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Case Study for Assessment 2 Requirements

When DGL International, a manufacturer of refinery equipment, brought John Terrill to manage its services division, company executives informed him of the urgent situation. Technical services, with 20 engineers, was the highest-paid, best-educated and least productive division in the company. The instructions to Terrill: turn it around. Terrill called a meeting of the engineers. He showed great concern for their personal welfare and asked point-blank: ‘What’s the problem? Why can’t we produce? Why does this division have such turnover?’ Without hesitation, employees launched a hail of complaints, ‘I was hired as an engineer, not a pencil pusher’, and ‘We spend over half our time writing asinine reports in triplicate for top management, and no one reads the reports’. After a two-hour discussion, Terrill concluded he had to get top management off the engineers’ backs. He promised the engineers, ‘My job is to stay out of your way so you can do your work, and I’ll try to keep top management off your backs, too’. He called for the day’s reports and issued an order effective immediately that the originals be turned in daily to his office rather than mailed to headquarters. For three weeks, technical reports piled up on his desk. By month’s end, the stack was nearly a metre high. During that time no one called for the reports. When other managers entered his office and saw the stack, they usually asked, ‘What’s all this?’ Terrill answered: ‘Technical reports’. No one asked to read them. Finally, at month’s end, a secretary from finance called and asked for the monthly travel and expense report, Terrill responded, ‘Meet me in the president’s office tomorrow morning’. The next morning the engineers cheered as Terrill walked through the department pushing a cart loaded with the enormous stack of reports. They knew the showdown had come. Terrill entered the CEO’s office and placed the stack of reports on his desk. The CEO and the other senior executives looked bewildered. ‘This’, Terrill announced ‘is the reason for the lack of productivity in the technical services division. These are the reports you people require every month. The fact that they sat on my desk all month shows that no one reads this material. I suggest that the engineers’ time could be used in a more productive manner’. The CEO and the senior executives admit that there has been a process error. However, they are not entirely convinced on how Terrill attempted to resolve it. The company brings in you as an organisational leadership consultant to assess the current issues and provide a report with recommendations to resolve matters related to leadership and team development. Refer to the assessment instruction document for detailed instruction.

Solution:

1.    Introduction

DGL International is a manufacturing company that recently recruited John Terrill to address the issue of low productivity at its Technical services department. The division comprises of 20 engineers who are highly qualified and well-paid, yet the department has one of the lowest rates of productivity at the company. Upon his arrival at the firm, Terrill had a meeting with the employees of the division to understand their concerns and uncovered that the preparation of technical reports is a redundant task assigned to the engineers. These reports are generated for the senior management, but the engineers believe that they do not contribute to their work. Terrill’s solution to the issue has led to concerns raised by the senior management. Terrill did not take the top management’s views into account when deciding to revert all technical reports to his office, which kept piling up, but were never reviewed. This report presents a comprehensive analysis of the issue of low employee productivity at DGL International’s Technical services department and relates it to the concepts of team composition, organisational performance and leadership. The discussion highlights the types of followers and the team composition at the Technical services division and presents recommendations for resolving the issues being faced by DGL International.

2.    Organisational Leadership and Performance

Leadership is an important area of assessment in organisational studies. It is a process through which leaders inspire, motivate and lead employees to move ahead in a specific direction, which aligns with the strategic objectives of an organisation (Hurduzeu 2015, p. 290). Research indicates that there is a correlation between organisational performance and the utilisation of effective leadership (Hurduzeu 2015 p. 290). Organisational performance is the process through which a company converts inputs into outputs, which generate desired goals. The concept of organisational performance can be defined in terms of cost efficiency, quality and quantity of outputs. The adoption of effective leadership style by an organisational leader not only enhances standards of excellence in a firmbut also drives the professional development and commitment of employees to their work and the organisation (Katou 2015, n. pag).

In the case of DGL International, employee performance maybe characterized as the ability of employees to successfully complete the tasks, roles and responsibilities defined in their job description. For example, engineers in the Technical Services department are expected to showcase high levels of productivity, which is a measure of their individual performance. Semedo, Coelho and Ribeiro (2016, n. pag) found that the adoption of an authentic leadership positively influenced employees’ attitudes towards their work including their degree of commitment and creativity.  The research suggested that organisations should actively recruit leaders who support the professional development of employees and have authentic features in a bid to enhance employee performance.

These findings are further substantiated by the work of Mittal and Dhar (2015, n. pag) who note that transformative organisational leadership has a direct impact on the creativity of employees, which in turn leads to high performance. Creativity enables employees to tackle issues and problems in an efficient manner and hones their knowledge sharing skills, which is critical towards improving performance (Mittal and Dhar 2015, n. pag).

Soane, Butler and Stanton (2015, p. 21) noted that certain traits of leadership also had a positive impact on employee performance, for example, conscientious leaders proved to generate more effective performance outcomes. This indicates that the personality of leaders directly impacts performance and further substantiates the view that performance is influenced by organisational leadership. The understanding of this concept has critical implications for DGL International because it showcases the importance of honing leadership skills, knowledge and capabilities in the organisation to improve staff productivity and creativity in the Technical services department, which is reporting low productivity levels despite the higher pay and educational levels of its employees.

3.    Importance of Team Composition in Organisational Composition

According to Bell et al. (2018, p. 349), team composition is responsible for configuring member characteristics and is therefore, recognised as a fundamental element of teamwork. Moreover, team composition also impacts the performance of teams and the behavioral processes of individuals who make up the team hence, affecting organisational performance. An example of this is that of entrepreneurial teams, which can determine the success of new business ventures (Jin et al. 2017, p. 744).

Organisational composition is essentially a broader perspective of team composition, whereby teams are parts of the organisation, as a whole. According to Bell, Brown and Weiss (2018, p. 454), decisions regarding the composition of teams which are taken on a departmental level can provide a firm with a competitive advantage. This is because, organisations can compose teams to meet specific strategic objectives that fit in the overall mission of the company. If member attributes of individual teams align with the strategic aims of the organisation, then the organisational composition can act together to help drive performance, effectiveness and productivity.

At present, DGL International faces a pressing challenge because its highest-paid and most well-educated team of 20 engineers are reporting low rates of productivity. This is an alarming situation because as a manufacturing entity, the company relies on the efficiency of the its engineers to generate results and support the continuation of core business operations. It is important to note that team composition in this case is important because positive team processes practiced in core teams have a domino effect, which can improve organisational composition by driving the performance of other teams within the company (Kollmann et al., n. pag). Absence of effective team processes within the Technical services department can ultimately have an adverse influence on other divisions within the company, which can further affect organisational performance in an adverse manner.

Issues with team composition should therefore be resolved as soon as they emerge because they can harm the overall organisational composition. Dissatisfaction within teams is reflective of underlying challenges in the firm, which can stem from problems with the leadership or other employee grievances. Thus, team composition holds undeniable importance in the organisational composition and any issues in team composition should be readily addressed by the leadership, as they can contribute to critical challenges if left unaddressed.

4.    Discussion of Issues

The primary issue facing DGL International at present are the low productivity levels of its Technical services division. Despite being the best paid and most well-educated division in the company, which consists of 20 engineers, the department is not generating desired outcomes, which is having a negative impact on overall organisational performance.

4.1  Causes of Issues

Upon his hiring into the company, John Terill held a meeting with the departmental employees who raised concerns that they were expected to perform work which did not contribute to their professional development or the advancement of the company. This primarily included the preparation of reports which were never reviewed by the members of the senior leadership, but were still expected from the engineers in the division.

4.2  Terrill’s Leadership and Concerns of Top Management

Terrill adopted an open communication policy to uncover the issues facing the engineers. During the meeting organised by Terrill, he chose to inquire about the grievances of the employees in a point-blank fashion rather than providing a background about his role at the organisation and the ways in which he could contribute towards the well-being of the employees and bridge the gap between the division and the senior leadership.

5.    Analysis of Issues

5.1  Current Leadership Style

Terrill’s demonstrated a democratic leadership style while leading the employees at the Technical services department. According to Bhatti et al. (2012, p. 192), a democratic leadership style is characterized by two-way communication and openness to listen to feedback. A democratic leader shows willingness to hear what the employees have to say rather than imposing their own perceptions and ideas on them. When leading the Technical services department, Terrill listened to the concerns and problems raised by the engineers at the meeting and sought to resolve their issues by understanding their grievances. An example of this is that Terrill decided to receive all technical reports submitted by the engineers to highlight the issues in the scenario, which led to a lack of productivity in the division. Even though, Terrill’s followers were highly educated and critical thinkers he did not adopt a laissez-faire style of enabling them to work as they pleased but decided to become an active listener and communicator by listening to their issues and developing solutions for them.

The concern that the top management may have about Terrill’s handling of the situation is that he exhibited a lack of tolerance towards their decisions and did not bridge the gap between them and the employees of the Technical services department. Moreover, Terrill did not discuss the concerns raised by the engineers after the meeting with the top management and proceeded to amend the situation as he saw fit. As the senior management was unable to discern the reasons behind the decline in productivity of the Technical services department, they had recruited Terrill to address the issues. However, Terrill’s handling of the situation further aggravated the grievances that the engineers had against the top management. This move has critical repercussions for the organisational composition of the firm because it has potentially worsened the divide between the top management and the Technical services department.

5.2  Source of Power

Terrill’s source of power can be characterized as legitimate power because he was assigned a position where he could change the course of the Technical services department. This suggests that he had the capability and capacity to change the dynamics of the division because he was assigned this responsibility by the top management. An individual who holds legitimate power can take and change decisions within the organisation because of their position or the resignation that they hold (Wellman et al. 2016, p. 795). As Terrill was assigned to lead the Technical services department and address its problems, he had the legitimate power to take decisions pertaining to the division. However, it is important to note that a leadership acquires the ability to exercise legitimate power if the followers acknowledge and accept their authority in the organisation. In the case of the Technical services division, the employees who make up the department demonstrated their acceptance of Terrill’s authority and were willing to follow his orders and share their concerns. This further establishes that Terrill’s source of power in the organisation is legitimate.

5.3  Description of Followers and Team Composition

Terrill’s followers in the Technical services department can be described as effective or dynamic followers. The engineers who form the division have their own sense of independence about the work that they do and can engage in critical thinking. Even though they have these qualities, they respect and acknowledge Terrill’s authority. Effective followers also display enthusiasm and are willing to participate in discussions, while appreciating two-way communication in the workplace (Steffens et al. 2018, p. 25). The employees at the Technical services division appreciated Terrill’s initiative to have a one on one meeting with them and were not hesitant to share their views about the issues within the organisation. They reported their concerns to Terrill, but also abided by his instructions of submitting technical reports to him rather than the headquarters of the company. The team composition in the division is homogenous because the engineers are highly qualified and skilled in their work. Moreover, they are also paid well at the company. They perform as an operational team and have a size of 20 employees.

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