Department 8101 - Small Group Interaction - Case Study Example

Department 8101 - Small Group Interaction Background Information Department 8101 was one of the top areas in the corporation with distinction of having excellent personnel and a sound working unit. The key players of the corporation were Hank, the executive of the department, Terry the Junior Administrator, Denny the Senior Administrator, and Helen the executive director under Hank. The corporation had expectations and standards through, which high attention was given to quality. The management team performed the utmost of their capabilities to augment success and productivity. The department established the need of recruiting a manager that would replace Hank. After a scrupulously job search, the department hired Rita as the new Executive officer. Her leadership style was questionable as it much relied on dictatorship. She worked harder in doing things her way and pressured people to follow her. This created tension in the entire management team and increased high cases of absenteeism. Around the middle August, the entire department strike from performing their daily duties, and disregarded Rita’s leadership and command. By the end of August, Rita lost control in her leadership and productivity kept on getting worse and worse. Following this, Rita ended up leaving the company while being depressed for not achieving the goals she had set. The aim of this essay is to summarize this study by applying various concepts that range from communication processes, Johari window for each person, leadership style, decision-making processes to cognitive dissonance involved. Types of Communication Processes Various types of communication processes are involved in this case study. These include non-verbal, verbal, intentional, and unintentional. After Hank retirement, Rita arrived and was introduced to the entire team. At this point, the management utilized non verbal communication after being introduced to Rita to evaluate whether or not she was worth the position. This was done through the following physical ways of communication, the body motion, hand gestures, and facial expressions. After this connection, the team observed that Rita was a competent individual worth replacing Hank. Thereafter, Rita introduced herself to the group via oral words commonly classified as verbal communication process. Through this communication process, the entire team learnt that Rita was a former marine sergeant, who had recently retired from the military as an interim administrator. For the first two weeks, Rita was reserved to intentional communication without engaging anyone into conservation. She used conventional pre-symbolic behaviours such as shaking the head, waving, and observing few things in the department. Arguably, an active listening skill in communication was the foundation for drawing out information of various behaviours that needed amendment. After a week, Rita called for a meeting and informed the department of the few things she had observed and did not like. She engaged the group into verbal communication and stated areas that required modification. Further, she generated flexibility into the department and established the need for job rotation on an experimental basis. Thereafter, Terry, Helen, and Denny engaged into face-to-face interaction whereby each individual gave her views on Rita conservation. After a while, the group agreed with Denny that Rita would be given a chance to wise up before taking any measures. Leadership Styles Rita used dictatorial or authoritarian leadership style whereby she operated like a dictator. She made all decisions by herself and ignored others suggestions and advises. Typically, Rita expected high performance at all times and never tolerated any mistakes. Mistakes resulted into dismissal, suspensions, and notice for failure to compile to rules and regulations. Therefore, many disliked her and declined from performing their daily duties to the best of their abilities. Still, Rita did not obtain the advantage of teamwork and creativity. She was in command of everything and wanted everyone to compile to her rules and regulations. This hindered her from developing an effective working group. Personality Traits Following this, one can judge Rita’s personality under the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) as the following. From her leadership style, Rita tend to be an introvert because she is thought oriented and feel recharged making her decisions and spending time alone. This determines her thinking in decision making process. As presented, Rita is logical, impersonal, and constant when making decisions and less regard peoples’ input and emotions when arriving at the conclusion. Still, she leans toward judging when making decisions, thus she is less flexible, adaptable, and open in making decisions. As days and weeks passed, Rita forced people to do things her way, and as a result, it created job dissatisfaction. Still, she made more decisions and changed policy on her own without involving Terry and Denny who were part of the executive committee to discuss and decide on changes. Her personality attributed to her being in command and wanted everyone to compile to her rules and regulations. Consequently, Rita leadership style contributed to a dormant group structure and many people deteriorated from their responsibilities. By August 1st, the major explosion took place within the department, and more conflict and confrontations emerged. The group united and together decided enough was enough and affirmed that Rita had to go. The team created chaos that eventually made Rita to lose control and ended up leaving the department and the company. The key players of Department 8101 comprised of different individual with different personalities as described in the Johari window as indicated in the following diagram. Johari Window Retrieved from http://www.google.co.ke/imgres?imgurl=http://www.businessballs.com/images/johariwindowmodel.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.businessballs.com/johariwindowmodel.htm&usg=__9eFSyXm34M6kh-xL4nBImb3FXHk=&h=584&w=635&sz=14&hl=en&start=2&zoom=1&tbnid=OzEJljSQwmnFXM:&tbnh=126&tbnw=137&ei=tTCBUMrtOIes0QXfzIHgAw&um=1&itbs=1 First, Hank personality can be best described as extrovert as he best regarded other people’s input in his leadership. His personality can be expressed in the first quadrant that contains Hank behaviours that were openly known by the group and evaluated as strengths. Hank was well liked by his subordinated because of his leadership best described as laissez-faire. Secondly, Terry would best be described as an introvert who would perform his job well when left alone. Although he was a great worker, Terry would argue with anyone and people judged him from his behaviours. In this case, his personality can be categorized in the second quadrant whereby Terry had behaviours that others observed, but he did not recognize them. He distrusted almost every executive and would argue with anyone. Thirdly, Helen was an introvert who agreed with those that agreed with her. However, she disliked female managers and believed that the company would collapse if it hired a female supervisor. Following this, one can base Helen personality in the third quadrant because she is the only one who comprehended her weakness of disliking females’ supervisors. Lastly, Denny was an extrovert with powerful force in the corporate structure. As indicated, he was respected and liked by everyone in the department for his strong leadership styles. Denny personality can be best categorized in the first quadrant because what was known to him was known to others. Cognitive Consistency This case study provides an overview to understand cognitive consistency in detail. At this point, the cognitive consistency theory inspects how behavioural motivation occurs when thoughts differ and conflict, resulting into tension. In this case study, the tension created by Rita’s dictatorship was the driving force for the executives’ change of behaviour. This theory best describes the reaction of the management team towards Rita leadership. As indicated in the case study, the entire team disagreed with Rita leadership style and evaluated ways that would assist to eliminate her. This case study is a prime instance of how people have high expectations about life or management and if not met, birth conflicts and pressures. This theory applies to Terry, Helen, and Denny scenarios who from their arguments established the need of Rita styling up in leadership. The three individuals believed that Rita was inexperienced and needed time to settle down and lead the organization. Still, the theory is applicable in Denny’s reaction of uniting the group to decide that Rita had to go. To Denny, Rita leadership was inconsistent and contradicting thus he was motivated to change the situation. This implies that, Denny saw the imbalance leadership and diligently worked hard to remove Rita from leadership. By the end of August, Rita lost control and stepped down as an Executive Director and victory took over after her leaving the office. Lastly, Helen personality of disliking female executives attributed to her negative judgement towards Rita. When Rita gave her conversation of the changes she anticipated, Helen affirmed “That’s the way all women Executives are—bossy! They have to go around proving who is boss. She has no business being an Executive and boss any more than I do”. From her words, Helen words were to motivate a change of choosing another executive. Types of decision making There are various types of decision making involved in this case study as discussed by Tubbs (120). For instance, Rita is the sole decision maker in the corporation, which subordinates follow. Rita believes that she has all the expertise and information required to make hasty decisions without considering other people’s decision. In this case, Rita used individualistic style of decision making without any input from others. In doing, she created tension and conflicts among group members who eventually grouped together and decided that Rita had to go. Denny led the discussion and regarded input from other members by utilizing systematic style that involves evaluating and embracing input from others. Personal Reflection When reflecting Rita’s leadership, there are various mistakes she made in this case study. First, she disregarded the input of others and made decisions on her own. Secondly, she used dictatorship leadership style that is unfavourable in any given environment (Tubbs 130). Following this, if I were to be the new boss, I would perform my duties differently to develop an effective working group. First, I would regard the input of others in decision-making process by considering their suggestions and thoughts towards the conclusion. Secondly, I would work hard to create teamwork by recognizing people abilities and inputs in the society. As a result, I would create a favourable working environment that would increase job satisfaction and productivity. Works Cited Tubbs, Stewart L. A Systems Approach to Small Group Interaction. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Incorporated, 2011. Read More