Dick Spencer - Research Paper Example

? Dick Spencer: Case Analysis of the Introduction The case begins with the discussion of Dick Spencer’s professional career and how his professional career negatively impacted his personal life. The discussion was going on between Dick Spencer and a couple of university professors. The case study highlights about Dick Spencer, who works as a Vice President in one of the large manufacturing firms. However, prior to that he was a plant manager of a Modrow Company, which was also the Canadian branch office of Tri-American Corporation. Tri-American Corporation was a major player in the aluminum manufacturing industry and it was also involved in the integrated operations such as mining of bauxite, processing and fabrication that result in various end products. The company employed around 22,000 people has presence in different parts of the world. The company followed a decentralized organizational structure that allowed plan managers to gain extra control and authority over the operation but at the same time the pressure of profitability was significant. In order to further experience growth the company had accomplished an expansion project and modernization project. The cost of this project was very high, but the return on investment was expected to surpass the initial investment and that made the project feasible. Despite that the plant manager, Dick Spencer was a bit more skeptical about the viability of the project and as a precautionary measure the manager initiated a campaign that encouraged employees to cut expenses in whatever ways possible. He also urged employees to reduce the expenses and cut down cost to the highest possible extent. This report seeks to identify the key factors that contributed to Spencer’s success as a salesperson and tribulations as a manager. The report will also throw light on these factors that led to success as a salesman or his failure as a manager. Lastly, the study will recommend some of the steps or techniques that could be adopted which will help have Dick Spencer to become successful as a manager. Factors Contributing to Spencer’s success as a Salesperson and Tribulations as a Manager Selling and management are two different domains of business as the duties greatly differ from one another (Boles, Brashear, Bellenger & Barksdale, 2000). However, both the functions play imperative role in the success of a company. A sale is a key organizational function and the sales personnel plays key role in bringing revenues for the organization. In doing so a sales person generally exhibits various exceptional qualities. On the contrary, management is another vital function of an organization (Matsuno, Mentzer & Rentz, 2000). It helps in ensuring the organizational tasks are accomplished in a systematic and timely manner. Furthermore, the people of management also have the responsibility to administer the organizational activities and making decisions at every point of time. However, success or failure on these given fields greatly depends upon certain factors. In this context the factors which were responsible for Mr. Dick’s failure and success are underlined below: - Charming personality and business knowledge According to the viewpoint of the colleagues of Mr. Dick, he had a charming personality and good looks. Moreover, Mr. Dick also possessed sound business knowledge. The ability to sell products also needs special mention. This allowed Mr. Dick to become one of the successful salesmen of the company. In addition to these qualities, Mr. Dick also had a tremendous amount of energy and during his initial days enjoyed the work of a salesman. Despite, friend’s advice to switch into sales management jobs, he continued to act as a salesman. This clearly reflects the extent to which Mr. Dick was a self motivating person and how passion for sales had driven him. Self Motivation Self motivation is another major factor that played a significant role in the development of Mr. Dick as a salesperson. Eminent Scholar such as Pelham (2002) emphasizes that self motivation is a dynamic state which results in desire, persistence and directional intensity of behavior and help individuals to achieve both long term and short term goals. Authors such as Kark & Van Dijk (2007) enlightens that the sales performance of an individual is greatly dependent upon the level of his or her self motivation. In this regards, Mr. Dick was a self motivated person. His zeal and eagerness of selling was the consequence of his self motivation. There are several factors as well that led to his failure as a manager. According to eminent scholars such as Kark, Shamir & Chen (2003) management is a completely different function than selling and requires additional skills. A manager is generally responsible for overseeing and administering the work progress of the company. In addition, his or her job role is also to allocate resources, controlling and monitoring the activities, creating a harmony among the team members, motivating the work force and promoting team work within the organization. Hence, there are certain factors that are important in the success and failure of a manager. In the context of Mr. Dick, some of the factors played decisive role in his success or failure as a manger. The factors are detailed below. Micromanagement One of the major issues that led to the failure of Mr. Dick as a manager was micromanagement. Mr. Dick Spencer adopted a leadership style that was characterized by micromanaging. This management approach by the manager led to low employee morale. Eminent scholars such as Ryan & Deci (2000) put emphasis on the fact that a micromanagement leadership approach generally causes dependency on others, poor employee morale, lack of confidence and inefficiency. Despite knowing the bad impacts of his leadership style he continued to harness this style which again reflected Mr. Dick’s inability to understand the need of employees. Moreover, according to Baard, Deci & Ryan (2004) such leadership styles creates a laziness among the minds of the workers which hinders them from performing challenging task and get self motivated. Leithwood & Mascall (2008) stated that this mental laziness occurs due to their thought that no matter how the work or performance, their manager will make them rework on the task according to what he or she feels is the right way of accomplishing it. On the contrary, renowned scholars such as Deci & Ryan (2000) stated that employees would be working more effectively if they feel that their ideas are valuable and are appreciated by the manager. Micromanagement has all the ingredients required for diminishing these values and at times becomes abusive for the employees. Unorthodox Nature After becoming the plant manager at Morrow, the manager seemed to have developed a habit of strolling around the office. In this regard, eminent scholars such as Ryan ( 2006) mentioned that strolling behavior of the manger has both positive effect as well as negative effect. The positive effects appear in the form of careful employees and better productivity. However, due to this action, employees often get apprehended about their activities and doubt whether they are being monitored or not. This seriously impedes self motivation of the employees and increases anxiety among employees. Mr. Dick strolled throughout the office ranging from design offices, plant floor, and desks of a purchasing agent or accountant and as a result of this, managers, supervisors, and foremen remained mentally disturbed. Hence, this attitude of Mr. Dick is one of the major reasons that made him unpopular among the employees. The study also revealed that his intentions to remain casual and relaxed had backfired. Conclusion The study was meant to analyze or identify the factors that led to Spencer’s success as a Salesperson and Tribulations as a Manager. The study found that several factors are important for an individual’s success in professional life. In the case of Mr. Dick Spencer, charming personality, self motivation, business knowledge and capability of sales acted as a driving factor for him to achieve success in the field of sales. However, when it comes to managerial task, these factors do remain that much significant. Although charming personality helps in pursuing charismatic leadership, but the managerial skills are most important. It has been found that Mr. Dick is pursuing micromanagement which often acts as a negative factor. Furthermore, unorthodox behavior also resulted in his failure as a manager as it dissatisfied the employees working under him and caused a stressful environment. He tried to remain causal and relaxed with the employees which also acted negatively. Hence, from these findings, it is evident that in order to become a successful manager, one needs to have certain skills and capabilities. Recommendations Every year, thousands of people switch their job roles from staff engineer, salesman and other professions to managerial positions. Due to this shift in role, individuals often experiences difficulty in managing with the new role. In this context, a new manager should ensure that he or she possesses the required skill for being an effective manager. Similarly for Mr. Dick, it is essential that he gains certain skills that will allow him to work effectively as the manager. Hence, the recommendations are meant for the manager about how he can improve managerial skills. In order to improve the managerial skills of Mr. Dick following are the recommendations: - Mr. Dick is recommended to gain managerial skills by attending different seminars. Attending these kinds of seminars will help Mr. Dick to understand the different ways by which Mr. Dick can effectively manage his followers. He is also recommended to bring certain behavioral changes in him. For example, he should be more open and must be approachable to the employees. This will help in creating a harmony between the followers and Mr. Dick. Mr. Dick is also recommended to encourage employees and follow democratic leadership style. Following this particular leadership style will allow Mr. Dick to make the final decagon, but he will be able to involve the employees in the decision making process (Reeve, Nix & Hamm, 2003). Furthermore, with this approach, Mr. Dick will be able to encourage creativity and team work. In addition, some of the other advantages of democratic leadership style are that it provides high job satisfaction and enhances the skills of the employees. Lastly, Mr. Dick is recommended to delegate additional responsibilities to the employees. Majority of the employees will be satisfied by this approach as offing additional responsibility will make them feel important. In addition rewarding and praising for a good job also boosts the morale of the employees (Roth, Assor, Kanat-Maymon & Kaplan, 2006). References Baard, P. P., Deci, E. L. & Ryan, R. M. (2004). Intrinsic need satisfaction: a motivational basis of performance and well-being in two work settings. 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