Business Management and Administration - Case Study Example

The paper "Business Management and Administration" is a wonderful example of an assignment on business. In what specific ways did Michael fail and/or succeed in ‘listening deeply’ to his employees? Michael failed in listening to his employee especially on the fact that they were used to running or working to the company as a family entity. Moreover, they considered certain management and operation techniques that they never wanted to depart from. However, according to Michael, change in operating and in the manufacturing of company products were vital and necessary thereby superseding the norm.

  In what specific ways did Michael show that he was not “open to influence?” How would Michael be open to influence have made him more effective, (i.e., who were the “local experts” and how could he have benefited from them)? Michael indicated that he was not open to influence when he failed to heed to the founder grandson’s advice not to change the nature of operations in the company and not to interfere with the employees and to maintain the company’s culture (Whitehead and Whitehall 210).

Additionally, he did not take the same advice from the three vice presidents during his first meeting with them. Therefore, in changing the supply chain, he seized from working with the local experts (the designer) and opted to use foreigners who do not understand the already existing and target market for the company. When you consider the employees of Bedford Mower as they were before Michael arrived, how would you characterize them in terms of what was personally meaningful to them? The nature and degree of relationship among the employees and their bosses were vital for the Bedford Mower’s employees than the level and quality of production that Michael wanted.

When creating his vision for the company, in what specific ways did Michael fail and/or succeed in ‘determining what was meaningful’ to his employees, and what was the impact? Michael failed in understanding the overall and individual commitment of employees to the company since he was only concerned with how each employee would meet his new production, marketing, and sales goals. In addition, he did not consider group contribution but he was more concern of the individual contribution thereby killing the group performance.

What specific mechanisms or opportunities did Michael have available to him for enlisting others? He already had experienced employees as well as the market for its products to start his business. Additionally, he already had the entire staff and workforce he required for his work. To what extent did Michael take advantage of these? To what extent were they effective in terms of getting everyone on board with the new vision? He took advantage of eliminating and having only a few, he regarded as the best team to produce quality work for the success of the business.

Nonetheless, he could not have everyone on board since he wanted to cut operation costs with the aim of improving on his profit margin; hence, not everyone he got on board count is retained. In thinking about his attempts to enlist others, in what ways did or didn’t Michael incorporate common ideals into his communication with his employees as it related to the new vision? Michael’s new vision for the company could not put everyone on board since he was introducing new ideas that needed employees in different areas of production and operation to be trained to be effective; hence, since some employees were already too old to be trained, they had to be enlisted.

How successful was Michael in “animating the vision”? How would you characterize him in terms of his use of symbolic language, providing imagery of the future, practicing positive communication, expressing emotion, and speaking from the heart, in his communications to his employees? Michael animated his vision for the company to enable the employees to personalize those vision and make them part of their daily production and operation. He wanted the employees to see or regard the company as their so they could work passionately in meeting their assignments.

What would you have done differently with this group of employees in terms of inspiring a shared vision? Conducting workshops to ensure that the understand production and business operation concepts differently as they use to in their traditional ways of business (Whitehead and Whitehall 142). Listing and teaching were of visualizing targets is a better way to helping employees to understand and work towards vision attainment.