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Case Study

Leaders influence many decisions in organizations and in determining the course of

action in any company. The company in the case is Soda Bottling Ventures (SBV) that

operates in the food industry. The company has a bottling plant in Charlotte, North Carolina;

currently the company is facing inventory stock outs because of the cold condition of winter.

The company is, therefore, unable to supply its products to its customers on time because of

the heavy snow that is witnessed. The central person, in this case, is Emmett Taylor one of

the general managers of Soda Bottling Ventures, the case revolves around his actions,

problem-solving had become his responsibility because all problems were usually isolated

and often solved by him. Influential leaders have a lasting effect on the organizational

performance and employees.

Case Facts

Emmett Taylor had received calls from Jim Flannigan, vice president, and Lisa

Halberstam, the Purchasing Managers. Both calls were talking about the sudden increase in

inventory stock outs the company was facing. Lisa Halberstam had required the immediate

presence of Emmett Taylor at the company plan in North Carolina. Moreover, the vice

president had also called him to inform him about the underlying losses the company would

incur in the event of constantly witnessing turndowns from the suppliers. He, therefore,

rushes out of his house after having dinner hurriedly and proceeds to the plant in North

Carolina as he had been requested. At his office in Charlotte, Emmett seemed to be under

pressure; he was unable to handle the pressure from Flannigan; he had tried to make several

calls to the various suppliers, but all of them declined to offer services because the roads were

completely out of shape. Even Freddy Crane could not reach the office and had apparently

got involved in an accident while trying to make his way through the snow filled roads after
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Taylor said he needed him urgently. To ease himself, he played office golf as he tried to

brainstorm the whole situation of suppliers backing down; however, the entry of Maya

Henderson provided a new insight and perspective on Taylors life. Henderson advised

Taylor to focus on his family and children rather than spend his entire time working late and

undertaking sacrifices to save the corporation. He barely had enough time to attend to his

family.

The key issues in the case are the role of executives in any company; Taylor is the most

recent general manager of the company charged with the responsibility of executing the

operations of the company. Just like many organizations, it is evident that the company

utilizes human dimension in enhancing organizational efficiency, Taylor is an important

individual in the company because of his problem-solving skills, and he is one of the thriving

employees of the company that has witnessed a recent increase in ranks. The another issue is

the influence leaders have on their followers, when Taylor receives a call from Flannigan, he

knows it is a corporate issue he wants to talk about and which he talks about, from the case it

is imperative to say leaders have a major influence on the employees and followers. The

influence manifested through leaders usually have a lasting, alienating effect on the

individuals involved, it is clear that subordinates have to work in the interest of the leaders.

The influence of leadership in the case is evident during the interaction between Taylor and

Lisa at the office, Taylor asked Lisa if she could fetch Freddy, Lisa seems reluctant to do

what Taylor had requested her to do. However, she decides to call Freddy because of the

influence of leadership, she clearly appears to be in disagreement with Taylors idea to call

Freddy. The third issue is the emotional exhaustion witnessed in Taylor; he suffers a burnout

because of the pressure he faces at his workplace. The entry of Maya Henderson helps

portray the pressure he has and the constant burnout he experiences.

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Influence of leaders in an organization is important in channelling the organization into

achieving its objectives and enhancing organizational efficiency. It is important for leaders to

be influential so that they impact the followers; influential leaders have a lasting impact on

both the followers and the organization. Emotional burnout and fatigue at the workplace do

not improve the performance of an organization. Employees that show fatigue and burnout

symptoms are likely to have low productivity, although working up to late in the night is

important to the success of the organization, an employee that experiences a burnout both

emotionally and physically is not productive and therefore, cannot impact the organization.

The use of the human resource in organizations is significant in any organization; Taylor is a

competent employee with excellent problem-solving skills and is often called upon to solve

any underlying issue in regards to organizational performance. Utilizing human resource also

facilitates thriving at work of the employees used.

The conceptual causes of these problems in organizations vary widely, emotional and

physical burnout may be as a result of a heavy workload delegated to an employee.

Therefore, they are under pressure to finish or handle this workload in the stipulated time.

These employees often end up lacking job satisfaction because they are under pressure and

consider themselves as not thriving. Moreover, pressure from leaders and managers to

perform exceptionally may lead to job dissatisfaction and emotional stress. Problems in

organizations may result from lack of enabling a healthy environment for employees to

encourage a thriving environment. Leadership is considered one of the major reasons for the

problems witnessed in the case; leaders should be good listeners and should set a stage for an

environment for thriving. Managers should nurture the employees to avoid negatively

impacting the employees; moreover, the behaviour of leaders is determined by need to create

an impact.
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To resolve burnout cases in workplaces, it is important to encourage healthy habits in

workplaces; encouraging healthy practices such as healthy eating habits, good sleep and

regular body and mind exercises will help initiate positive thriving that will consequently

eliminate burnout and emotional stress. Alternatively, to handle such issues, a standard

workload should be defined to help ease the heavy workload imposed on some employees

such as Taylor, this will help ease the employees and enhance greater productivity. Influence

of leaders may also be devastating on individuals when Freddy is called upon by Taylor; he

obliges and consequently gets involved in a road accident in the attempt of following the

chain of command. Moreover, Taylor also obliges to Flannigans call. The influence of

leaders can be controlled by establishing a conceptual workplace framework. Alternative

methods of resolving issues related to workplaces are establishing concrete workplace

policies that are aimed at encouraging positive thriving through restrictive policies on

management.

Conclusion

In workplaces, the influence of leaders is felt in the execution of plans; most of the

employees in organizations tend to experience burnouts because of the constant pressure from

the leaders to outperform tasks within short periods of time. Therefore to handle this

influence from leaders such as Flannigan, it is important to establish policies and standard

workload to avoid emotional and physical burnout. Behaviour of leaders in the attempt to

enhance organizational efficiency is associated with burnouts; executives are often under

pressure to fulfil the obligations of leadership. Managers such as Taylor are faced with heavy

burdens or workloads, the managers are also at a risk because of the sacrifices they make on

the organization. Workplaces are characterized by people making a great deal of effort to a

point of exhaustion; this is one of the major problems in workplaces as reflected in the case

study.