This paper will examine the case study ‘The Ethical Chocolate Company’ whose Managing Director is Mr. Graham. The paper will seek to reveal the essential areas that Mr. Graham should focus on. It will also recommend measures that he can implement to ameliorate the company. The paper will comprehensively analyze the ideal leadership style for the company, the motivation and job designs that the management should adopt, and how to deal with stress at the work place.
First, it is vital to underscore the significance of competent and capable leadership at workplace. From the case study, it is clear the company has neither a leader nor a manager. It is vital for the managing director to have both qualities of a manager and a leader. This is because he is not only supposed to manage and organize the affairs of his company, but he is also expected to show direction to his employees. There is a huge disconnect between management and workers. Most workers have lost faith in the leadership of the managing director. This is detrimental because if they do not trust his leadership, he cannot show them direction. They will not be part of his vision. It is extremely vital for a worker to believe in the competence and capabilities of a manager. If workers do not have faith in the management, they will question his decisions and consequently lead to a situational crisis where there is a huge disparity between workers and management. Moreover, Mr. Graham does not listen to suggestion from his staff members. It is extremely critical in any organization, that the managing director adopts a democratic style of leadership. Workers are a given a chance by their leader to make suggestions. In addition, it is vital that those suggestions should be factored in decision making. This boosts the faith and morale of workers when they know that they are part of the decision making organ. Moreover, workers make worthwhile decisions as they are privy to the issues and challenges that affect them. It also indicates that management cares about the opinion and views of their staff. This gives workers the requisite impression that their contribution is appreciated at the company. Consultative or democratic leadership is extremely essential especially if one is dealing with experts. The Ethical Chocolate Company has several specialized departments with experts in those fields. It is, therefore, prudent to consult and consider views from the workers in the production department before making a decision that will affect them.
Another illustration of incompetent leadership is the fact that Mr. Graham niece, who is both unqualified and inexperienced, has been given the mandate to head the crucial human resource department. Such a critical department should be headed by a skilled and task oriented person. The human resource manager should be able to provide direction to his or her subordinates accordingly. Unlike Graham’s niece, such a manger should be able to draw the requisite requirements of a particular task and march them with abilities of an applicant. The human resource manager should maintain the standards of performance in the company to optimal productive levels. An interview for a job should be thorough and exhaustive. The human resource manager should be able to get value for the money that will be paid to an employee. Therefore, the interview should seek to reveal the competency levels of employees. Moreover, they should be an employment policy. It should be clear to the company what kind of human resource is required in the company. Training of employees is also a mandatory requirement.
There are a huge disconnect between the leadership of the various departments. The marketing department should be able to communicate effectively with the other departments in the company. This would ensure that the marketers only take orders that the production team can comfortable produce within the stipulated time. The failure of communication between the leadership of these key departments is largely responsible for the poor state of the company, at the moment. The marketing department should liaise with the production department so as to ensure that workers are not over stretched and that quality chocolates get produced.
Creating a work design can be extremely instrumental in an organizational. Some of the measures to be implemented should include job rotational and job enrichment. There have been cases of supervisors arguing about the significance of a particular department in relation to another. It is vital that the supervisors be informed the company can only succeed as a whole. Therefore, all departments are essential and should be treated with the same respect. In order to succeed in demonstrating that all workers are equally significant and that all departments are interdependent, the company should adopt a job rotation mechanism. This is a design that ensures that a worker is occasionally assigned to a different unit other than his or her own. The worker will be able to appreciate the dynamics in the new department. One is able to learn the requisite and specialized skills that are different from what one is used. The purpose of having a job rotation policy is twofold. First and most fundamental, it increases the competence levels of employees. They are able to learn a variety of skills from different sectors in the company. Moreover, it kills boredom as a worker is saved from the pain of going over a similar routine day in day out, throughout his or her career. Secondly, the company has a chance to ensure that it has a backup plan in case it abruptly falls short of human resource in a particular department. It is like having a stand by team that is both competent and trustworthy, which will ensure continuity and avoid disruption of services provided by the company.
The company should also ensure that they adopt job enrichment and enlargement policies. This includes enlarging the responsibilities of the workers and providing them with more autonomy and decision making powers. This is extremely beneficial especially to workers who are competent and skilled in their jobs. It allows them to make independent decisions on how to improve both quality and quantity of their products. This would serve well to improve professionalism in the company. This will address Ethical Chocolates Company’s workers complaints that their work has little variety. It will allow workers to set their own targets and objectives. Research indicates that workers will more likely meet their goals if they were part in making them or they made these goals themselves. The management should play an oversight role to ensure that workers adhere to good practices and make ethical decisions. The management should only come in to show the workers direction and align their objectives with the company’s strategic goals.
The other area that Mr. Graham should focus his attention, in reforming the company, is to ensure that his workers are not stressed, at the workplace. Stressed workers are not only extremely incompetent, but are a danger to the company. Cooper and Palmer (2000) denote stress as a situation that results when pressure to perform in an activity exceeds one’s perceived capabilities and abilities to manage the activity. It is vital; therefore, that Mr. Graham identifies the causes of stress on his employees. This will enable him address the root causes of stress and not merely treat the symptoms. It is worth noting that work in Mr. Graham’s company is not stressful in itself. It is the workers perceptions that make them see the situation as stressful. This is perhaps due to the poor leadership style that has been adopted by Mr. Graham. In order to effectively addressing stress levels among the workers, it is essential to note that there is stress at two main areas in the company. This is at the organizational level and the workers level. Workers feel stressed because their needs and condition are not considered. A disconnect between the workers and management is the root cause of stress at the organizational level. To cure stress at the workers level, the management should improve employees working conditions. The workers should be assigned duties within the capabilities and abilities. Moreover, there should be definite working hours that are employee friendly in order to ensure maximum productivity. It is vital that also workers feel that they are appreciated. The company should designed mechanism and policies to ensure that workers are rewarded periodically, as a sign of appreciation from the company. The work load should also be evenly disrupted with regard to the available manpower. It is crucial that the marketing department only accepts orders that are within the company’s production capacity. The attitude and tendency of the marketing department to take more orders despite a high rate of turnover and absenteeism should be highly discouraged. This is because it is a critical a cause of stress to the employees. Workers are always worried on whether they will be able to meet all their orders or not. This puts a lot of pressure on them to meet their clients’ expectations leading to increased stress levels. There is an essential need to ensure that the organizational climate and culture of all employees is synchronized. This will enable them share similar values and organizational goals avoiding a mismatch that will be a cause for stress.
In order to effectively ameliorate the situation, the company should adopt the following recommendations. Mr. Graham should hire competent management staff that is both qualified and skilled. The new management should set friendly working condition that will enable the employees to work effectively. In order to deal with the work load, it will be prudent to start a work-shift programs that will ensure that all the requisite work is completely within the expected time, while at the same time allowing workers time to rest and attend to their personal needs. Moreover, the company should also adopt new technology in most of its operations to make work easier and efficient.
In conclusion, this company needs a total overhaul in three main areas. These include the management, its policies with regard to motivation of workers and job designs, and lastly, improve on how they handle stress at both organizational and individual levels.
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