The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Changes case

Malik Al-Huseini, ID#:140752 2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

Arab Open University Tutor Marked Assignment (TMA 01) Academic Year

20 14

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2015

Semester Second, Spring Program: MBA

Branch:OMAN Course Title: Fundamentals of Senior Management

Course Code: B 713 I

Student Name: Malik Said Abdulla Al-Huseini

Student ID: 140752

Section Number:1

Tutor Name: Dr. Mohammed Al-Haziazi Total Mark: Questions

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40

40

20

Allocated Marks

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100

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/100 Presentation

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Malik Al-Huseini, ID#:140752 2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

Introduction Nowadays management and leadership are necessary for every business in order to grow and keep its position in the competitive market. The purpose of this assignment is to identify the requirements, which is required by a young manager and leader of Cloths and Accessories' store that had been declining in performance. The first section of this assignment discusses the readiness of Oliveira for the new job that had been given to him and discuss the requirements of a leadership such as, set up his vision, align the employees and motivate the staff in the store. In addition, it describes the process of implement the changes. The following section will cover reflection on Oliveira approach critically on leading the changes process in the store and how to manage the store based on the leadership perspective. Moreover ,it explains some issues that must be exist in Oliveira as a leader such as ,power, influence and strategies for change. The third section will highlights the reaction of the store manager Prado against Oliveira. Finally, the conclusion will sum up the recommendation which should be followed by Oliveira in order to lead the store. Oliveira readiness for the job and how he should implement the changes. Oliveira had been assigned to manage the clothes and Accessories store in downtown Vitoria which had dramatically worsened in last five years and this is a challenge for a young person to make a change in his managerial position. This section is going to discuss the Oliveira readiness and how change can be implemented using his management skills. Readiness for his job was gained by working in the Recife store that he had earned the experience by working in all aspects of business such as unloaded trucks, served as cashier, led small departments , acted as a store supervisor and sometimes working as store manager when full time manager has long vacation. after working in many branches with employees, he had earned respect and friendship from all staff. Then, according to his good 2

Malik Al-Huseini, ID#:140752 2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

performance, he was promoted to be a manager and given a new assignment as leading and managing a store, which had been declining in performance. As a leadership in new position, Oliveira try to implement some talent that gained during his training. He started to implement the advice that had given to him to know all the employees in the organization and making meeting with each person, which mean that you have to make all employees to respect and love the leadership. This is because good leaders love those that follow them and this may look different for different ages and places. So that, all employees want what’s best for them and care about them above any project. Then, he started to set meeting with the store management team and give his order for everyone to stop their work and help other departments when there are more customer and started to change some of departments operations from current system of planning and designating functions by people. leadership can be defined as a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of employees in the organization to reach the goal and he must implement major changes that are very necessary to survive and compete effectively in new environment( Kruse, 2013 ). Therefore ,Oliveira as leader for this branch of clothes and accessories should make change by setting a direction and developing a vision of the future of the store along with strategies for producing the changes that are needed to achieve the vision of organization . Vision is not only drives the leader to achieve the goal, but is able to drive others and good leaders know how to take a vision that has been birthed in employee and spread it to the people that follow them and the people around them. Good leaders know how to spread that vision and get people excited about it as if it is their own. Since the function of leadership is to produce change, setting the direction of that change is fundamental to leadership. Oliveira should gather data and look for patterns, relationships, and linkages that help explain things in the organization. The direction setting for him will create vision and strategies, which can describe a business, technology, or corporate culture in terms of what it should 3

Malik Al-Huseini, ID#:140752 2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

become over the long term and articulate a feasible way of achieving this goal. Next, he can follow a strategy that called aligning people which means communicating the new direction to those who can create coalitions that understand the vision and are committed to its achievement and improving the performance in the store. Aligning people is different which involves talking to many more individuals than organizing does. The target population can involve not only a manager’s subordinates but also bosses, peers, staff in other parts of the organization, as well as suppliers, government officials, and even customers. So who can help implement the vision and strategies or who can block implementation is relevant. Then, Oliveira to achieve vision of store requires motivating and inspiring which means keeping people moving in the right direction, despite major obstacles to change, by appealing to basic but often untapped human needs, values, and emotions. Successful motivation inspiration can ensure that staff in the store will have the energy to overcome obstacles (kotter, 2001). The suggestion that are needed to improve and implement a talent for management process which refers to the range of activities engaged in by an organization to enhance the performance of a target person or group with the ultimate purpose of developing organizational effectiveness (DeNisi, 2000). Leading the store by Oliveira or any new leader for any organization must implement all the skills which are needed to improve their organization to achieve the goal. It is clear that skills will be important for Oliveira as to exercise leadership. Effective persuasion depends on knowledge and expertise. Some talent management which are related to his behavior is Interpersonal skills .This skills are very important in activities such as networking that could enhance his knowledge and help him to build relationships with all employees. Also, this ability lead a group depends on influence both within and outside the group . Communication skills are needed in conjunction with all the skills a leader possesses and it is perhaps 4

Malik Al-Huseini, ID#:140752 2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

the most important way of leadership (Cameron, 2003) . The leader must have a clear understanding of the message that he is communicating and he must be aware that the aim of communication is to influence the allocation of attention of the organization's members (Cyert, 1990). The reflection on Oliveira's approach critically on leading the turnaround process and what could be done differently by him. When Oliveira arrived to his new workplace as a store manager and leading the turnaround a store that had been declining in performance .He arrived a few days before starting his new mission to explore the city which I think will be best for a new employee to adapt with weather in new place of working. After that, he was welcomed by his future direct reports and showed to him to his new office . Then, he met the outgoing manager which explained to him the problem that causes the declining of the downtown Vitoria but, he decided to focus on factors inside the store before worrying about the issue outside the store and this point I don’t agree with him because he must worry about outside environment that can attract people and could increase the profit of the store. Also, the outgoing manager described to him the supervisors and department leader and their experience and during these first couple days in the store, he watched vigilantly for operational improvement the he could leverage as he worked to turn's the store performance around. The store was not crowded and few people were standing in either fitting room or cashier .Also, he noted that the showcase of store was not clean and he was bothered to see none of the employee were smiling. Oliveira now is a leader as the assignment that given to him and started to make a change in the store ,so for a new leader he must know the skills of leadership and difference between the duties of management and leadership. Leadership is making change in the organization to survive and compete in the market. So that, according to transformational leadership which is defined as a process where leaders and their employees raise one another to higher levels of morality and motivation (Midtools.com,2015 ). In addition, an effective leader is a person who does and creates an inspiring 5

Malik Al-Huseini, ID#:140752 2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

vision of the future of the company, motivates and inspires employees to engage with his vision, manages delivery of the vision and coaches and builds a team, so it will be more effective at achieving his vision. These are some skills that are needed for a leadership in any organization to achieve the goal. Oliveira started his mission by remembering the advice that was given to him which is getting know your people first. This advice was important to him because employees will respect and love him and good leaders love those that follow them. He spent the first week meeting with each employee individually ,inquiring their name ,experience and roles at the store. Then, he started to set meeting with the store management team and give his vision and strategies for changing the store to improve performance. After that, he started to implement an urgency code that are used to organize the different types of service notifications by priority and urgency. The urgency code was to both cashier and fitting room staff and everybody should their work and help these departments whenever there are more customer. He intended to change some department operation from the current system of planning .I argued with him because from leadership skills, he should make change by setting a direction by developing a vision of the future of the store along with strategies for producing the changes that are needed to achieve the vision and improve the performance. This creates a common purpose with employee toward a common goal. This communication needs to be face to face with staff in the store and explaining what he is going to do, but, rather than set his vision clearly to the employees, he established a sense of urgency and trying to change the status without examining the market . So, he failed to establish the urgency and it was difficult to move to the stage of creating a guiding coalition because employees commitment in helping move the effort forward and it requires senior leaders to create a sense of urgency in the store to gain the cooperation of affected stakeholders including employees and lower level managers (Help.isah.com,2015). 6

Malik Al-Huseini, ID#:140752 2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

Moreover, Oliveira used his power from his position as a leader of the store and gave an instruction to the employees to organize the work. Next, Oliveira decided to keep everyone on track and established a weekly meeting with management team, which would mean changing some individuals’ schedules. He thought that his proposed changes would generate good results and decided to check all departments to see the implementation progress and as he visited each department, he was surprised to find that nothing of the changes had been made. Consequently, he decided to work on each departments to make sure that changes were implemented. After one week of his first check up, he went back to each departments and found that the new policies had stopped being implemented. Actually, I agree with him that he must keeping check each department individually and try to align all the staff in the store. According to the leadership perspective, he aligned with all employees who involves talking to many more individuals in the store. Although what he has done is right from management perspective ,but the results were not achieved due to employees responses. Achieving of his vision needs to motivate and keeping employees in the right direction , despite major obstacles to change, by appealing to basic but often untapped human needs, values, and emotions. Strategies of change which describe a specific ways to achieve the goal of vision and it is a process of continuous learning which requires performance measures to be adjusted constantly to reflect the changes in the value system ( Feurer&Charbaghi,1995 ). Oliveira didn’t establish his strategy of change that I believe it can help him to minimize negative of changes. Also, his persuasion influence was not effective because this influence depends on expertise and personal characteristics which was not gained yet by him. Something can be done differently if he had good experience on dealing with market and made a full strategy and vision to achieve the goal to improve the performance in the store. 7

Malik Al-Huseini, ID#:140752 2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

Justification of Prado's reaction when Oliveira returned from his vacation and the reasons that makes him to continuo and not fired. Because Prado experienced the same situation when he was a young manager and he knew that Oliveira will face such a challenge for instant, one of the advice provided to Oliveira from one of the former store manager is to get closer to the employees. This mean he must be friendly with all employees. So, it will be easily to align the employees. In addition ,Prado knew that store which was given to Oliveira was most challenging store in the country and that would most likely get worse before they got better. So, changing any business from worse to better are not easy for a young manager without any experience but Prado trust Oliveira and can make a change in the store because of his good capacity and performance during his training for example, he had earned respect and the friendship by working side by side with all employees in the previous store. Also, he was selected and awarded one of twenty positions out of 10,000 applicants which I think he has a good capacity and will make a change and will learn from his mistake. Moreover, Prado knew that any leader of Cloths and Accessories should have the space to make mistakes and can learn from them. Although, he didn’t explain the challenge that Oliveira will face in this store which I think could help Oliveira to focus the problems that will face during his process to implement the changes. Oliveira should make a change in the transition in the store from one that was focused on operations to one that people centric. This can be achieved by performing any process within an organization that requires human interaction can be defined, modeled, automated and people centric process management allows all of an organization’s processes to be handled (Appian, 2015). I think because he can ensure that jobs can be handled and he can motivate employees when he focus on people centric to achieve goals. .

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Malik Al-Huseini, ID#:140752 2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

Prado believe that an executive will have to pass through a restructuring eventually because Oliveira will try to learn from mistake that will face him in the store by himself. From this perspective, I think according to Oliveira capacity and performance in his training ,any leader of Clothes and Accessories can made mistake as Prado believe that and Prado didn’t explain the challenges that he expected Oliveira may face. I think Prado didn’t fire Oliveira because of all above mentioned reasons. Conclusion Success of any leader requires a proper planning and strategy in order to improve the organization and referring to leadership perspective the following recommendation should be followed by Oliveira in order to improve the performance in the store of Clothes and Accessories. First, he should set a vision of how to improve the performance and explain his vision to all the employees. Then, align and motivate all the employees and should examine the market. Furthermore, he should explain the weakness of each department to the employees in order to improve their performance. Finally, he must learn from mistakes that made during each process of change. References Appian, (2015). People Centric Process Management - Appian. [online] Available at: http://www.appian.com/about-bpm/people-centric-processmanagement/ [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015]. Cameron, S. (2003). Fundamentals of Senior Managment. 7th ed. [ebook] Milton Kenes,United Kingdome: The open university, pp.116,117. Available at: http://www.open.ac.uk [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015]. Cyert, R. (1990). Defining leadership and explicating the process. Nonprofit Management Leadership, 1(1), pp.29-38. Feurer, R. and Chaharbaghi, K. (1995). Performance measurement in strategic change. Benchmarking for Quality Management & Technology, 9

Malik Al-Huseini, ID#:140752 2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

2(2), pp.64-83. Help.isah.com, (2015). Isah Web Help. [online] Available at: http://help.isah.com/r45/1033/isah/index.htm#441.htm [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015]. Kotter, J. (2001). What Leaders Really Do. Harvard Business Review. Kruse, K. (2013). What Is Leadership?. [online] Forbes. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2013/04/09/what-is-leadership/ [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015]. Maxsacks.com, (2015). Lack of leadership is why companies are hurting, by Roy Chitwood, Max Sacks International. [online] Available at: http://www.maxsacks.com/articles/article0803.html [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015]. Mindtools.com, (2015). What is Leadership?. [online] Available at: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_41.htm [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015]. Performance measurement in strategic change: Benchmarking for Quality Management & Technology: Vol 2, No 2. (2015). Benchmarking for Quality Management & Technology. [online] Available at: http://proxy.aouelibrary.com:9797/MuseSessionID=0910026ws/MuseProtocol=http/Muse Host=www.emeraldinsight.com/MusePath/doi/full/10.1108/14635779510 090472 [Accessed 29 Mar. 2015].

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