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Week 6 Learning Activities

Week 6 Learning Activities

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Learning Activity #1 - Theme 1
This week, we look at leadership from the manager’s perspective and explore the differences looking at leadership from a leader’s perspective.  Managers focus on process, procedure, and implementation of the organization’s purpose.  A manager's perspective is about getting the job done and keeping stability.  
In a recent virtual management meeting the Heads of the various marketing departments of Biotech met to discuss the recent decline in sales of food supplements since Nestle and General Mills entered the market.  In a meeting to get direction on how to fix the drop in sales, the question came up about who should handle the matter - the marketing managers or the owners.  One manager said, “A problem like this should have a solution from the top.”  Another manager responded, “I do not agree. We have dips in sales all the time and we go out and fix them using our own ideas and talent.”  “I agree, managers are leaders too” another voice said.  Maximillian Barney sat back in the Yonkers conference room away from the camera noting that the Americans wanted to move on their own, the Europeans held back but signaled agreement with the Americans.  The rest were quiet.   

Question. Maximillian pondered, “How do I see my managers - are they leaders too?”
Looking back at week one theorists and our readings this week, how should Maximillian answer this question?
 
Learning Activity #2 - Theme 2
The manager must be able to solve problems, communicate, and lead teams toward the completion of a task.  
You are the manager of the HR department in New Mexico.  Headquarters has just sent you the new employee turnover figures for the various departments. For some reason the Quality Control Department is losing way more than the average number of lab techs.  Training new employees is costly to the company and the high turnover is costing money that could be better spent elsewhere.
Research uncovered the problem. Skilled lab techs were leaving to go to a company not far away that was paying more.  One employee, who has been with the company for five years, said she stayed with Biotech despite being approached by the company down the street because, “Although the new company paid more, Biotech offered better health care benefits.”  She had a sick son.  She indicates that she wished she could receive more flexible hours or work from home.  

Question. Using employee’s feedback or facts from the case scenario, and the weekly readings, what ideas should you consider offering to the Quality Control Manager to keep people from leaving and why?  Be sure to include in the explanation what motivates people and how your ideas are reflective of motivational theory.

References.

Answer 1

Learning activity 1- Theme 1:

Maximillian should answer the question as a person should be both to be productive to the company. He or she cannot be either a leader or a manager. A good manager is a good leader and a good leader should be a good manager. A leader cannot only concentrate on giving big ideas of future vision and mission with no plan on how to manage team to achieve those results. A manager on the other hand may be good at handling team issues but if he or she cannot inspire and drive the team to achieve a future vision, there will be no fruitful results for the company. So being a manager and being a leader cannot be two separate jobs. Maximillian should see all his managers as future leaders.

As per Behavioural theories, managers are not born leaders, they have to be groomed and taught through learning and experience. There are several theories on how managers can be taught to be great leaders such as transactional theory where the team is given rewards or punishment to motivate towards a result or transformational theory where team is given motivational tasks to achieve the desired result. Here in the given scenario, the managers who are waiting for owners to take an action cannot be the future leaders. The marketing managers have already identified the issue and have the past experience of working in similar scenario. In order to be a leader, these managers should come up with their own vision and plan to achieve the increased sales along with working as motivator for the team to implement the plan into action. This behaviour transcends into a true leader. When the managers come up with their own plan of action and team to achieve that goal, then the managers can become good leaders so the answer to Maximillion’s question is anyone who is not waiting for owner’s orders and is driving the sales plan on their own can be called a leader.

Learning activity 2 - Theme 2:

Motivational theory can be utilized to devise policies in order to prevent attrition of employees from the Quality control department. As per feedback from employees and employee turnover analysis, one of the main reasons for people leaving job was a more lucrative offer in another company which was in a nearby location. If a person’s economic needs are being satisfied without any change in their present situation, they would prefer that option. As per Maslow’s need hierarchy theory, if the basic needs are satisfied for a person, they are no longer important in decision making and that person moves on to satisfy other needs. In this scenario, the basic physiological and safety needs are already satisfied for the employees and so they are moving on to other company which will satisfy their esteem and self actualization needs. The employee who did not move to other company was still on the safety need level which was being provided by the Quality control department of her present company but she was still looking for more benefits which current company did not offer presently and it may become a reason in future for her to leave the company.

Since each individual would be at a different stage for his or her needs, the Quality control department should have interactive conversation with its employees, one on one, to decipher their issues. A group of policies implemented across may not give fruitful results unless the needs of each employee is analysed. As per Herzberg’s Motivation Hygiene two factor theory, any motivational factor of today can become a hygiene factor tomorrow because when people’s need are satisfied , that need no longer motivates them. The analysis should be done for each employee to find if the motivational need has become a hygiene factor for them and no longer is important in their decision making. Money may be motivating for one person while work life balance will be inspiring for other. A promotion might be one employee’s requirement while a job role change might motivate another employee.

The best method for Quality control department is to have meeting with each employee for Employee need identification. This meeting can either be when the employee announces a resignation or even before when the department should work on identifying dissatisfied employees. These employee interactions if done on a periodic basis with each individual even before the dissatisfaction levels have been identified, it might motivate employees in performing better.