Introduction
Mr. Joseph Dunn, the president of Dunn’s Ski Emporium, being in business for a long time and having achieved success, decided to acquire The Deli, run by George Atkins. To make this operation successful, Mr. Dunn developed a leadership plan, in which he considered all the significant aspects of his future leadership. Mr. Dunn emphasized his role as a social architect, stating that it is he, who is responsible for the creation and maintaining a certain kind of a working environment in the company. The view of Mr. Dunn is people-centric. He has also stated the mission and vision clearly and explained how to use managerial staff to strengthen the vision. This plan was presented to George Atkins and discussed with him.
The Organization’s Purpose And Goals
Dunn’s Ski Emporium needs to make a clear statement of its purpose and goals. Rather than being a personal opinion of Dunn, the statement presents a composed view of him and his team. The main goal of the company is to deliver high-quality services to its customers. An essential step to quality is the motivation of the employees, especially the new ones from The Deli. The organization strives to make its employees reach a greater level of commitment and motivation since, as Dunn believes, it is the only way to enhance the labor productivity and to survive in the conditions of a harsh business competition.
To make the staff more motivated, it is also important that managers be able to establish clear and achievable goals that are consistent with the abilities and talents of each particular employee. Working out an individual approach to the employees is one of the main goals of the organization. Apart from that, as a leader, Joseph Dunn needs to develop a just and understandable reward system to boost motivation.
Vision and Mission
Working out vision and mission statements is a serious step in making a company successful. According to Mr. Dunn and his team, the mission of the organization is to maintain the highest quality of services provided to the clients, to provide the hires with a friendly and productive working environment, where high motivation is encouraged and rewarded, and the managers are presenting real achievable tasks.
The vision of the company is to be an organization that is widely known both for the qualities of the services it produces and for its achievement in the field of human resources. Dunn’s Ski Emporium needs to be a name, which immediately appears in a person’s mind when they are looking either for services or a job. Dunn and his team aim to deliver the vision to all of the employees so that they understand what is the aim, for which they need to work. To strengthen the vision, Mr. Dunn and the team need to enforce the role of the managerial staff, giving it more challenging tasks. This will motivate managers, and high motivation is the first step to the implementation of the company’s vision.
Organizational Structure
“An organizational structure indicates the method that an organization employs to delineate lines of communication, policies, authority, and responsibilities. It determines the extent and nature of how leadership is disseminated throughout the organization as well as the method by which information flows.” (Meehan, 2015, par. 1). The organizational structure, as it was designed by Dunn and his team, will be rather democratic since it is the only way to enhance the motivation of the employees, which is a significant part of the future success. As it can be seen from the following chart, managers are considered equal to the factory workers, and the accountants are equal to the office workers. The right placement of people, i.e. putting them in such positions as to make their talents useful, will enhance motivation and productivity, which will make business flow.
George Atkins is an important part of the new organizational structure. As a part of the Council, he will present his own view on the way The Deli should be operated. He also will explain the differences in the organizational culture of The Deli compared to Dunn’s Ski Emporium, introduce the problems of customer service and business competition faced by The Deli in previous years, and will serve as a link between The Deli and the Council.
Organizational Culture
To ensure the fulfillment of the vision, the appropriate organizational culture should be established. The most appropriate type of organizational culture for this particular case is clan culture. Considering the problem of uniting two companies with different customs, employing a family-like organizational culture is a top choice. Clan culture will ensure collaboration between employees and between both the companies that are planning to unite. Additionally, clan culture ensures the high level of employee commitment since it gives a person a sense of belonging, which results in a stronger attachment to the working place and stronger desire to be useful.
Employer commitment is an essential part of the organization’s mission and vision, so, consequently, adopting clan culture is consistent with the mission and the vision. While establishing a new organizational culture, it is necessary to avoid the customs of unsuccessful companies: making decisions behind closed doors, not sharing valuable information with employees, rewarding those, who did nothing to deserve this, appointing people of low morals as managers, having a high turnover and the loss of productivity as outcomes (Matheson, n.d., par. 2).
Assessment of the Environment for Change
It is highly important that Mr. Dunn, Mr. Atkins, and the team process the change with the appropriate amount of carefulness and make a thorough assessment of future changes. A precise plan of changes needs to be worked out.
First of all, it is necessary to estimate the expenditures of purchasing The Deli. It is needed to plan carefully all the financial transactions, including those of remunerating compensation for the workers. The team also needs to keep in mind that the behavior of the customers may change, and there may be an initial drop in sales. Hence, it is important to prevent the potential drop and plan the measures (for instance, pay more attention to advertising). Next, the changes in the organizational culture within The Deli need to be carefully planned as well; this kind of change by no means can be abrupt.
Mr. Dunn needs to act as the agent of change in this situation. The problem of the role of a leader while performing changes in business is well-examined by the scholars due to its importance. As Kanaga and Kossler recommend, a remarkable team leader is a leader, who would equate themselves with their team (2001, p. 14).
It is consistent with Mr. Dunn’s vision and his understanding of the corporative culture. According to Sullivan, a leader needs to be ready to cope with changes and not to be too attached to some initial plan (2012, p. 23); this recommendation will also be adopted. Finally, as Hawkins claims, for some companies their vision and mission are no more than written words (2011, p. 195); this needs not to be true for Dunn’s Ski Emporium. So, Mr. Dunn will present himself as equal to his team, will be ready to change the details in the instructions if necessary, but will keep the vision and mission in mind.
Dunn as a Social Architect and Individual
As a social architect, Mr. Dunn has to be responsible for the creation of an appropriate working environment in the united company. He should take care of the employees and their needs and establish a workable form of the leader-employee connection, which will have direct influence on the employees’ satisfaction and motivation. It has been decided that the relationships in the company have to be democratic, so Mr. Dunn has to keep that in mind and should not switch to the authoritarian model.
To make the relations more democratic and the employees more motivated, Mr. Dunn can give the managerial staff more meaningful tasks, taking some responsibility off himself. This will also make the company work more efficiently. Apart from that, leaders have to behave in a manner that is consistent with the ethical values of the company. As an individual, Mr. Dunn has to be morally virtuous and respectful to the employees. He needs not to strive for dominance. According to Daft, a leader needs to develop the following individual features: “extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience” (Daft, 2011, p. 5). Since Mr. Dunn believes that people are naturally laborious and will be productive given an appropriate assignment, he will make a trusting and outgoing leader.
Critical Elements
Mr. Dunn and the team should note that the following elements are crucial to the success of the task. First, in order to not lose the consumers and reach out to new ones, it might be a good idea to offer lower prices, at least for the initial period, but it must not be forgotten that the company should not lose much revenue. As it was already mentioned above, to pay attention to the advertising. The new advertisement must demonstrate that both Dunn’s Ski Emporium and The Deli are in benefit thank to this union, the quality of the offered services will not be lowered, and the range of services will become even broader. The salary of The Deli’s workers must not be lowered, for it would make a serious damage to the company’s reputation.
Summary
To summarize, Mr. Dunn has developed a comprehensive plan for his future leadership in a united company. He listed customer and employee satisfaction among the goals of the company. According to him, the mission of the company is to provide the clients with high-quality services and to make the working environment perfect for the employees. The vision is to become a top company both for the services and HR management. Mr. Dunn, with the help of the team, worked out a quite democratic organizational structure, and they decided to adopt clan organizational culture. Mr. Dunn mentioned all the problems related to change and described his role as a change agent and social architect, as well as the personal features he needs to develop. Finally, he listed the critical elements, such as prices, salaries, and advertisement.
References
Daft R.L. (2011). The leadership experience (5th ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Cengage Learning. Web.
Hawkins, P. (2011). Leadership team coaching: Developing collective transformational leadership. New York City, New York: Kogan Page Publishers. Web.
Kanaga, M., & Kossler, M. (2001). How to form a team: Five keys to high-performance. An ideas into action guidebook. Greensboro, North Carolina: Center for Creative Leadership. Web.
Matheson, C. (n.d.). 6 ways to improve your company’s culture. Web.
Meehan, C. (2015). Flat vs. hierarchical organizational structure. Web.
Sullivan, J. (2012). Multiunit leadership: The 7 stages of building a high-performing partnerships and teams. Washington, D.C: Business & Economics. Web.