Report on the analysis of the workplace behavior of Western Sydney - Essay Example

?REPORT ON THE ANALYSIS OF THE WORKPLACE BEHAVIOR OF WESTERN SYDNEY Generally, it can be pointed out that the managerial structures of Western Sydneyis undergoing significant changes and this is inevitably leading to conflicts. The main points of contention are in the scope of Carlene, the new CEO, the Operations Manager and the Human Resource Manager. The behaviors, attitudes and skills of these three personalities has a strong effect on the overall attainment of the Group's results as well as implications for the staff and other managers of the company. Carlene, CEO Carlene has obviously prepared herself to take up the responsibility of the Chief Executive Officer of a company in the Australian garment sector. This is obvious in the training as well as hard work she has put into her work as a manager in the Western Sydney Group. This trend of hard work seem to complement her young age and inclinations for innovation and new systems and methods. This obviously influenced the decision of the group's MD to promote her rapidly through the ranks. The meeting between Carlene and the previous CEO of Western Sydney that she succeeded is one that is likely to lead to some kind of bias on the part of Carlene. This is because in the meeting, she was told a lot about how the Operations Manager behaves. There is a good chance that the discussion of the operations manager will lead Carlene to view the Operations Manager as a traditionalist and authoritative figure who eschews change and innovation. This could potentially lead Carlene to see the Operations Manager (OM) as an opponent rather than a partner. Although it was a factual presentation made by the previous CEO, it is something that can change the attitude of Carlene which can lead to a conflict situation. With the need for high profitability and pressure for innovation from the external environment, it is justified that the MD wanted to promote Carlene rapidly to take up the position. This is because the changes in business, which now encompasses sophisticated technology and new and flexible managerial skills require a young leader who can move Western Sydney in a direction that will enable it to attain and sustain competitive advantage to ensure the survival and growth of Western Sydney in the light of new requirements of the external environment. Therefore the promotion of Carlene is appropriate. This therefore means that Carlene has a duty of meeting the requirements of Western Sydney, which is something she has proven to be capable of right from her position at the middle rank. Although Western Sydney is the main revenue generator for the group, it is worthwhile for them to put Carlene there as the CEO since she has the qualities necessary to steer the company to meet the requirements they have. Her one-month work at Western Sydney was a good point to get her to familiarize herself with the work environment and make changes as and when necessary. Carlene's identification of the stagnation and the traditionalist approach used by the Western Sydney was her justification for the alteration of the subsidiary's strategy from a conservative one to a more profitable business model that will generate profits. This is therefore the impetus for the need to change certain structures in different departments of Western Sydney, including the Operations Department where it can be logically inferred that the Operations Manager is maintaining a very traditionalist and authoritative structure which supports the stagnation identified by Carlene. There is therefore the need for the MD to give Carlene all the necessary support to attain this to ensure that Western Sydney, the cash cow of the group remains productive into the future. In the confrontation between the Operations Manager and the junior staff member, Carlene was using the mild form of disciplinary action in organizations, counseling to try to assert the fact that the Operations Manager went too far by physically assaulting the junior staff member. Assertive behavior is where an individual tries to justify, explain and get another person to understand the need for a certain course of action (O'Donohue & Fisher, 2008). This was exactly what Carlene attempted to do in paragraph 8, where she pointed out the meaning of the Operations Manager's actions. In an assertive discourse, the Operations Manager would have been reasonably expected to justify his actions or explain why he acted the way he did and make some demands. However, he vented out and walked out on the CEO. This was obviously not appropriate. Carlene acted as a good leader by allowing the operations manager some time to ponder over his actions and make amendments as it is required in another meeting she would arrange. In addition to this, Carlene instructed the HRM to keep a close eye on the OM. This is justified on the grounds that the behavior the OM was exhibiting in recent time was potentially destructive and could deteriorate into so many conflict situations which might be unpleasant. Giving instructions to the HRM to watch the OM closely was in order to prevent any future issues that the OM would bring up as he was building up an unbecoming chain of conducts. Carlene's professional skepticism about the Operations Manager's inability to manage people in his department is a good one. It will prompt her to examine the behavior of the OM critically and possibly come up with very constructive recommendations in the future like further management training and other forms of counseling that will enable the OM to improve his managerial competencies. This will enable him to become a better manager and also complement his abilities and skills as a good operations manager who meets his targets. Additionally, Carlene also needs to gain more experience and intimate contact with the production activities of Western Sydney. This is because the accusation of her being inexperienced is valid. There is therefore the need for her to catch up with the technical elements of the business and not only the managerial components like meeting targets. It will do her a lot of good by getting more involved in the actual production process by spending more time in the production site to get a clear understanding of the realities in the production process. At the moment, the subordinates of Carlene are aware of the conflict between her and the OM. This is because it appears that Western Sydney has a strong informal communication system and the grapevine works very effectively. They have therefore gotten wind of what is going on between their CEO and OM and they are waiting to see what is going to happen next. Operations Manager (OM) The Operations Manager is undoubtedly a very experienced individual in what he does. He seem to have the competencies necessary to move the company to its strategic destination. All other individuals working at the company this therefore makes him a rare individual and a vital part of any progressive activity that they would be involved in. Such an individual needs to be included in the strategy of the organization even if he has some excesses as this operations manager seem to have. The Operations Manager seem to be in independent minded individual who always wants to do things according to a given plan or target. This is evident in the fact that the previous CEO stated that he is able to work within budget and meet targets. This presents the OM as a traditionalist who always works according to laid down principles and procedures. He appears to be a disciplined person and a disciplinarian who treasures authoritative systems and structures. From the description of the OM by the previous CEO, it appears that the OM is also someone who does not accept innovative ideas and concepts easily. He appears to be one who does not accept new ideas very often and will always want to maintain the old structures he is accustomed to For such an individual in his position to assault another staff member in a discussion, it appears that the staff member was either breaching or challenging an authoritative situation that he observed religiously. This therefore means that the variations in the thoughts and actions of the OM means that he has a very different and unique standpoint about matters that need to be respected in his operations and activities in the company. In the discussion where he stormed out of Carlene's office, it appears that he put up an aggressive behavior. According to O'Donohue & Fisher (2008), aggressive behavior occurs where a person tries to force his views on another person whether the person accepts them or not. So venting out and storming out of the CEO's office suggests that he had preconceptions about Carlene which were not so favorable and he presented it to her in a very confrontational manner. The OM's traditionalist and authoritative behavior seem to have been exhibited by way of sexism and ageism. In other words, he seem to have something against a woman and a younger person becoming her superior. He seem to be used to taking instructions from a man rather than a woman and a peer rather than a person young enough to be his daughter (considering the fact that he is approaching retirement age and she is very young). It therefore shows that the OM has a genuine conflict and disdain for Carlene, being his boss in the first place. Also, by calling the MD directly, the OM broke the chain of command and his reporting relationship with the CEO. This is because it is conventional for managers to discuss conflicts within the organization before going to higher authorities. By calling the MD and head of the group, it suggests that he has little respect for Carlene as CEO. This is because he had all the time to resolve the issue with Carlene but she did not find it expedient to do so. On the other hand, he went all out to threaten a 'mutiny' which is quite a serious word to use. So it can be inferred that the OM broke the chain of command and betrayed the trust of her superior, which is quite a serious issue in organizations. The Human Resource Manager (HRM) First of all, the Human Resource Manager went to brief Carlene about the incident informally. This is because no formal complaint was made by the victimized staff member. Due to that, the human resource manager could only tell the CEO but not take any formal action. Secondly, the disciplinary actions outlined by the HR department cannot be applied against the OM because there is no formal complainant. If the assaulted employee comes over to make a complaint, then some form of action can be taken. However, in the absence of any such complaints, the best option available to the HRM was to make a verbal complaint and Carlene, as CEO carried it up through counseling which was practically the most extreme thing she could do. In line with this, the HRM cannot do much about the conduction and actions of the OM but try to ameliorate the effect of the conflict in the organization. One of them is to conduct job rotations if it is possible through a training simulation to enable Carlene to get a feel of production at Western Sydney and also get the OM to get to know how it feels to become a CEO. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE SITUATION Most of the conflict can be resolved by the Managing Director of the Western Sydney Group rather than Carlene as CEO. This is because the MD seem to have the confidence of the Operations Manager. On the other hand, the MD also put Carlene in her position because he believes she has the competency to ensure the survival of the Western Sydney Group. The onus is therefore on the MD to handle the conflict in a win-win situation rather than allow it to rage on. Prior to resolving the conflict, the MD and the Board of Directors will need to draw a succession plan for the OM who is due for retirement soon. They will need to identify a way of training someone in the next year who would be capable of playing the role of the OM and also support Carlene in attaining strategic results. Once this is clear, the board and MD should find a way of hiring an ideal person and get him to join Western Sydney in an appropriate capacity to understudy the OM. When this is clarified, the MD can go ahead to resolve the conflict. The MD must call a meeting with each of the two parties separately. First of all, he needs to request a detailed report on Carlene's strategic plan and meet with her to discuss it. After the discussion, he should advice her about the importance of the OM and the benefits Carlene stand to gain by trying to convince him to become an asset to her strategic plan for the subsidiary. After that, the MD will need to call the Operations Manager and listen to his side of the story about his assault of the staff member and other managerial related challenges he faces in the organization. When he is done, the MD should explain the problems those conflict could cause for the organization as a whole and for the OM as an individual. When it is apparent that the OM has understood his need for change, the MD can discuss the new strategies that are going to be implemented in Western Sydney. He will have to outline the new plans and the need for Carlene in her position as CEO. He should use his abilities and competency to demystify the concept of a lady boss and a younger boss. When this is done, he can give the OM details of the elements of Carlene's strategic plan for Western Sydney as though he is the one presenting them. The criticisms of the OM should be sought and the MD would have to note them skeptically. The MD will have to think things through and examine the expectations of Carlene and match them with the obvious limitations raised by the OM and then draw compromises. In drawing a compromise, he should also be sensitive to the succession plan for the OM. He should find the best way of infusing the training of a new OM successor in the modified strategy. Afterward, he should call both Carlene and the OM and present the final strategic plan to both of them in clear terms. He should brief them of the succession plan adopted by the board and specify how the training of a successor will affect the strategy. The MD should monitor the reports of Carlene and the OM closely regularly to ensure that they are both working according to plan and all conflicts are being resolved. Also, he should arrange periodic meetings with the successor of the OM to evaluate his progress and gain information that can be vital in the development of the Western Sydney in the future. References O'Donohue William, T & Fisher, Jane (2008) Cognitive Behavior Therapy Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Read More