leaders, but Jeffers did not consider it a problem. He had a solution for such incidences, and he replaced employees instantly. Employee turnover in every organization results from de-motivation of the staff. The approach that the manager used to lead the organization de-motivated employees hence higher levels of employee turnover.
Jeffers did not have time to listen to his staff, even those closer to him. The leader did not welcome employee contributions and ideas in running the organization. Failure to involve employees in decision-making creates a high level of dissatisfaction, which is detrimental to an organization (Ballantyne, Berret & Wells, 2011). Employee dissatisfaction can lower the productivity level of an organization in many ways. On the other hand, communication is the backbone of organizational development.
The new leader at Fortuga artisan Inc. did not communicate with the staff. Employees complained that he brushed them off anytime they tried to initiate communication. Leadership theories suggest that leaders must maintain their position in the organization by limiting personal interaction with the subordinates, but not by limiting communication (Fairholm, 2009). For this reason, the approach that Jeffers used to maintain his position was a poor and an unstrategic leadership method.
Jeffers was chauvinistic, which bred enmity between men and women in the organization. He replaced female employees with male employees, thus distorting the balance of gender in the firm. Under the leadership of Jeffers, the organizational policies and culture lost meaning. Members who had stayed long enough with the company valued the policies and the culture of the organization. Forsaking such principles affected organizational growth and development. As a result, employees lost faith and trust in Jeffers ability to lead the firm effectively.
The 21st generation is quite sophisticated and highly informed; therefore, employees require leaders to be quite competent. However, in the case of Fortuga, the leader did not measure up to the standards of the employees thus leading to poor judgment. The artists also felt left out, and most of them left the organization. Artist’s withdrawal would affect the organization’s economic stability negatively. Another major problem was the leaders’ lack of respect for the staff. Jeffers did not value employee privacy, which is necessary for business success. Employees are human beings with personal, social, spiritual, and political needs (Schein, 2010). Therefore, leaders must give employees time to rejuvenate.
All the issues affecting Fortuga artisan Inc. arose from poor leadership style, approach, and poor strategy. Managing new people is not easy; therefore, leaders must assess the people first before embarking on the leadership process. Different situations require different approaches of management. Leadership style matrix helps leaders come up with ideal styles, approaches, and strategies to use with different groups of people. For instance, artwork requires high levels of creativity and little programming.
Therefore, Jeffers could have used participative or consensus approaches to managing the organization’s daily operations. Additionally, a good leader always knows what is happening on the ground. Jeffers did not know that employees were dissatisfied with his leadership techniques until one of the employees told him. Failure to know such vital issues is an indication of poor leadership and poor management skills (Falcone, 2010).
Milestone 2: Leadership Strategy
Leaders use strategies to manage change and solve problems in organizations. The effectiveness of the strategies used in the organizations determines the success of the firm. At Fortuga artisan Inc., the leader used authority and power to influence change in the organization. The results of using that particular strategy were increased levels of employee turnover and low productivity levels. In turn, the manager initiated open communication with the employee to solve the problems affecting the company. Communication in organizations, especially during transition periods is essential, but it cannot work alone. Leaders must incorporate other strategies in the management process to achieve flexibility, promote sustainability, foster effective management change, and further organization goals (Muller, 2011).
Flexibility
The initiative to start communication between the leader and the employees was an ideal approach in fostering flexibility in the organization. The main challenge in the company was the lack of communication between employees and their leader. However, the leader can employ more strategies to foster effective change and improve flexibility. Rather than holding private meetings with people at different time, the leader can establish a communication mechanism in the organization where employees have the chance to reach the management.
The communication platform would allow employees and contracted artisan opportunities to contribute to various issues affecting their operations within the firm. Additionally, the leader can establish platforms where other stakeholders in the organization can offer their counsel and contributions. Open communication allows people to become confident enough to raise any issue with their leaders without the fear of termination (Muller, 2011).
The organization’s leadership should devise ways to reduce unnecessary barriers to the organization. Barriers compromise flexibility in business operation. Fortuga Inc is a company in the art industry, and, therefore, requires high levels of creativity. Reducing the barriers within the organization will allow employees to exploit their creative ideas, which further enhances organizational developments. A boundary-less organization fosters healthy developments. Limiting barriers will enhance communication between departments, thus improving the organization’s productivity (Thomas, 2010). Organizational flexibility is the cause of major issues in organizations today. Managers and leaders have a duty to improve flexibility in organizations by devising strategies that foster flexibility.
Sustainability
Organizational sustainability is a fundamental management issue. The open communication strategy that the leader initiated in the organization can only go so far. Open communication requires time to grow, and it is dependent on employee confidence levels on their leaders. One of the issues at Fortuga was lack of trust and confidence in the leader’s ability to lead. For this reason, Jeffers must come up with other strategies to improve employees’ confidence in his leadership.
Initiating confidence between the leader and the employees will go a long way in enhancing organizational sustainability. Employees who are confident in their leaders and the organization take responsibility for all organizational activities (Thomas, 2010). In other words, employees who are confident in their leaders make good use of the organization’s resources for the sake of the current and future generations.
Improving the tangible and intangible support is one of the most effective strategies for promoting organizational sustainability. Tangible support such as training and information platforms helps employees and everyone else in the organization to be on the same page. Additionally, tangible support enhances employee effectiveness in business operations, thus improving chances of long-term success in the firm.
Intangible support such as engagement and ownership improves employees’ motivation levels. Employees leave organizations because they do not feel wanted. Intangible support from the leader can help avert such feelings and improve the functionality of people within the firm (Austin, 2012). For instance, Jeffers can employ the use of teamwork in the organization, thus improving employee engagement in the organization’s operations.
Management Change
The strategies employed in the organization did not foster effective change management. First, the leader kept the rest of the organization from the planning process. Rather than consulting with the members of staff, the leader gave orders on what changes should take effect. The process of leadership led to the negativity and the withdrawal of both employees and artisans. Artists are self-made professionals, and they require their space to operate.
Jeffers compromised the artistic freedom by using autocratic leadership techniques. The intervention to promote open communication, however, can promote change management. Communication promotes open-mindedness, which allows people to contribute positively towards the organization change (Burns, 2014). Additionally, open-mindedness eliminates doubt and mistrust between leaders and the subordinates. Open communication in the organization will create a positive working environment for both the employee and the Executive hence effective change management.
Internal training of employees is another crucial strategy for enhancing change management. Employee training helps sell the new organizational goals to the staff. Additionally, through training programs, a leader can enhance employee knowledge on the vitality of certain aspects of the change. People are bound to resist change if they lack adequate information on the reasons for such changes.
The use of the employee survey as well can enhance effective change management. However, in the case of Fortuga, the use of participative management skills will produce the greatest results in change management. Teamwork and cooperation between different departments can improve the process of change in the organization (Burns, 2014). Rewarding of employees can also improve the motivation levels of employees and re-institute employee trust in the leader.
Organizational Goals
The approaches and strategies that the management team employed compromised the organizational goals. The new leader did not respect organizational policies. Leaders’ behavior has significant impacts on employee behaviors. If a leader disregards organizational policy and requirements, then it becomes hard for employees to adhere to organizational regulations. In Fortuga, rather than corrupting the organizational principles, employees opted to leave the organization. Additionally, the use of authority by the leader to influence employee cooperation affected the organizational goals negatively. The leader failed to include employee in decision-making that made it hard for the staff to embrace and work towards furthering organizational goals.
Communication, increased participation, and restatement of the organizational goals are some of the strategies that the organization can employ to further organizational goals. Communication will provide the necessary information to employees, thus improving their abilities and willingness to work towards the organizational goals (Austin, 2012). Restatement of organizational goals will ensure that all people are working towards the same purpose thus enhancing the organizational goal. The leader of the organization, in this case, must start the process of change to ensure that he carries the organizational staff with him on the journey of success.
Milestone 3: Assessment Plan
Employee performance is essential to the general well-being of an organization. Different issues affect the productivity levels of employees within a company. Therefore, leaders and management teams in the organization must establish ways to ensure that employee performance remains as high as possible. Motivation and the value system of individual employees affect the general performance of the team. An ideal assessment plan seeks to focus employees and the entire organization towards the business objectives of the firm (Falcone, 2010). Additionally, assessment plans limit the chances of corruption and fraudulent activities in the organization thus improving public satisfaction. Fortuga artisan Inc. needs to develop a new assessment plan to help cater for employee needs while improving the general performance of the organization.
Effectiveness
Employee research
The strategies employed at Fortuga Inc. did not promote employee research in any way. The leader did not seek employee contributions; therefore, employee research was not necessary for the firm. The process of leadership de-motivated employees who were enthusiastic about career development and organizational success. The leader saw every other person as a follower. The rest of the staff within the organization had to heed the words of the leader. As a result, employees withdrew from the organization and began operating in their capacities.
The leader had no idea of what his staff was doing and how the entire organization felt about him. The lack of employee research created a gap between the team and the management hence poor performance (Falcone, 2010). However, the leader’s initiative to allow open communication platforms allowed employees to raise their concerns. Employee communication was an ideal move for the organization because it opened doors for employee research. Establishing communication in the organization would take time, but in the end, it would improve the effectiveness of employee research.
Performance metric data
The company did not a have a metric for measuring employee performance. The leader assumed the people were happy with his leadership, and they would follow his lead automatically. Jeffers used autocratic leadership style, expecting employees to take orders and act on them. The process was quite ineffective because the staff members in the organization were highly competent and required own space to perform. The leader was completely ignorant of the activities of his employees hence the challenges facing the organization.
The nature of the art business requires leaders to conduct employee performance assessments often to establish the level at which employees adhere to the organization’s objectives. The company contracted with many artisans who possessed different skills and values. To align the performance of each artist with organizational goals, the leader ought to carry out performance assessments (Muller, 2011). In general, the leadership styles, approaches, and strategies used in Fortuga artisan Inc did not promote any levels of effectiveness in the organization.
Recommendation
Fortuga artisan Inc. needs a new assessment plan to aid in organizational management. As the company embraces new strategies in leadership, the leaders must ensure that employees are performing well to enhance organizational goals. An effective assessment plan must include employee feedback and performance metric data with a clear indication of the measured variables (Thomas, 2010). In the case of Fortuga, the assessment plan must try to solve the major problems affecting the organization, including employee turnover, employee de-motivation, and the general performance of the organization. In addition, the firm must groom employees for leadership positions to ensure that management transitions are smooth.
Measurement factors
The main factors that the plan should measure in the organization include the general employee performance, potential leadership, unique strengths, motivation levels, IQ, efficiency, and productivity. Measuring employee performance in the areas stated above will give the manager a clear understanding of the people that he is dealing with, thus improving general effectiveness sin the firm. Different people require different management techniques; therefore, it is necessary for organizational leaders to conduct a personal assessment of their staff to establish their values and principles.
How to performance the measurement
The organization can employ the use of Cornerstone performance measurement, objective checklists, and one-on-one assessment to carry out the employee assessment. The two measurement tools will grant the leader an opportunity to understand the team better and come up with better intervention mechanisms.
Interpretation
The leaders will review the feedback and devise ways to deal with issues of concern. For instance, employees who depict certain weaknesses in some areas of business operation can undergo a training process to improve their performance. Additionally, the leaders will devise ways on how to use different employee strengths to improve organizational goals. The leader can also come up with appreciation mechanisms that reward employees for performance and general organizational commitment (Fairholm, 2009).
The situation at Fortuga is a rather precarious one. Therefore, the leader must employ all means possible to enhance employee motivation and rebuild the broken trust between the leader and his subordinates. The leadership of the organization must also embrace leadership by objectives to ensure that organizational goals supersede any other personal need in the firm.
References
Austin, D. (2012). Human services management, organizational leadership in social work practice. New York: Columbia University Press.
Ballantyne, S., Berret, B. & Wells, M. (2011). Planning in reverse: a viable approach to organizational leadership. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Education.
Burns, J. (2014). Organizational leadership: foundations & practices for Christians. Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP Academic, an imprint of Intervarsity Press.
Fairholm, G. (2009). Organizational power politics tactics in organizational leadership. Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger.
Falcone, P. (2010). 101 sample write-ups for documenting employee performance problems a guide to progressive discipline & termination. New York: American Management Association/Society for Human Resource Management.
Muller, C. (2011). Employee motivation an incentive at Apple: do incentives really help to motivate employees. Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag.
Schein, E. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Thomas, K. (2010). Intrinsic motivation at work: what really drives employee engagement. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.