Leadership and control plan - Assignment Example

In the business environment of the 21st century leadership and control are two important business functions that companies must develop in order to achieve business success. The printing company is having problems in both areas. The leadership problems at the firm are occurring due to a lack of trust from the president of the company. He is an expert in the technical side of the printing business, but he lacks managerial skills. A good manager recognizes the importance of getting the employees involved in the operating decisions of the firm, particularly the upper management workers.

The president of the firm is currently not delegating any responsibilities to its vice-presidents. A lot of changes have to occur at this company to turn things around. A new leadership plan has to be implemented to improve the employee morale at the firm. One of the first steps to show the employees that the firm cares about their professional development is to immediately implement a training and development plan. Each month all the employees of the firm should have the opportunity to receive at least an hour of training.

The firm should have both required and voluntary training and development sessions. The managerial staff of the firm should receive advance training on leadership topics. Another way to improve leadership within the company is by adopting the use of delegating and empowerment. These two topics should be emphasized in the training and development efforts of the firm. Delegation can be defined as the process of giving power or work to someone else so that they are responsible for part of what they normally do (Theyagu).

Leadership can also be enhanced at the company by the utilization of teamwork. Working in team units allows workers to improve their communication skills and to work in a cohesive manner with their colleagues to achieve common goals. The control measures of the company are completely inadequate. The firm has a major weakness in its accounting department. The firm’s accounting department is understaffed and not performing adequately. The first step is for the firm to hire a consultant in accounting to perform an external auditing to ensure that the company is complying with the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

The external audit performed by this firm must be evaluated by the newly hired position of comptroller at the firm. Along with a comptroller the firm must hire two additional staff accountants with at least three years of experience in accounting. The newly form accounting department will be responsible for preparing quarterly financial statements. The four reports that must be prepared by the accounting staff are the income statement, balance sheet, statement of cash flow, and statement of retained earnings.

The accounting staff will also perform internal audits of the system every six months. The comptroller will also work closely with the rest of the managerial staff to establish better quality control protocols. The firm is also going to establish a new system to evaluate the performance of the employees of the firm and it will implement a feedback system to improve the internal communications of the firm. Work Cited PageTheyagu, D. (2012). “Delegation Versus Empowerment” 6 December 2012.