Case Analysis (Group 7)

1. If you were Brenda's manager, what will you advise her to do?

Perhaps I tell her to Learn to listen instead of telling. When you take the
time to listen to your co-workers, you may gain new insights or ideas that you
would not have thought of otherwise. Often, the people you manage have more
to teach you than you do them. Being a good listener is extremely important.

Brenda Galway is a strict, temperamental, and prideful manager who

expects her peers to complete their assigned tasks independently. She believes
that every member of her team is capable of doing so. Since her squad, the "mod
squad," is tasked with performing unusual and demanding jobs, she has grown
proud. Brenda overlooked that not every employee on the team is great and that
Bill Stanley needed guidance and encouragement to develop into a competent
employee.

A great leader excels at observing the good qualities in others and

occasionally praising them. Being a competent employee does not automatically
make one a good leader; instead, a good leader is someone who leads their
team to success. If I were Brenda's manager, I would advise her to assess how
she treats her staff. She must actively listen to others, acknowledge them, and
promote collaboration by providing clarity. She must also give and receive
feedback from the team regularly. This is so that good managers can recognize
that happy and fulfilled employees are more productive.

2. What leadership theory can be used to improve the work environment in

this company?

After reading the case analysis, we believe that situational theory is the
most appropriate leadership theory for this case. This is because, in our opinion,
being a situational leader means having a leader who will guide and explain
things to you if you don't have much experience with the task at hand, which is
what Brenda failed to do with Bill. All leaders must be adaptable and situational in
their response to whatever arises in their team and work environment. A
situational leader has a lot of variables to consider when working with a team
because each person has their own personality, working style, and experience.
Situational leadership shows how we adjust our style in response to these
factors. This means adapting your management approach to each specific
circumstance or activity to satisfy the needs of the team or team members.
 This type of management style can improve the company's success and
career growth because a situational leader is a type of leader who likes to
constantly monitor their subordinates to ensure they are on the right track. As
they gain experience, it will be easier for you to adapt your leadership style to
different situations, and your employees will eventually adapt and respond to the
needs of today's changing work environment.

The situational leadership approach considers the staff's competence and

dedication levels. With this theory, leaders may change their leadership style for
each situation, motivating and bringing out the best in their team members.
According to the case study, Bill, the new employee, has limited expertise in
auditing. Brenda should have responded by guiding and addressing Bill’s
concerns instead of getting frustrated about the incorrect output that was
submitted by Bill. This means that, as a leader, she should guide people in a way
that will increase their sense of comfort and confidence. She should have spent
her time guiding Bill and showing him how to complete the tasks rather than just
giving him the tasks.

3. What control measures can be adopted to implement the changes that are
needed to improve the work conditions in this company?

With the world shifting the way they work, companies are evaluating
what’s the most effective way to build their workforce. I think these are the
measures they need to implement to improve their company’s working
conditions.

Match tasks to skills.

Knowing your employees’ skills and behavioral styles is essential for

maximizing efficiency. For example, an extroverted, creative, out-of-the-box
thinker is probably a great person to pitch ideas to clients. However, they might
struggle if they are given a more rule-intensive, detail-oriented task.

Asking your employees to be great at everything just isn’t efficient—

instead, before giving an employee an assignment, ask yourself: is this the
person best suited to perform this task? If not, find someone else whose skills
and style match your needs.
Communicate effectively.

Every manager knows that communication is the key to a productive

workforce. Technology has allowed us to contact each other with the mere click
of a button (or should we say, tap of a touch screen). This naturally means that
current communication methods are as efficient as possible, right? Not
necessarily. Instead of relying solely on email, try social networking tools
designed for even quicker team communication. You can also encourage your
employees to occasionally adopt a more antiquated form of contact voice-to-
voice communication. Having a quick meeting or phone call can settle a matter
that might have taken hours of back-and-forth emails.

Keep goals clear and focused

You can’t expect employees to be efficient if they don’t have a focused

goal to aim for. If a goal is not clearly defined and actually achievable, employees
will be less productive. So, try to make sure employees’ assignments are as clear
and narrow as possible. Let them know exactly what you expect of them, and tell
them specifically what impact this assignment will have.

One way to do this is to make sure your goals are “SMART” – specific,
measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. Before assigning an employee a
task, ask yourself if it fits each of these requirements. If not, ask yourself how the
task can be tweaked to help your workers stay focused and efficient.

Train and develop employees.

Reducing training, or cutting it all together, might seem like a good way to
save company time and money (learning on the job is said to be an effective way
to train, after all). However, this could ultimately backfire. Forcing employees to
learn their jobs on the fly can be extremely inefficient.

So, instead of having workers haphazardly trying to accomplish a task with

zero guidance, take the extra day to teach them the necessary skills to do their
job. This way, they can set about accomplishing their tasks on their own, and
your time won’t be wasted down the road answering simple questions or
correcting errors.

Helping them expand their skill sets will build a much more advanced
workforce, which will benefit your company in the long run. There are a number
of ways you can support employee development: individual coaching,
workshops, courses, seminars, shadowing or mentoring, or even just increasing
their responsibilities. Offering these opportunities will give employees additional
skills that allow them to improve their efficiency and productivity.

In the case of Bill, his manager and the company itself needed to take
these measures in order to ensure an excellent output.

Group members:
Shania Quisha Bitac
Lee Dongkeun
John James Dumadag
Christine Mae Pamongcales