Melisa Horton Page 1

Unit 8

Melisa Horton
MT302 Organizational Behavior
Unit Eight: Communication and Leadership
Leadership and Employee Morale
March 27, 2012

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Unit 8

Leadership is defined as the ability to influence a group toward achievement of a

vision or set of goals. (Robbins and Judge, pg. 376) In the case of Leadership Today, the
international consulting firm based in Singapore; it is stated that their market shares have
been declining and they have been losing clientele to competitors. Their middle level
managers are complaining about lack of control and power on a local level and that they
cannot address immediate concerns with customers without bearacracy and red tape.
Employees are complaining that they are not appreciated and that accomplishments go
unrecognized and unrewarded. This situation has created an atmosphere of low employee
morale and declined market shares.
Leadership Todays owners and upper management are not present on the front
line with customer service representatives and middle level managers. By not allowing
the managers autonomy to handle immediate customer concerns, the managers lose
ground on their ability to be effective leaders. They need to not only be able to handle
customers, but staff as well. A manager with no power is an ineffective manager. How
can you lead if you cannot facilitate change? The managers must feel that they have the
ability to make a difference. Suggestion: Leadership Today needs to evaluate their
organizational chart and structure and look at redistribution of responsibilities. They
need to properly utilize the resources that they are paying for and have their managers
actually manage. Give them the ability to facilitate change in the local offices and
address customer concerns in a timely manner. There should be boundaries for what

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Unit 8

qualifies for actions that do not need upper level management approval. Matters that do
need to be escalated should have a specific time frame for response, this way they stay
current with customer concerns and issues.

Without customer satisfaction, repeat

business and referral business a company will surely fail.

Leadership is a group effort. Management cannot be successful without motivated
and dedicated employees that are focused and happy. Employees must know that they are
a part of the team, that upper management notices their accomplishments and recognizes
both individual and group efforts. Employees, who do not feel valued by the company,
never feel a sense of fulfillment in their positions because they never receive validation
that they are doing a great job. Suggestion: Create an employee incentive program.
Have group activities on a regular basis (monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly) that recognize
accomplishments over the previous period. Maybe Leadership Today could start an
employee of the month program.

They should recognize employees with perfect

attendance, high performance rates, forward thinking that contributes ideas to the
company, individuals who have brought in additional business, etc. If employees feel
that they are appreciated, they are more inclined to achieve goals and surpass them, since
Kouzes and Posner state that, Leaders make others feel great themselves and are
gracious in showing their appreciation. If Leadership Today can successfully raise the
employee morale, they will see better results from their staff which will translate into
increased business and increased market shares.

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Unit 8

References
Robbins, S.P. & Judge, T.A. (2007). Organizational Behavior, 14th ed. Upper. Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. (2010). Leadership Truths Leadership Excellence, August 2010
ed.