Ineffective Leadership in a Workplace Case Study

Abstract

During the development of youth employment programs as a pilot project, the Department of Employment faced an issue associated with the ineffective leadership. The project failed because of problems with the work of the team. Several employees quitted participating in the project development after six weeks because of the overwork and exhaustion.

The analysis of the case demonstrates that the leader set unrealistic deadlines for the project completion, and the schedule was organized inefficiently. Moreover, there were no clear goals communicated to the employees to coordinate their work. The necessity to replace the employees who rejected to participate in the team made the leadership decide on shifting responsibilities, and employees spent much time for adapting to the work for which they did not have enough experience.

In addition, they did not receive the necessary training. The informal leader of the team became to act as a manager, and his tasks contradicted the previously set objectives. As a result, the project was frozen. To address the leadership and management problems, it is planned to reorganize the project team with the focus on the scope of tasks and concrete goals.

Thus, the number of high-skilled employees in the team needs to be increased. The followed leadership style should be improved with the focus on supportive or inspirational leadership. The proposed schedule and deadlines should be set depending on concrete objectives and the working potential of the staff. These actions are necessary to overcome the problematic situation and predict failures in the future.

People and Leadership Case Study

The development of new programs and policies is typical for such agencies as the Department of Employment. However, there are cases when the development and implementation of the program can fail because of the inappropriate leadership and management. The team working on the youth employment program faced a problem of completing the pilot project because the leader invited the unreasonable number of employees (6 individuals) for the 12-week project.

The scope of the tasks was considerable, but there were only weekly meetings, and the final goal was not communicated appropriately. The leader avoided any additional discussions of the projects, but he encouraged the overwork. As a result, two employees quitted the team because of unclear tasks and the increased stress levels.

This situation made the leader re-distribute the duties among new team members, but they were expected to demonstrate high results in a week to fit in the schedule. The productivity decreased because they had no enough skills, and no additional training was provided. The lack of communication and motivation from the leader made team members choose the informal leader and insist on freezing the project.

The discussed issues are important because they indicate how the ineffective planning and communication strategies selected by the leader can affect the success of the whole project because employees are stressed and not aware of the goals (Van Wart, 2014; Yukl, 2014). The problem was in the fact that the pilot project developed by the team failed because of the leader’s impossibility to make effective decisions regarding the distribution of tasks among employees, planning, setting deadlines, and communicating.

Therefore, it is important to propose improvements in the sphere of organizing the teamwork, planning tasks, appointing responsible persons, communicating with employees and motivating them. In addition to summarizing the issues in the case, this paper aims to present the analysis of the situation with the focus on the MORETOOLS framework and the leadership role in the project failure. In addition, the solution is proposed, and conclusions are made regarding the case importance for the future practice.

The Analysis of the Case

Mission and Purpose of the Agency

The mission of the Department of Employment is to develop policies and implement programs that are effective to address the employment questions in Australia while creating the advantageous environments for employees. The purpose of the Department’s activities is to improve the current policies and develop new ones to address unemployment issues and protect the vulnerable categories of the population in terms of employment.

As a result, the mission is to create the secure and socially friendly workplaces for the Australians (Australian Government Department of Employment, 2015). The mission and purpose are followed while planning and implementing any project oriented to reforming the current policy or proposing a new one.

Objectives of the Manager

Guided by the main agency’s mission, each unit of the department has its own management team, and it is responsible for developing concrete projects with specific objectives. The objective of a manager responsible for introducing new employment campaigns for the youth in Australia is to develop programs addressing the mission regarding the secure and advantageous environment and launch them within the fixed period of time.

In the near future, the aim is to organize the work of a project team. Therefore, in the critical situation of the project failure, the leader of the unit and team is responsible for completing such short-term objectives as the reorganization of the team and the implementation of the new working strategy to achieve higher results and improve productivity (Felício, Gonçalves, & da Conceição Gonçalves, 2013, p. 2140).

The team reorganization is necessary to respond to such problems as the exhaustion, impossibility to address the deadline, and low-quality outcomes of the project work. The manager’s long-term objective in this case is to create the single unit in the agency formed of experts in the area of the youth and employment.

Risks and Problems

Focusing on the discussed project failure and such manager’s objectives as the organization of the team’s work to address schedules and high productivity, it is possible to prioritize identified leadership risks and problems in the following manner:

1. The absence of the clearly communicated goal and adequate training sessions, team meetings, and discussions of the progress.
2. Ineffective distribution of roles and tasks among the team members that leads to the employees’ exhaustion.
3. The lack of the progress monitoring and coordination according to the observed success.
4. The inappropriateness of the fixed schedule in relation to the scope of the project and tasks that lead to the inability to address deadlines.
5. The performance of the leadership role by more than one team member.

The failure of first pilot projects in relation to proposing the effective program in the sphere of youth employment within the fixed deadlines depends on the absence of clearly communicated goal of the project to guide the team members’ activities. Thus, the leader used only the formal approach to informing the team about the project goal.

The ideas were shared and discussed during weekly meetings, the additional training was not provided, and the discussion of the progress was limited and irregular. Focusing on the theory of ethical and motivating leadership, the leader failed to demonstrate the supportive communication style to inspire employees to achieve higher results (Schyns & Schilling, 2013).

The employees lacked the opportunity to be informed of the short-term goals and progress, as well as to receive the additional consultation or guidelines. In addition, the leader distributed the tasks and roles within the project team without referring to the employees’ position responsibilities. Certain team members were not skilled enough to adapt their knowledge to the new area and perform successfully.

According to De Vries, Bakker-Pieper, and Oostenveld (2010), such persons experience much stress while adapting to new conditions and cannot demonstrate high results within the short period of time. The leader did not motivate employees to perform better in the new area because of failing to provide opportunities for training and adaptation (Schyns & Schilling, 2013, p. 139).

In this situation, the schedule was proposed without focusing on such risks as the inability to employees to complete tasks before starting the other project stage. As a result, the lack of the necessary monitoring and coordination led to failures in addressing the project deadlines. The other important problem is the appearance of another informal leader as a result of the lack of the main leader’s communication with the team (De Vries, Bakker-Pieper, & Oostenveld, 2010, p. 369).

The absence of trust in the leader’s competence and success led to delegating some leadership responsibilities to the informal team leader at the final period of the project development. The reason is that feeling the constant stress, employees need support, and the informal participative leadership works better than the task-oriented formal leadership in this case.

External and Internal Actors and the Environment

While focusing on the approaches to reorganize the teamwork to complete the primary project effectively in contrast to the pilot ones, it is necessary to analyze the role of stakeholders in the process. The most influential actors are the staff of the Department of Employment.

To address the problem and predict further failures, it is necessary to organize the collaboration of the team leader and the agency’s human resources coordinators who can provide the additional training for the team members in the context of the project (Yukl, 2014). In addition, the reorganization of the current team leads to inviting other professionals working in the Department to complete set tasks with the focus on their expertise and skills.

The external stakeholders include the youth because the project is developed to address their needs and the social organizations working with the young people. It is important to plan more time for analyzing the statistical information regarding the situation in the sphere of youth employment and collaborate with the Bureau of Statistics.

Tools and Constraints

The observed project failure can be analyzed in terms of contributing tools and determined constraints. One of the most important tools contributing to the project success is the skilled employees (Van Wart, 2014). The employees were skilled enough in their particular areas, but they needed the additional experience to work in the areas determined by the leader.

As a result, the potential tool became discussed as a constraint. At the current stage, the available tools include the required number of the high-quality employees, the availability of the skilled workforce, and the increased funds for the project completion. However, barriers to the project improvement and the reorganization of the team are still significant.

The observed constraints include strict deadlines, lack of the training, lack of the set time for employees meetings, and underdeveloped communication channels. If a leader fails to overcome barriers with the focus on the available tools, the primary projects can also fail.

Opportunities

In spite of being associated with a crisis in the leadership, the discussed situation provides many opportunities for the manager to develop the new model of the work in the agency. The reorganization of the teamwork associated with projects in the concrete sphere leads to the development of the specific working model or pattern that improves the performance and increases the productivity of the staff.

If a new proposed strategy for managing the project is effective enough, the small number of the skilled employees can complete the larger number of tasks within the limited period of time (Felício et al., 2013). The leader needs to organize the work of the team in such a way that this team can serve as the expert team for providing consultancy in further similar projects to decrease the time and costs associated with the training of other employees.

Outcomes and Elements of a Stable Solution

To achieve the efficient solution to the determined problem associated with the project failure in the agency, it is necessary to focus on the outcomes of the proposed solution to discuss it as stable and sustainable:

1. The team working on the development of programs comprises out of the adequate number of employees that is correlated with the scope of the project.
2. 80% of assigned tasks are completed at the high-quality level.
3. The productivity of the team increases by 25%.
4. The team works according to the stated schedule, and delays decrease by 30%.
5. The leadership is effective, and the monitoring of the project progress is regular.
6. The degree of cooperation between employees representing different project teams and units of the Department increases by 20%.
7. The level of the stress in employees decreases by 25%.

These outcomes of the solution are identified as important because the discussed aspects led to the failure of pilot projects, and the planned reorganization is aimed to address these issues.

Long-Term Improvement

The improved approach to organizing the team regarding its size and responsibilities will lead to optimizing the work of the staff and reducing associated costs. Thus, the increases in funds can be required only for the additional training of employees and their compensation. The other long-term benefits include the changes in the approach to the leadership in the organization.

It is important to focus on developing the role model of a leader who is flexible, emotionally involved, motivating, communicable, and decisive (Yukl, 2014, p. 121). The currently followed task-oriented leadership style is not appropriate, and the reorganization of the teamwork can also lead to shifting to the supportive and even inspirational leadership styles (Van Wart, 2014).

In addition, the long-term improvement involves the enhancement of the work with external stakeholders with the focus on building partnerships with social organizations oriented to the youth well-being and development.

Strategies for Actions

To solve the identified problems and address the future risks in leadership and management of projects on the subject of youth employment, it is necessary to formulate the clear steps for the solution implementation. The first step is contacting the HRM team, unit leaders, and project coordinators for forming the working team that will include the increased number of skilled employees with the expertise in the sphere of youth and employment programs development.

It is also necessary to discuss the opportunities for the training sessions. The second step is the actual formation of the working group. Those persons who worked on the pilot projects need to be invited to work further. Those employees who experienced the stress and problems in communicating with the leader needs to be replaced with the representatives of other units to increase the workforce potential.

Only high-quality professionals are expected to be invited for the work. This approach guarantees the reasonable distribution of tasks among team members. The third step is the identification of the communication channels to share ideas, visions, tasks, and feedbacks. It is necessary to plan not only weekly meetings but also face-to-face sessions and e-mail reports, as well as training sessions.

The next step is the development of the realistic schedule for achieving the goal and completing concrete tasks. It is important to take into account the time for training, meetings, completing tasks, coordinating tasks, revising, and addressing possible barriers while planning the schedule and setting the deadline. The tough deadline is one of the main constraints for this project.

Thus, the effective leader needs to develop the schedule while addressing the objectives and responding to the real work potential of the team without leading them to the burnout (Schyns & Schilling, 2013). Another point is the correlation of the available workforce and deadlines with the proposed funds. The distribution of resources should depend on the project goals and the number of involved employees.

When the communication channels are determined, and the schedule is set, it is important to motivate employees to work at completing tasks for achieving the concrete goal. Therefore, the next step is the building of the cooperating team during the first weeks of the project through the effective communication and supportive leadership.

This step also includes the building of partnerships with social organizations and the Bureau of Statistics to receive the outdated information on changes in the sphere. It is also important to address such constraints as the set short deadlines for projects and destructive leadership. The deadlines need to be set with the focus on the scope of tasks and its priority for the Department.

The manager demonstrating the destructive leadership techniques needs to be replaced with the other person, who was discussed as the informal leader during the development of pilot projects (Schyns & Schilling, 2013, p. 139). The range of tasks can be delegated according to the partnerships agreement with social organizations and the Bureau of Statistics.

Assessment of the Potential for Success

The effectiveness of the proposed strategy needs to be assessed in order to guarantee the completion of long-term goals. In this context, the assessment should include the following steps:

1. the weekly monitoring of changes in the team workers’ quality of work and stress levels;
2. the weekly monitoring of the achievements within the set schedule;
3. the monthly monitoring of the performance and progress of the project implementation;
4. evaluations of the individuals’ work with the focus on personal performance assessments.

It is important for a leader to evaluate the employees’ attitudes to the work regularly in order to predict possible risky situations.

Conclusion

The Department of Employment faced a problem of developing the effective youth employment programs because the first pilot project failed to be appropriately developed and implemented by the project team. The analysis of the case demonstrated that the problem was in the destructive leadership techniques followed by the manager.

As the result of the ineffective leadership, employees had to share responsibilities for which they did not have enough experience; they was not properly informed of the project goal and trained; they suffered from the tension to complete the unrealistic deadlines; and they chose the informal leader among them to address the stressful situation.

In order to address similar problematic cases, it is necessary to reorganize the working team according to the project scope and goals. In addition, the selected project leader should follow the supportive or even inspirational leadership style to build a team that can effectively work to address the agency’s mission and develop secure and advantageous employment programs for the population, including your people.

This case study analysis is important to refer to while discussing similar issues associated with the ineffective leadership, when a leader ignores interaction with the team, cannot communicate the objectives, cannot analyze the project scope, and determine what resources are required to achieve the goal. Moreover, this case study is an example of the leadership that cannot motivate employees, leading to their dissatisfaction.

References

Australian Government Department of Employment. (2015).

De Vries, R. E., Bakker-Pieper, A., & Oostenveld, W. (2010). Leadership = communication? The relations of leaders’ communication styles with leadership styles, knowledge sharing and leadership outcomes. Journal of Business and Psychology, 25(3), 367-380.

Felício, J. A., Gonçalves, H. M., & da Conceição Gonçalves, V. (2013). Social value and organizational performance in non-profit social organizations: Social entrepreneurship, leadership, and socioeconomic context effects. Journal of Business Research, 66(10), 2139-2146.

Schyns, B., & Schilling, J. (2013). How bad are the effects of bad leaders? A meta-analysis of destructive leadership and its outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly, 24(1), 138-158.

Van Wart, M. (2014). Leadership in public organizations: An introduction. New York, NY: Routledge.

Yukl, G. (2014). Leadership in organizations. New York, NY: Prentice Hall.