Consolidated Life Case-Business Ethics Essay

Consolidated life is a prestigious insurance company however, due to the nature of the establishment the duties required by the worker neither required minimal knowledge nor did you have to have a high level education in order to obtain a position at the company. Mr. Mike Wilson however, obtained a business degree in administration. He was hired by Consolidated Life as simply as you can put a clerical worker. He worked in the policy issue department which main duties included processing or in taking clients orders for insurance, customer service, and client services. One would say that working for them; your performance required little to no creativity. It was the same day-to-day work load. Because it required so little creativity, daily routines were repetitive and can be done basically, with your hands â€Å"tied to you back†. Mike Wilson demonstrated how an effective a â€Å"leader† can be in the workforce rather than just a â€Å"manager† by title. He portrayed in existence of â€Å"high fidelity† which is the best experience you can have in a workplace. In the book Trade Off, by Author Kevin Maney, the word fidelity deals with â€Å"the total experience of something† (Maney, 2009). The author also says that â€Å"aura† can also provides an advantage to fidelity. With that being said Mr. Wilson influenced his co-workers with providing them with incentives and rewards in which they can gain a reward at the end of the task but most importantly he provided the right tools and motivations in order for his employees to work in a positive mind frame. This created a system of mutual bipartisanship between supervisor and employee. Model: based on the â€Å"Organizational Model Behavior† Mike’s drive and motivation can be comparable to a person with â€Å"theory y† attributes. The â€Å"theory Y† concept displays how an employee’s work is â€Å"as natural as play†. Also a person with this characteristic has a huge sense of self-direction and self-control. Mr. Wilson showed this by cultivating a modern management technique that motivated its workers rather than coerced them which a person who you can place in this. Whereas, a person with the characteristics of â€Å"theory x† carries the opposite attractions. The individual is not seen as enthusiastic about their job. They are mainly threatened or told â€Å"do it or else† and as stated before, lack the ability and drive to overachieve. They usually follow the motto, overpromise-under deliver. Mikes performance ultimately won him a promotion working in the supervisory assignment area. He won this promotion just six weeks after promise. Mike brought a sense of modern culture although it was seen as â€Å"unorthodox† or non-traditional. When comparing the delegation of authority in the levels of management the organization structure clearly shows that the establishment followed an â€Å"authority† oriented program in which Presidents are first to make decisions for the overall â€Å"vision† for the company in which it then trickles down to the VP who implements the President’s strategy by orchestrating a staff of supervisors to oversee the execution. Situation: There seems to be a drastic change to the division in which Mike supervised some time ago. When Mike realized his unhappiness at his new division he sought a remedy for disaster by returning to his old division forcing him under new terms and most importantly, a new boss. The performance value of his once â€Å"over exceeding† staff was now dwindled and unmotivated. The new way in which they worked became stricter and more inflexible. It was stale and there was no aura of high fidelity being promoted. Problems: The problem of this case has to do with mis-delegation of roles and mis-clarification for all parties. Not only that, the fact is the company as a whole has not identified its mission statement for their employees. With that being said the transition from the time Mike left became a tragedy. As stated before, the culture of the environment was slated after Mike left. It became from being a â€Å"collegial† environment to an â€Å"autocratic† environment once new vice presidentJack Greely took over. Not only did he change the environment of the company, he basically dismantled the structure and rebuilt it based on his power. Until Mike was promoted the managerial style approach was not identified and supervisors, at this early time wanted a change and that’s why Mike was chosen to become supervisor. However, when Jack took Mike’s former supervisor’s place, the organization became, â€Å"autocratic†. An autocratic person can be defined as an employee that is dependent tot tally on a supervisor. This person has no other desire than to do what is only required out of the task and only the minimum. Usually in an autocratic setting the boss expects pure obedience from their employee’s and rely straight on authority from â€Å"higher up’s† with no regard to any self-drive for themselves and lacks the qualities and abilities to take on initiatives and providing an entrepreneurial attitude about themselves. This can be explained by using the Abraham Maslow’s Theory found in an essay article written by Janet Simmons, Donald Irvin, and Beverly Drinnien which it states he says accordingly â€Å"that the only reason that people would not move well in direction of self-actualization is because of hindrances placed in their way by society† (Janet A. Simons, 1987). Also saying â€Å"We must see that the person’s basic needs are satisfied. This includes safety, belongingness, and esteem needs† (Janet A. Simons, 1987)A person in the Consolidated Life organization that can be also skewed towards the â€Å"autocratic† style is Mr. Rick Belkner. Mike’s former boss. This, for lack of a better term, lazy supervisor (whom he was Mike’s supervisor initially) illustrated as a person who rather do â€Å"crossword puzzles† during his work shift then to lead by example, what a competent Vice President of their division; shy 40,000 of a six-figure salary. The point was clearly made by Mr. Greely when he assumed that Mike’s management style would still be undermined no matter how good of his performance. He even went to the extent of assuring that Mr. Wilson will fail no matter how â€Å"high† you move up in the establishment. It is almost agreeable to say that Mr. Speely’s choose of words were not only rude but shows a poor and ineffective leader. Mr. Greely does not seem to be results-driven but ego-driven as his defense for Mike’s work style was inarguable and measured his own assumption to Mike’s performance rather than just judging an employee on what he does best, his/her performance. Reading how Mike handled it; amazingly enough. In the chart featured on page-You can see simple comparing of the two different types of behavioral patterns by identifying the qualities, organizational and environmental forces that are represented by the 2 behavior patterns. You will see the differences between a workers operating in an autocratic setting versus a person who operates under the collegial or supportive setting(s). By identifying the contrast you are able to see what kind of modifications or structures that would have to be put in place based on a employee’s attitude. The attitude in which comes from probably stems from personal goal, motivations, or self desires a person may have in their work space. Some individuals don’t possess the willingness to achieve and be a leader. Some individual are quite happy with just being an average worker and moving up in the â€Å"corporate† latter is something that does not motivate them. Autocratic Environment Vs. Collegial /System Environment Base Questions for Case 1. Describe ALL the factors that contributed to Mike’s lack of promotion at the end. Was his lack of promotion fair? When Mike left the division, he left the process in which he created, to be altered by the new president upon his departure. The flexible leadership that led to the team success came to a halt when divisional vice president, Jack Greely; who’s reputation was described as â€Å"tough but fair†. Mike accepted the position at the old division again without really investigating the provisions in which he was now to work under. He loss total control when he noticed that co-workers were actually more inclined to follow Mr. Greely’s direction because the employees knew the order of hierarchy and knew the consequences of action should one follow anyone’s demands except for Mr. Greely’s. 2. Using your knowledge of culture, explain in detail Consolidated Life’s culture when Mike was first hired and then when he returned. There was a transition in the organization which proved to have opportunities due to the position void. Such example shows that Mike (when he was first hired by Consolidated Life) he was promoted to his position because of the opportunities of change. Mike’s style was not really favored by his â€Å"higher-ups† but because he manages to increase workflow and reduce errors, which created more performance his flexible style was overlook which sends a sign of â€Å"inconsistency†. If you are going to allow a manager to take over the project then let them take over. As long as they don’t compromise the integrity of the company or do anything illegal. 3. What actions could Consolidated Life have taken to prevent Mike’s problems? There should have been more flexibility granted for Mike to effectively coordinate his team. Mr. Wilson’s track record clearly shows that as a supervisor he is competent to make educated decisions and lead a staff with ease. An employee is always happy when they are not pressured nor stressed. Most important of all, when a leader shows reciprocity, more than likely there would be a win-win. For Example, Mike’s strategy to reward his co-workers in exchange for hard work showed the worker was not working out of vain and in fact he/she was being acknowledged and rewarded for the hard efforts being put forth. 4. Who do you think was at fault for Mike’s problems, Mike or his supervisors (e. g. , Jack) or others? Completely justify your opinion. The fault of Mike problems was his free spirited style which usually offends conservatives. Jack implemented a â€Å"corporate† style setting upon Mike’s return.