Question Response form Case Study - Essay Example

Dick inherited problems at Modrow plant; he was not included in initial planning and spent a lot of time in getting up to speed. His friendly and easy going attitude was not appreciated in the English plant as well as the Modrow plant by Canadian workers, as his casual strolls were considered as suspicious and steadily his stature and authority as a plant manager was undermined by the workers. The limitations he had as a leader was his inability to understand accounting practices and delegating tasks to his sub-ordinates, as a result he started taking interest in minor or unimportant issues of the plant.

This micro management kept him away from core issues rising from expansion and modernization of the plant. His attempts to gain insights by spending time in manufacturing area were not ideal and a trusting behavior towards middle management should have brought better results in implementing the changes he wanted. He was not furnished by the relevant information by middle management as they had doubts about his abilities as a leader additionally his obsession for gaining insight from workers left the middle management with lack of trust in him.

In order for a successful change to come whether it is cost saving initiative, modernization or expansion Dick should have paid attention to more strategic issues of the time and used his time for inculcating trust within management, there are many leaders who lack the technical knowledge or experience but they achieve results by leaving the technical aspects of the work to technical staff communicating with their line managers and not seeing everything as a potential for cost saving initiatives.

A gradual or incremental change would have helped Dick in first normalizing the situation due to his appointment ahead of local operating staff, gain trust of managers by staying away from the workers followed by understanding the modernization and expansion challenges. This change is suggested keeping the personality of Dick in consideration, consequently an authoritative leader would have opted for a rapid change while resisting forces would have been removed or sidelined. Dick was not authoritative and it was sheer nuisance that made him show anger towards the foremen, the strategic change approach best for him was the above said incremental one with less suspicion and exploration towards prevailing methods used by workers (Daft, 2010).

Question 2. The change or improvement measure proposed by Dick to the foremen was justified and could have saved costs, what Dick missed in bringing this change was the consideration of issues faced by workers and how they wanted to work. The reason foremen disagreed with him was due to his lack of trust in him as a leader, alternatively Dick should have requested the siding manager to implement the new method of scrapping. Dick did not follow the chain of command nor did he uphold his stature as a plant manager, as a result he was ignored by the foremen and the workers alike.

Change is always faced by resistance; this resistance comes from confusion or the need to continue status quo hence such resisting elements should be dealt by the managers by addressing concerns of the workers and explaining value addition to them and to the organization. Even though Dick’s intentions were good but his approach led to the