Motivation and Leadership: A case study analysis

Martin and Mr..

Franklin. Each supervisor in Floor One and Floor Two follows two completely introduction policies of management on the employees that they supervise with the proportional outcomes In their productivity. II. Summary of facts. In Floor One, there is Mr.

. Martin who supervises his section and his employees in a very autocratic manner. His schedule is overloaded with many hours of work and too many responsibilities since the construction of pacemakers is a very delicate matter.

This is because they have to be reliable when customers for two reasons use them; the first and most important reason is, that the accurate performance of a pacemaker is В«a life-and-death matter for the userВ». Secondly, if the device operates appropriately, the customers will be satisfied and as a result productivity will have an inclination.

But apart from Mr.. Martin’s responsibility that he has In the company, his managerial policy Is very strict and autocratic.

He always observes the employees If everything up to the last detail is made correctly without any defects, aha oversees ten Ana-Ellen Inspection AT ten productВ» winch nee Delves Is ten most Important part of the process, and in combination with his high Job morale, he is checking everything each worker is doing. Everybody respect him in such a great point, that some of them are afraid of him if something doesn’t go well.

Respect though doesn’t imply fear, it’s Just the means of obtaining it occasionally.

Talking or horseplay among the workers is strictly prohibited and all the power concerning surveillance is gathered in his hands allowing no sharing of authority to his assistant, Mr.. Franklin. On the other hand, if the same situation existed in Floor Two, the employees would not work in a Joyful way like they are working now! In Floor Two with Mr.

. Franklin being in charge, every simple assignment is done in a pleasant way. Or almost like it, something that we will examine later on. Mr..

Franklin is spending most of his time talking with employees not only about technical and professional matters, but about personal matters as well.

He is chatting with the workers, by consulting them if needed, and has absolute trust on them since he believes that they shouldn’t be surveyed all the time because they would feel uncomfortably and they wouldn’t attribute in an optimal way to the organization. Additionally, he supports a group approach in problem solving and shares authority with his assistant, whenever he is to fully in charge, or whenever he is not in work.

No matter if Mr.. Franklin is in charge or his assistant, the atmosphere in Floor Two is the same.

Chat and gossip is allowed in a high degree in relevance to Mr.. Martin’s Floor. Most of the employees, especially the new ones, are very delighted since the working conditions and the environment is a friendly one, but some of them particularly those who have work- experience in that company, believe that task-assigning sometimes is complicated and confusion is eventually created. The cost in that case, is turnovers to appear.

Finally, Mr..

Franklin has to deal sometimes with maintaining discipline. Ill. Statement of the problem. According to my opinion, the problem lies in the different kind of managerial strategies each leader uses in his Floor.

Those strategies are extreme one from the other, hurting the organization as a whole, because different work style is applied in each Floor, resulting in unevenness of productivity. An organization cannot operate under extreme contradictory circumstances in each department, of any kind in general. Especially in such an enterprise where quality and high fidelity are needed.

IV. Analysis. Having said the above briefly, we need in order to make a good analysis of the situation that takes place, to study more what the major characteristics of the two Floors are, and what are the major differences in management styles between Floor One and Floor Two.

Afterwards, we can start relating them with the theories we have been taught so far, so as to comprehend the concepts through a real incident. To begin with, in Floor One Mr.. Martin is an overbearing person in his Job who does not tolerate any Kina AT Malta Eke Trot Nils sequestrates. Tennessee, nee wouldn’t nave a sign out of his office that prevents workers in a smart but strict way to avoid turnovers.

He is the first person who goes to work in the morning and spends most of his hours during the day at his office. He has a glass-front office from which he supervises the whole floor. He is very strict and precise in his orders, keeps enough distance from his subordinates, his way of talking is formal all the time, and has his own way of motivating the workers by telling them that they all put a little brick in the construction of the В«buildingВ», which is called saving of the human life.

The many ears that he has been working in the particular company, made him love the Job and have a high Job morale since he states that В«every defect that leaves here is a potential killerВ». He accepts that mistakes are human, and he knows that his workers are putting great effort, but as long as he is surveying them in what they produce, he wants to minimize, if possible extinct, turnovers. He has many technical skills and he allows no chatting or gossiping among the workers.

He has not given any authority to his assistant, Mr.. Smith, and when the second is in charge, the atmosphere becomes more relaxed.

Many workers feel that are always inspected and can not perform well, and they feel like rookies since they can not take any actions without reporting it to Mr.. Martin.

Some of the other workers though, support that they are pleased with the way Mr.. Martin is running their floor because everything works properly and they are in a way inspired by him, since they want a responsible person in head to supervise them. Some others believe that, he is strict in his Job because the work has to be done to the letter. Thus in a sense, the older workers are united and they attribute better than the others who are new in business.

Finally, Mr.

. Martin as a leader creates to all the workers a feeling of antagonism and obsession for work. On the other hand, if we were to go to Floor Two, we would see a different atmosphere. In this floor, Mr..

Franklin is spending most of his time chatting with the workers about the problems and their performance and rarely supervises them from his office. He has a complete trust on his subordinates and has removed the old military discipline that existed before he became a supervisor. When he says that В«if I was always looking over their shoulder, I’d go nuts, and they’d rebel! , indicates that he is not fully responsible in his work and does not care that much if a mistake takes place, unlike Mr.. Martin. He has formed a group approach to problem solving and shows much interest in his worker’s opinion.

Mr.. Franklin has given enough authority to his assistant so as to make no difference if he is coordinating or his assistant. On behalf of the workers we can realize that they are outspoken and feel relaxed when they are working but do not have a good knowledge of their productivity, or improvement of output.

Discipline is not always maintained and the older staff although they respect him, become nervous when a mistake is made since they are used to work like in the old time when Mr..

Franklin was not in charge of the Floor. At that time, they had different working policies. Just as before we start our analysis, we need to define what leadership is. According to John W. Newsroom and Keith Davis as stated in their book Organizational Behavior, Human Behavior at Work in chapter 9, В«leadership is the process of influencing and supporting toners to work enthusiastically toward canceling adjectivesВ» (200).

In moor one where Mr.

. Martin is leading his workers, the word from the definition «enthusiasticallyВ», does not fit to our case, since Mr.. Martin is an autocratic leader, and work for them is a routine. Among the three different types of leaders that exist, the autocratic, the participative, and the free-rein leaders, the first one is the most suitable for him. That is, because he В«centralizes power and decision making in himself.

The autocratic leaders take full authority and assume full responsibility. В» (206-207).

His leadership style is a directive one because as the book refers in the same chapter В«the leader sets high expectations for his employees, masticates confidence in their ability to achieve challenging goals and enthusiastically models the desired behaviorВ» (214). His leadership approach tends to be Autocratic l, because as we can clearly see in the case, he wants to solve any problem that appears using the information available. That is exactly what Mr..

Martin is doing, by giving no authority to Mr.. Smith and by demanding from his employees to eliminate turnovers as much as possible.

Full responsibility is required because of the nature of the product. This implies that no horsetail is allowed.

When e keeps telling them that each one of them is contributing to life saving, he can be characterized as a benevolent autocrat В«who chooses to give some rewards to employeesВ» (207). There is a downward communication between Mr.. Martin and the employees, since as it is defined in chapter 2, В«downward communication is the flow of information from higher levels to lower levels of authorityВ» (62).

His office is located in a point from where he can see the whole Floor, having around his desk covered with glass. Glass-front offices imply two things; first, that it is a special place for only few persons, distinguished from common workers, giving them with this way prestige, authority, and respect that gain from others.

The second thing is, that he is able to have a constant communication with his subordinates by supervising them all the time in a discrete manner. Otherwise, he could have had around his office curtains, but he would not be able to control and be controlled.

In simple words, Mr.. Martin has removed any physical barriers which are defined as В«communication interferences that occur in the environment in which the communication takes placeВ» (56). Furthermore, as all employees accept, Mr.

. Martin has many technical skills due to which any kind of problems occurring in a machine for example, a solution will immediately follow. A technical skill as referred in chapter 8 is В«a person’s knowledge of and ability in any type of process or techniqueВ» (203). And it seems that Mr.. Martin measures up all the necessities.

The most important thing in communication is what the receiver understands. So by Mr.. Martin talking in a formal and strict way when he gives directions to orders, is meant by the receivers (workers) that they must be accurate and responsible in their job and that respect should be shown to him. Additionally, Mr..

Martin does not allow at all any gossiping or chatting among the employees because first, they are distracted from their Job and second, unfavorable consequences could nave Eden created Ana unarm ten organization.

I nee above, raters to rumors about various issues which are defined in chapter 3 as, В«grapevine information that are communicated without secure standards of evidence being presentВ» (78). We shouldn’t forget in our analysis that another problem that the workers have to face, is that they cannot be involved in decision-taking process and every change in he production must have Mr.. Martin’s permission.

So his leadership approach tends to be Autocratic I because as we can see, he wants to solve any kind of problem by himself, having the last word in decision-taking.

As the book refers in chapter 8, Autocratic I is the approach where В«the leader individually solves the problem using the information already availableВ» (216). In this way, the worker’s self-efficacy is very low, something that deals with successful goal setting and it is stated in the Appendix as, В«the internal belief that one has the necessary capabilities and competencies to reform a task, fulfill role expectations, or meet a challenging situation successfullyВ» (583).

Since the above is not met by the workers, they feel that their Job is a routine work, and they believe that they could have learned more things if they were working in other places. Finally, the other part of the workers who are for many years in the company have got used to Mr.

. Martin and they do not feel pressured in their work. Actually, they feel inspired by him because he is able to work out with a tough situation and that is what creates a sense of security to them. A good leader must inspire people in order o keep them united under a common purpose.

So if I was to purchase a pacemaker and I knew what is going on in terms of the quality of the product, I would definitely purchase it from floor one because I would know that there would be no defect in what I was buying. The other side of the story takes place in Floor Two, where as we have said in the problem statement, there is applied a different kind of managerial strategy that each leader uses in his floor.

Mr.. Franklin is very close to workers through chatting and deals a few times with out of work matters.

The leadership style he uses is participative leadership, because as he book states in chapter 8, В«the leader invites employees to provide input to decisions and seriously seeks to use their suggestions as final decisions are madeВ» (214). But when a supervisor is using that kind of style in coordinating a group of people in an organization, it is automatically assumed that he trusts not only their propositions, but their quality of work as well.

From his statements of the type В«if I was always looking over their shoulder, I’d go nuts, and they’d rebelВ», we can realize that he is not fully responsible for the position he holds.

He can be characterized as a ere-rein leader since Organizational Behavior states in chapter 8 that, В« free-rein leaders avoid power and responsibilityВ» (207). Also, nee NAS decentralized Nils autonomy TTY Tanat much, so as to Keep ten same working atmosphere when his assistant is in charge. Added to this, he gives a great deal of importance in his opinion when a decision has to be taken. His management is considered middle one, and his human skills are ideal, because the book supports in chapter 8 that, В«he can work effectively with people and build teamworkВ» (203).

This can be shown through the group approach to problem solving, an approach that fits costly to consultative II.

In that kind of approach in the same chapter with the above the definition states that, В«the leader meets with group of subordinates to share the problem and obtain inputs, and then decidesВ» (216). Concerning the workers, some of them are happy since they work in such an environment, whereas others are confused when a mistake occurs and they can not deal with it because they do not know where to refer. So another characteristic of free-rein leaders is raised which is chaos in the organization.

As the book refers, В«free-rein leadership ignores the leader’s contribution in approximately the same ay that autocratic leadership ignores the group. It tends to permit different units of an organization to proceed at cross-purposes, and it can degenerate into chaosВ» (207). In this way Mr.

. Franklin leaves the choice of resolving an unexpected problem completely to them. Finally, the problems that he has in maintaining discipline is completely his fault, because he could have earned his worker’s respect if he had kept some distance from them. V. Alternative solutions.

Having related the situations that are referred in the case with the appropriate managerial concepts as clearly as possible, we have to search now which would be he possible alternative solutions in our problem.

We shouldn’t forget what our problem is, and be on the hunt for the optimum ways to resolve it. So the problem is that the supervisors (leaders) in the Two Floors are using different techniques influencing non identically production, style of work, and psychological disposal of workers. One solution that would fit in resolving the problem could be Mr.. Franklins layoff. Since Mr.

.

Martin has much more years in the company as a supervisor the most probable would be Mr.. Franklins dismissal from his post. Immediately afterwards, the company should find another supervisor alike Mr..

Martin’s demands from his workers and style of surveillance, in order for the Two Floors to operate in a homogeneous way. Additionally, it is referred in the case that before Mr.. Franklin took over his duties, Floor Two used to run in a military way, like it happens in Floor One. But of course, we should consider the other side of the coin as well. That is, Mr.

. Martin’s removal from his position.

But now a question is raised: in what kind of rhythm and style the company is willing to operate as a whole? In an imperious way where on turnovers take place and the working conditions are more or less robotic, or n and unfettered way where work is fancy-free but when mistakes occur, chaos is created? Another good solution would De IT tenure were mace some recommendations to Don supervisors concerning their work style. Attendance of seminars with interpersonal subjects which would refer to shaping and build of relations between employers and employees is a considerable option.

Both Mr..

Martin and Mr.. Franklin could attend that kind of lectures in order to improve their attitudes towards their employees. In this way, interpersonal conflicts of any kind will be avoided and the working conditions will improve. As the book tastes in chapter 12, В«they deeply affect a person’s emotions and the self-image and self-esteem is protected from damage by othersВ» (313). As a final alternative, Mr.

. Martin should give more authority to his assistant, Mr.. Smith, in order for him to become more relaxed and for Mr..

Smith to feel that he is also contributing to the organization. VI. Best solution. According to my opinion, the optimum solution which is the less costly and creates the less disputes and avoids new classifications in the business, is the one where Mr..

Martin and Mr.. Franklin are being recommended about their work styles and the sequences they are using. The board of directors should consult Mr.. Martin about his way of treating the employees so as to be more approachable in any fair demands that they might have.

His surveillance of the production could become more discrete, in order for the employees to obtain some self-confidence and stop feeling like rookies. But whenever a mistake occurs, Mr.. Martin should verbally punish, in a way, the workers so as not a similar thing happens again. I also want to notice that a good leader has to be first a good follower and is obliged to follow directions from his foremen as well. As for Mr.

. Franklin, he should change his attitude towards to his employees by not being so close to them through constant chatting.

This gives them the freedom to be outspoken and deal with him as a friend. There must be kept some lines in the workforce of any kind, and both sides have to know which are their obligations to one another and from which point and on, their requirements begin. Additionally, he has to become more flexible in problem solving and know how to deal with a turnover.

In other words, he should start keeping some distance from them in order to gain some aspect and make them feel that, there are some limits that they shouldn’t be crossed. The above can start happening, only if Mr..

Franklin spends some more time in his office and stop hanging around in the place where the employees are. If both propositions are applied, then a good balance between the leading styles in both floors would be created and the company will get a homogeneity.

Thus, compensation that had to be given to Mr.. Franklin if we had chosen to fire him is avoided, and disputes are also not created in case the workers from Floor Two were angry because they had a great time with him as a supervisor. As a Tall statement, IT I was addle to eagles a new Floor-Horror I newer-l would condone Mr..

Martin’s technical skills and Mr.. Franklins human skills in such a way so as to have my subordinates both working in a pleasant work environment that I would offer to them, as well as my knowledge on issues that require instant solution. The mixture of those two would inspire my employees and provide them psychological security in any hard situation. VI.

Bibliography. Newsroom W. John & Davis Keith. В«organizational Behavior, Human Behavior at WorkВ» tenth edition, McGraw-Hill Companies, 1997, U. S.

A VI’. Appendix.