An analysis on leaderships’ effect on culture Essay Example for Free

An analysis on attractorss execution on tillage EssayF figuresConnectCo is an outbound harbinger center in Toronto, Ontario and is the Canadian Subsidiary of a U.S. marketing and gross revenue consulting practice. The pargonnt company has provided expediencys to Fortune 500 companies over its five eld of operations and employs approximately 75 people. ConnectCo has annual revenues of $29.4 million, with symbolization Office Solution as their biggest account at $20 million annu onlyy, for a contract aloofness of three years. This contract awarded ConnectCo net profits as high as 35% of sales. What ConnectCo pipers to clients is the convenience and cost savings of removing a costly field sales force and replaces them with a more cost efficient outbound call center. These call centers help customers with technical problems, provide immature equipment updates, and disseminates knowledge about vernal technologies or equipment. The Symbol account, as previously mentioned, p rovides a significant sum of ConnectCos total revenue and was counterbalance negotiated by Charlie Gallagher, the vice-president of Canadian operations, and is managed by Chad Macdonald.Joe Davis is a passionate and experienced consultant that has worked closely with clients to secern and implement solutions to very specific problems. He joined ConnectCo hoping to learn from the pool of experience that he dictum inside the organization, with the majority of them organism former Xerox employees with considerable knowledge in increasing sales. His role in the organization was to underwrite that the level of service that ConnectCo provided met or surpassed the needs of clients. As per his position indoors the company he was the early to nonice the discrepancy within the Symbol account. The contract that was signed mingled with ConnectCo and Symbol required that there be a certain number of Inside Account Executives (IAE) that be trained at all times and at a phone making calls in the clients interests.The recent decline in the IAE pool has left several seats open, with no calls being placed on behalf of Symbol, however they were still billing the customer as if the seats where all operating at full capacity while they should plainly be billing them for filled operators. The follow of the discrepancy totals $81000. The terms of the contract pee been modified several times over its effective term with the head start being an extension of the contract and the nonice of intent to develop mutually agreed to service levels. Service level targets were never established.SymptomsThe quatern factoring symptoms are communication, assumption, accountability, responsibility and integrity. These symptoms are the leading cause for Connectcos inability to run operations swimmingly and effectively. The pretermit of communication within Connectco is causing sharpenaches for Davis as nurture continues to be blocked by noise within the company. The communication i s next to wanting from the top of the hierarchy to the de subprogramment managers within the company. The lack of trust passim the company is not helping their cause when essay to create an effective and demanded product for fortune 500 companies.There is little trust betwee the top managers and employees that they unstrained complete their respected jobs at hand with the level of trust level between employees and managers decaying over time and as the military position worsens. Accountability is near nonexistent within the organization. Davis is not able to hold his manager accountable because of his past record in doing so. Accountability is crucial in order for Connectco to run smoothly in the future. Conflict frequently causes employees to look to offload their work onto others to not be responsible for failure, as in the case of Chad Macdonald passing the role of relations with the Symbol account off to Joe Davis. Finally, there is little integrity.Dealing with the accou nt neither Chad nor Charlie believe that the best solution would be to deal with the problem and would twain prefer to make a decision that would go against the main determine of the corporation that allows trusdeucerthiness. There is a valid case of values incongruence within ConnectCo. These four main symptoms are major attributes to the problems faced within Connectco and are the four elements that may be the solutions to solving Connectcos organizational problems in the near future. worry StatementConnectCos current web site is the direct result of the poor corporate culture as evidenced by the symptoms that are play. This culture stems from the leaderships poor ethical motive and lack of values and has cascaded to the rest of the organization. Joe Davis, the new manager of the Planning and Reporting department for ConnectCo, began his new job about a month ago finds himself in the uncomfortable situation of questioning the morals of his coworkers that has led to the jeo pardized relationship between ConnectCo and their largest client Symbol Office Solutions. Joe must(prenominal)iness shape how to approach this combating situation as a new member of the company without compromising his own morals and values.AnalysisIn evaluating the germane(predicate) models to reference the problem statement there is one model in particular that effectively incorporates several of the models require to perform an analysis of the corporate culture at ConnectCo Edgar H. Scheins Model of Organizational Culture. Scheins model is the most(prenominal) relevant to identify the reason for the symptoms and problems currently facing ConnectCo. The incorporation of the many different grimaces to identify the culture of an organization including atifacts, handled values, and shared assumptions enables a thorough review of the culture present at ConnectCo. The future(a) analysis forget break down Scheins model and evaluate each section with the following relevant an alysis to get a go understanding of the situation. It will be presented in the following order artifacts, shared values, shared assumptions.ArtifactsCommunication within the ConnectCo organization does not flirt the ideal scenario for a well-run organization. This lack of proper communication and clarity is unluckily spilling over into its business dealings with clients. Both represent one of the most evident aspects of the artifacts of the company, the cultural norms that are evident to others and neither is impressive. To begin, this analysis will guidancesing on internal communication and then shift focus to the external communication with other organizations.Davis opened up a new capacity and types a simple e-mail, in case Gallagher picked it up with his Blackberry. This is but one example of the many e-mail conversations that take place within the ConnectCo organization. The situation that ConnectCo finds themselves in is extremely complicated, owing a client a credit for $81000, yet the medium with which Joe Davis chose to use to relay his message was e-mail. A quick analysis of the media immensity hierarchy model shows that in this particular situation, which can be easily identified as non-routine and ambiguous, this medium carries too little data-carrying capacity.If ConnectCo is going to come up with a solution they are going to need to switch to a much richer medium such as face-to-face to get a better understanding of the issue and come up with better outcomes. A second occasion that warrants investigation is the initial email from Joe Davis to Charlie Gallagher. In this initial email he again used to wrong medium to convey the breadth of the issue that is ambiguous and non-routine. Charlie chose to respond in an email as well, with nine words. This will ply a factor again in the analysis of the shared values, more specifically the espoused values that leadership (Gallagher) conveys.Communication between the organizations is in addition ve ry weak, oration to the weak cultural artifacts of the ConnectCo organization, and possibly Symbol. It has been acknowledged that they do indeed own face to face communications with their customers, Gallagher does meet with Puhl for golfing events face to face, this does not represent an ideal time, however, as the venue is much to informal to discuss business matters as public group meetings contain significant noise, literally and figuratively, that may lead to the message being decoded incorrectly.The rest of the communication between the two parties, even between the account relationship manager Chad MacDonald and Steve Puhl was done either by telephone or by email. Another aspect of the artifacts of communication that deserves attention is the construction of the contract. Again, the communication appendage model is most relevant and one of the simplest charges to word the partition is that the contract contained too much noise and was not properly decoded by ConnectCo. T he ambiguity of the contract comes from many revisions, some of which were not even available to the relevant employees such as Joe Davis and using words such as notwithstanding which was interpreted differently by Joe Davis, Chad MacDonald, and Charlie Gallagher. This occurred because the contract was not descriptive enough.Another aspect to the artifacts portion of the model of organizational culture is the ceremonies that take place within the organization. These ceremonies are used by certain employees and management to get the attention of an audience. In this particular situation the most evident are the golfing trips that Gallagher takes with clients to cement his position as the most important contact to the clients. And finally, the organizational structure, which has a majuscule effect on culture. ConnectCo currently has a client structure, as negotiated within the contract agreement, the organization will maintain a specify number of stave specifically to service that a ccount.Espoused ValuesOur values reflect what is important to us. They are a shorthand carriage of describing our individual and collective motivations. Together with beliefs, they are the causative factors that drive our decision-making. (http//www.valuescentre.com/values/?sec=values_overview) The above quote reflects what should be the core of any business, the values shared by all of the different employees congruent to the design laid out by management for the success of the organization. In Scheins model shared or espoused values represent the second of the 3 components and the first of the invisible dynamics, as in they cannot be easily observed by others. Richard Barrett, author of Building a Values-Driven Organisation A Whole System turn up to Cultural Transformation believes that values can be either positive or negative and each can boast an equal and opposite effect on the corporations culture.The espoused values must begin as an individual value through some permi ssion figure, such as a founder, senior management, or even an individual with significant power within an organization. These individuals culture then influences their immediate coworkers, the teams with which they operate, then the organization as a whole. These individuals can therefore set the values for the whole organization regardless of what the dominant culture of the organization through countercultures. The culture of an organisation, or any group of individuals that share a normal identity, is a reflection of the values and beliefs of the leaders. (http//www.valuescentre.com/leadership/?sec=leadership__culture) With limited discipline on the dominant culture of ConnectCo as established by its American head company, which include integrity and trustworthiness, it can only be assumed that the culture that prevails at Connectco is a subculture of the organization as a whole.The following analysis suggests that the counterculture present in ConnectCo is the direct result of the actions of Charlie Gallagher. As the leader in the organization Charlie has had a profound effect on the values and ethics present within the organization. His handling of the Symbol account clearly demonstrates his values and ethics. His position as leader and culture setter warrants investigation based on several components. First, the skill of his leadership will be analyzed incorporating an analysis of his personal values and the source of his power. To begin, Charlie possesses several characteristics of an effective leader. He has significant self-concept, his personality skills are high, he has the motivation to be a leader, and significant knowledge of the business. These competencies push those that work for him to have the same skills as demonstrated in Chad MacDonald however, his low integrity has as well been transmitted to other co-workers. By encouraging Davis to play with the numbers and do things that were out of the contract he shows his low integrity.This has led to a lack of trust that is evident from Joe Davis and several other members of the ConnectCo staff throughout the handling of the symbol account. This is not the only negative quality that has displayed. Gallagher also exhibits limited cognitive and unimaginative intelligence. His recommendation to manifestly go with the lowest cost shows a lack of understanding of the situation (and going back to communication) the ambiguity of the situation , this has pervaded to his employees where Chad was more than willing to agree to a band aid solution going against honourable business practices. Neither fully understands the situation and Chad was more than happy to hand off the problem to Joe Davis even though he was the relationship manager on the account and dealing with clients is outside of the scope of work for Joe Davis. The reason for Gallaghers lack of integrity can be easily explained through the Swartz values circumplex.Clearly, Gallagher is more focused on self-enhance ment, his need for achievement is evidenced through the fact that everyone must know that he is the one that negotiated the Symbol account and demonstrated through his golf business trips, as well as his refusal to accept responsibility for disadvantageously negotiating a contract and failing to adhere and communicate the contents of the contracts that he signed. He is also a leader that craves power and prefers significant power distance, as proven by his screening of his employees calls and not video display up to the meeting with Joe Davis and Chad MacDonald to clarify the contract for them. Both of these values compromise his integrity and unfortunately those values are only two that his leadership has caused the rest of the organization to adopt, the need for security security being another. Gallaghers aforementioned need for power is also affecting the culture of the organization.His handling of the Symbol account and the contract shows that he uses a wheel formation of info rmation control to maintain power within the organization. By him going golfing with the big shots at Symbol rather than relationship manager Chad, shows that he needs to maintain that control of information which in turn gives him control over Chad and the account. This is combined with Joe Davis perception of an upward appeal within the organization that made him rethink his ability to go to the higher ups with the information because he believes that the management will take the side of Gallagher given that they are both MBA graduates. Fear is an influence tactic that Gallagher has wielded to maintain order and obedience from his employees through his connection with the president.The effect on culture is that because employees cannot contact upper management the values that he imposes on the organization will be the ones that dictate how operations are carried out. Indirectly, this is what has causes the problem with ConnectCo and Symbol. Gallagher controlling the information ha s prevented Chad from acting in the best interest of the company to ensure the contract is followed and that there are no issues. It also means that now since the contract has not been followed the persons involves will use the cultural aspects of poor integrity and dodging that he has used with his employees as Chad demonstrated by dodging Steve Puhl and pushing the problem onto Joe Davis.Shared Assumptions and ValuesAnalysing the shared assumptions of ConnectCo with the Schwartzs Values Circumplex, we notice that the company talks about wanting to keep their most important client Symbol satisfied by valuing self-transcendence and conservation however their actions and dealing of the contract with Symbol do not reflect those values. The appropriate way to describe the values that ConnectCo tend to go by is self-enhancing. They are working for the client to provide them with everything listed in the contract, in this case a sufficient amount of IAEs, but are hiding information from Symbol to protect their own well-being. This seems to be enforced by Charlie Gallagher as he is telling Joe Davis that they should not have to pay any penalty fees to Symbol for empty seats at the IAE position if there are current individuals in training for that position. Now we will look at the ethical values and behaviour the moral intensity of ConnectCo, more specifically Charlie Gallaghers ethical sensitivity to the issue. The degree to which they should be applying ethical principles should be is high because Symbol is their biggest client and has trusted ConnectCo for a few years.However, the intensity being put forth is minimal as they are trying to get out of paying money to Symbol for not having staffed enough IAEs and they are forcing Joe Davis to go against his values and follow suit. This shows how little Charlie Gallagher cares about ethically conducting operations with clients and co-workers, as Joe Davis is being pressured into complying with Charlies demand because he does not want to risk losing his job even though what Charlie is telling him to do is illegal. pickings a look at the contest process model we find our sources of conflict between, Gallagher, Davis and Steve Puhl from Symbol. The most obvious source is the communication between Gallagher and Puhl. First of all the contract between the two is too vague and open for interpretation as the service level targets have not been defined for almost two years.Charlie is also not communicating the issue of his understanding of the contract, as he is fair(a) assuming that they should not have to pay Symbol credit for not having the specified amount of IAEs because he is claiming that during those times they had individuals in training to fill those positions. Another issue is that even if what Gallagher interpreted was true, he does not have any data to prove that he had employees in training because he failed to communicate to Chad MacDonald, Joe Davis and to Carole go the exact details of the contract. This puts Joe in a uncomfortable situation when he receives a call from Steve Puhl and is unsure what the contract requirements. Another source of conflict is the incompatible goals and differentiation between Charlie and Joe. Joe is simply trying to do the responsibility thing because he is new to the company and wants to make a good impression by doing things ethically however Charlie is trying to make it seem care he is fulfilling the terms of the contract by making assumptions of the contract to get away with not having to pay Symbol their deserved credit.Another source of conflict is the scarcity of important resources. As mentioned previously Carole Lam the analyst was never told to keep data on the amount of days and which days that employees were in training. Joe needed this data to complete his work but obviously was unable to retrieve complete and accurate data on employee training. The way that Charlie seems to be handling this conflict is by avoiding c ommunication with clients and co-workers. He is notorious for screening calls, he failed to show up to a meeting with Chad MacDonald and Joe Davis, and when asked how to calculate the credit owed to Symbol he simply tells Davis to use the lowest cost to save ConnectCo money and make himself look good. He also does not seem to be of much help to Joe Davis as Gallagher is the one who began this lack of communication which has led to faulty handling of Symbols credit account, and seems to be avoiding Joe Davis. This is causing the rest of the employees to obey his ideas because they have no idea what the contract actually calls for and even if they did know, would likely be unwilling to challenge his decisions because he is higher up in the company.AlternativesAlternative 1 move these numbers and issues to the President and CEO Pros Cons* Issues dealing with the Symbol account get communicate * Issues with the culture of the organization get addressed * Issues are addressed to an aut hority that can nail down these problems and remove the negative counterculture * Keeps the organization from committing accounting fraud like other companies (Enron) * Brings to light all the ethical issues surrounding Charlie Gallagher and Chad MacDonald * Addresses employee turnover issues that have become routine in the company * This act could cause tension between Joe and his direct superior (Gallagher) * There is a risk that the President sees this act as disloyal * Working with Gallagher and MacDonald after bringing their issues to light will be difficult moving forward * President/CEO may share the same dysfunctional attitude towards the culture in the organization This ersatz should include him making an appointment with the President/CEO and bringing analyst Carole Lam to help support his findings.She is well aware with the monetary numbers and how Gallagher is letting ConnectCo take money from their top client. This meeting needs to be face-to-face in order to bring about the severity of the conflicting situation. The meeting needs to include all facets of the organizations current lack of corporate ethical values and which individuals must be held accountable. Joe must conclude that if there are immediate corporate culture deviates, he would still like to keep working with Gallagher and MacDonald and build a trusting and functional working relationship with both. This will help ease the tension between himself and his immediate superior as well as showing the President that he is capable of handling mismanagement. This alternative is highly recommended and addresses all the facets of this situation.Alternative 2 Quit and find another jobPros Cons* Joe no daylong has to deal with the resoundingly shaky ethical structure and poor communication at ConnectCo * Joe doesnt become a part of the problem * Joe no hourlong has to deal with Gallaghers lack of trust and consideration with their top clientele at his cost * Joe doesnt become an accomplic e to committing accounting fraud * leaving an organization after only one month doesnt look good to future prospective employers * This would go against his newly engaged fiance who treasured to see him get off the road * No severance package * No recommendation or verbal support from ConnectCo once he leaves This alternative does not come recommended as it leaves Joe and ConnectCo with an uncertain future.Should Joe decide to leave the company, he would not get a severance package and future employers will investigate why he lasted only a month at his previous job making it more difficult to find employment opportunities. Also, his fiance did not want his moving around for work a lot and two jobs in less than two months will leave his situation at sign of the zodiac stressful. Also, should prospective employers contact ConnectCo, they would have no reason to support Joe for his limited work. Although Joe does not have to deal with this poor corporate culture, running away from the situation does not help in any positive way.Alternative 3 Try to resolve issue without Chad MacDonald or Charlie Gallagher Pros Cons* Helps ease relationship between ConnectCo and Symbol * Steve Puhl does not have to deal with Chad (who he is getting nowhere with) * Joe can try to incorporate cultural changes to those he can * Has Carole Lam to help him fix the financial disparities of the comapny * Leaving Chad and Charlie in the dark is risky * Steve Puhl may accidently contact Chad or Charlie and miscommunication may occur * Does not address how to fix the imminent turnover issues surrounding the IAEs * Not reporting these changes with his superior could cost him his job Because Joe handles the reporting side of the company, it would go against his responsibilities as an employee to bring up any new information regarding Symbol and can be subject to his employment being terminated if Gallagher was to find out.This alternative is incredibly risky, but does see some rewards. Th ese rewards include easing the relationship between ConnectCo and Symbol and slowly changing the culture in the corporation as best he can. Unfortunately, he is only just a manager and a new one, so it would be hard for him to get others to respond to his command when there hasnt been enough relationship organic evolution between his other employees. With this in mind, it is best to look at other alternatives.RecommendationOur recommendation is based off of Alternative 1, in which we suggest brining the financial statements and issues to the attention of the President and CEO. This will allow us to ensure that all problems in relation to the Symbol account and the culture of the organization are addressed accordingly. This will also shed light on the ethical issues that need to be addressed, surrounding Gallagher and MacDonald. As well, it will prevent any consequences from occurring, resulting from accounting fraud. at once Joe Davis meets with the President and CEO to inform the m of his findings, it will be up to the President to create and urgency for change within the organization. In order to implement this change we would recommend the use of Lewins Force Field Analysis Model. By implementing this model the President could unfreeze the current situation, change the organizational culture and ethics of the company, and then freeze the company in that state. By doing so the company would change into operating with a more socially responsible client first attitude. By creating urgency for change the President could use client satisfaction as a driving force to push the employees, in order to ensure each client receives the customer service they deserve.By ensuring the client is always receiving social and ethical treatment, it will drive away any restraining forces, such as lack of integrity, which can be attributed to the accounting fraud. Now we can consider how the President could unfreeze and re-freeze the company in order to complete the change. The President should focus on creating an adaptive culture, in which the company will have an external focus. By creating an external focus the employees will realize that the organizations success depends on unremitting change to be a more stakeholder and client oriented company. In this situation it means focusing on changing into a more socially and ethically aware organization to better serve the clients. There is also an internal focus that must be implemented as well. This includes employees working towards the organizational goals that are set.In this situation the organizational goals would be to provide better customer service. As well by creating an adaptive culture, employees would have a stronger esthesis of ownership within the organization, and therefore take more responsibility for their performance and tasks. Therefore we believe that since a companys culture often reflects the leaders personality, it really is up to the President to make the steps necessary to change the organization. One final step we would recommend taking, is to fire Charlie Gallagher. The basis of pink slip Gallagher is the fact that he was trying to commit accounting fraud. Therefore the company would have just cause for his dismissal. By firing Gallagher, this would also be the first step towards creating a socially and ethically driven company Gallagher is simply a restraining force that is preventing the organization from making that move towards a better organizational culture.Action PlanOur recommendation is often referred to as tattle blowing, which is when a company employee goes public or to his superiors with private information that could hurt the company. This technique is unremarkably used when social and ethical responsibilities are being neglected or ignored. While it may seem simple enough, the process is far from smooth and the employee doing the whistle blowing is often made out to be a burnt out low level employee who is unhappy. So before Joe does anyt hing of the sort he must be disposed(p) for anything to happen. The best way to approach this alternative would be 1. Collect all relevant information and be prepared to present your case and be able to answer any and all questions 2. No president of CEO wants to hear that their companys values and ethics are being compromised, so he must prepare a propose B in order to protect himself from media and personal scrutiny. 3. Joe must schedule a face-to-face meeting with the CEO to ensure that there is no outside noise or misinterpretations with his information and language4. When presenting his findings, Joe must deliver his message in a way that is not an attack or critique. He must not point out what is wrong but what needs to be improved and why. 5. As part of his presentation Joe needs to incorporate his own recommendations and action plan. Once he goes through with this meeting there is not turning back. The recommendation and action plan should follow a similar tone to what was mentioned above, it should not only identify the problems but what needs to be done to fix them and how to go about fastness them. 6. After the meeting is over all Joe can do is wait for the decisions by the CEO and board of governors. At this point in time a lot of different things can happen and Joe needs to be prepared for any outcome. The optimistic outcome would be to have your action plan instal to implement and begin fixing the company.The pessimistic outcome would be that they reject his action plan and making his career a nightmare. If this were the case Joe should be prepared to look for another job, or be prepared to defend himself from public scrutiny. Joe is caught in the middle of a lose-lose situation, so his best alternative is the lesser of two evils. It is difficult being the new guy in a company, especially when youre the one telling that what they are doing is wrong. However, sometimes it takes an outside perspective to identify the problems that have gone unno ticed for too long. If Joe can present a clear and strong case that does not personally offend the CEO, and present the opportunities for improvement, the process should run as smooth as possible.