1. The major concerns, challenges and difficulties identified in this case study?
2. The secondary issues, disputes and problems pointed out in this case study?
3. The underlying causes or the sources of the issues?
4. The probable solutions to the circumstances identified in the case?
5. The best possible solution for the case situation?
The present case study outlines the importance the leadership skill and identifies it as the most sustainable competitive edge in a progressively more competitive and boundary less business world (Hoch and Dulebohn, 2013). The case study on performance coaching with reference to the role of Darcy Gallagher gives the opportunity to comprehend the qualities and skills that need to be nourished to become an effective leader. The kingpin of the case study is the important elements of competency that affect the leadership outcomes and are influenced by the individual characteristics of the leader as well. The main purpose of the Coaching Performance to be conducted at Elmwood is to develop responsiveness to coaching facilities that are available in the daily work routine and aids the mangers to identify the problems of the members, the prompt responses to address their problems and add to the contribution made for long term career growth of the leaders as well as their subordinates.
The major issues identified in this case study are the skills lacked by Gallagher to handle the staffs and members , the high rated self assessment by Gallagher that speaks about his disagreement to change. Gallagher is a diligent manager who lacks soft skills and is very critical about his staff and can’t delegate, entrust and coach team members. This is why the employees reporting him get dissatisfied to work in the weekend due to arousal of some business exigencies. He also lacks interpersonal as well as the conflict resolution skills, that is why he has got a shocking result from the 360 degree feedback this year. Gallagher is an ambitious and confident sales manager who works hard for recognition and do not feel the need for change in a bid to develop and sharpen his leadership skills, hence marked him highly. It is for this reason Gallagher marks himself highly in the self assessment card although his sub ordinates have marked him below average.
The self assessment card of Darcy Gallagher reveals that he has marked himself very highly and in three cases he has marked himself above the job requirement. The areas include financial acumen, focus and drive. This discloses the fact that Gallagher is dedicated to attain high levels of performance in a very cost effective way. This is why he pushes his staffs hard to work even on weekends. Many staff members that have left the company due to excessive work stress under him has been referred as the desirable turnover by Gallagher.
A. Illustration of the sources of the difficulties identified in the case
The underlying causes behind the difficulties identified in the case study are the lack of integration between critical Human Resource strategies and leadership development. Elmwood is deficient in establishing an information system for inventorying skilled workforce. The evaluation systems are not adequate to spot and deploy talented workers. The leader failed to advise individual career plans for the professional growth and development of the staff members (Ivancevich, 2010). There is lack of bench mark in the leadership performances of the mangers against established yardstick of the high worth organizations.
B. Categorization of the causal factors behind the leadership issues identified in the case study
B.i. Individual Influences
Personality- personality traits develop leadership competencies and thereby achieve higher performance level (Klein and Delery, 2012). Gallagher lack the tolerance for vagueness, adaptability and openness that has created the organizational problems.
Motivation-Leaders can exert immense influence on the group by being dominant for the social good for the organization as a whole (Dries, 2013). However, Gallagher has exerted dominance over his group by asking them work during weekends but with a hard edge. He lacks the soft abilities to convince them to do the work willingly.
Perception-This is a particular type of leadership competence where the leaders can emphatically solve organizational problems. They can sense other people’s attitudes and actions when deal with changes (Mathis and Jackson, 2011). Here in this case too, Gallagher failed to derive the requisite knowledge regarding the people reporting him. Gallagher came to know about the dissatisfaction of the staff members receiving the 360 degrees feedback. He didn’t decide to change his attitude after the departure of some of his employees as he pushed hard to extract higher performance level from them. He instead took it as a cost effective as well as a desirable turnover.
Education- Education helps to develop the mental schema that is referred to as the ability to arrange information and form complex schemata that aids one to think effectively (Strohmeier, 2013).Gallagher has a commerce degree from the University of Toronto and a major in marketing that earned him a job but didn’t help him much to develop his problem solving as well as man management skills and devise alternate strategies to alleviate the issues.
Status- the status of the leader can mediate interpersonal problems in the organizations that Gallagher currently lack. This shows that the leadership competency of Gallagher with respect to social performance is low.
B.ii. Group Influences
Communication- The case study brings into light the fact that the organizational problem related to employee turnover has come up due to poor communication among the employees. The authoritarian leader, Gallagher lacks soft skills and has failed to convince and inspire the staff to perform better and put in extra effort. He has been unsuccessful in communicating the career growth opportunities of the members. For all these reason the Elmwood might have faced the problem of attrition.
Decision making – Responsiveness to the problems faced by the organization requires good decision making capability by the leaders (Mondy and Mondy, 2010). The lack of this competency can also be attributed as a major cause for the issues faced by Elmwood.
Conflict- There are conflicts among members of the groups mainly due to conflicting interests and opinions. A leader needs to assume a dominant role and intervene to solve the problems promptly.
Leadership- This issues regarding lack of leadership capabilities needs to be addressed by the strategic managers of the company quickly to resolve the issue promptly.
B.iii. Organizational Influences
Structure- the hierarchical structure of the organization might have posed a problem to the organization that has hindered open communication.
Controls- The authoritarian leadership of Gallagher shows that power and control is concentrated in the hands of the managers that might have caused the labor dissatisfaction.
Culture- The varied culture of the organization operating at varied locations need international leadership capabilities that they currently lack.
B.iv. Environmental Influences
Economic- Corporations get affected by the business environment in which it operates. The economy is also another factor that can affect the organization and create hurdles for smooth operations (Brookes and Grint, 2010). The monetary and fiscal policies can also affect the function.
Market-Market is the most factors that help the company to sustain. Sometimes leaders who cite poor market condition as a reason for poor performance of the company needs to be replaced.
Regulatory Issues- the regulatory issues can impose stringent laws that can in turn make the operations of the organizations tough in all the varied locations.
A. Different approaches to resolve the issues that surface up in the case
Coaching Performance can help to develop responsiveness to coaching facilities that can be obtained in daily operations. It can help the mangers to recognize the problems of the members, devise prompt responses to resolve their problems and help to achieve long term career growth of the leaders as well as the staff members (Mahapatro, 2010).
B. Evaluating the impact of each factor in resolving the problems
The individual characteristics can be improved by developing the personality, convincing and motivational capabilities critical to the employee relationship management as well as development of the overall organization. A better communication system can be established in the organization in order to be aware of the difficulties and also to escalate it to the higher authorities. It will help management to promptly respond to the issues and resolve the conflicts easily.
The best possible solution would be to organize a performance coaching or a workshop where the employees can both assess as well as develop the competencies that needs to be improved.
References
Brookes, S. and Grint, K. (2010). The new public leadership challenge. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Dries, N. (2013). Talent management, from phenomenon to theory: Introduction to the Special Issue. Human Resource Management Review, 23(4), pp.267-271.
Hoch, J. and Dulebohn, J. (2013). Shared leadership in enterprise resource planning and human resource management system implementation. Human Resource Management Review, 23(1), pp.114-125.
Ivancevich, J. (2010). Human resource management. Boston: McMcGraw-Hill Irwin.
Klein, H. and Delery, J. (2012). Construct clarity in human resource management research: Introduction to the special issue. Human Resource Management Review, 22(2), pp.57-61.
Mahapatro, B. (2010). Human resource management. New Delhi: New Age International Ltd.
Mathis, R. and Jackson, J. (2011). Human resource management. Mason, OH: Thomson/South-western.
Mondy, R. and Mondy, J. (2010). Human resource management. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
Strohmeier, S. (2013). Employee relationship management — Realizing competitive advantage through information technology?. Human Resource Management Review, 23(1), pp.93-104.
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