Introduction
The world of business initiatives is full of different suggestions and propositions as of the pragmatic solutions for making the company or business more successful. In this respect the figures of strong and highly-responsible people with the distinct idea of what and how to act is needful for every enterprise. It is so, because when a company needs so desired changes, and then scarcely there will be a person who is able to decide such problem and take great responsibility for further effects. The thing is that the organizational change is a huge process which is related to the destruction of previous traditions and manners of a company. In other words, it is concerned with the transformation of the system maintained before and being stable due to the persons who headed and ruled a company. The point of leadership skills and managerial experience is disclosed in the paper with points on the figure of Andrea Grant and her strategic initiatives which saved the highest positions of the affiliated to her Holden company. Furthermore, the bellow description and evaluation of her actions for the well-being of the company touches directly upon the human resources and her care of the effective and productive personnel. In fact, the decision-making procedures of Grant need a closer outlook on her activities in the company as an etalon of right programs for making enterprise profitable and always on a dynamic approach.
Evaluation
When dealing with the adoption of strategic decisions on a high level one should understand the bilateral nature of torrents which may be presented inside a company, namely: individual flow of ideas, minority, and mainstream, majority. In this respect the case with the policymaking mechanism of Andrea Grant presupposes the features of interpersonal communication skills which were appropriate to Grant and her ability to make people assured in rightness of her actions. Moreover, being relatively young, this person was lack of any prejudices about implementation of newly experienced personnel with trendy ideas and proper worldview on current situations. Grant’s unpopular way of change can be defined as turnaround-type (Gill, 2003).
It is surprising that Grant’s actions were supposed to have, first, theoretical, then practical background. The first initiative of hers was to implement a clear vision for the HR department (Donaldson, 2004). In this case there is no doubt that the success was not long in coming. As Hughes and Wearing (2007, p. 75) admit, the key principles of organizational change provision prop up against letting the employees understand the reasons for such changes and the flow in which a company moves according to its dynamic coloring in affairs provided: “Key event characteristics include the degree of employee participation in decision making, the provision of clear information about the change process, and employees’ perceptions of the quality of the leadership during the change period”.
Furthermore, according to Blanchard (2006, p. 219) the actions of Andrea Grant from the very beginning are right, because, as the author notes: “people leading the change think that announcing the change is the same as implementing it”. This point underlines the ability of Grant to bear the main weight of the attack. Providing the policy of strategic internal restructuring she did not only gave commands to the HR department but helped to make it clear and to promote the systematically new vision of how this board of the company should function. Of course, traditional and bureaucratic approaches were diminished for this purpose.
Making employee involvement higher and empowered the executive director of Holden Company proved the idea of collective responsibility for general business. In fact, there is a sort of intentional inclusion with further encouragement for the work which was to be done. With these initiatives she provided high standards of self-esteem and self-conscientiousness throughout the staff. With regards to Burnes (2004) organizational change as a process touching upon definite time prospects should be correlated with the managerial changes on the whole. This point is proper to what Grant implemented as ‘aspirational values’ with more attention on the management team and top managers and supervisors capable to provide discipline, control, and productivity in the workplace of the company. This intention of the director is full of innovative measurements and according to a universal practice it may possess more than one year. Fortunately, the strategic reformation of the personnel was received adequately and resulted in a more competitive team of the company ready to confront with new more difficult and profitable challenges in order to manifest the general well-trained character of the Holden Company.
Taking into account all pros and cons one can say that during and after the implementation of above mentioned strategy there were more advantages. One of the limitations, as it is seen from the situation, was considered with the parallel provision of newly updated information systems, so that to accomplish the feedback connection between the employees and members of the management team in terms of strengthening the newly created structure of the company’s human resources. In accordance with Laudon and Laudon (2009) this approach shows nowadays which of the rivals in a specific field of activities will e on the top.
Leadership Styles
In the workspace chief managers and directors, in particular use different styles of leadership skills. They vary as Harrison and Lock (2004) admit according to two major trends which comprise the wholeness of interpersonal relations and ability to achieve desired goals, namely: task-oriented and employee-oriented. In this respect one can apparently promote a vision on the policy by Andrea Grant in her tendency to improve the personnel characteristics of the company and its sustainability as well. What is more, choosing employee-oriented style of leadership she “killed two birds with one stone”, because by such reformations Andrea Grant achieved different improvements in functioning of the company generally speaking. Suchlike strategy helped her to make progress in promotion of strategic goals provided by a parental company in the US. In other words, the executive director of the Holden Company proved able the hopes of the General Motors Corporation as for “concern for people” and “concern for production” (Harrison and Lock, 2004).
Cameron and Green (2004) keep a strict eye in their book on two dimensions of leadership which contemplate the inner and outer leadership in the company. In this respect Andrea Grant succeeded in the inner type of leadership due to her straightforward approach toward the inner and motivational “health” and stability of the personnel. In fact, her leadership skills pay attention even in the format of gender and age peculiarities of this woman. For Australia this example is unique and can be used as a manifestation of employee-related strategic initiatives for the well-being of a definite company either small or large.
In the flow of actions by Grant the urge for Emotional Intelligence (EI) was felt deeply throughout the process of restructuring in the Holden Company. It is considered, as Goleman et al (2004, p. 253) remarks, with the points on emotional self-awareness, developing others, conflict management, and teamwork and collaboration. Donaldson (2004) proves the leadership competency of Grant when describing the facts of her desirable tendency to share leadership skills throughout the company for current and potential employees.
Appropriate Course Materials
This section has a goal to investigate the phenomenon of Andrea Grant by virtues of outside glimpses on the problem according to the knowledge gained by means of the course materials. In this case it is necessary to mention the model of Dexter Dunphy and Doug Stace. The thing is that for Australian character of organization change provision this model provides an appropriate scope of time and efforts prospects. It is a particular trait of Australian business affairs when such occasions appear. According to Dawson (2003, p. 34) the Dunphy and Stace model touches upon two key dimensions, namely:
- The scale of change, seen to lie along a continuum from small to large scale;
- The style of leadership required to bring about change, which covers both participative and autocratic leadership styles.
Actually, the organizational transformation of all types presupposes a mere extent of adaptation and promotion of new values which may serve to be strategic and applied to the main prospects of time and economic situation in the world, not only in Australia. The time of changes in a large corporation is a period when the most active and prospective members of the personnel are capable to survive and get along with a strategic and progressive policy provided by the board of directors. To make a safe place in the company people should lessen their ambitions and follow the instructions. In case with Grant it is fair to outline that previously mentioned piece of advice is fruitful due to an openness of her toward employees’ right understanding of current changes.
Conclusion
Summarizing the ideas about the case with the Holden Company and the role of Andrea Grant, in particular, it is clear that the leadership skills are of great importance for the implementation of organization change in a large company. It is so due to the inclinations of a leader. It depends on whether a leader is mostly task or employee-oriented. One more point concerns whether a leadership strategic initiatives are met in the personnel adequately. As the observations show, such tendency of changes is appropriate for the Australian type of business relationships provision (Senior & Fleming, 2006). Furthermore, the initiatives of Grant first touched upon the informative character and then it was implemented in practice. The evaluation of processes appeared in the Holden Company in the beginning of the twenty-first century proved the capacity of its executive director to maintain nightly balanced and structured relationships with glimpses on mutual feedbacks while working together. It is felt on Grant’s “concern for people” being prevailing over “concern for production” from the very beginning of her management on the position of the executive director (Harrison and Lock, 2004). This idea reckons with the Dunphy and Stace model of key dimensions which are usable and proper for the situation with Andrea Grant.
Reference List
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