Bob Beall at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation - Case Study Example

 Bob Beall at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Name: Institution: Introduction Since it was started in 1955, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has seen a number of challenges as well as a number of structural changes (Kaplan & Hood, 2009). The changes that helped it to continually improve include shifting its headquarters. Moving its headquarters to DC was one major positive step because it brought to a central point where it would gain recognition. The change of its organization structure to give it a centralized structure was also another important change for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Context of this disease Cystic Fibrosis is a rare disease and very few people know about it. It being an orphan disease means that it is hard for it to get funding for research on the area. This means that Cystic Fibrosis Foundation had to suffer issues with funding. Because Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is a rare and also a genetic disease make it hard for research on the disease to be done as smoothly as other non genetic and maintain diseases. Bob Beall’s Leadership Democratic The kind of leadership that Bob Beall displayed was the democratic leadership. It is very clear that he uses democratic leadership. In the case study, it has been identified that he never pressured his researchers to deliver result. His favorite quote was “no pressure” which means that he always believed that his researchers did not have to be pushed or micromanaged to be able to perform better. However, this did not mean that he did not have compassion for the patients who needed to have a working medication as soon as possible. His passion to start working for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is enough proof that he was determined to develop a solution for this issue that was affecting so many lives, especially the young ones. Advantages of this kind of leadership One of the major advantages of this kind of leadership is that it allows innovation. In the long term, this is good for such an organization that is focused on research to develop a solution that has not been developed in the past. Democratic leadership has the advantage of the fact that the subordinates are allowed to be in control of their work. This increases motivation as people are naturally happy with autonomy and are not happy when they are being micromanaged. In such a environment where people with such specialized and expert-level skills as the kind people who were doing research at Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, it is necessary to give them freedom since this kind of research requires them to be creative and to not operate under a structured environment. This allows them to explore all the possibilities and allows them to be flexible in what they do, thus raising the chance of successes. As described in the case study, the experts who were doing research in Cystic Fibrosis Foundation come from different disciplines and there was a need to make sure that they are given autonomy. Beall’s leadership made this kind of autonomy possible and this went a long way in helping Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to be successful and achieve the kind of success that it got. Beall is also the kind of person that leads from the front. This can be seen in his undying effort to get more funding for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation even when the stakes were very low. Instead of just hoping that people would see the point and donate, he worked with so much effort to make sure that funding continued to come in. he understood the challenges of getting funding for an orphan disease research. But Beall understood that he had to push on. The democratic leadership also receives less resistance and this means that the most effort is concentrated to solving problems as opposed to solving disputes between people. In a place where a democratic leadership is used, there are fewer wrangles between the subordinate and the management. This is very important in making sure that the productivity, both in terms of the amount of work and in terms of innovation is increased. Disadvantages Democratic leadership is however not without its own kinds of challenges. For instance, it can be risky when the people are not motivated to be self driven. Democratic leadership only works when the people being managed are the kinds of people who have a personal drive to perform. If the people lack this, then a democratic form of leadership will only affect the organization in a negative way. Current challenges for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Some of the current challenge that Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is facing today is the fact that they have not yet delivered a fully effective medication, despite it being over halve a century years after it was founded. This leads to doubts by funders as to whether this is another pipe dream whose funding needs to be stopped or it has any promise in the future. The other challenge for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is the fact that it has gained much success and so some funders believe that it no longer needs funding anymore. This risks that this brings in is the fact that the funding may stop. Furthermore, there is the issue of the fact that Cystic Fibrosis is a rare disease and this makes it more difficult for the firm to be able to convince more funders to be willing to fund it. Board members issues Some of the problems that the board members for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation are the expenses as compared to fundraising Investment fund. There may a conflict between the board members and the kind researchers with regard to how the fundraiser money is supposed to be spent. This can lead to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation failing because as it was identified in the case, there cannot be any science without the money. The researchers want to be well funded in order for them to be able to do high quality research that can lead to the problem being solved. Failing to give this kind of support to the researchers will only mean that they will not only lose their motivation but will also be unable to do their research as required. Referece Kaplan, R. & Hood, S. (2009). Bob Beall At The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School. Read More