Audio Technical Company Leadership - Assignment Example

Leadership Case Study Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Name Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Course Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Lecture Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date 1.0 Introduction This is a report to presents case study analysis of Audio Technical Company recently taken over by American Multinational, Zenith. The report looks for managerial issues faced by the CEO of Audio Technical and how their handling has impacted the employees of the organization. Secondly, it gives strategies Audio technical can adopt in improving staff learning and training program. Thirdly, the report proposes possible solution to the employee motivation challenge facing Audio Technical in the production department. Finally, the report analyzes the problems of passing leadership from a founder led organization facing Audio Technical and recommends three steps that could have been followed to achieve a smoother transition. 2.0 Managerial Issues Faced by audio Technical 2.1 Employee training and development Before the takeover, David James, the owner and CEO of Audio Technical Ltd was faced with a number of management issues. From the beginning, Audio Technical was in need workers with high skills in new product development. This means Audio Technical needed the development of the skills of its employees continuously so they could be able to develop new products. The change in work nature in most organizations is a real challenge as it is to Audio Technical (Robbins, Decenzo and Coulter 2011). At Audio Technical staff training and development takes place at the factory and in technical colleges located at the Oxford, London and Glasgow sites. The staff training program at Audio technical has led to the development of a workforce with good skill that is able to handle 80 per cent of the development of the sophisticated product Audio Technical produces. 2.2 Employee Engagement issues Most organizations with highly skilled employees are faced with the problem of employee engagement. Employee engagement involves making sure that employee make optimum use of their skills in contributing to the performance of the company (Robbins, Decenzo and Coulter 2011). Altech Technical engages its employees by making sure they are involved in product development from start to finish. The CEO of Audio Technical ensures his employees do 80 per cent of the production of high technology equipment. According to Kanter (2003) employee engagement is the biggest factor leading to improved performance and productivity which is shown at Audio Technical with increasing profitability. In the case study, the profitability of Audio Technical keeps on increasing year after year, and the company collected revenues of over 620 million in the year 2009. Employee engagement contributes to the perception that Audio Technical is an interesting and worthwhile organization to work for. Furthermore employee engagement was found to influence the levels of self-efficacy where employees make product development decisions that make sure the organization produces only high quality products. The employee engagement strategy at audio Technical also brings about a sense of responsibility over the quality of the final product. If a product is good the employees also feel proud. 2.3 Performance Appraisal issues Performance evaluation is a common issue in most organizations. At Audio Technical the CEO himself conducted the annual performance appraisal and reported the overall performance of his staff (Ramlall 2004). The Audio technical performance appraisal process is thus undertaken without ignoring its effect on staff morale. By using a balanced performance appraisal process, Audio Technical ensures their employees are not dissatisfied with the performance appraisal process. 2.4 Employee Remuneration and Benefits Audio technical provides its employee with an annual bonus at Christmas. Other benefits available to the employee of Audio Technical include free refreshments, social meeting, staff training and the former owner donated $700, 000 for sharing by the employees when he sold the company to Zenith. The impact of this remuneration strategy is high levels of employee loyalty and satisfaction (Robbins, Decenzo and Coulter 2011). Good pay package has also been linked with lower rates of employee turnover and the increased ability of a company to attract highly talented employee. 3.0 Improving Audio Technical training program Employee learning and training programs at Audio technical can be improved in number of ways to make them more effective. Employee learning and training at Audio Technical takes the form of regular training programs in new program development. While equipping employees with skills to enable them develop new products is crucial it misses some of the objectives of employee learning and training. 3.1 Addressing Skill Deficit First, wholesale training of employee in new product development does not address the lack of skills that may be apparent among some Audio Technical employees. Audio Technical should develop a learning program that aims at raising the skills levels of some of its poorly performing employees. 3.2 Training Innovators Secondly, Audio Technical has very highly skilled employees who contribute new product development ideas. To drive these ideas, the organization should select the employee with good idea and train them how to make their ideas into products (Ramlall 2004). 3.3 Leadership Development Program Thirdly, Audio Technical lacks a leadership development program to ensure that it produces new leader from within. The three new executives selected by Zenith were hired from outside the organization indicating that there is no leadership development program at Audio Technical operations. 3.4 Providing Further training opportunities Audio technical provides a technical training for its employees and pays for the expenses of the training program. However, Audio Technical does not offer its employee opportunities for them to further their skill in external educational institutions. According to the case, Employee training takes place at the factories and technical colleges. In contrast, organizations that are honestly interested in employee development offer their employee time off to engage in skill improvement outside the organization’s training program. Some organizations go as far as paying for the training of their employees in institutions of higher learning, while for others it is enough to provide their employee with time to improve their skills (Ramlall 2004). 3.5 Training workers with a view of the future Audio Technical seems to engage its employee in training when they get contracts to manufacture new products. This shows that Audio Technical training program reacts to production orders rather than preparing their workers to be able to manufacture new products. According to Van Dyk et al (2001) any training program should focus into turning employee into crucial assets in the company’s long-term strategy. Most organizations that have waited for order to train employees mostly engage in haphazard employee training programs that later fail. These organization view employee training as time away from their work stations therefore wasting work hours. 4.0 Addressing poor levels of motivation in Production 4.1 Job matching Low levels of motivation among production employee can be addressed in a number of ways including Job Matching (Ramlall 2004). The concept of Job matching ensures an employee is assigned the job they excel in and thus enjoy the most. When individuals are successful at tackling one task they are more motivated to tackle more challenging tasks. Job match has been widely used in most organizations to promote an enthusiasm for work. 4.2 Effective Conflict Resolution According to Van Dyk et al (2001) poor conflict resolution is one of the major causes of low levels of motivation in the workplace. In the cases study, the only reference to conflict resolution is where the CEO keeps his doors open to indicating he is ready to listen to employee complaints. 4.3 Modernization The founder of Audio Technical believed by engaging employee in 80 per cent of the production process means they are motivated in producing high quality product (Robbins, Decenzo and Coulter 2011). Thus, Audio Technical makes little use of production technology in manufacturing its products. This manual production may be tiring to workers and thus audio tech needs to use technology to ease the workload in the production department. 4.4 Acknowledging Individual Performance One of the surest ways to motivate employee is to praise them for their contribution to the organizations performance (Ramlall 2004). If an employee performs an assigned task well theyshould be recognized and preferably in front of theirco-workers. Similarly, if a particular team performs particularly well they should be similarly acknowledged. 4.5 Staying Honest The takeover by Zenith may have led to the loss of the sense of job security at Audio Technical. The move to appoint new executives to head the London, Glasgow and Oxford operation are major indicators of the changes in the organization (Robbins, Decenzo and Coulter 2011). Employee might be worried that the organization is going to lay off some workers; such worries may translate to lower levels of employee motivation. By being open and honest about the changes the CEO can make sure that staff morale is not affected. 4.6 Task variety According to Fredrick Herzberg, production employee can be motivated by assigning them a variety of tasks (Ramlall 2004). Task variety can be achieved by changing employees from one task to the other. Audio Technical for example can have some of the Glasgow employee work in the laboratory at Oxford and vice versa. This approach ensures that employee have a more enriching job experience than just working at one station in the same location all year round. 4.7 Work/Life balance Audio Technical should recognize that their employee need some time off work to rest. Frequent breaks during working hours can to increase motivation among factory workers (Ramlall 2004). The management should also show respect for lunch breaks and other after work schedules to achieve optimum levels of employee motivation among the production employees. 4.8 Piece Work Bonus According to Van Dyk et al (2001) the offering of performance incentives when they produce more is a sure way of motivating production employees. Audio Technical may use this approach to arrest the lowering motivation in the production department. However, they must reject low quality products as quality goes down when quantity increases. Audio Technical must continues insisting on the employee delivering high quality products. 5.0 Present Organizational Structure Founder led organization are more likely to have a proactive approaches in management. From the case study, David James as the CEO of Audio Technical approaches most management issues with consideration for the future (Eddleston, 2008). Furthermore, founder leaders tend to make organizational decision making on heuristics informed by their extensive experience in managing the organization. Similarly, David James shows a high disposition towards regular employee training and the belief that employee should be engaged in the product development from start to finish. As the leader of the organization, David James made most of the Human resource management decision. The successful employee motivation strategy was based on the leading style of David James. When Zenith takes over Audio Technical this organizational structure is changed and James is removed as the CEO of the organization. This move is likely to create a leadership vacuum which may affect employee motivation. According to Eddleston (2008), the leadership change in founder led organizations should be handled carefully. First, the Audio technical should celebrate the what David James achieved and engage the employee in the search for a successor. Secondly, the organization should communicate to the employees the reason for the transition. Thirdly, Audio Technical should have clarified its core values and identified the characteristics it needed in the person who was to replace the departing CEO. Following these steps would ensure that the employees in the organization are pleased with the leaders who would step in James’s big shoes. Conclusion The report above identifies the major leadership issues in the company. Of interest to note is that the issues identified above are not specific to such an organization but they can also be generalized to other organizations. In addition to the issues raised above, the report sets out the mood of how the company can improve its training and development program for the overall benefit of the organization. Poor levels of motivation as a problem affecting most organizations is discussed with suggestions on how the CEO can improve employee motivation in the production department to ensure that there topmost production in the organization for production determines the success of the company. The problem of organizational structure caused by the departure of the founder are discussed and a solution for the problem suggested. References Eddleston, K. A 2008, Commentary: The prequel to family firm culture and stewardship: The leadership perspective of the founder, Entrepreneurship theory and practice, vol 32, no. 6, pp. 1055-1061. Kanter, R. M 2003, Challenge of organizational change: How companies experience it and leaders guide it, Simon and Schuster, New York. Ramlall, S 2004, A review of employee motivation theories and their implications for employee retention within organizations, Journal of American Academy of Business, vol 5, no 1/2, pp. 52-63. Robbins, S. P., DeCenzo, D. A., & Coulter, M. K. 2011, Fundamentals of management: essential concepts and applications, Peason, London Van Dyk, P. S., Gerber, P. D., Haasbroek, G. D., Schultz, H. B., Sono, T., & Werner, A. 2001, Human resources management, Oxford University, Cape Town Read More