Discussion

Teamwork is one of the keys to an organization’s performance and competitive advantage. Therefore, companies are increasingly investing in improving teams. Part of the issues that directly affect the overall performance of a team is leadership. Thus, the success of a team not only requires talented people, but it also needs leaders. Good team leadership encouraged team cohesion, cooperation and collaboration. This is because open communication within teams is one of the critical determinants of team performance.

Overview of the Case

Initech is a private organization that is based in the urban centers of Chicago. This firm heavily relies on its supply chain unit for its operation. In particular, the organization has been providing supply-chain services to the Burger Barn quick-serve restaurant system (Team Dynamics at Initech, n.d). The company was formed by Ron Burgundy to offer distribution services to Burger Barn restaurants in Chicago. While the company does not provide its financial statement publicly, it is estimated that its net revenue is often approximately $1 billion. Initech has been providing packaging procurement and distribution services for 13500 domestic Burger Barn restaurants. This has been made possible by the input of the organization’s supply chain team. However, the team is facing various challenges that affect the operation and performance of the entire organization (Team Dynamics at Initech, n.d). Headed by Nettle, the supply chain team has been underperforming, as the morale of team members continue to reduce. Further, a significant number of team members were considering the option of quitting the company in pursuit of greener pastures.

Since the team was viewed as the success of the business as a whole, Nettle, the team leader, approached Jackson who was the company’s vice president to explore possible steps that can be made to improve the team’s performance and cohesion. This was partly brought by various factors. For instance, Nettle rarely acknowledged high performances, but was often quick to identify mistakes. Doug Jennings, one of the key team managers, was a great resource to the company. However, he was not good at confronting problems whenever he identified them. Karmen Winters was also another team manager. She was young and talented. However, she had the habit of not accommodating constructive criticism (Team Dynamics at Initech, n.d). There were also other team members who were treated with specialty by the organization due to their exceptional skills. A case in point is Paul Tailerman, who was the systems expert in the group. Others such as Kim Loco used to be attacked by other more qualified team members as an inept person. It is believed that she got the job die to the links that she had with the top managers and owners. Some team members began to feel unappreciated since it took long for their careers to progress. Thus, disagreements ensued as members started to form factions that undermined team cohesiveness. As a concerned leader, Jackson conducted a thorough assessment of the group to determine ways of improving its performance (Team Dynamics at Initech, n.d).

Major Leadership Issues

There are various leadership issues or challenges facing the above team. These challenges pose major obstacles to the improvement of the team’s overall performance. As the overall team leader, Nettle has been employing poor leadership styles that make kills the morale of team members. In as much as the team is composed of highly qualified, talented and skilled members, they do not feel that their inputs are being welcomed. This reduces their motivation, resulting in their quest to leave the organization. The team is clearly made up of hardworking individuals with exemplary performances. Nonetheless, Nettle, who is the overall team leader, has never made the initiative of congratulating them or acknowledging their performance. Acknowledging and rewarding good performance is one of the most effective ways of increasing team members’ morale. On the contrary, Nettle rarely acknowledges good performance. Instead, she is quick to point out poor performance and charge at team members with heaps of blames.

Another major leadership concern is that Jennings, who is one of Nettle’s assistants, does not effectively know how to manage conflicts and crises that emerge on a regular basis in their team. Being a poor conflict manager, he resorts to ignoring tough problems among employees whenever such problems arise. As a result, many problems are left unattended. When such challenges pile up over time, they may escalate into crisis situations that result in the overall underperformance of the entire organization.

Nettle also employs a dictatorial leadership style that is highly assertive. This discourages the voice of reason and sharing of divergent views in a friendly and productive way. Being an abrasive person, Nettle likes taking credit for all the positive things that the whole team does instead of attributing them to the team’s relentless efforts. In addition, she is never open to suggestions from other team members. Instead, she quickly dismisses tactical proposals or suggestions from other skilled tam members. A case in point is Ritchie’s suggestions to improve the efficiency of the supply-chain system. This has discouraged highly talented members from having interest in the strategic thinking of the entire team, since they feel that their suggestions are never going to be taken into account in the decision-making process.

How the Issues were Addressed

After a series of underperformance and poor team cohesion and cooperation, Nettle became concerned about what had become of her team. As a result, there are several steps that she made to address the problem. As soon as she noticed challenges, she rushed to Jackson, the vice president to seek his assistance in tackling the problem. Immediately, Jackson stepped in and explored the team’s dynamics. In addition, Jackson undertook an evaluation of the team to determine the possible problems that members were facing. Therefore, Jackson launched a thorough assessment of the team’s dynamic, since he believed that that was the first place to start.

The Effectiveness of How the Issues were Addressed Based on the Literature

The effectiveness of the strategies employed to tackle the problems can be evaluated with the utilization of various leadership approaches. For instance, participative or consultative leadership involves leading by collecting and taking into account inputs from team members (Ricketts & Ricketts, 2010). Whenever challenges arise among team members, leaders should start by understanding and communicating what the goals and objectives of the group or organization are to ensure that they can draw upon the knowledge of members of the team. Thus, an effective leader should address team challenges by effecting change or solving problems by first meeting with the affected group or organizational members, informing them of the problems, needs, goals and objectives (Ricketts & Ricketts, 2010). In addition, an effective leader should gather views from team members to understand what the root causes of the problems before implementing addressing them.

Based on the above facts about effective team leadership, it is clear that the problems were not effectively addressed. As a leader, Nettle should have convened a meeting with all team members and gathered their views about the problems that they had. By identifying their problems, it could have been easier for her to reach an agreement with team members on the best way to manage the team in order to make it effective. This is because making team members take part in decisions that involve them is one of the best ways of motivating them and making them feel that they are part of the organization. On the contrary, Nettle failed to include team members in the process of solving their very problems. Instead, she rushed to the vice president, who was not even a member of their group to seek her assistance on tackling the crisis. This showed lack of leadership on her part. Looking for assistance elsewhere without informing team members is a sign of mistrust and divisive leadership that is not recommended for a team.

Classification of the Leadership Issues involved

The above issues can be evaluated with the use of team dynamics leadership approach. Organizations extensively utilize teams when attempting to structure and allocate work projects. Considering the increasing prevalence of teams, in modern firms and the complexities involved in group dynamics, issues revolving around how to ensure that there are high levels of collective learning and effective decision making, coupled with key determinants of team performance, have arrested the attention of scholars and practitioners in equal weight (Tost et al. 2013). The same is true of Initech, which attributes its success to the hard work of the supply-chain management team. This explains why Jackson sought to evaluate the team dynamics within the supply chain department (Tost et al. 2013).

One factor that is central to effective team leadership is to understand how to use power and formal authority. Power is the ability to control others’ outcomes, experiences, or behaviors, whereas leadership is the process of influencing others to pursue group goals (Tost et al. 2013). Formal authority, on the other hand, is holding of a particular role or office related to a social hierarchy. It is clear that Nettle did not understand where use of power ends and exploitation of leadership strategies begin. This is because she overused her power and authority to dominate everything that the team members did (Sunaguchi, 2015). As a result, they did not feel involved in important issues. Team leaders should not have the absolute power, because all members need to feel that they are part of the process (Webb, 2016). Thus, the concentration of power in a single team leader may not yield straightforward and positive impacts on team cohesion, coordination, as well as collaboration that is necessary for team growth. This calls for the need to share certain powers (Sunaguchi, 2015).

What My Actions could have Been and How My Recommendations compare with the Case

If I were the team leader, there are various actions that I would take to address the above problems. First, upon realizing that there is a problem, I would convene a team crisis meeting where there is open discussion about the challenges facing the group. This is because group members like to feel that their ideas are important when they are included in making decisions that directly affect them. In addition, they are likely to develop a high feeling of self-esteem, motivation, and belief in their abilities when their ideas are working to solve the problem. In addition, I would introduce policies of fairness and equality. This is because some members felt unimportant since others were given preferential treatment due to the technical skills that they had in addressing certain problems. Introducing a policy of fairness makes all team members feel that they are being treated just like everyone else. Finally, I would introduce a system of rewarding and acknowledging team performance, training members to improve their skills, as well as introducing a system of career progression.

Comparison with How the problem was Addressed

The recommendations that I have proposed sharply differ from those that were done by the above organization. First, I have proposed that Nettle should have convened a crisis meeting and welcomed views from team members on identifying the concerns in an open manner. However, the real case shows that Nettle, the team leader, failed to discuss the problems with team members and instead resorted to seeking the input of a non-member. This further demoralizes the team, since it insults their intelligence by making them feel that they are not important, and that they do not have the ability to address problems on their own. In addition, I have proposed a policy founded on fairness and equality, where all members are equally treated. However, in the above case scenario, there is no mention of whether Tailerman, the systems expert, continued to be treated with more respect and dignity than fellow team members.

Conclusion

Leading teams effectively is the key to ensuring that an organization remains competitive in an environment that highly depends on teamwork. As indicated in the above case scenario, there are various small things that leaders ignore that matter. Therefore, effective team leadership requires encouraging cohesiveness, cooperation, as well as collaboration in all the issues that an organization may be facing.

References

Ricketts, C., & Ricketts, J. (2010). Leadership: Personal development and career success.

Ontario: Nelson Education.

Sunaguchi, B. (2015). shared leadership and its dynamics: a neglected mechanism. Academy of

Strategic Management Journal, 14(2), 197.

Team Dynamics at Initech. (n.d). Team dynamics at Initech (PDF Document).

Tost, L. P., Gino, F., & Larrick, R. P. (2013). When power makes others speechless: The

negative impact of leader power on team performance. Academy of Management Journal,

56(5), 1465-1486.