Leadership, Cultural, And Performance Change At Meatpack - Essay.

The Importance of Organizational Culture and Leadership Tactics

Discuss about the Leadership, Cultural, and Performance Change at Meatpack.

Organisational culture is considered as the set of rules, which determine the behaviour of the associated members in an organisation. Benn, Dunphy and Griffiths (2014) opined that it is necessary to identify the suitable gestures, interpersonal relationships, and the leadership tactics for strengthened reputation. The maintenance of the preferable behaviour predicts the future implications and fosters the follower to change. Each of the organisations keeps the major focus on maximising productivity by improving the business functionalities (Alvesson and Sveningsson 2015). The changes in the leadership, cultures, and performance functionalities can bring the required progress to the organisational productivity.

Organisational culture is one of the most necessary attributes that can lead a company towards success. The identification of the set of beliefs, value, and standards is necessary to define the proper organisational culture. There is the keen linking between the leadership and organisational culture. The efficient leadership determines the establishment of the proper organisational culture. Ulrich, Zenger and Smallwood (2013) explained that when the organisations set the minds of enhancing productivity and strengthening reputation, it is necessary to bring the changes in the internal functionalities. Therefore, the changes in the leadership, culture, and performance management are somewhat necessary for the future progress.

The study will be evaluating the cultural, performance, and leadership changes brought to Meatpack, which is a family owned business. The case study of Meatpack initiates the idea that in order to achieve the pre-determined objectives of the organisational progress, it is necessary to bring several changes. Accordingly, it is necessary to identify the existing business process and the required changes that can facilitate the organisational progress. The necessity of leadership changes will also be discussed in this study. Moreover, there will be the clear recognition of the barriers to the cultural changes in this case scenario. Depending on such identifications, the entire study will be structured properly.

The case scenario is reflecting the business process of MeatPack, which is a family owned meat business. The business is located in Sydney and driven by Derek Bison, the CEO of the Company. The company has been operating in the Sydney Market since last 27 years and has been selling the meat products, prepared meals, and fresh soups. Focusing on the customers’ needs and demands, the company has been planning to expand the business in Queensland and New South Wales as well. In fact, it is important to mention that depending on the exclusive food products, the company is even thinking of expanding the business all over Australia and abroad. It is reported that during 2013, the company earned the revenue of around AUD$300 million. In the year of 2002, one of the generations of the family decided to achieve around $1 billion by the year of 2020. In order to achieve such target, the company has focused on changing two major aspects, such as the leadership attributes and the cultural changes.

Findings of the Meatpack Case Study

Derek Bison, the CEO of the company defined himself as a leader who is visionary, obsessive, interfering, never satisfied, driven, restless, and competitive. However, he received the sense of feeling that the company requires a developed leadership structure, which can lead the company in a better way. Hence, there is a keen interested developed for changing the leadership behaviour within the company. In order to fulfil such aspect, Bison started working with the executive coaching team to improvise the strategic leadership dealings (Harnish 2002). However, it was found that over past few years, the CEO himself stopped attending the coaching classes whereas senior strategy team kept themselves involved.

The involvement of the business colleagues and friends influenced Mr. Bison in a significant way that led him towards introducing Human Synergistic Circumplex. The evaluation of this concept signifies the outline of the different behavioural aspects into three different colours. The first colour is red, which specifies the sign of defensive or aggressiveness. The next colour is green, which stands for the passive or defensive traits Quinn et al. 2014). The final colour is blue, which determines the constructive and influential traits. As per the case scenario, it is notified that Meatpack has been following the red culture whereas there is the keen requirement of switching to blue culture. In addition to this, it is also necessary to change the organisational structure from hierarchal to horizontal (Hrebiniak 2013).  It is also noted that the front line workers have the greater responsibilities to perform due to which the horizontal structure is necessary. However, in order to bring the developmental leadership attributes, it is essential to reset the human resource management. Mr. Bison feels that the effective human resource management would ensure the establishment of the efficient leadership programme (Ellis 2014). Even though he identifies the positive outcomes with such initiatives, he himself started struggling with such transition process. He generated the sense of feeling that the decisions are not being made in a relevant way. Hence, the mental dilemma has been working much significantly.

It is noted that the association of the senior leaders is made up with the involvement of CFO, CEO, sales-head, people-head, COO, and head of business development department. The group discussion is initiating the idea of establishing the two way communication process. Mr. Bison seek for the communication transparency among the members that will provide the in-depth idea about the business functionalities. He thinks that the senior leadership team should be divided into several classifications. He implied that there will be the separate leadership team consists of the strategy team members. However, the conflicting situations are also foreseen due to the individualism of the CEO.  The leadership procedures undertaken by Bison are opposed by the other strategy team members. The conflict arises when they need to report to Bison directly. The mismatch between their personalities creates the uncertain scenario, which is quite harmful for the internal environment of the company (Burke 2013). When the new CEO of meat arrived, the necessity of adopting the new structural scenario became much essential. The CFO of the company is seen to be much concerned about the benefits of the company. It has been observed that the decentralised functions of Meatpack would be beneficial for the finance and IT departments.

Cultural and Structural Changes Required for Meatpack's Progress

Another subjected change is found in the business functionalities. The company has undertaken the ERP initiative, which is signified as the Enterprise Resource Planning. This planning process seeks integrating several divisions like investments, finance, production, and management (Wherry 2014.). The major motif of structuring such plan is to hit the line and exceed the fixed targets. It is even encouraging the managers for improvising the communication process. It was noticed previously that the leaders used to be much aggressive and dominating while communicating with the other staffs. The executive training process created the strong influence on Bison and led him towards acquiring new organisational structure (Genetzky-Haugen 2010). This new structure indicates the greater accountability and responsibility maintained by the associated managers and the other staffs. The strengthened supervisory process is thus taken into account to manage the entire organisational functionalities.

It is found that the staff loyalty is much prominent and the turnover rate is low. However, the repetitive workflows can bring the problems with the employee retention process. In an interview, it was notified that the factory floor is quite noisy and cold. It is not possible for every member to work in such an environment, which is not comfortable for the people (Albrecht 2012). It is even noticed that the staffs are appointed for the production line works, which are much frequent and physically demanding. The diversified cultural background is also one of the major concerns while working with the other staffs in the same factory. The cross cultural clashes are found much prominently. The terms of loyalty is found if the work tenure is analysed. However, the repeated changes of attitudes and work pressure, the situations have become much challenging (Stayer 2009). The trustworthiness and the potentiality of the business are much commendable. It mainly focuses on the best intentions of the company that can strengthen the reputation for the future purposes.

Another most problematic scenario is found in the recruitment process. It is seen that the recruitment policy maintained by this company is mostly via ‘word of mouth’. Therefore, most of the employees are coming from the same family. In such cases, it is observed that the competitors have been criticizing the company to be much disorganised. On the other hand, it is noted that Mr. Bison invested much amount for the training purposes of the staffs. The major vision was to improvise the work efficiency and work ethics of the associated employees in the company (Hechanova and Cementina-Olpoc 2013). However, there are still some improvisation required for both the ordinary staffs and the senior development teams. In considering such requirements, the development courses are offered on behalf of the authority.

Another remarkable approach ensured by the company is the frequent delivery of the performance feedbacks. Bison is much aware of the organisational policies and accordingly tried to manage the structure. The CEO tried to develop the skills by providing the sequential life cycle to the leaders. The efficient leadership attributes of the leaders is thus necessarily being concentrated. However, the shift timing set for the organisational functionalities is not preferable for all the staffs associated with the company (By and Burnes 2013). In considering the necessity of changes, the further analysis part will be discussed in this study.

The case scenario has been reflecting the internal functionalities that are to be maintained by the associates of the company. The business competencies have been increasing since the technologies in this globalised world are increasing much significantly (Beck and Cowan 2014). Accordingly, each of the business company requires improvising the procedures to strengthen the position in a competitive scenario. Meatpack is also concentrating on bringing changes in the leadership and the cultural aspects in order to consider the future progress. If concentrated on such changing atmosphere, several issues and risks are also found in the internal scenario of the management. The company initially set their aim to reach to a certain amount of revenue by the year of 2020. However, it was recognised that the leadership structure as well as the organisational structure are not so much efficient that the company can strengthen their competitive position (Spangenberg and Theron 2013). Therefore, the analysis of the findings is essential to recognise the exact issue.

At the initial stage, it was noticed that the company used to maintain the autocratic leadership style. It was reflected through the communicating behaviour of the leaders with the staffs. The leaders were much dominating and aggressive towards the staffs, which was not quite motivating for enhancing the performance parameter (Adger et al. 2013). Mr. Bison, the CEO of the company recognised the requirement of changing the leadership style, which will be gathering the staffs together. The proper behaviour and the leadership attributes can bring changes to the organisational functionalities. Recognising such aspects, the CEO started investing the capital in the training and development process of the senior associates. However, the conflict arose when there were the clashes found between the personalities between the CEO and the senior members. The senior managers were to report all the necessary decisions to the CEO and the mismatches between their perspective values created the conflictive situations. Therefore, it became important to improvise the leadership process and structure the organisational scenario (Alvesson and Sveningsson 2015).   

The major aim of the company was to reach to the pre-determined target, which signified the increasing rate of the revenue collection. In order to fulfil such aspects, the CEO of the company tried to bring changes to the divisional process. The group of the leaders were classified into several divisions. While dividing the group of the leaders, the set of responsibilities was also clarified. Hence, while different groups will be maintaining the diversified responsibilities, it will be beneficial in structuring the organisational performance (Fernández 2013). In such cases, the different departments will be dealing with the sequential performance management process. The leaders must acquire the transparent communicative attributes to make the process much clear to the associated employees. Hence, Mr. Bison has been looking forward to establish the one-and-one communication process. It helps him in deriving knowledge regarding the business development and requirements (Hjarvard and Petersen 2013). The CEO thinks that arrangements of the meeting will be helpful enough in receiving feedbacks from the associated employees.

Concentrating on the employee loyalty, it is seen that the employees are loyal enough towards the company, but the repetitive work pressure is affecting the employees’ morale. The repeated change in the management functionalities is quite affecting the employees. The works associated with factory process is quite physically demanding and difficult. When the employees are engaged with such activities, it strains their mental and physical conditions. The improper shift timing is somewhat responsible for such condition (Naas et al. 2013). The company is thus facing difficulties to retain the employees and lowering the turnover rate.

There is another most significant problem found in the recruitment process. It is observed that the company used to recruit people though spreading the word of mouth. The family members of the existing workers joined the company and spreading the word of mouth to their relatives and friends. There is not structured procedure of recruiting people. In such cases, the efficient human resource management is necessary. Moreover, the set of responsibilities maintained by the human resource management will be improvising the entire organisational management practices. It is one of the most significant areas that are needed to be taken into account.

The Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is also needed to be improved. While structuring the business functionalities, it is required to keep the focus on the resource allocation process. It was found that Mr. Bison invested much amount on the training and development purposes. Both the tangible and intangible resources are needed to be allocated properly. The office premise is one of the major factors for motivating the associated workers. If the workers are not satisfied with the ambience of the factory, it would be difficult for them to deal with the unhygienic environment. Moreover, it is also necessary to keep the focus on the structured resource planning, which will be providing the comfortable atmosphere to the workers.

Another most significant organisational change is focusing on the shift timing of the workers. The first shift timing is from 5:30 am to 2:30 pm whereas the second shift timing is from 2:30 pm to midnight. Therefore, it has been seen that the shift timing is much longer in compare to the break time available for the workers. It becomes quite difficult if the shift time stretched for long. The lack of flexible working schedule and repeated changes in the functionalities are quite troublesome for the associated staffs. Hence, it is necessary to keep the focus on such aspects in order to retain the employees. Concentrating on such required changes, the preferable recommendations are needed to be presented.

Conclusion

The study is highlighting the case scenario of Meatpack, which is a family owned food processing business in Sydney Market. Being the CEO of the company, Derek Bison found that there are several changes required in the management functionalities in order to achieve the pre-determined goals. More specifically, it is noted that each of the companies seeks enhancements of the productivity to strengthen the organisational reputation. Similarly, some of the changes within the organisational scenario can facilitate such target set by the owner of the company. The findings derived from the case study are ensuring that the company faced several situational crises due to the ineffective leadership system and cultural diversity. Concentrating on such difficulties, the further section of the study will be providing the suitable recommendation for the future growth of the company.

The above findings and analysis have been describing the existing management functionalities and suggesting the required changes for the business progress. Keeping concentration on such necessary requirements, the further suggestions can be recommended.

If concentrated on the leadership style followed previously by the managers and leaders, it can be seen that leaders were much dominant and aggressive towards the associated staffs. The authoritarian leadership style was quite prominent in this case. However, it is necessary for the leaders to maintain flexibility while communicating with the workers or allocating works. The aggressiveness may lead towards the dissatisfaction of the works, which is harmful for the company. In such cases, if the leaders can adopt the transformation leadership style, it will be beneficial to motivate the existing employees. The transformational leadership style is helpful enough in developing the professional and personal attributes of the employees. In this leadership style, the leaders motivate the employees to share their ideas and visions that are beneficial for the organisational growth. The employees work together and maintain their responsibilities to meet the pre-determined goals. It is even helpful enough in identifying the required changes and creating the vision accordingly. The employees receive the opportunity to grow their careers as well. Therefore, it is one of the most fruitful leadership styles that can be adopted for achieving organisational excellence.

It is important to note that the human resource management plays the vital role in managing the organisational performance. Hence, it is necessary to improve the activities of human resource management. In case of undertaking the change performance management system, the human resource department will be involved to structure the functionalities. Moreover, the efficient human resource management will be ensuring the employee retention process. The human resource department arranges the beneficial training process which will be provided to the employees. It works as the motivational factor, which is necessary to retain the employees. Moreover, it is noted that the company deals with the diversified cultured employees. The human resource management requires dealing with such diversified cultural traits. The human resource management need to maintain the unity between the people from diverse cultures. On the other hand, it is even important for the human resource management to collect the feedback from the employees and present those to the upper management. In addition to this, the efficient human resource management is needed to recruit the people from different sources. Therefore, it can be recommended that the company requires paying attention towards the effective human resource management for the progressive purposes.

The above recommendation is determining the improvised business functionalities. However, in order to undertake such changes, it is necessary to improve the resource planning process. It is noted that adopting the transformational leadership style is beneficial to engage the employees within the management functionalities. This leadership style would develop the personal and professional skills of the employees and would provide the opportunity to share the vision and ideas. Moreover, the improvement of the human resource management is necessary for the organisation. The set of responsibilities maintained by the human resource management will improve the internal organisation functionalities. The human resource management will be involved to motivate the employees by arranging the efficient training process, receiving the concerns of the employees, and managing the cultural diversity. The improvement on such factors will be beneficial for the future progress of the company. The proper planning procedure of the resources will thus be required for implementing such strategies. The company requires concentrating on the capital resources that are necessary for arranging the training purposes. The recognition of such implication will be effective enough to accomplish the business goals.

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