Career Relevancy
As a management professional, you will be expected to lead a company into successful growth. To do this effectively, you’ll need to be able to analyze organizations and create organizational structure plans. You’ll also need skills related to leadership.
Background
Shannon smiled as she saw her name at the top of the list of managers who had “made a difference.” The employees who worked under Shannon at the newly expanded retail store had recommended Shannon for the award. This meant more to Shannon than actually meeting the goals her regional manager had set for all the stores. Of course, Shannon was thrilled that her store had exceeded expectations, but she was even more pleased that her employees were responding positively to her leadership. She’d worked hard to implement effective leadership strategies—such as communicating clearly, building positive relationships with each of her employees, addressing issues when they first arose, and modeling the types of behavior she expected of her employees, among other things. She was grateful for what she’d learned about leadership in the college course she was taking. Here’s some of the content that Shannon remembered most:
The importance of good leadership to create, develop, and implement the strategy of the firm cannot be overemphasized, because leaders affect the growth of the company. Leadership can impact diversification strategies—positively or negatively. Sometimes, the leaders don’t have what it takes to lead a newly merged firm to success. Other times, a CEO who excels at one business and in one industry just cannot transfer those skills over to another company that has a different business model or culture (or both). Often, company leaders get stuck in a pattern of familiar behavior and fail to diversify the products/services they offer. When this happens, they may meet short-term goals but may struggle to realize the company’s potential because of a lack of long-term operational planning. Some managers do not look for ways to engage employees in activity-sharing (i.e., economies of scope), which you learned about in Week 4 Discussion 2. Retail managers sometimes focus on meeting the demands of their regional or corporate-level supervisors while neglecting to give their employees the training and direction they need to perform daily tasks.
Retail managers need to have a competitive drive that motivates them to reach goals. However, it is important that the desire to “win” does not become more important than setting achievable goals and motivating employees in positive ways. Setting goals too high can have a negative impact, especially when the people who work under you don’t have the infrastructure, support, resources, knowledge, or skills to accomplish the goals. Of course, you want to develop stretch goals, which encourage you to constantly improve on prior successes, but the goals should not be unrealistic. To obtain the desired outcomes, it’s important to carefully evaluate your objectives, policies, and resource allocation (people and financial) and to strategically design organizational structures that will propel your company toward the results you envision. (For help with this, remember to follow the steps you learned in Week 4 Discussion 1 to conduct a strategic management case analysis.)
Many times, when companies take over other companies, deals are made with the executives of each firm. There are many instances where these executives get very sweet deals. Some executives have a sense of entitlement that causes them to make decisions that disregard the interests of the stakeholders or to engage in unethical behavior. Deciding now to be a person of integrity throughout your career can help you avoid falling into selfish habits that not only hurt those who work for you, but also end up hurting you in the long run.
Leaders are responsible for evaluating the strategic situation, making decisions, and acting on them in a dynamic, competitive environment. As a manager, you will need to earn the trust of the employees who work under you. Being an ethical leader can help you—and the team of people you lead—succeed personally and professionally while also helping your company meet its strategic goals.
Resources and References
Marx, A. (September 19, 2018). 8 leadership strategies to create a high performing team. Customer Think. Retrieved from http://customerthink.com/8-leadership-strategies-to-create-a-high-performing-team/
Schooley, S. (August 26, 2019). 10 ways to become a better leader. Business News Daily. Retrieved from https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4991-effective-leadership-skills.html
Schwantes, M. (June 23, 2018). 30 simple leadership strategies that could quite possibly stop employees from quitting. Inc. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/30-quick-simple-ways-to-improve-your-leadership-in-30-days.html
Prompt
Continue to work in your role as the CEO of a regional company in your retail industry. This week, you will finalize the strategic plan that you think the company should execute.
The installment this week is to complete your organizational structure plan:
Explain what resources will need to be allocated to the departments in order to achieve the new goals you have set. Do not focus on a specific budget, but rather a general idea of the finances that will need to be expended. Also, identify all the other resources that you will need and how you plan to use those resources to execute this plan.
Identify and explain the current organizational structure of the company, its effectiveness, and any changes that should be implemented.
Identify and explain the leadership characteristics, and how they will need to adapt to make your strategy a success.
Your final presentation should be in PowerPoint format with a minimum of 10 slides and at least 2 citations and references.