An Evaluation of Classical Management Theory and transformational

leadership Theory to a A.P. Moller Terminal, Apapa.

Osagie, Obazee
R1704D2623249
Leadership and Management Theories/USW-BS4S16-V1
Kyriaki, Kornioti
26th May 2019.

Classification: Confidential
 The Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), Apapa vested with the mandate of overseeing and
controlling sea port activities in Nigeria was encountering numerous challenges ranging from
productivity as per returns to the government as well as inappropriate operations strategy. All
these led to so many dissatisfactions to importers and exporters doing business with the Nigerian
port as the level of irregularities which soon included theft of containers due to inadequate
measures put in place to curb such scenarios. The need for improvement in port activities became
a government top priority and it led to the outsourcing of a company that can handle the
activities of the NPA. The privatization process led to the nomination of a company called A.P.
Moller – Maersk. A.P. Moller took over the activities of the NPA Apapa in the year 2006 and
has since introduced various management and leadership theories in a bid to transform the
terminal from where it used to be to where it is intended to be based on A.P. Moller core values
and standard.
Operations in A.P. Moller terminal Apapa Nigeria container terminal scientifically
evolved after the introduction of a more scientific, logical and systematic way of operations.
Before now, we had several service failures under the below categories:
1. Wrong location update
2. High truck turn time(TTT)
3. Low berth moves per hour(BMPH)
4. Low gross moves per hour(GMPH)
5. Unlawful/inappropriate exit of containers from the terminal leading to litigation.
All the above challenges remained a major concern to the N.P.A. for ages until a government
in 2006 approved the privatization of the sea port to A.P. Moller; now called APM terminals
Apapa in Lagos state. A.P. Moller originated from Hague, Netherlands. There it started small
with the founder Arnold Peter Moller who through a high level of discipline, built well defined
rudimentary principles that took the company to a greater height with the slogan ‘avoid any loss
that could be possibly avoided’. With this, A.P. Moller terminal grew so strong and soon became
one of the major strength behind the strong economy of the Netherlands. The introduction of
A.P. Moller as a company to have full control over the NPA sea port for a period of 25 years
went a long way to solve the numerous service failures client used to experience in the then
NPA. This classical management approach brought the already developed scientific approach in
managing a container terminal at The Hague to the NPA apapa. Below table shows a resultant
solution matching each of the five challenges NPA apapa were encountering before the
introduction of A.P. Moller.

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 NPA Challenges
1. Wrong location update
2. High truck turn time(TTT)
3. Low berth moves per
hour(BMPH)
4. Low gross moves per
hour(GMPH)
5. Unlawful/inappropriate exit
of containers from the
terminal leading to litigation.
Table 1.1 NPA Challenges versus A.P. Moller Solution
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A.P. Moller Solution
1. Differential Global Positioning Systems (DGPS)
was introduced to enhance the Global Positioning
System (GPS) which provide improved location
accuracy. Making every container located in the
dock to have an automatic yard update.
2. Purchase of modern container handling equipment
(CHE) with the introduction of an improved yard
strategy where by containers were adequately
categorized into full/empty export, full/empty
import, full refrigerated containers and out of gauge
cargoes also made way for a reduced TTT where by
the time it now took a visiting truck to drive into the
terminal, gets serviced and exit the terminal was
reduced. Unlike before when a truck could take days
just to load out a container from the port. The bench
mark now for a truck to come in to the terminal and
load a container is 30 minutes.
3. The purchase of a more modern CHE at the quay
side helped us service visiting vessels faster there by
reducing drastically the vessels (TTT).
4. The prime movers of any container terminal are the
truck drivers. Having a full knowledge of this,
numerous fleet of trucks with modern gadget
installed in them were purchased. With this,
discharged container from the vessel gets to the
stack at minimal time.
5. The introduction of CCTV cameras helped to a large
extent in combating issues that had to do with
container breakage and theft.
 The introduction of APM to NPA brought about striking productivity figures on the part of
the customers in terms of quality of service rendered and on the part of the government in terms
of returns. Other ways in which APMT made use of the scientific management theory in bringing
rapid development to the Nigerian sea port were in the below areas.
a. Training and retraining of work force on various operational technicalities.
b. The introduction/invitation of expatriates in each department to create best ways to
perform each task and to also select and build capacity on each worker.
c. Adequate division; sharing of responsibility between management and labor.
d. Provision of attractive incentives to ensure the job is done in the best way possible.
It wasn’t just enough to bring down the technology, some frontline black managers who
showed good signs of improvement within a short time were handpicked and sponsored for
training on selective courses outside the country. They were trained with the core business
prospect in mind geared towards breaking existing records in container handling business. These
team of young innovative minds went out there, saw the great productivities other terminals
could do successfully, came back to Nigeria and told fellow blacks that same level of
productivity are possible and since they have seen it worked, they now could impact
effectiveness in the work force.
Now as a follow up which is one of the key to sustainability, productivity of the now APM
terminals Apapa is sent on a shift basis of every 24 hours duration to the regional headquarters of
AP Moller Hague just to ensure processes are been upheld and to ensure there is a drive of
excellence in apapa work force.
Another key element from the classical management theory approach as introduced by
the AP Moller in apapa is the Administrative management theory which took deep consideration
on the application of the scientific approach as described above on the entire work force. A
notable observation discovered in the introduction of the administrative management theory was
that every scientific approach was brought to the spot light and tested to verify best practices. At
the end of the test emanating from each approach, there were some factors that triggered some
amendments in the scientific management approach as introduced to NPA from the Netherlands
port. The below table shows some of these factors that questioned the approaches to changes.

Factors Features
1. High illiteracy level 1. The level of illiteracy of the work
force in the NPA was high as such,
some elementary factors had to be
introduced side by side each scientific
method introduced for easy
comprehension.
2. Economy disparity 2. The poor level of living in Nigeria
showed that higher incentives scale
will encourage work force to do better

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 as money was a major motivating
factor.
3. Discipline level 3. It was observed that in Nigeria, more
disciplinary measures had to be put in
place to ensure productivity was
meant.
4. Safety emphasis 4. A higher level of safety culture had to
be emphasized because from records,
there were too many incidences some
of which lead to death.
Table 1.2
A key for the sustainability of these improvement brought to APM terminals Apapa was
the introduction of leaders that are transformational in nature leaders who saw beyond the scope,
who believed impossibility is nowhere on the horizon, who knows how to bring out the best in
followers, who knows how to conquer their fears, who are good motivators, who to an extent
have earned and knows how to earn the respect of followers.
Burns (1978) defined transformational leaders as those who instill a high moral and
ethical code in followers. It is in no doubt that some followers will never keep to the rules unless
been strike by the hook; hence transformational leaders were put in place to ensure full
compliance. For every department, a leader with a transformative trait was appointed. The below
itemized traits are some strength of the transformational leaders appointed in APM terminals,
Apapa.
1. They embrace new approach and are ever ready to impact it on their followers.
2. Always sorting for better ways to do things because of the crave for invention just
like “Adolf Hitler”.
3. Always involved in constant communication because of new and better approaches.
4. Design and redesign jobs to make them meaningful.
5. Always ready to be a coach
6. Communicates the future goals and expectation of the company to the work force.
7. Increases the awareness of the sense of task to followers.
8. Communicates the gap between the actual and the set goal.
9. Raises follower’s consciousness level.
A manager by the name Doug Smith who was one of the major transformational leaders
of APM terminals Apapa between 2008-2010 served as the then chief operations officer of APM
terminals, Apapa. He was nick named a ‘spirit’ because He was almost at every place at the same
time. He drove operations to the actualization of management goals and objectives daily and
never showed at any time a form of weakness or negligence to duty. He was never compromising
when it comes to upholding standards and hitting productivity bench marks. He constantly
exhibited the mind set of ‘getting it right at first attempt’. In His time, the work force knew they
had to be on their best mood and practice each time they are on duty.

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 Through his continuous drive, set targets were meant. It however must be mentioned that
everyone was on their toes; working in fear in his time as strict and unwavering measures were
always taken on defaulters. Doug Smith was one leader who despite the strict measures used in
addressing his followers earned their respect and he achieved this by constantly associating
himself to the needs of the workforce which could be explained better by the Maslow Hierarchy
of needs.

Figure 1.1: Maslow (1954) Hierarchy of Needs. Source: adapted by Cianci and Gambrel, 2003.

In the words of Burns (1978:141) a leader like this raises our level of consciousness about the
importance and value of desired outcomes and the methods of reaching those outcomes. Another
form in which the transformational leadership of Doug Smith gained grounds was the
transactional leadership which talks of the exchanges between leader and followers. For every
high target to be meant, Doug Smith gave a supporting incentive to see to its actualization. These
incentives came in the following forms.
1. Promotion
2. Salary increment
3. All-expense paid vacation trips

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 4. Training abroad

Operations in APM container handling terminal Apapa has now scientifically evolved to a
whole new method of operation and specialization. This have created different job functions
producing striking productivity figures varying from one terminal to another. The introduction of
the classical management approach thus made the terminal operations more logical, systematic
and faster thereby making her operations less cumbersome hence drastically reducing service
failures. This approach has made port managers and terminal operators improve consistently in
productivity and set targets hence reducing the turnaround time of both visiting vessels on the
quayside as well as the external trucker on the landside.

Classification: Confidential
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