The case study titled “The Micromanager was written by Bronwyn Fryer, Jim Goodnight, Mark Goulston, Craig Chappelow and Jordan Lawrie pertaining to the Harvard Business Assessment journal previous September 2005.
The imaginary story involved a CEO of Retronics Corporation, George Latour. George believes that he is a great leader and has a command to increase you can actually profits using a goal of excellence towards the software-engineering firm.
Instructed by the board leader, George chosen a new advertising director, Shelley Stern, who, according to the leader, only needs a bit of training in the software-engineering business. This individual does his best to deliver Shelly up to date.
George offers her take a seat in about developer conferences, forced her to do customer calls, and even has the finance office describe the company’s economic affairs onto her. George has tendencies to get meticulous, interfering with Shelly’s work, curbing her creative imagination and recommending his own “better suggestions. George also gives window blind comments just like when he explained “Thanks, Shel. You’re the best though Shelly experienced down that point when George repelled her creativity. Carrying out all this built Shelley miserable and never seems to show curiosity. In truth, the lady sees George’s management style as oppressive, making her awfully frustrated. In the end, Shelly rebelled and accused George as a “micromanager, while going out of George shocked and could hardly ever believe what he noticed.
Both parties, George and Shelly, have some challenges in terms of opinion and character. As CEO of the organization, George carries a lot of pressure on his shoulder blades that is why he tries his best to excel the demands with the firm since the company is definitely not within a good shape. This individual overexerts himself by interfering with the work of his subordinates. Clearly, he lacks some sensitivity and trust to his underlings besides making the work done by doing it himself. George is usually uncomfortable along with his job and thinks the fact that blame may only stage at him that’s why he is afraid to simply accept radical concepts from his underlings.
Shelly, on the other hand, is pretty new to the business. Although this wounderful woman has the certification for the position, she still needs a great deal to learn and desires to adjust automatically according to the needs of the organization and her boss. Shelly believes that she has good qualities and gives overconfidence on her operate. She also believes that her ideas are good and needs being praised certainly not criticized, because done casually by George. As a recently hired staff, she is pressured to show her good qualities with her co-workers and leave a great impression being a marketing movie director. Shelly trusts herself and believes that she can stand onto her own without the help or intervention of her managers.
According to the U. S. Military services Handbook of 1973, you will discover three basic types of leadership. They are really: (1) Authoritarian or autocratic style, (2) Participative or perhaps democratic design, and, (3) Delegative or perhaps free reign style. Authoritarian or autocratic style is basically used if the boss tells his subordinates what this individual wants carried out and how he wants the work done without receiving the advice or opinion of his subordinates. An appropriate state to use this kind of style is definitely when all the information to solve the problem is provided, there is certainly time pressure, and the subordinates are well encouraged to accept rash commands.
A lot of narrow oriented people think of this style while an excuse for yelling, employing humiliating terminology, leading to hazards and mistreatment of electric power. This is not the authoritarian style but rather an abusive, underhanded style known as “bossing persons around. Authoritarian style is generally used on uncommon situations when necessary. Participative or perhaps democratic style of leadership is definitely preferred in the event time is far more available as well as the leader desires to gain more commitment and motivation from your subordinates. This style includes the employees in on the making decisions processes. Yet , knowledgeable and skillful employees should take portion in the process plus the leader affirms the final decision as a indication of specialist.
Using this design does not display weakness with the leader but instead a sign of strength and trust that the staff will respect. In delegative or cost-free reign style, the boss allows employees to make their own decision. This style is used when employees are able completely capable of analyzing the situation and can know what needs to be completed solve a certain problem. Even though the employees got the power to make decisions, the responsibility and final decision always lie within the leader himself.
For a great leader to get more effective he should be able to make use of all three styles depending on the circumstance and the makes involved between him great subordinates. The best should know once and how to adjust to meet the demands of the company as well as to preserve a good image to his employees. Concerning George Latour, he will need to improve on becoming a leader by listening even more to develop even more productive concepts and to possess a common relationship to his followers. He probably should not concentrate him self on how his employee recognizes him nevertheless focus on making the most of the obtainable resources to obtain better and productive planning.
The biggest problem for Shelly and George would be the not enough efficient communication. Most of the challenges and clashes that take place in a firm or perhaps organization are the direct consequence failure to communicate and misunderstanding. Faulty communication leads to confusion and will cause great plans being unsuccessful. Connection is said to be the exchange info or suggestions from a sender into a receiver. (Communication and Leadership) Efficient communication happens in case the receiver comprehends the information which the sender wanted to address. Open mindedness as well plays a major part in communication. It sharpens the capability of the recipient to understand the actual sender says thus producing the conversation process better.
Good interaction is also hard to attain specially when there are some limitations that avoid the sender and receiver to understand each other. A few of these said obstacles of interaction are: culture, beliefs, sound, physical and mental challenges, past encounters, and environmental factors such as bright signals, unnatural scenery, unattractive person or any stimuli that can trigger distraction. (Communication and Leadership)
For a good communication process to happen, each should defeat these barriers to have a even more productive marriage with each other. Regarding George and Shelly, they have to relieve themselves of the stresses that they take so that they can communicate effectively. Shelly should put in herself about listening to recommendations and merging it with her creative ideas while George must also make an effort to become more sensitive and to provide more trust to his employees.
Recommendations:
Bronwyn Fryer, J. G. (Sep 2004). The Micromanager. Harvard Business Review 8p, 2c, 4bw, p31-40, 8p, 2c, 4bw.
Communication and Leadership. (n. d. ). Retrieved Aug 27, 3 years ago, from The Skagit Watershed Council Website: http://www.skagitwatershed.org/~donclark/leader/leadcom.html
Leadership Variations. (n. d. ). Gathered August twenty-seven, 2007, from The Skagit Watershed Council Site: http://www.skagitwatershed.org/~donclark/leader/leadstl.html
Us Army Handbook. (1973).
