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Effective teamwork and communication
Building effective teams and teamwork
Building effective teams and teamwork
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Acme Airlines: The Opportunity in Change
“Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable.” William Pollard’s, a 20th century physicist, words show us the power of being proactive, and igniting change to strengthen a company’s productive climate (Sellers, Boone, Harper, 2011). Acme Airlines flight attendants lacked incentive to improve the quality of their work, as a result of distrustful management and overall frustration within the company. Acme took successful steps to rebuild their FA program into a more relationship oriented work environment. Through an understanding of effective leadership, we will use the
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Cultivating a strong team comes from casting by individual strengths; providing a strength based approach to the work compared to a deficiency approach. “The LMX model focuses on the unique relationship-based exchange between a leader and followers (Nahavandi, 2015).” True diversity comes from the subtle differences between individuals. A competent LMX leader will be able to tailor their real life experiences to their leadership style, incorporating a high level of respect, deeper trust, and continually growing relationships with followers (Nahavandi, 2015). Essentially, Acme Airlines is asking managers to create “in-groups” for the flight attendants to build trust and emotional bonds (Nahavandi, 2015). Nahavandi (2015) cautions from selecting in-group members based on personal relationships, instead focusing on creating a workable team. In-group responsibilities might be to specific domiciles or perhaps to training and building relationships with new flight attendants. Effective in-groups of flight attendants would meet a wide variety of needs for all flight attendants as well as keep membership fluid (Nahavandi, 2015). For Acme Airlines to continue to be proactive in their leadership, deepening the experience of in-groups to become leaders provides more connection to the work; giving individuals more purpose. If two in-group members were tasked with creating their own in-group, there …show more content…
Delegating leadership responsibilities to in-groups poses a challenge of building a strong structure with a clear understanding of procedure. On the other side, if the leader cuts followers out of the decision making process, the newly formed relationships will suffer. The Normative Decision Model offers a recommendation for the ways leaders “adjust their decision style depending on the degree to which the quality of the decision is important and the likelihood that employees will accept the decision (Nahavandi, 2015).” An easy first step for leaders is to understand how many people will be effected by the decision (Nahavandi, 2015). Does it only concern an individual or is the whole group going to be impacted? Using the decision tree on page 76 of Nahavandi’s The Art and Science of Leadership (2015), leaders can effectively identify the appropriate decision style needed. A leader must adopt an autocratic style when the quality of the decision is not significant, when employees disagree, and when the employees don’t see eye to eye with the organizations goals (Nahavandi, 2015). While a consultative style is necessary when the employees will hold the responsibility of implementation; especially when employees agree with the overall goals of the organization (Nahavandi, 2015). Finally, “group oriented decision style should be used when the leader does not have all the information, and
The pros of an airline implementing a policy that bigger customers need to buy a second seat is that the weight capacity regulations will be followed to. As well as the cons of an airline implementing a policy that larger customers need to buy a second seat would result in a bigger people who travelling will not uses that airlines anymore, airlines would be glowered on by family or relatives of larger customers, airline’s policies could be vigorously monitored for discriminatory actions against overweight persons. As mentioned in the book there are no federal laws prohibiting discrimination against obese individual, although there are some places such as Wisconsin, DC, and California provide legal protection. (Harvey & Allard , 2012, p. 234)
Leaders benefit from building a team to create and implement change, this is a key theme in the Kotter model of change. This teambuilding engages employees throughout the process. Allowing employees to be a part of the change process gives them the opportunity and trust to be creative moving toward the future (Cochrane, 2002). Leaders can create opportunity for employees and leaders to dialogue about the change, which can help troubleshoot the process. Leaders who engage employees throughout the organization from various levels of the organization will receive perspectives from the entire organization helping them make better-informed decisions. Employees want to be allowed the opportunity to help an organization they believe in, in a way that enhances the
Southwest Airlines: A Case Analysis. ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS It is evident that the greatest strength Southwest Airlines has is its financial stability. As known in the US airline industry, Southwest is one of those airlines who are consistently earning profits despite the problems the industry is facing. With such stability, the corporation is able to make decisions and adjust policies, which other heavily burdened airlines may not be able to imitate.
Proactive management of the decision-making process can minimize the threat of groupthink compromising the quality of decisions. Managers can place importance of having a wide variety of options and idea brought to the table. Encouraging employees to thoroughly analyze all aspects of the options, from the moral and ethical implications, to the response they can expect from their opposition. With each decision appoint one or more group member to play devil’s advocate to the suggested options, ask that person to analyze and make a case against each of the suggestions (Sims & Sauser, 2013). Rotate this position throughout the group so that one person is not refuting the groups ideas consistently. Continually encouraging and rewarding contrasting views can hedge the complacency groups fall into after working together for periods of time. Management should be active listeners in the decision-making process being careful to not assert their preference towards a certain option to avoid the group conforming to the preferences of their superiors before the options are fully analyzed (Rose, 2011). Finally, after a decision has been made and the analysis has been completed before implementing or going public with the idea reconvene and go through the choose plan of action one last time to ensure that new information has not become available and
Leadership is a communication process of a leader and individuals in which the leaders behavior or attitude directs individuals towards any goal effectively. It is widely believed that leadership creates the vital link between organizational effectiveness and people’s performance at an organizational level (Avolio, 1999; McGrath and MacMillan, 2000). The effectiveness of an organization depends upon the leader having an effective leadership style in order to effectively reach the goal of the organization; with it being one of the key driving forces for improving a firm’s performance. Scholars suggest that effective leadership behaviors can facilitate the improvement of performance when organizations face problems (McGrath and MacMillan, 2000). To effectively achieve leadership of individuals and organizational outcomes, four theories can be used; Fiedler’s Contingency Model, Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Model, Vroom & Yetton Participative Leadership Model, and House & Dessler Path-Goal Theory.
In 2009 when Sergio Marchionne took over one of the Chrysler plants had around 200 workers and by the end of the summer over 4500 people were employed; at that location alone. During his 60 minute interview Mr. Marchionne gives a lot of acknowledgement to his employees crediting them for the successful turnaround in the company. This shows us that he is the type of leader who would motivate through the positive reinforcement theory because his positivity in the comments to his employees shows that he isn’t taking full credit for all the work that was done and the success that has happened. When Mr. Marchionne became CEO of Chrysler he moved his office down where the engineers work on the 4th floor. “No need for a top-floor penthouse, which sits empty where a chairman and three vice chairmen used to be, when a fourth floor office will suffice.” (Allpro.com). This was one of his first step in creating change of direction in a company which was used to being lead by leaders who didn’t fully engage with the employees. Another point to mention, and a result of his close contact with the engineer, is that the engineers were performing for him and were able to get a brand new car model designed and produced in less than a year; which proves his leadership style works. In order for a great leader to get this kind of effective cooperation from his employees shows his skills in leadership. By giving them positive reinforcement and being a motivational leader with high hopes with an optimistic vision for the future he was able to get them to perform and meet his standards and goals in a short allotted amount of time. This constrictive timeframe was strategic in reentering the automotive industry with a new product to boost sales and pro...
In April 1992, American Airlines launched "Value Pricing" -- a radical simplification of the complex pricing structure that had evolved over more than a decade following deregulation of the U.S. domestic airline industry. American expected that the new pricing structure would benefit consumers and restore profitability to both American and the industry as a whole. The critical issue raised is: Would American's bold initiative work?
The Southwest Airlines company and its culture is one that is often cited in today 's business classes. The airline is widely known to be “different” compared to many of its competitors, a result of its founding values and strong corporate culture. This culture developed early in Southwest’s history and was deeply entrenched due to the competitiveness of the airline industry, as well as due to some of the pressures experienced as a result regulatory issues and stiff competition.
A team or group is a collection of people who are associated and interdependent in their tasks, share obligation regarding results, and view themselves as a unit inserted in an institutional or organisational framework which works inside the established boundaries of that system.(H.Kristin,2013)Teams and groups have shown a similar relationship within the bounds of the procedures and research identifying with their effectiveness(K.Steve, 2006) (i.e. group cohesiveness, cooperation) while as yet keeping up their freedom as independent units, as gatherings and their individuals are autonomous of each other's part, aptitude, information or purpose versus groups and their individuals, who are reliant upon each other's part, ability, learning and
For years, Southwest Airlines has been experiencing stable costs, low fares and traffic stimulation. However, the latest changes in the marketplace (See Exhibit 1: SWOT Analysis), including the higher energy costs and the entrance of new low fare/cost carriers are threatening the future of the airline. As a result, LUV needs to decide whether or not to acquire the slots and gates from the bankrupt ATA Airlines at LaGuardia (LGA) terminal in New York City (NYC) in order to expand its capabilities.
The change agents of British Airways behaved like coaches. They deliberately shaped the BA’s capabilities, created the proper set of values and skills to reach the intended outcomes. During the implementation of change, John King and Colin Marshall acted like coaches as they assisted to “structure activities to help the organization members solve their own problems and learn to do that better” (French & Bell, 1995, p.4).
to major airports but later it went down as PE try to grow faster and
Decision making is a task which needs utmost balance on the part of the leader. One sided decisions when team input is necessary or resources going into a lot of group decision making process when the decision itself is not so crucial can turn out to be big result influencing part of the outcomes of a leadership experience. Leadership demands a lot of adaptability where the style of leadership to be followed, a complete leader driven or group driven is to chosen based on the type of decision to be taken and the situation in which the decision is to be taken.
Air travel has grown in the past decade. Travel grew strongly for both leisure and business purposes. India will have nearly 800 to 1000 airplanes by 2023, it was estimated by Airbus. In spite of growth between 30 to 50 per cent in Indian aviation industry, losses of approximately 2200 crore is estimated for the current year.
In addition, (Amandi et al, 2004) makes us understand issues related to leadership decision and also gives a clear overview on leadership theories.