High Noon at Alpha Mills - Essay Example

High Noon at Alpha Mills 5th, November, The objective of this case study is to ascertain the key issues and decisions pertaining to the company by providing an analysis and recommendations on how the directors or manager could have prevented these problems. Background and Key Issues Alpha plantation is an oil palm plantation located in Malaysia in south East Asia. The company is owned and managed by the British and forms one of the subsidiaries of the British multinational company. The company was formed with the sole purpose of supplying crude palm oil for its parents company in Britain. The purpose of the palm oil is to manufacture detergents, which are used as ingredients for manufacturing soaps, cooking oil among other purposes. Ever since its formation, the company has been recruiting top management staff from England and other UK countries with the majority of its employees being retired military and police personnel (Woods, 2009). A laborer by the name Mr. Ang Siow Lee first joined the company in 1965 at a tender age of 15 years where he rose to become the senior non-managerial staff in the company. Mr. Ang is a senior production supervisor at the company whereby his only superior is the mill manager and he has two junior supervisors to assist him in his work. The company has three shifts of 25 employees where each supervisor takes charge of one shift. As a manager, Mr. Ang is responsible for quite a number of tasks, which he carries out in the company. He oversees smooth daily operations at the company. Moreover, he is responsible for coordinating all the activities of all the three shifts of the company with his two supervisors. He also prepare the daily pro-action reports, and deals with short term human resource management matters as well as minor issues related with discipline in the company. Mr. Ang is also responsible for setting and evaluation of short-term performances that are targets for the company’s three shifts of employees (Springett, 2004). Mr. Ang also acts as an assistant for the manager, which means that he is responsible for all matters before they can send to the manager. In most cases, Mr. Ang successfully evaluates these issues and solves them before reaching the manager. To achieve this success, Mr. Ang has developed an efficient way of handling matters related to the company. In 1999, the palm oil industry in Malaysia faced very many challenges in which Mr. Ang was to play a part to stabilize the situation at Alpha Plantations Sdn. Bhp. The company experienced a plunge in the price of oil due to oversupply, where the prices of oil reduced to a 15-year low mark. This caused a decrease in the profits obtained by Alpha Plantations Sdn. Bhp. The reduction in the level of profits led to regular losses for the company. Following the decreasing performance of the company, a new manager, Mr. Davidson, was appointed to oversee the proper running of the company and a return to profitability. However, few things were lacking in the management competences of Mr. Davidson. He had no prior management experience in agriculture product processing. His responsibility as a manager was to reduce the cost of production, increase the amounts of profit, create work teams to replace the shifts, empower the teams created to enhance performance whereby the supervisors would work as team players for the work teams. The new manager would also oversee the installation of new machinery that would be based on new technology. In addition, the manager would oversee the adoption of more strict performance measures that would result into profitability (Foley, 2009). However, the team formed by Mr. Davidson encountered various challenges such that Mr. Ang would regularly come in as a senior production supervisor to teach them how to solve the problems. Moreover, the new performance standard and reduced work force led to underperformance for the company. This state of affairs formed many deterrents for Mr. Ang since he had to explain the performance of teams without their feedback. Due to the pressure involved Mr. Ang had to spend more time and work harder to help realize the noble goal of the company. The poor performance of the company led to the termination of the work contract with Mr. Ang. Analysis of the Case Alpha Plantations Sdn. Bhp failed in the process of transformation due to lack of implementation of various leadership technicalities. The appointment of new leaders to the company at a time when the company was undergoing a downturn led to various to crop up. The new management failed to implement structural, technical, and cultural value before implementing a multidimensional change. The new leadership failed to endorse various key concepts of multidimensional change such as communication. Before any change in a company to be implemented, it is important to communicate effectively with employees. This means that a manager needs to establish relationships with their employees to gain their trust, respect, and confidence. The manager ought to have realized that communication was vital in the organization to create an innovative and stable environment. Alpha Plantations Sdn. Bhp also failed in its endeavors for a change since it did not take into consideration the issue of organization culture. Culture needs to be embedded in any business when developing plans for change. The culture of Alpha Plantations Sdn. Bhp required nurturing and support during the implementation era so that it would succeed. Moreover, the new culture would also have required extensive time education and reinforcements during the transitional period in order for the teams to endorse it fully (Jepson, 2009). Leadership Styles Different leadership styles can be seen fro he two different leaders at Alpha Plantations Sdn. Bhp. From the case, we can learn that Ang held legitimate power while he was the senior production supervisor at the company. He also had superior technical skills from his twenty years of experience. This enabled him to gain expert and referent power as the mill manager. Davidson as well held legitimate powers as a manager. He had reward power as a newly appointed mill manager. He also had authority powers having introduced organizational changes and appraised his juniors. Moreover, Davidson had expert powers with his knowledge in business management (Carolyn & Herman, 2000). The two leaders, however, employed different leadership styles to solve problems in the company. Mr. Ang used directive leadership style and was more tasks oriented than Mr. Davidson was. Mr. Ang would engage himself in solving problems that arose in the firm by personally giving direct orders as opposed to discussing possible solutions. Moreover, Mr. Ang made sure that his juniors attained efficiency targets through giving those technical responses every time necessary, which gave way to a transactional leadership. Contrariwise, Davison’s management style was participative and supportive. The leader was sensitive towards the emotions of the employees. This can be seen when the leader tells Mr. Ang to treat employees with respect. Mr. Davidson formed self-direct teams, which he would encourage to find solutions independently to help tackle problems in the company. Unlike Mr. Ang, Davidson’s leadership style was goal oriented which he used to establish clear initiatives and goals. Davison used more rigorous performance processes and understood that the workers could accomplish their expectations. Alternatives and Recommendations Alpha Plantations Sdn. Bhp. has various alternatives that it would use in its leadership styles to return to profitability. The company should gain expertise in the handling of its leadership styles. In this alternative, the company should gain the background information and task oriented information to identify problems and develop techniques to use. Moreover, the company should promote an image of expertise since apparent expertise in many professions is related with somebody’s learning and experience. The company should seek new leaders who should ensure that assistants and managers are aware of their formal education, pertinent job familiarity, and important accomplishments. References Carolyn, P. E., & Herman, S. (2000). Leadership in the North American environmental sector: Values, leadership styles, and contexts of environmental leaders and their organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 43(4), 571-604. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/199788122?accountid=45049 Foley, M. (2009). Gordon brown and the role of compounded crisis in the pathology of leadership decline. British Politics, 4(4), 498-513. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/bp.2009.19 Jepson, D. (2009). Leadership context: The importance of departments. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 30(1), 36-52. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437730910927098 Springett, N. (2004). Corporate purpose as the basis of moral leadership of the firm. Strategic Change, 13(6), 297-307. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/216330448?accountid=45049 Woods, C. R. (2009). Followership as a complement to leadership: An analysis of the relationship between leader member exchange and followership types. Capella University). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 155-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/305161673?accountid=45049 Read More