Jack Welch Management Institute
Introduction
In several organizations, team work has become a major determinant of the entity’s success. Teamwork has proven to be very influential, therefore, it is responsible for the determination of the outcomes of thee set objectives in organizations. Due to these facts about teamwork, management in a number of organizations have embraced the spirit of teamwork. The ancient management models have been ignored, and business entities have turned to leadership and effective group coordination for maximum benefit. Thus, the success of coming up with a team in any organization, is currently highly recognized. Right, from the top management decision making, the flow of information to all parties in an entity and the working together of employees, teamwork has been emphasized. Effective leadership should ensure that, the working together of employees should be teamwork, hence, successful. Management that has failed to effectively implement teamwork in their organizations, have failed the outcome of their goals. The issues in the Chattanooga Ice Cream Company, present a scenario of failed teamwork. In this case, every member of the Chattanooga team were continuously been involved in questioning the competency as well as trustworthy of each other. Chattanooga Ice Cream was part of the Chattanooga Food products. It was known for mid-priced, basic ice cream. This division of the Chattanooga Food products experienced a number of drastic changes. These issues resulted in the failure of the company to achieve its set goals and objectives.
Moore’s Failure in Team Management and Decision-Making
The drastic changes that were experienced in the in the Chattanooga Ice Cream are observed as being the reason for the stress on its system. The changes are reason for the unfavorable climate of the company. The company’s past level of profitability as well as well as market performance has not been able to be restored following the drastic changes. From exhibit three of the case study, when presented graphically, it shows that the operating profit was decreasing steeply as compared to the sales revenue which was being received. All these failures are attributed to teamwork failure in the Chattanooga Ice Cream, a division of the Chattanooga Food products. The departments of production, research and development, marketing as well as the department of management and human resources fail to effectively coordinate so as to achieve the goals of the company. The seniors officials in the in the above mentioned departments failure to make any agreements to restore the business back to its initial high profitability level and better market performance. They clash at the alternative ideas that e very department comes up with to salvage the company from declining. During the meeting that Moore chairs, different ideas are tabled. Among the ideas discussed, the increasing of revenue and cutting down on costs are top candidates for restoring the business’s profitability and market share. The general manager, Moore is faced with the difficult in decision making among the conflicting ideas. He is also faced with conflict management. The Chattanooga Ice Cream company loose a large grocery store, Stay & Shop’s business. This loss is perceived by the team as the main cause. However, this is not the main cause, but the outcome or cause of ineffective teamwork in thee company. It shows the flaws that the team has failed to mend. According to the case study, the team is displayed as having failed to reach a consent, hence a show of discomfort, mistrust as well as ineffective teamwork among the team. Failed teamwork has further been exacerbated by the top team’s management reaction guided by Moore. The general manager pays no attention to the conflicts among the departments in the company. He is reluctant to address the conflict. According to Sloane, Moore hopes that the conflict among the departments in his company would solve itself; his subordinates will detect the conflict and get a signal that would stop them from conflicting against each other (2003, Pg. 3). He constantly updates his subordinates of the issues facing the company, seeking their suggestions. He does not have self-confidence to face some management issues own his own.
What the Employees could do
The group of employees at the Chattanooga Ice Cream company are supposed to understand the pillars of leadership and effective teamwork. Doing so will enable then to deliver a rather effective teamwork towards achieving their goals and objectives. The employees from the different departments of the company are constantly in conflict due to divergent ideas. The departmental managers are unwilling to opine on matters that do not concern their respective departments. When they are in private they, however, argue on their competency and trustworthiness. The spirit of teamwork advocates for working together towards achieving the goals of an organization. According to Katzenbach and Smith (1993), a team’s important discipline entails specific performance goals that come from the common purpose. This principle of team discipline calls for the employees in the organization to focus on a collective effort as opposed to their differences towards achieving their common purpose for the company. The departmental managers are in private having discussions outside regarding their competency and trustworthiness. A disciplined team has to own its purpose and work towards developing to gain success (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993, pg.1). Most teams react the previous outside mandate and end up failing. The departmental managers at the Chattanooga Ice Cream company should work with a collective purpose, reasoning together and putting away their differences. They should focus on a way of merging their divergent opinions where possible and agree on one option where merging of ideas is impossible. This way, the company will restore its initial profitability and market share. A more viable decision will be reached with the effective leadership if demonstrated by the general manager, Moore.
Recommendations for Moore
A great leader should be self-aware, and as Jack Welch puts it, a great leader is comfortable in their own skin. Moore should act that leader. Such a manager is responsible for helping his subordinates to work as a team and manage conflicts effectively. A failure in his leadership style will make a team to lose a sense of direction and focus on their differences rather than the collective effort that comes from the common purpose for the team. The general manager, Moore lacks self-confidence, and constantly seeks the suggestions of his subordinates to help him make the decision following the loss of the Stay & Shop store. He is obliged to restore the company’s profitability and market share before the loss. The manager should be observant of the happening in his firm, therefore, he should be in a position to determine which strategy will work best to solve the situation. Moore should be self-confident and make decisions while give the employees a chance to choose how to work with the decision. According to Goleman (2013), a leadership that gets results requires the manager to master his leadership styles, and have the ability to switch among the style mastered.
Moore is supposed to exercise authoritative leadership style. Under this style, a manager sets the goals for his company, but lets his subordinates exercise the freedom to choose their own way of working towards achieving the set goals. (Goleman, 2). Here the democratic style chips in, but after he has set the goal by giving the employees the freedom to choose how to achieve the goals. Moore should also try the pacesetting style whereby he is supposed to set performance standards and act as an example towards the departmental managers. For instance, when Moore finds out that the departmental heads are conflicting, he feigns not to know, and hopes they will work out the issue on their own. As a good manager, he should act by example and show the departmental heads that they are supposed to work to solve their differences. He should nurture commitment, encourage the sharing of knowledge, head off issues as they arise and protect against groupthink. This way, the ice cream division’s profitability and market share will be restored.
Moore should master the implications of leadership by observing the behavioral style of his subordinates. By looking into how his leadership has implicated Chattanooga Ice Cream Division, Moore can determine the behavior of his employees for making the right decisions. In the business communications and ethics structure, majority of the people are classified into four main behavioral styles; influence, conscientiousness, steadiness and dominance. Employees at most times show a clear biasedness towards one specific style. Considering, this case, Moore’s employees fall under the steadiness behavioral style. They want to be given clear direction by the manager with on how to go about and be offered support to attain the company’s goal. Moore should have this in mind, and give his subordinates direction rather than seeking their suggestions.
Conclusion
The crisis facing Chattanooga Ice Cream Company shows how ineffective leadership and teamwork can be a barrier for setting and attaining organizational goals and managing conflicts, as well. The departmental managers at the Chattanooga Ice Cream company should work with a collective purpose, reasoning together and putting away their differences. This is what effective teamwork entails. On the hand, Moore as the general manager, he has to master different effective leadership styles, and learn how to switch between them depending on the situation at hand. If the manager and the employees worked this way, Chattanooga Ice Cream will restore its initial profitability and market share. Effective leadership and teamwork will always ensure working together of employees, hence attaining the expected outcome of their goals.
References
Goleman, D. (2013). The leadership that gets Results. Harvard Business Review.
Katzenbach, & Smith (1993). The Discipline of Teams. Harvard Business Review.
Sloane, C. (2003). The Chattanooga Ice Cream Divvision. Harvard Business Review.
Avolio, B.J. & Gardener, W.L. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly 16. 315–338.
Candor. (2005). The Biggest Dirty Little Secret in Business. Jack Welch, LLC
