Leaders at Dubai Refreshments - Case Study Example

Table of Contents Blue Mountain Questionnaire Based Research 3 Background of the Organization 3 Nature of Work of Sampled Leaders & Managers 4 Methodology 7 Survey Results 8 Research Findings 13 Conclusion, Recommendations & Limitations 15 References 17 Appendix 19 Questionnaires 20 Scoring 25 Blue Mountain Questionnaire Based Research Background of the Organization The purpose of this study is to conduct a primary research through which the leadership styles of actual managers and leaders in an organization would be assessed using the format and guidelines provided by the Blake and Mouton questionnaire. In accordance with the guidelines provided by Blake and Mouton, the questionnaire was disseminated to the respondents with their responses recorded. The scoring was determined to assess the leadership style as either being a Country Club style leader, an Authoritarian Leader, a Team Leader or an Impoverished Leader (Molloy, 1998). The company that has been selected for the purpose of this survey based research is the Dubai Refreshments PSC (PepsiCo UAE). In the UAE region, PepsiCo is operated through the franchise distribution business of Dubai Refreshments PSC. The company was initially established as a UAE based franchise in 1994, which has sole franchising and business units’ rights for PepsiCo in the region. The management at the company works in collaboration with that in PepsiCo US, with staff being trained in global and regional markets around the world before being appointed in senior managerial and leadership roles in the organization. The company is responsible for the management of drink, snack and food retail business in the UAE for the particular brands and business units operated by PepsiCo US. The most notable operated brand in the region is Pepsi (Jones, 2012), which has made the company one of the largest beverage companies in the Gulf area (Cherrayil, 2013), particularly in the Southern Gulf region (Dubai Refreshments, 2012) The company seeks to employ the best caliber of people from the market in strategic positions to attain strategic advantage of market knowledge as well as management style in the company. For the purpose of this research a selected sample of five different managers in leadership positions at the Dubai Refreshments PSC (PepsiCo UAE) have been assessed employing the Blake and Mouton survey. Nature of Work of Sampled Leaders & Managers A diverse sample of managers and leaders were targeted with the Blake Mountain questionnaire in order to determine their leadership styles. The leaders selected belonged to different levels of management in the company having different responsibilities and scope of management. This was done in order to attain a wide variety of results, while also assess how they perform to a standardized test for assessing their leadership styles. One of the leader/ managers who were targeted with the questionnaire was the Internal Control Manager for the Middle East & Africa Region. This position involves working closely with the region controller and maintaining systematic as well as working control systems that can be employed to comply with the regulation and audit standards. The Job is categorized under the risk management and the compliance division of finance and management function in the organization. The manager/leader in the position is involved in planning for, developing, setting up and monitoring for evaluation the internal controls in the organization for the reliability and the integrity of the finance and operations of the organization. The person needs to ensure the company polices and regulations are being adhered to and a systematic reporting structure is set. In terms of communication the manager at this position works with people in the finance and IT department and responsible for providing strategic guidance attaining the long terms goals and objectives of the company. This is a significantly senior level position and people in this position are highly experience in their fields with a minimum of 8 to 10 years of working experience. The second manager who was targeted through the questionnaire was the Sales District Leader Designate for the Frito Lay product and brand. The person in this position works in sales and is meant to be a tea player and a team leader. The responsibilities of this position entail the leader to be a motivated individual who has significant leadership talent, can work with and motivate other people and subordinates as well as be results and target oriented. The person is responsible for managing 5,000 route sales in the Dubai region and needs to lead and drive the sales team to increase the volume of sales being made. Simultaneously the person also needs to be able to work in partnership with distributors and retail customers for mutual profitability and benefit. The leader in the position needs to be able to influence other people, be charismatic, and drive profitability and productivity while being very good in interpersonal as well as written communication. A street smart person is usually ideal for this position. The third respondent targeted was the Commercial Manager for Juice, who is basically responsible for strategic business and operations for the Juice products of Dubai Refreshments PSC (PepsiCo UAE). This is a significantly senior level position where the manager is responsible for developing the business plan for future of the products and brands in the region while leading the management and subordinate teams to work towards attaining the goals highlighted in the strategic business forecasts and plans. Moreover thus manager works closely with the line product manager to develop and analyze the products while implementing the commercial marketing initiatives. The position also involves having the manage work with and lead the international account managers for delivering results in terms of achievement of strategic objectives. The fourth manager/ leader targeted for the survey was the Manager Consumer Insights and Strategy who works in the marketing division of the company. The position is a marketing based consumer and sector research position. This leader is responsible for leading the research teams for new product development, market assessment and managing business teams. This manager works with the cross functional teams in with the global managers at Dubai Refreshments PSC (PepsiCo UAE) as well while managing for the supplier selection in areas of operation. This person reports to the director of marketing and direct of market research in the Dubai Refreshments PSC (PepsiCo UAE) Company. The fifth and the final manager who is potentially a leader in his business role as well was the Senior Productivity Manager for the Middle East Africa Region. This person is responsible for executing governance with regards to productivity, change and efficiency in the organization especially in the manufacturing facilities, the distribution centers and the go to market systems in place at the company. The job role is one for a transformational leader who can work with the people, motivate them to perform better and improve their productivity while also drive and manage change in the organization. The person has to be able to drive the sales and production divisions to achieve their targeted objectives on an annual basis while also leading the rolling out of the best practices for operations and tools for productivity as set by the Dubai Refreshments PSC (PepsiCo UAE). In addition to this, the manger is also responsible for facilitating the education and training of the senior and the middle management in the six sigma approach for total quality management. Methodology In order to conduct the research, the HR management at the Dubai Refreshments PSC (PepsiCo UAE) UAE was contacted to gather detailed available information on the managers at the company in leadership positions. This was general information about their job descriptions and the people residing in the positions. Through email, and contact details made available with the collaboration of the HR management who was made aware of the research potential 10 managers were contacted. Of the 10 contacted, 6 agreed to participate in the survey but only five actually assessed through the questionnaire. The HR management was willing to collaborate if the research and its findings were made available to them as well. The survey was conducted after attaining an informed consent (Ortiz et al.) from the respondents, and then through emailed electronic questionnaire delivery method, the respondents were asked to provide their answers as best applicable to their prevalent management and leadership positions. The results were cleaned, making the data comparable by assigning scores to the responses and tabulating the results. The following section depicts the results of the survey. Survey Results After assigning the scores for the tasks and people questions for each respondent, the scores were calculated to be plotted on the X and Y axis of the leadership graph as depicted by Blake and Mouton approach (Blake and Mouton, 1964). The graphs of the managerial grid were set up such that the Y axis represented the People Score of the respondent while the X axis represented the Tasks Score. The results of the survey are depicted through the following graphs. The responses provided by the Internal Control Manager indicate that when plotted on the graph, the coordinates of intersection fall in the Authoritarian region with a score of people 4.6 and task 8.2. The answers to the questionnaire queries as provided by the Sales District Leader Designate indicate that when plotted on the graph, the coordinates of intersection fall in the Team Leader region with a score of people 6.8 and task 6.8. Taking into account and plotting the score tabulated for the Commercial Manager Juice, it was identified that the coordinates of intersection fall in the Country Club region with a score of people 6.6 and task 3.8. The responses of the Manager Consumer Strategy and Insights provided that the coordinates of intersection for him fall in the Team Leader region with a score of people 6.8 and task 7.2. The answers to the questionnaire queries as provided by the Senior Productivity Manager indicate that when plotted on the graph, the coordinates of intersection fall in the Team Leader region with a score of people 7.8 and task 8.2. Research Findings The findings of the research provide that of the five managers and leaders surveyed through the Blake and Mouton questionnaire, only 3 indicated to have characteristics that make them Team Leaders. One of the respondents was reported as being a Country Club style leader, while one was more Authoritarian than others. The Internal Control Manager showed characteristics of being an authoritarian leader who is more concerned about the tasks to be performed instead of the people involved in the process (Blake, Mouton and Bidwell, 1962). While the job description required significant work through interpersonal as well as formal supervisor-subordinate relationship, the leader shows that he is more intricate and particular about the jobs that he has to perform. He is more interested in getting done right and on time, while achieving the target results, and in the process can disregard the human element and emotions of his subordinates. Another thing observed is that the nature of work performed by the person and the significant work experience he has may have formed the personality of the individual to have a nature that is more authoritarian reflecting in the select authoritarian style of leadership. The Sales District Leader Designate, the Manager Consumer Insights and Strategy and the Senior Productivity Manager all show that they have characteristics that make them Team Leaders. Off the three however the Senior Productivity Manager is the one who is more tasks oriented while being more People oriented as well in his leadership style. This was an unexpected finding as it was expected from the job descriptions that the Sales District Leader Designate would potentially report a higher score in the team leader section due to the requirements and responsibilities states on the job description for the position (Sarin and O’Conner, 2009). This is indicative of the personal leadership style overpowering the training and application of business practices in the workplace by the managers. As the managers have significantly senior positions in the organization, they tend to utilize their personal experience and working practices over those prescribed by the company to lead and manage people in the organization. The natural leadership ability and the charisma of the managers in the leadership positions come into play here (Blake and Mouton, 1961). The Manager Consumer Strategy was the only one whose responses indicate a score which made the categorization of the applicable leadership style as being of the country club nature. This manager is more interest and oriented towards pleasing the people, catering to their needs and working around them rather than in attaining the strategic objectives of the company through efficiency in task management. The job description of the manager indicates considerable interpersonal interactions where the manager has to manage and lead different teams from business units while managing suppliers and distributions as well. The country club style leadership seems useful and applicable to this position as through contact building, management of work relations and effecting interpersonal management a country club manager can be more effective in this position than a team leader (Feyerherm and Rice, 2002). Conclusion, Recommendations & Limitations The research undertaken has been able to highlight that managers in senior leadership positions can have different styles of leaderships. Moreover it has also been revealed that the innate personality of the manager, as well as the level of seniority and the experience gained in the filed enables the manager to employ their selective choice of leadership disregarding the applicable business practices in their job description. In this regard the leaders can be subjected to training seminars and skill development workshops where they can employ their personal choice of leadership to integrate with the prevalent company organized business practices in compliance. One limitation that has been observed for the research is that most of the leaders depicted their leadership style as that of being a team leader. This might have been influenced by the innate desire of the leaders to appear benevolent and dynamic leaders favored by general perception of the people which might have affected the responses of the respondents. Therefore the results of this survey cannot be generalized to other such roles and managers in leadership positions References n.a., (2012), About Us, Dubai Refreshments PSC (PepsiCo UAE) Corporate Website, available at Blake, R.R., Mouton, J.S., (1981), Management by Grid Principles or Situationalism: Which, Group & Organization Management December 6(4), pp 439-455 Blake, R., Mouton, S., (1964), The Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid Leadership Self Assessment Questionnaire, available at Van Eersel, F.M., (n.d.), Managerial Grid – Blake and Mouton, available at Blake, E. Mouton, J., (1964), The Managerial Grid: The Key to Leadership Excellence Feyerherm, A.E., Rice, C.L., (2002), Emotional Intelligence and Team Performance: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", International Journal of Organizational Analysis 10(4), pp 343 – 362 Sarin, S., O’Connor, G.C., (2009), First among Equals: The Effect of Team Leader Characteristics on the Internal Dynamics of Cross-Functional Product Development Teams, Journal of Product Innovation Management 26(2), pp 188–205 Blake, R.R., Mouton, J.S., (1961), The Experimental Investigation of Interpersonal Influence, in Manipulation of Human Behavior, Eds. Bidderman, A.D., Zimmer, H., John Wiley and Sons Blake, R.R., Mouton, J.S., Bidwell, A.C., (1962), Managerial Grid, Advanced Management - Office Executive 1(9), pp 12-15 Ortiz, A., Hagemann, J., Mestaz, P., Rose, S., (n.d.), Informed Consent in Human Subjects Research, Office for the Protection of Research Subjects (OPRS) – USC Molloy, P.L., (1998), A Review of the Managerial Grid Model of Leadership and its Role as a Model of Leadership Culture, Aquarius Consulting, available at Cherrayil, N.K., (2013), UAE bourses extend gains as Dubai refreshments lead and Tamweel falls, Gulf News, available at Jones, R., (2012), Pepsi fizz for Dubai Refreshments, The Nation, available at Appendix Questionnaires Internal Control Manager S.N Score Item 1 2 I encourage my team to participate when it comes decision making time and I try to implement their ideas and suggestions. 2 5 Nothing is more important than accomplishing a goal or task. 3 5 I closely monitor the schedule to ensure a task or project will be completed in time. 4 2 I enjoy coaching people on new tasks and procedures. 5 4 The more challenging a task is, the more I enjoy it. 6 1 I encourage my employees to be creative about their job. 7 5 When seeing a complex task through to completion, I ensure that every detail is accounted for. 8 4 I find it easy to carry out several complicated tasks at the same time. 9 3 I enjoy reading articles, books, and journals about training, leadership, and psychology; and then putting what I have read into action. 10 5 When correcting mistakes, I do not worry about jeopardizing relationships. 11 4 I manage my time very efficiently. 12 3 I enjoy explaining the intricacies and details of a complex task or project to my employees. 13 4 Breaking large projects into small manageable tasks is second nature to me. 14 2 Nothing is more important than building a great team. 15 5 I enjoy analyzing problems. 16 4 I honor other people's boundaries. 17 1 Counseling my employees to improve their performance or behavior is second nature to me. 18 5 I enjoy reading articles, books, and trade journals about my profession; and then implementing the new procedures I have learned. Sales and District Leader S.N Score Item 1 4 I encourage my team to participate when it comes decision making time and I try to implement their ideas and suggestions. 2 5 Nothing is more important than accomplishing a goal or task. 3 4 I closely monitor the schedule to ensure a task or project will be completed in time. 4 4 I enjoy coaching people on new tasks and procedures. 5 3 The more challenging a task is, the more I enjoy it. 6 4 I encourage my employees to be creative about their job. 7 4 When seeing a complex task through to completion, I ensure that every detail is accounted for. 8 3 I find it easy to carry out several complicated tasks at the same time. 9 3 I enjoy reading articles, books, and journals about training, leadership, and psychology; and then putting what I have read into action. 10 3 When correcting mistakes, I do not worry about jeopardizing relationships. 11 3 I manage my time very efficiently. 12 4 I enjoy explaining the intricacies and details of a complex task or project to my employees. 13 3 Breaking large projects into small manageable tasks is second nature to me. 14 4 Nothing is more important than building a great team. 15 5 I enjoy analyzing problems. 16 4 I honor other people's boundaries. 17 4 Counseling my employees to improve their performance or behavior is second nature to me. 18 4 I enjoy reading articles, books, and trade journals about my profession; and then implementing the new procedures I have learned. Commercial Manager Juice S.N Score Item 1 3 I encourage my team to participate when it comes decision making time and I try to implement their ideas and suggestions. 2 4 Nothing is more important than accomplishing a goal or task. 3 2 I closely monitor the schedule to ensure a task or project will be completed in time. 4 5 I enjoy coaching people on new tasks and procedures. 5 2 The more challenging a task is, the more I enjoy it. 6 3 I encourage my employees to be creative about their job. 7 2 When seeing a complex task through to completion, I ensure that every detail is accounted for. 8 1 I find it easy to carry out several complicated tasks at the same time. 9 4 I enjoy reading articles, books, and journals about training, leadership, and psychology; and then putting what I have read into action. 10 5 When correcting mistakes, I do not worry about jeopardizing relationships. 11 2 I manage my time very efficiently. 12 3 I enjoy explaining the intricacies and details of a complex task or project to my employees. 13 2 Breaking large projects into small manageable tasks is second nature to me. 14 4 Nothing is more important than building a great team. 15 1 I enjoy analyzing problems. 16 3 I honor other people's boundaries. 17 3 Counseling my employees to improve their performance or behavior is second nature to me. 18 3 I enjoy reading articles, books, and trade journals about my profession; and then implementing the new procedures I have learned. Manager Consumer Strategy & Insight S.N Score Item 1 4 I encourage my team to participate when it comes decision making time and I try to implement their ideas and suggestions. 2 3 Nothing is more important than accomplishing a goal or task. 3 5 I closely monitor the schedule to ensure a task or project will be completed in time. 4 5 I enjoy coaching people on new tasks and procedures. 5 4 The more challenging a task is, the more I enjoy it. 6 5 I encourage my employees to be creative about their job. 7 4 When seeing a complex task through to completion, I ensure that every detail is accounted for. 8 3 I find it easy to carry out several complicated tasks at the same time. 9 2 I enjoy reading articles, books, and journals about training, leadership, and psychology; and then putting what I have read into action. 10 3 When correcting mistakes, I do not worry about jeopardizing relationships. 11 3 I manage my time very efficiently. 12 4 I enjoy explaining the intricacies and details of a complex task or project to my employees. 13 4 Breaking large projects into small manageable tasks is second nature to me. 14 4 Nothing is more important than building a great team. 15 5 I enjoy analyzing problems. 16 3 I honor other people's boundaries. 17 4 Counseling my employees to improve their performance or behavior is second nature to me. 18 5 I enjoy reading articles, books, and trade journals about my profession; and then implementing the new procedures I have learned. Senior Productivity Manager S.N Score Item 1 4 I encourage my team to participate when it comes decision making time and I try to implement their ideas and suggestions. 2 3 Nothing is more important than accomplishing a goal or task. 3 5 I closely monitor the schedule to ensure a task or project will be completed in time. 4 4 I enjoy coaching people on new tasks and procedures. 5 5 The more challenging a task is, the more I enjoy it. 6 5 I encourage my employees to be creative about their job. 7 5 When seeing a complex task through to completion, I ensure that every detail is accounted for. 8 5 I find it easy to carry out several complicated tasks at the same time. 9 5 I enjoy reading articles, books, and journals about training, leadership, and psychology; and then putting what I have read into action. 10 1 When correcting mistakes, I do not worry about jeopardizing relationships. 11 5 I manage my time very efficiently. 12 5 I enjoy explaining the intricacies and details of a complex task or project to my employees. 13 5 Breaking large projects into small manageable tasks is second nature to me. 14 5 Nothing is more important than building a great team. 15 4 I enjoy analyzing problems. 16 5 I honor other people's boundaries. 17 5 Counseling my employees to improve their performance or behavior is second nature to me. 18 4 I enjoy reading articles, books, and trade journals about my profession; and then implementing the new procedures I have learned. Scoring Internal Control Manager People Task Question Question 1 2 2 5 4 2 3 5 6 1 5 4 9 3 7 5 10 5 8 4 12 3 11 4 14 2 13 4 16 4 15 5 17 1 18 5 Total 23 Total 41 Score 4.6 Score 8.2 Sales District Leader People Task Question Question 1 4 2 5 4 4 3 4 6 4 5 3 9 3 7 4 10 3 8 3 12 4 11 3 14 4 13 3 16 4 15 5 17 4 18 4 Total 34 Total 34 Score 6.8 Score 6.8 Commercial Manager Juice People Task Question Question 1 3 2 4 4 5 3 2 6 3 5 2 9 4 7 2 10 5 8 1 12 3 11 2 14 4 13 2 16 3 15 1 17 3 18 3 Total 33 Total 19 Score 6.6 Score 3.8 Manager, Consumer Strategy & Insights People Task Question Question 1 4 2 3 4 5 3 5 6 5 5 4 9 2 7 4 10 3 8 3 12 4 11 3 14 4 13 4 16 3 15 5 17 4 18 5 Total 34 Total 36 Score 6.8 Score 7.2 Senior Productivity Manager People Task Question Question 1 4 2 3 4 4 3 5 6 5 5 5 9 5 7 5 10 1 8 5 12 5 11 5 14 5 13 5 16 5 15 4 17 5 18 4 Total 39 Total 41 Score 7.8 Score 8.2 Read More