SYEDA WARQA ZAKA – 0009 - ACTA

Q1: List the relevant members in this scenario, evaluate their personalities (hint: backgrounds),
the influence they have, and hence consequences.

Answer: Zulfiqar Ahmed – he came from a consulting and academic background, which gives
him experience of dealing with people patiently. Due to that he was more of a democratic
person who did not like to enforce his decision and wanted to take recommendations from his
team and other leaders. He is more of a transformational leader who focuses on level two or
sometimes incorporating level three managerial system within himself. His openness, respect
for other management and emphasis on trust building showcases that he is aware of his
conscious thoughts and wish to communicate accurately by building an environment which is
more considerate of other people and their opinions (i.e. instead of making a decision against a
complaint, he called the individual to understand his point of view and what went wrong).
However, working in a very non-democratic and hierarchical environment, his influence was
weakened due to this approach and spread his control on the people below him.

Major General Ahmed – he came from an army background and hence, that is why he came with
an autocratic approach. He was the kind of person who tends to wish for entire control and
seems like a person who prefers ordering and not taking orders. Due to his background, he likes
to have authority and did not like involvement of any person within his decision-making
process. Moreover, he had a very strong personality who just focused on level one of the
managerial systems. Due to that, he had a very rigid personality, but his influence was impacted
by Begum Salma, and not much people took him seriously which triggered him.

Colonel Islam – he also came from an army background due to which he had somewhat similar
kind of personality as Ahmed. And that is exactly why he was closer to Ahmed, and kind of
agreed with whatever he said or did (just like in army you follow every step of your superior).

Dr. Bhutta – he seemed like an individual who was more unaware and irresponsible regarding his
duties as he failed to bring any facts and figures regarding the department within discussion to
bring change.

Bashir – Being the head of finance department, he was the kind of person who seems like is not
focused and updated. He failed to acknowledge change within finance operations and incorporate
them within the department. He was irresponsible to not even realize there was no cost
accountant within the company, hence it seems like he does not possess the leadership skills that
are needed to analyze the department and bring revolutions in it.

Begum Salma – as stated by herself, she was an autocratic leader who made sure to take part in
decision-making of the organization. She was the kind of person who micromanages and takes
in charge (even as small as cafeteria issues), because of her assertive personality.

Q2: Comment on the task force meetings. In your opinion, what went wrong?
The task force meeting did not seem like a team meeting as such, despite Ahmed clearly
identifying the common goal of the meeting, it seems like everyone had their own set of goals
and hence there was no one or two unanimous goals of the meeting. This created confusion and
no set track for the meeting. Moreover, in the entire meeting there was no focus on facts, no
background research was done or cost benefit analysis was done of the situation that could help
make the situation more objective than subjective, due to that arguments arose which were not
constructive as the entire debate was subjective. Moreover, no set of alternatives were
established, which were further supposed to analyze, seeing which one is better and which not,
backing up with the facts and figures. Due to very different background of the entire team, all of
them were very strong personalities due to which they were clashing a lot and the environment
was intense, hence focusing on no humor and intimidating culture of meeting. Also, lastly the
result of meeting should unanimously agree upon but there was no consensus, and if not
consensus, no other method was used, as Ahmed came up with set of his recommendations only.

Q3: How would you solve the issue at hand? Briefly discuss possible solutions (write not more
than 02 solutions)

I think the solutions that must be followed, should be in the realm of the Theory O. Theory E
could be really abrupt and already in a very haphazard environment with uncertainty and decline
in performance, this could further create the sense of uncertainty within the employees and
attrition rate will increase.

Solution # 1: increase the pay of doctors within the PSA so they can spend more time on the
FMH rather than their private practices. This will bring back the loyal patients of the doctors to
the FMH back and hence, this can increase the patient number within the department.

Solution # 2: increase the marketing of the department through paid channels like
advertisements, billboards and etc. this will create awareness regarding the department. And
along with the advertisements, they should focus on the pricing.

In addition to all this, side by side, trainings should be given to management or performance
management should be started to make sure that each leader has a set of KPIs that can align with
the above-mentioned solutions and monitor in the basis of that. This will give them a vision as
well to bring in motivation.