Nando’s Report

Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, Cyprus, Fiji, India, Ireland, Mauritius, Iambic, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Swaziland, AJAX, Zambia and Zanzibar. Each restaurant has a relaxed atmosphere, friendly service, earthy colors and textures reflecting the Afro-Portuguese heritage, South African art, unique designs such as a chandelier made from recycled bottles and delicious food. At each restaurant, the manager is known as Patrol which is Portuguese for ‘Head of the House’.

The culture found at Node’s restaurants, is family oriented.

At Node’s there is a saying ‘Node’s is not Just about the chicken. It’s never been Just about the chicken. It’s about the people who make the chicken’. Their culture was inspired by their adventurous spirit and their values of pride, passion, courage, integrity and family.

The workers at Node’s are considered a big, extended family and are cutely named Mindanao. A culture filled with diversity and uniqueness in everyone, is warmly welcomed and loved. In the United Kingdom, Node’s was named the ‘Best Largest Company to work for.

The fear found at Node’s is basically the loss of their family oriented culture through expansion. With plans to expand every year with twenty new restaurants, it s imperative that the values and norms used since inception is utilized and passed on despite the growth. 1.

0 Introduction At Node’s, teamwork is important because the organization is family oriented. To ensure a highly reputable customer service, employees are required to have a certain attitude towards the customers. When the customer is satisfied with the service as well as the food, the clientele is maintained and expanded.

Teamwork at Node’s is crucial to ensure smooth operations on a daily basis. With a cohesive team, operations are at their highest production level as a result of satisfaction both from employee and customer. As stated in the history, employees at Node’s are considered family which in the organizational sense of the word suggests unity, integration, consensus and harmony in social relations (Insinuators and Cox, 2003).

Through this, cohesion is maintained throughout the organization.

According to Forsyth (2010), team cohesion comprises of four (4) main categories; social cohesion (attraction of members to each other and the group), task cohesion (capacity to successfully perform as a unit and as a group), perceived cohesion (construed coherence of group) and emotional cohesion (sentimental intensity of group and individuals in the group). Cohesion in the group can be prevented through intra- group conflict (Medina et al, 2005), Leadership styles (Coleman, 2000), Neutralizes (Husk, 2007) and Intimacy (Ross, Performance and Van Diets, 2012).

Even though a family oriented culture is highly recommended, there are problems which can arise such as group think. Group think is when the group norms emphasize the value of cooperation and agreements of members in highly cohesive groups thus avoid disagreements more than members of non cohesive groups (Forsyth, 2010: p.

137). This report will seek to explain how the culture in Node’s can be achieved and eased on throughout the expansion of the business. 2. 0 Team and Leadership There are many theories developed for team building which are utilized in organizations.

Node’s isn’t new to using team development in their organization. To maintain the family orientation that began with the founders, it is imperative that the employees and management work as one to maintain the cohesiveness within the organization.

Patrick Leonine (2012) developed the Five (5) Dysfunctions of a Team which are inattention to results, avoidance of accountability, lack of commitment, fear of conflict and absence of trust. Table 2. 1 defines each of the five dysfunctions and figure 2. Displays Lioness’s Pyramid. From the table, it is safe to say that Node’s makes it important to avoid such issues amongst their team members thus maintaining their cohesiveness. Even though they are rapidly expanding, once their employees are thoroughly trained and evaluated, their culture can be maintained.

Table 2. 1: Five Dysfunctions of a Team Title Definition Inattention to results Failure to grow, idle and easily distracted Competitors are rarely defeated Achievement orientated employees are lost

Encourages team members to focus on their individual careers and goals Avoidance of accountability Generate enmity amid team members with diverse standards of performance Encourages mediocrity Misses deadlines and key deliverables Places an undue burden on team leader as the sole source of discipline Lack of commitment Creates ambiguity amongst team regarding direction and priorities Lose out on opportunities due to undue analysis and needless delay Individuals have a lack of confidence and fear of failure Revisit decisions and discussions repeatedly Encourages second-guessing amongst team members Fear of conflict

Have boring meetings Create environments where politics and personal attacks flourish Ignore divisive topics which are vital to team success Failure to utilize team members opinions and perspectives Time and energy waste with posturing and interpersonal risk management Absence of trust Conceal mistakes and weaknesses from each other and hold grudges Hesitant to ask or offer help outside of their own duty and offer opinions Jump to conclusions lacking clarification about intentions and aptitudes of others Failure to recognize and utilize each other’s skill and experiences Time and energy wasting on their behavior management Avoid meetings and spending time as a group Figure 2. 1: Lioness’s Pyramid There are two (2) known types of conflict within organizations, task conflict and relationship conflict. Relationship Conflict is the occurrence of interpersonal tensions, friction, animosity, annoyance and resentment amongst team members whilst task conflict focuses on resolving issues caused by differential views, ideas and opinions.

When relationship conflict is experienced, there are personality clashes, leadership styles and social mooching within the team which are negative whilst task conflict souses on the distribution of resources, procedures or guidelines adopted and interpretation of facts which can be both negative and positive.

In Node’s relationship conflict is highly avoided because this could cause decreases in employee motivation and the family oriented culture’ to be interrupted. Another reason why this conflict is avoided is because if communication issues arise amongst team members, there can be a negative impact on the growth of the company. Figure 2. 2: Heresy and Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory Developed in 1969 by Dry.

Paul Heresy and Ken Blanchard, the Situational Leadership Theory states that instead of using Just one style, successful leaders should change their leadership styles based on the maturity of the people they’re leading and the details of the task. Through the use of this theory, leaders should be able to emphasize on the task and the relationships with the people they are responsible for leading based on the requirements for successful completion.

As shown in figure 2. 2, there are four steps, telling, selling, participating and delegating. The telling and selling aspect are leader oriented whilst the participating and delegating is follower oriented. There is also a rating from low to high which explains the individual reaction to the task at hand. At Node’s through the training programmer provided, it can be acknowledged who are leaders and who are followers.

To maintain an effective management team, it is important to review prospective employees to properly place them to continue the leadership known at Node’s.

Figure 2. 3 and 2. 4 illustrates the five (5) types of followers which can be found in any business. Alienated followers and effective followers are considered independent and critical thinkers whilst sheep and yes people are considered independent and uncritical thinkers. The line which separates each category in figure 2.

3 is known as the survivors with the horizontal line known as the passive (left side) active (right side) line. In figure 2. 4, even though the line isn’t present, it is illustrates which categories are considered low and high. Figure 2. 3 Five (5) Types of Followers Figure 2.

4 Figure 2. : Salesman’s Six Leadership Styles Daniel Coleman, the author of Primal Leadership (2002) identified six (6) leadership styles demonstrated in figure 2. 5. In table 2. 2, each of the leadership styles are explained through characteristics, effects and usage. Mr.

. Coleman is considered the father of Emotional Intelligence (Figure 2. 6). Table 2. 2: Six Leadership Styles Characteristics, Effects and Use Style Characteristics Effect Use Visionary (Authoritative) Inspires Believes in own vision Spreads zeal for vision Empathetic Motivates team towards shared vision Gets team buy in Transformational change Provides clear direction Coaching Nurtures and empowers Encourages self discovery Treats people as individuals Creates alliance amid individual and team goals Gains individual obligation

Build individual capabilities Motivates persons Tackle flaws Maximizes potential Affiliates Diplomatic Encouraging Discourages conflict Form harmonious work environment Boost team morale Resolve conflict Promote trust Create team bond Democratic Team worker Collaborator Influencer Listener Gets loyalty through contribution from everyone Whole team engagement Builds consensus Pacesetting High achievement High standards Impatient & insensitive Self motivating Achieves goals Drives team Risk of exhaustion and isolation Drive results Motivate around tasks Commanding (Coercive) Command and control Coercive and threatening Divide and rule Clear direction No vow to goals Destroys morale Discourages talent In emergencies Conquer inertia Performance management Figure 2. : Emotional Intelligence Model The Emotional Intelligence Theory was originally developed in the sass and sass by three (3) psychologists; Howard Gardner (Harvard), Peter Salvoes (Yale) and John ‘Jack Mayer (New Hampshire). The theory states that ‘Emotional Intelligence is the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate motions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth’. From here, Daniel Coleman developed the Five (5) Components of Emotional Intelligence. To be a successful leader, having a high level of Emotional Intelligence is required. When a leader is self-aware, they are able to recognize emotions as they occur thus having a clear understanding of strengths and weaknesses they possess and are able to better address situations.

Through emotional management, leaders are able to regulate and maintain control, take time to make decisions and rarely display unwanted behavior thus remain respected by the team. When a leader displays effective communication, directions are clearly expressed which aids in motivation and inspiration of the team. Social awareness is vital within a team as the leader should be observant and recognize problems with team members, being sympathetic and helpful. Lastly, a good leader can appropriately deal with conflicts amongst employees, customers and other individuals. Through these steps, a good leader can create a stronger, more effective work environment.

In some instances, teams can be used as substitutes or neutralizes for leadership in the workplace (Kerr and Jerkier, 1978). In these cases, substitutes are methods where the characteristics of organizations, teams, task and individuals can provide replacements for the task and social behaviors of dysfunctional leaders. Table 2. 3 explains what are substitutes and neutralizes in leadership. An example of this type of situation can be when members of a team hardly rely supervision due to the knowledge obtained about the task and training.

Another case can be when peers help each other through support, feedback and shared responsibilities, supervisory social and consideration are less needed. Table 2. 3: Substitutes and Neutralizes in Leadership

Substitute / Neutralize Supportive Leadership Instrumental Leadership Subordinate Characteristics Experience and Training Professionalism Lack of value on organizational rewards Substitute Neutralize Task Characteristics Unambiguous tasks Direct feedback from task Challenging task Organizational Characteristics Cohesive team Leader’s lack of power Standardization and formalization Organizational rigidity Physical distance between leader and subordinates At Node’s the training programmer offered are well rounded. Through management coaching, training, communication and teamwork improvement and the buddy yester, the culture can be preserved and maintained.

The management coaching system is responsible for helping the Patrons continue to embed the values in the restaurants, to form a fun, supportive, motivating working environment and for managing directors who support many restaurants. The programmer comprises of two (2) workshops; the first focuses on situational leadership whilst the second is the reflection on the coaching sessions.

In addition to the reflection process, delegates are introduced to the GROW (goal, reality, options and will) model and design a plan involving managing directors, management and Mindanao. The award winning training process comprise of ten (10) days on the site training.

The training revolves around the values, food hygiene, health and safety, Node’s standards, equipment usage, Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (GOSH) and team building. On day six, seven and eight, the employees practice what was learnt. In the teamwork and communication process, it is imperative that managers are able to deal with pressure and behavior from teams. During this training, managers who oversee five to twelve restaurants are sent to a remote location where team tasks are undertaken.

At the end of this process, team members are more ware and tolerant of the differences in others as well as clearer understanding of their role. The last programmer offered for improvement is the award winning buddy system which consists of two ‘buddies’ responsible for training.

These buddies attend workshops where they learn how to create interactive, dynamic and fun training sessions for staff. The selection process is important because it is designated for individuals who enjoy training and developing other members. As a result of the success of the buddy system, there is no reliance on the Human Resource Department to provide training and skills for staff members.

. 0 Conclusion and Recommendation Considering the rate of expansion at Node’s, the need for preservation of their culture, values and norms are important. The management of Node’s has to be inventive in their methods of preserving the family oriented atmosphere.