Professional Documents
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Report On Case Josh Martin
Report On Case Josh Martin
Assignment 2
MGMT20124 - People, Work & Organisations
<Term 1, 2012>
<Pushpinder, Singh>
<S0215705>
Executive summary
In this report we discuss all the mentioned questions of case study. Like; what type of leadership
styles used by Josh Martin and Tom Saunders, Resolution of the conflicts arises due to these two
styles, qualities of effective leader and solution to Joshs problem. Then discussion tells Josh has
participative leadership style and Tom has Autocratic style. Reason of their conflict is the lack of
communication between two leaders. There are main properties of leaders which are very
important for effective leaders are: integrity, enthusiasm, Calmness, Toughness, Focus,
Cooperation, etc. To solve Joshs problem, he needs to explain all the conflicts to Saunders, due to
which not only Josh also all employees are stressed. And then try to sort all these problems. At the
end of this report some recommendations are their which helps to decrease this conflict of
organisation, these suggestions are:
a. Tom should change his leadership style.
b. Josh should communicate all his conflicts with his boss.
c. Company needs to replace Saunders with other transformational and transactional leader
d. Agency should not fully depend on one single person
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION:................................................................................ 4
BACKGROUND:...................................................................................4
AIM:................................................................................................4
DISCUSSION:..................................................................................... 4
DIFFERENT LEADERSHIP STYLES:.................................................................4
CONFLICTING LEADERSHIP STYLES:..............................................................5
EFFECTIVE LEADER:...............................................................................5
WAY OUT FROM CURRENT SITUATION:............................................................6
CONCLUSIONS:.................................................................................. 6
RECOMMENDATIONS.......................................................................... 6
REFERENCES.................................................................................... 8
Assignment 2
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Introduction:
Background:
Case Josh Martin discusses two different styles of the leadership. According to the given
case there are two managers Josh Martin and Tom Saunders with different leadership
styles. McShane et al. (2010) Josh is working in non profit organisation from last 20 years.
He starts his career just after his graduation in economics, at the position of director of a
government-funded project. And now due to his hard work he is promoted to deputy
agency administrator. His reporting is directly to Tom Saunders. Toms leadership style is
who always want complete control over the employees, and he never take suggestions
from others. But Josh is totally different from Tom, he always give chance to his
employees to give suggestion, so that they work more comfortably.
Due to this Josh rewarded handsomely for his role in non-profit organisation. In return of
this he is available on call 24 hrs a day. Even he is mandatory to attend strategy meeting
every Sunday.
Martin tolerates Saunderss abnormal behaviour from long time, but this conflict increase
in few months. Two months ago, due to flu martin was on sick leave. In his absence,
Saunders makes an issue of missing of small piece of tile from cafeteria. Even he
screamed on employees. He blames on Martin that Martin doesnt care anything about the
organisation only he is the person who get the things done. A month after this incident
Martin prepose appraisals of two employees who get excellent from their supervisor.
Martin expects 2% increase which motivates employees for more hard work and this 2%
would not put any burden on company budgets. But Saunders rejected this proposal.
Sunders finished the meeting by saying I am the leader of the company, and I am
responsible to mange this company effectively.
After this meeting Martin thinks to resign from this company. He starts to find a job in
some public sectors. Even he knows due to economical instability it is very hard to get
same financial benefits. He is uncertain on his option. Even his wife is also working in
some printing company as a technical position. But he still need same package to manage
his present expense. In particular, this report discusses all the appropriate alternatives
which help Martin to get out from this situation.
Aim:
Main purpose of this report is to discuss the mentioned questions of case study. In
particularly this report focuses on the different styles of leadership, solution of the
problems created by conflicting leadership styles, Effective leadership style and help
Martin to get out from his problem.
Discussion:
Different leadership styles:
In this case, there are two leaders first is Josh Martin who follows participative leadership
style and second is Tom Saunders who follows autocratic leadership style.
(Nwabueze, 2011) Autocratic leaders are also known as Authoritarian leaders. Autocratic
leaders are a leader who has control over all the workers and subordinates. He always gets
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<s0215705, Pushpinder Singh>
Assignment 2
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credit of the success of the project and blames to other for any kind of failure. In making
relationships and trust with employees these leaders are weakest. They are more task
oriented leaders. Autocratic leadership is applied to situations when there is less time for
decision. According to (Hernandez, 2011) Autocratic style is not effective for long run.
(Cherry, 2010) Participative leaders are also known as democratic leadership style.
Participative leaders always encourage their group members to participate in decisionmaking; they always listen their problems and motivate them by providing rewards.
Productivity of participative leaders is less than autocratic leaders.
Leadership traits:
(Nwabueze, 2011) and (Hernandez, 2011) Leadership traits mean properties of the leaders.
There are main properties of leaders which are very important for effective leaders are:
integrity, enthusiasm, Calmness, Toughness, Focus, Cooperation, etc.
Effective Leader:
As discussed above (Nwabueze, 2011) and (Hernandez, 2011), Leadership traits mean
properties of the leaders. There are main properties of leaders which are very important for
effective leaders are: integrity, enthusiasm, Calmness, Toughness, Focus, Cooperation, etc.
These are few main characteristics of effective leaders. (Nwabueze, 2011) leadership
doesnt mean use of their subordinates; it is the delegation of work with proper division
between the employees. Most important characteristics of effective leaders are attention
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<s0215705, Pushpinder Singh>
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toward the most important work. Leaders must have the interpersonal skill of involving
other people (Nwabueze, 2011). As in case, Martin is also involved with his employees
and looks after their problems and helps them and gives rewards to desired employees. So,
in this case Josh is more effective leader than Saunders. Saunders is less effective because
he always ignores employees requirements and forces them to do more work without any
rewards. As (Nwabueze, 2011) mentioned in his article, such kind of leadership styles
creates frustration in employees, low commitment toward works, more conflicts and more
personal and company loss.
Conclusions:
At last this report concludes that two different leaders of the company have their different
leadership styles. As one has dictatorship style and other have democratic style. Due to
these two opposite styles there are some conflicts arises in the organisation. These
conflicts are resolved only with the help of proper communication between both the
parties. This report also discusses the qualities of the effective leaders. In particularly this
report provides the solution to Martin for his problem generate from conflicts. So in
summary, solution of this case is that conflict between two leaders is very critical which
may effects the productivity of the organisation. So to resolve this conflict both the parties
need proper communication between them. If due to some reason conflict doesnt resolve
then Martin will leave his position without any difficulties.
Recommendations
1. Tom should change his leadership style, and try to listen his subordinates and stop
blaming others for small things. If he has any problem he needs to discuss with
Josh so that they run their business with proper pace and reduce their conflicts.
2. Josh should communicate all his conflicts with his boss, so that Tom will help him
to give proper solution, and if those solutions are not satisfied then he will search
new job without any interference of Tom.
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<s0215705, Pushpinder Singh>
Assignment 2
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3. If Tom is not ready to change his behaviour then company needs to replace him
with other transformational and transactional leader. Due to which conflict of
company reduce and employee get their rewards according to their performance.
4. Agency should not fully depend on one single person (Josh). So that his absence
doesnt effects on operations. Therefore company needs to appoint one more
person equivalent to Josh so that he handles all his responsibilities in his absence
and reduce Joshs job stress.
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<s0215705, Pushpinder Singh>
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References
1. Bolman, l & Deal, T 2008, Reframing Organizations, 4th Edition, Jossey- Bass.
2. Cherry, K 2010, Lewin's Leadership Styles, Journal of Social Psychology, Vol 10, pp.
48-53
3. Hernandez, M, Eberly, M, Avolio, B & Johnson, M 2011, The loci and mechanisms of
leadership: Exploring a more comprehensive view of leadership theory', In Leadership Quarterly
Yearly Review, Vol 22, no. 6, pp. 1165-1185
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<s0215705, Pushpinder Singh>