Managing and Developing People: Kaz’s Management Turmoil

Managing and Developing People
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Managing and Developing People
Introduction
Management is critical to the success of a business. In the manufacturing sector, managers are critical in ensuring that employees implement organizational goals and objectives. In their line of work, line managers are more likely to encounter problems with managing employees. Conflicts are likely to emerge, threatening to tear business operations. Additionally, line managers may encounter competing priorities, especially where the management wants to cut down on costs, which may adversely affect the working environment. This essay delves into the challenges Kaz, a new line manager at Small Business Insurance (SBI) encounters and uses theory and examples to demonstrate how she can address the issues.
Case Study Issues
One of the key issues and challenges facing Kaz is the clash of management styles. Management styles have a profound impact on workers. Different managers employ different management styles. In this case, Sam uses a transactional leadership style to, where he relies on rewards and punishments to attain optimal performance from the subordinates.Sam's management approach is imported from the US part of the company and emphasizes cutting costs and maximizing profits. Sam uses the hard HRM approach to manage the employees. For instance, Sam wanted Kaz to deal with the issue of absenteeism by firing the absent workers since he considered them "useless." According to Kalsoom, Khan & Zubair (2018), while transactional leadership style can get things done, it can reduce employee morale. On the contrary, Kaz employs a more team-oriented approach in her leadership style. The approach emphasizes collaboration and teamwork in an organization by encouraging the efforts of the team rather than individual task completion. Giessner, Van Knippenberg, Van Ginkel & Sleebos (2013) believe that the team-oriented approach is the best leadership style for boosting the morale of employees. Sam’s leadership style differs significantly with Kaz’s, which makes it challenging for them to work together smoothly.
Another challenge in the organization is poor team dynamics. Team dynamics in the organization are strained and marred with inappropriate behavior. For instance, Kaz criticizes Jingyi unprofessionally while Phil shouts at the workers he thought were poorly performing, thinking that the move would encourage them to work harder. Poor team dynamics make it problematic for some employees to work together. The problem of poor team dynamics can be explained using Tuckman's stages of group development. Theory. The team appears to be stuck in the storming stage, which is characterized by conflicts. At the storming stage, people push against the established boundaries, which often reveals their true character (Bonebright, 2010). Kaz is unable to help the members navigate the storming phase due to her inability to handle the team dynamics. The poor team dynamics adversely affect teamwork in the organization, significantly reducing their performance.