Asia pacific company, just like any corporate body, at the time is facing financial constraints. The economic times are hectic and therefore the company management has to ensure that the depreciating economy does not take a toll on the operations of the company. Therefore, to come up with a quick solution, the top management under the company COO holds a meeting. The meeting settles on having the company employees’ salaries being cut by 10% and get the company to improve sales by 10%. The global management committee therefore left the announcements of the new developments to John Saxon who had been promoted to head of operations.
John Saxon the head of operations has to deliver the message to each company branch in the region in which he presided. This meant that he had to move from one country to the next with the message. There were four regions that comprised of Japan, Singapore, China, and India. The regions had a manager and therefore Saxon communicated to them earlier about the progress of the company and his visit. The visit is to educate the employees of the different branches about the status of the company financially and then deliver the new developments.
There are managers that preside over the branches that Saxon visits and in Japan there is Watanabe as the director of operations, Singapore is presided over by Mr. Lim as director of operations, Mr. Wang is the vice president of operations in China and Mr. Rajeev is the director of operations in India. The directors are the direct links between the company headquarters and the employees. This is important to Saxon because he can assess the situation and gain support from the directors on the ground.
Since the directors are in direct contact with the employees at the regions, it is expected that they direct the employees and the new developments of the company in a cohesive manner. This situation requires that the director helps to support the new developments at the company since they are not pleasant developments. To some extent, the attitude of the regional director will help the employees to take the news positively and work to remedy the situation in the company brought about by the economic downturn.
The first region that Saxon visits is Japan. The tension is high with the operations director as he is new in his job and he is carrying bad news to the employees. The news is for the good of the company and it determines the future of the employees as well as the economic objectives of the company. Therefore when Saxon meets Mr. Watanabe the company operations director of Japan region, he expects the worst. The employees did not react to any of the updates, instead they kept quiet and Mr. Watanabe did not speak at the meeting.
It means that Mr. Watanabe did not support the head of operations in delivering the message. He showed some little bit of incompetence in this part as he went silent hence locking the employees concerns from the limelight. This is not the behavior that a manger can give to the employees. He was supposed to help the news and the employees integrate so that their opinions could be aired. He showed a behavior of egocentrism and as a manager, every situation has to be aired so that the employees can get to clear up the air.
Therefore on a scale of 10, Watanabe scored a 6. This is because he is not a supportive leader during meetings. He cannot direct his employees to liberate on the various consequences of the needed increase in sales as well as the cut in wages. There are questions that are not asked and even as the meeting comes to an end, it is apparent that the employees have a lot to be assured about. Their wages are being cut, the company has other solutions to deal with the effects of the economic downturn but the leader cannot let them speak out and bring their concerns on the table.
Personally Watanabe is an introvert, in that he takes things in and is never vocal about them (MBTI 2). He then goes ahead to give the employees an assurance that the situation is not permanent and that the more they work hard, the more the situation will improve and therefore get back to normal. He therefore has his strength in actions but not in talk. He may not be as supportive as it is required in meetings but he is quick in crafting strategies to help the employees maintain the status quo.
The results from this branch were received and the following was on the financial report. The salary costs fell by 10% as stipulated and the sales revenue rose by 10%. It means that the leader worked hard to meet the goals of the company. This shows that Watanabe is a strong leader. The drop in the salary costs could also mean that some employees resigned without replacement. Then the rise in sales revenue means that the employees worked diligently to meet the company goals. This is a balanced scale as everyone came out as a winner. A continued effort of the same means that the company can regain the economic prowess.
The next country was Singapore where Saxon met Lim and his employees. Lim’s team was supportive as they contributed to the news. They based concern on the goals of the rise in sales. Lim asked about the company plan to help in the goal of the sales rise. This was an important question as it worked to motivate the employees to look forward to the support of the company headquarter. Lim gave the direction of the questions, it means that he shielded the head of operations from answering questions about the pay cut.
Lim is also a good director but is not as truthful as is required. He knew there was a problem that had to be addressed about the pay cut. The employees would have waited on him to give the direction. It is a sensitive issue but he seemed to brush it off, this method of avoidance is dangerous considering that it was being issued in the presence of the employees. Bringing up the idea would have helped to ease the tension that the employees had, which was bound to affect the company in the future.
The results that came out showed that Singapore cut costs in wages by 20% and then the sales were zero. The truth is that employees resigned massively without replacement. The remaining workforce was not enough to meet the sales improvement goals of the company and therefore the goals of the company flopped. Even though Lim was able to cut wage costs, he failed to bring the company sales to the stipulated goals.
The failure brought his leadership score to 2 out of 10. This is because he could not coordinate the team to achieve the goals by addressing their concerns. The tendency of staying silent on the issue of wage cut affected most of the employees. Even though they were able to address it themselves, they waited on their leader to mention it. Lim cannot be a leader as his leadership style is not result oriented. He failed the Singapore branch by letting the employees resign and hence not meeting the sales goals of the company.
Saxon went to China to meet the director of operations and the company branch employees. Mr. Wang seemed to have given the company a free environment. This is because a veteran interrupted Saxon during the presentation. He was not happy with the presentation because he considered it common knowledge. The employees also seemed to be impatient from the word go and they kept interrupting the financial analysis presentation. The open culture at the branch therefore led to a disruptive meeting where there was no direction.
Saxon finished the presentation and before he could let Wang open the avenue for questions. The employees still had to shout and ask why their wages were being cut. There seemed to be more problems because Mr. Wang could have calmed the employees down and support the head of operations. Instead, Mr. Wang who is an extrovert aired his complains for the pay cut and mentioned things to do with employee turnover. This is not supportive to the head of operations. The employees were already on the case and what Mr. Wang could have done is to liberate the employees so that they could understand.
The meeting therefore ended up frustrating the head of operations and even as he left the country the fire had not been calmed. Mr. Wang could have controlled the situation, unless he wanted to take advantage the particular situation to calm down the employees himself so that he could show them how to be productive and give them a hope for the future. This was not the case, as Wang presented his point, he seemed to have prepared diligently to deliver it. It means that as much as Wang was speaking publicly at the meeting, he had already prepared for the same.
Saxon realized that Wang had earlier tried to communicate to him about the various points. Saxon was the one who had not met him earlier. Wang as a leader, he could have found a way to address the question with Saxon before the meeting. Better yet, he could not have let his boss get devastated in the meeting. As a leader, there is need to ease tension from the employees side, calm them down and assure them that the company has best interests for them (Exploring Business). Wang failed in integrating the employees and the company current situation.
Conflicts between the company and the employees leads to low output. This is because the employees spend more time fighting the company instead of working for the good of the two parties. This therefore leads to a slow realization of the company goals especially in the organizational and the economics point of view. This is not beneficial to any of the subjects in this case. Therefore Wang had failed in leading the employees to be a supportive team to the company overall management.
The results of the financial statement of the China branch were demeaning to Saxon’s leadership. There seemed to be a major walk out as the company faced a 10% cut in wage costs, this was significant to the major drop of 10% in sales. It means that the employees resigned at a large number. If all of them did not walk out, then the remaining ones were not enough to meet the goals of the company in sales revenue. The objectives of the company therefore flopped and if the results were not devastating, then losses had to be taken.
Wang is therefore an incompetent leader. His communication skills and patience are questionable and cannot be taken up as the next leader. He has failed the company objectives as he cannot lead the small group of employees at his branch. Wang’s leadership skills are insufficient according to his personality. He cannot control his own mind and realize that the employees need his assurance for the best of the company.
Wang cannot sacrifice his pride for the good of his career. He prefers to lose the career just because his personality on the situation could be questioned. He has influenced the employees to a free culture where they cannot even hold a meeting in an orderly manner. The employees exude rudeness that Wang possesses which counts down to affecting the operations of the company. As a leader, Wang could have shown the employees that there are ups and downs in the career and only hard work guarantees positives in the wages.
The ultimate leader in this case was therefore Rajeev of India. The operations director led his team diligently. The team listened intently and even their smart mode of dressing elicited smartness in the head and behavior. The employees listened intently to what the head of operations said. They nodded their heads in approval and to also show that they were attentive and that they were getting the points. There is no point at which the presentation was interrupted, this is to also show that the leadership had ironed out the various culture of the branch.
Rajeev also showed the supportive leadership style by being the first to speak. The leader is extroversive, sensing, thinking and judging according to the MBTI personality rating (MBTI 2). He is the first one to speak so as to provide an example to the group of employees, the leader is assertive as he encourages his employees to speak out on any point that may affect their working. This is important in that it drives away the tension that may be crammed in the employees minds. It sets them free and therefore they are able to think rationally so as to come up with solutions for the company and themselves.
Rajeev diverts attention from the bad news by mentioning the need for the company to seek more solutions to cut costs. He mentions the need to work towards improving the sales of company. This is the same point that was being aired by Saxon. It means that the leader was keen to support the company decisions and he was preparing the employees to undertake the challenge rather than complain about wages. He also showed the employees that a 10% wage cut was not a big deal and it could be regained.
The leadership traits portrayed by Rajeev are beneficial to the objectives of the company. There is an instance when the leader inspires his employees to follow suit by asking questions that are constructive to the objective of the company as well as improving talents of the employees. He is a logical leader as he mentions the possibilities of having the company to improve the cost cutting idea by focusing on more productivity. He is decisive in a way that he paves the way for the employees to think in a positive manner. He helps them to think straight.
Rajeev has an analytical behavior or mind as he helps the room to focus on both the positives and the negatives of pay cuts and the need to improve sales. He does not only lean on one side of the argument. His character in taking charge is shown by the responsibility of picking up the microphone to speak first. This is in a bid to emphasize his stand on the matter and as a leader, it is responsible to take charge of the situations and provide a clear path.
The leadership qualities of Rajeev lead the branch into good organizational and financial prowess. His branch is able to make improve the wage costs and also the sales revenue. It means that both the employees and the company gained by getting a 20% increase in wage costs as well as sales revenues. Rajeev is therefore the next leader for Asia Pacific.
Works Cited
Exploring Business. Washington: Saylor Foundation, 2014. Print.
KOGSB. Next Leader for Asia-Pacific. Kenichi Ohmae Graduate School of Business, n.d. Print.
MBTI. My MBTI Personality Type. 2016. web. 19 April 2016.
