BOH4MM Unit 4 Case Study Analysis ABC Mobility (for Marking)

Leadership at ABC Mobility

At ABC Mobility, Van Gupta serves as the division's vice president of loyalty and
retention. (L&R). Her team has made great strides over the last 18 months, cutting
client loss by 50% while supporting the company in attaining its objectives.
Because of her popularity and the fact that she is the only female vice president in
the organization, no one has any worries about her capacity to lead. The Human
Resources division conducts an anonymous employee satisfaction survey once a
year to provide workers an opportunity to voice their opinions. It tries to ensure
employee happiness and gives vice presidents access to their department in order
to encourage employee retention. Unexpectedly, Van's department received the
lowest overall ratings, and each respondent said they would even

The analysis of the data revealed that the workers felt their abilities were being
called into question, that they were overworked and stressed out, that they weren't
given the raises they deserved, that the jobs they were hired for weren't actually
theirs, that the work was purely administrative and lacked any creative elements,
and that they feared Van because of her abrupt demeanour. Van reacted
aggressively, criticising the staff and asserting that the news media had
misrepresented the circumstances. It is evident that she didn't get along with the
group because, a year later, seven out of seven ABC Mobility employees had either
quit or were looking for other jobs. Van might.

What were the problems presented?

Within this case, many problems can be spotted and argued.
The 3 main issues that were found are:

- High stress levels:

The staff members are overworked, very stressed out, and unable to maintain a
decent work-life balance. This level of stress is referred to as destructive stress and
may have a negative impact on both work and home performance, cause illnesses
like anxiety and depression, increase the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure,
alcohol use, etc., and negatively impact both settings' performance. Stress can be
quite costly for the company because it decreases productivity and is one of the
key reasons for high employee turnover.

- Poor treatment:
There are strong sentiments of tension, dissatisfaction, fear, and anxiety as a result
of the vice president of the company's poor treatment. Her poor leadership, abrupt
demeanors, and lack of appreciation for her workers are all to blame for her team's
poor performance and job happiness. High turnover rates and poor work
performance, both of which are brought on by low job satisfaction, have a
detrimental impact on a company's performance.

- Stubbornness:
Van defends and maintains her actions while refusing to acknowledge or accept
any criticism from her staff. Due to her unsatisfactory answer and obstinacy, all of
the staff and the majority of directors left ABC Mobility or took jobs elsewhere,
which lost the business a lot of money. To lower turnover and boost job
satisfaction, effective leaders must possess traits like critical thinking, fairness, and
listening to the opinions and suggestions of their workforce.

The team building process:

Usually, a team will go through 5 phases of development:

Forming:
Together, the team members discover each other's skills and personalities while
learning about the jobs, how to fit in, and whom to rely on. Relationships among
team members may be impacted by prior encounters, disparate mindsets, or team
aims and objectives. In this instance, this stage was not portrayed favorably and
contained scant to no details about the preliminary procedure. Role confusion
resulted from the majority of employees believing that they were not doing the role
for which they had been employed. They weren't entirely aware of their
responsibilities or the duties that needed to be done. The members probably had a
rocky first stage with each other, especially with their vice president.

Storming:
The problem of coping with many personalities results in high levels of tension and
stress as the members learn to operate together. People may start to establish
groups at this point as leadership becomes essential to ensuring a strong foundation
for future development. In contrast to their vice president, the members are said to
have less tension and anxiety when dealing with the personalities of their
coworkers. The majority of the staff believed Van had an abrupt management style
and aggressive demeanor, which made them somewhat afraid of her. During the
storming stage, there was a lot of stress and strain as they attempted to deal with
their vice president's personality.

Norming:
The team has developed positive working relationships and experience at this
point. The team operates with a spirit of mutual confidence and cooperation. The
vice president did not fare well in the morning stage of the case. It is obvious that
the members did not work to their maximum ability or have a positive experience
with Van, even if they may have been able to collaborate with each other to
generate their exceptional achievements.

Performing:
The team is fully operational, their collective experience grows, and they are able
to approach issues methodically. The team developed coping mechanisms for
dealing with one another's characteristics, and they collectively enjoy their
successes. The team's total performance was highly successful, cutting client loss
by 50% and exceeding the company's goals, it is said at the beginning of the case.
Therefore, it makes sense to believe that, with the exception of the vice president,
the team members were able to successfully adapt to one another's personalities.

Adjourning:
The team members often feel a sense of accomplishment when they get ready to
part ways at the conclusion of the team building process. The anxiety over what
will happen next can make it emotionally taxing for the team members. The L&R
team members all either found new jobs inside the company or quit entirely as a
result of Van's repulsive response to her colleagues' unfavourable input. In the
case, there was no sense of accomplishment at the adjourning stage; instead, the
team's dissolution was accompanied by unfavourable feelings.

Motivation theories and grading:

Hierarchy of needs:
The theory, proposed by Abraham Maslow, suggests that human needs exist
in a hierarchy, people are motivated by what they need physically and
psychologically, and cannot fulfill higherorder needs before fulfilling the
lower-order needs. Marlow identified five levels of needs:
- Physiological needs – food, shelter, etc.
- Safety needs – security
- Belongingness and love needs – emotional fulfillment
- Esteem needs – personal recognition Self-actualization needs – dreams
of self-improvement

According to the theory, motivation is in a dreadful, terrible state and needs to be

improved. We can infer that, with the exception of rest, the L&R team meets all of
their employees' physiological needs, including food and shelter. Because all of the
employees claim to be somewhat terrified of Van and believe she is
unapproachable, safety needs cannot be guaranteed. The employees' desires for
affection and belonging may or may not be met. Since the employees felt as though
their efforts were not acknowledged by receiving a rise or having their abilities
validated, there are no evidence of satisfaction of esteem. The lack of creative
control over the employees' initiatives and the lack of opportunities for self-
affiliation prevented the fulfilment of these needs.

There are various suggestions to be made which include:

- Providing the employees with some breaks as they feel overworked and
stressed.
- Decrease their workload evenly.
- Adjust or change your (Van) managing style to a more welcoming
appropriate approach in order to reduce the fear from the employees
and to appear approachable.
- Avoid pestering and questioning your employees’ every move to show
you have trust in them.
- Start providing a raise weekly.
- Leave room for creativity when signing projects and roles to the team
(switch to a self managed team) and provide opportunities to improve
and upgrade positions.

ERG theory:
The theory, proposed by Clayton Alderfer, suggests that motivation is based
on three nonhierarchical categories of needs:
- Existence needs – food, shelter, etc.
- Relatedness needs – acknowledged by people,
- Growth needs – creativity, productivity, etc.

Another aspect of the theory is the frustration-regression principle, starting that if

people don’t have the opportunity to satisfy higher-level needs, they will focus on
the lower-needs they can accomplish. Evaluated by the theory, the state of
motivation is bad-terrible and needs improvement. The assumption that shelter, air,
food and water are provided to the employees and companionship is built between
only team members is made. Safety is not assured due to the employees saying
they feared Van to some extent because of her harsh behavior. Relatedness needs
fall flat as employees are not recognized by their president for their hard work and
hardly given a raise. Growth needs are not met by the limited amount of room for
creative freedom and no tasks explicitly assigned which are meaningful and
important to the department.

There are various suggestions to be made which include:

- Adjust or change your (Van) managing style to a more welcoming
appropriate approach in order to reduce the fear from the employees
and to appear approachable
- Create social activities in order for the employees to interact and build
relationship with Van
- Start providing a raise weekly
- Provide a weekly review of how well they are doing
- Leave room for creativity within projects
- Provide and inform each employee with a task that will contribute to
the overall performance and success of the team

Two-factor theory:
According to Frederick Herzberg's theory, motivator elements like recognition,
responsibility, and a sense of accomplishment are necessary to increase job
satisfaction and motivation while hygiene variables like working environment,
wage, status, etc. only serve to lower it. Given that neither hygiene nor
motivational elements are taken into account, the theory rates the level of
motivation as extremely low or bad and in need of development. The employees
complain about their tough working circumstances and their lack of a fair wage.
The workers think their status is very low or nonexistent. Because employees are
not given clear-cut responsibilities that directly contribute to the performance of
the team, are not recognised, and are subjected to frequent questioning and
evaluations, the motivational aspects are not utilised. Low levels of job satisfaction
and high levels of job discontent result from this.

There are various suggestions to be made which include:

- Reduce stress within the workplace by providing flexible schedules, give
them comfortable time hours to help them achieve work-life balance,
and create employee assistance programs
- Give your employees a weekly raise and performance review to show
that their work is recognized and appreciated
- Generate proper roles with clarification that still allows for some
creativity yet contribute to something important
- Reduce pestering the employees to create a trusting relationship

Acquired needs theory:

The theory, proposed by David McClelland, suggests that motivation is guided
by three different needs:
- Need for achievement – frequent recognition of how well they are
performing, can be motivated by rewards
- Need for affiliation - developing meaningful relationships with others,
approval of others, motivated by opportunities to mix with others,
- Need for power - desire power, agreement and compliance, and
motivated through possibility of advancement into management
positions

According to this theory, motivation is at an exceedingly low or poor level and

needs to be improved. The president doesn't take any time out of her day to let her
staff know how much she values their contributions. They lack motivation since
she does not offer them the rise they are due. There is no hint that she gives them
any kind of performance review; instead, she consistently criticises their every
move. In terms of a growing relationship with the president, the employees feel no
feeling of kinship and receive no approval. The chances for employees to gain
influence, consent, compliance, or a more senior position inside the group or
organisation are not made known to us.

There are various suggestions to be made which include:

- Start providing a raise weekly
- Provide a weekly review of how well they are doing
- Give employees compliments whenever you can
- Reduce pestering the employees with every move to create a trusting
relationship
- Make time for social activities such as barbeque, lunches and birthday
celebrations to foster an authentic relationship with the employees
- Start providing opportunities through additional programs where
employees can achieve a higher position in the organization to satisfy
their need for power

Conflict management strategies:

What strategies can Van use on the company or on herself to lessen the fear
the employees feel towards her?

Training:
It is said that Van's aggressive management style and abrupt demeanor during the
case made her staff fear her. Van should enroll in scheduled meetings and sessions
that focus on interpersonal development in order to strengthen his interpersonal
skills. This will provide the team members new methods to interact with one
another and reduce conflict. Through collaborative strategies and active listening
abilities, a successful programme would help Van change her behaviour while
facilitating successful relationships with her colleagues. Van can create a plan for
personal progress by participating in interviews that identify strengths and
limitations from the HR division.
New organizational structures:
Creating alternative organisational structures that offer respite from conventional
hierarchical arrangements that entrap employees in one particular relationship is a
second tactic that can be used in this circumstance. The employees complained that
the work they were doing was purely operational and lacked any creative elements,
which did not fulfil their expectations. Van might invest in a matrix structure to
increase employee collaboration chances and communication channels. To help
them get over their dread of speaking with Van if she doesn't change, the staff will
be given alternative projects, duties, managers, and individuals to interact with.

Stress reducing techniques:

Stress is the main reason for a high turnover rate, these are 3 ways to avoid it:

Role clarification:
The employees believe that their personal training and development plans were not
supplied and that they were not executing the position for which they had been
employed. Each employee usually has an interview when topics like the
individual's plans, goals, and analysis of their strengths and flaws are covered. The
personnel were introduced to an operational job without any explanation of their
roles and without any room for creativity. Despite the fact that they were all
marketing experts, the job's demands did not match up, which caused a lot of
stress.

Flexible scheduling:
The employees express concerns and high levels of stress about the workload they
get and their inability to maintain a work-life balance. The burden of overworking
and juggling work and family obligations can be reduced by organisations by
offering their employees flexible work schedules. This method, which can be used
if the quantity of work assigned to the employees is divided among several people,
allows workers to start and stop their workdays within specific time periods.
According to a study from the University of Minnesota and MIT Sloan Kettering,
employees in one control group who had access to flexible workplace programmes
reported higher levels of job satisfaction, support from their managers, and control
over their work schedules than those in the second control group, which had no
exposure.

Social activities:
The business must to start promoting and organising delightful social events that
help to strengthen the bonds between workers and managers. These might include
movie evenings, potluck dinners, karaoke, and events that the L&R department
throws. Social interactions are crucial in this situation because they can assist the
staff form a positive bond with Van while having fun together, which will lower
stress levels and improve job satisfaction.

Citations and references:

1. “Workplace Flexibility Benefits Employees.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 13

Jan. 2016,
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160113133342.htm.

2. “Workplace Stress Continues to Mount.” Korn Ferry, Korn Ferry, 2 Apr. 2021,
https://www.kornferry.com/insights/this-week-in-leadership/workplace-stress-
motivation.