Leadership And Change Management Case Study Of Leeds Rhinos

1) What are the major lessons that can be learned from this case study on leadership and change? Discuss the pros and cons of the strategy developed and used by Hetherington at Leeds Rhinos. What do you foresee as the major future challenges for Leeds Rhinos and how would you go about dealing with these?

2) How would you describe Greg Blatt’s leadership style? Discuss.

3) What sort of leadership behaviour do you think is more conducive for innovative companies?

4) What attributes of transformational or transactional leadership does Blatt displayed at IAC?

5) Culture is sometimes seen as something an organisation is, whereas others argue that it is something that an organisation has. How does the Hetherington case relate to these two views?

6) The mnemonic ‘IGOPAST’ refers to how individuals, Groups and Organisational Culture are the variables that affect the Productivity, Absenteeism, Satisfaction and Turnover of staff in an organisation. Can you identify one of each of the seven variables in the Rhinos story?

Lessons Learned and Leadership Behaviors

1. From the case study it has been assessed that leadership and change always goes hand in hand. However, notwithstanding this fact, even at the times of the change in an organisation or anything, the basic building blocks of leadership always stays the same. A leader should always focus his action for making the change as smoothly and as quickly as possible. A leader always has a completely different vision for his organisation or company and it is almost different from that of a manager possess (Jensen, 2017). Managers usually fear change as it upsets and challenge their carefully structured manner of life. On the other hand, the leaders embrace the change as they know it very well that the change would be leading to new opportunities to accomplishment and growth of the organisation. It is the opportunities and the threats that call for change in any organisation and how an organisation change, is completely based on the leadership, the philosophy of the leaders and their knowledge. Furthermore, it is also to note that change is always constant (Kerber & Buono, 2018). A leader has the potential to direct the change for improving the bottom line of the company or they could also change the company for improving the well-being of their collaborators, their customers and the communities. It is to state that leadership is a term that is highly argued as much as any other organisation term. The leaders of change in this age of knowledge work need to be different from the autocratic and the bureaucratic leaders. They are the ones who need followed to collaborate and innovate in the organisation. Moreover, it is also to mention that to gain collaboration, the leaders have to welcome change and they need to change the way people think and the thing that they do in the very organisation.

The pros of the strategy developed by Hetherington at Leeds Rhinos are that collaboration would definitely be resulting in outstanding roles by the team members. He also ensured that the facilities that he was offering is continuously improving the quality of teams and is satisfying the visitors, the teams, the public and the fans who come to experience and enjoy their time at Leeds Rhinos. His strategy is customer focused. But the major cons of his strategy is that while developing this strategy, Hetherington has neglected the wish and the acceptance of his people in Leeds Rhinos. He did not found it important to ask or make a discussion with them before implementing his strategy. Also, being more customer focused could lead to the downfall of the company as it is the employees first who helps any business to flourish and who helps in satisfying the needs of the customers. Furthermore, it is to note that the major challenge for the Leeds Rhinos is that their battle of avoiding the Qualifiers are still to come. In order to cope up with the challenge they need to team up and work collaboratively.

Pros and Cons of Hetherington's Leadership Strategy at Leeds Rhinos

2. Greg Blatt used to believe in talking less and listening more. He was a very good listener. He was on the mission to ensure that the people who were in charge of the IAC have many and diverse business units. It was one of the parts of his strategy in order to keep a 4 billion dollars conglomerate from getting lapped by the competitors of the smaller Silicon Valley. He was the one behind the rise of the revenues by 32% and also, the company got the earning per share of about 172%. The stock price of IAC was tripled since the year 2008. It raised from 15$ to 50$ which was a notable change. With the same, it is also to note that Blatt has exercised the authority with utmost care. Blatt used to ensure that the business leaders of theirs have every resources that they need in order to succeed and also that they are not dragged down by any of the business competitors who used to come with running a firm. He was a leader who was more like an advisor who was always prepared for the process of consultation whenever required. He helped Mr. Diller to spin off the companies that did not fit and he started from Expedia. It is to note that the leadership and the management style of Blatt is clearly informed by the ones who are his mentors.

3. I think developing a vision is more conducive for innovative companies. It is to note that developing vision refers to the behaviour of developing or creating a compelling vision that is also realistic in nature in order to attain an attractive goals. The leaders who possess this skill of vision development has the potential to make it relevant and personal to their circumstances and environment. With the same, I think motivation too plays a very great role in this context. Motivation requires more than just a moving speech. It needs to be inspirational and encouraging. Inspirational motivation refers to the intentional stretching of the thinking of an individual (Amabile & Pratt, 2016). The leader models behaviour which others desire to attain while giving a meaningful and clear goals is very necessary. It is to mention that simply leading the people from a boardroom has the potential to disconnect the very business from its clients and customers (Anderson, Potocnik & Zhou, 2014). Furthermore, I would also like to state that individualisation is very necessary as it provides a space that is required to try and have the permission to make mistakes. No one is perfect in this universe. Men can only learn from making mistakes and the same also goes with the employees working in any organisation. Hence, leaders need to welcome and celebrate mistakes and also at the same time, should guide their followers so that they do not repeat the same in the future.

4. A leader who possess Transformational leadership always seek to create a positive change among the ones who follow him. Blatt too, was such type of leader. He used to keep his ego always in check and in under control. He used to try and guide his followers to enhance their performance level, morale and motivation. He always inspired change within the organisation that used to be driven by a strong purpose. With the same, he is always able to create a culture of innovation and trust within the organisation. Also, Blatt never seek for direction from others and is able to manage himself very well. He in fact, used to guide others. He is highly motivated and use his motivation for directing his organisation towards the right path. He used to shout and do what he actually love to and all his values were aligned with the ones of his organisation which he used to lead. Furthermore, it is also to note that Blatt has the potential to take the right risks always. This ability of taking calculated risks is a significant characteristic of a transformational leader. It is this type of leaders who used to trust their instinct and use their intelligence that are collected by his team members for making an informed decisions. Moreover, it is  also to note that being a leader, Blatt is not always smooth sailing, He often have to make difficult decisions but he never gets shy away from those difficult decisions and make his decisions with a proper and clear focus on his vision, goals, objectives and values of the company. Moreover, he used to share a collective organisational consciousness. He understands and shares those collective consciousness of the whole organisation. It makes him particularly attuned to the feelings of his team members and followers and gives him a clear idea of what actions to take for eliciting the desired actions from the employees. Lastly, he was the most inspiring of all. He have the potential to inspire and motive others in the company to rise to the occasion. His style of inspiration is not only limited to the formal acknowledgement of a job that is well done. In fact, he treat each employee as individual who is valued and also, take time that is required to understand the things that motivates them.

Greg Blatt's Leadership Style

5. In the case of Hetherington, the organisation of his, has a culture and at the time, also is a culture. It is to note that as stated by Bolman and Deal (2017), if any organisation has a culture then it can change its culture but if it is a culture itself, then it becomes difficult to change itself. Culture is not something that is created. Instead, it is something that emerges by means of transference of ideas, norms and values as well as social interaction. The managers in in this case of Hetherington have an impact on the organisation but it is also to mention that these managers have the potential to change the systems of the people of the norms, attitudes and beliefs. As per Huhtala et al. (2015), culture is a homogenous element and that it is centred around and is created by the management department of an organisation. The organisation in this case study is a culture itself as because of the fact that Hetherington was unable to change it with the help of his peers but at the same time, it is also to mention that Blatt when taken the grip of the organisation, then he changed the culture of  organisation in way that was never before.

6. The individuals, groups and organisational culture of the organisation in this case study did influenced the productivity, Absenteeism, Satisfaction and Turnover of staff in the organisation. Individual like Barry Diller is the one who is responsible for the downfall of the organisation and the one who decreased its productivity level. Again, it was individual like Greg blatt who took the power and responsibility to make the organisation stand again, motivating and inspiring the staffs in the organisation with his great leadership style. Hetherington created a group or team that is collaborative in in that team he works closely with the individuals. One of the notable example to mention in this context is that of the coach named, Brian McDermott, with whom Hetherington worked for developing and sustaining the supportive culture. His aim has always been to build a sense of belonging among the players who work for each other in securing victories for the team as a whole. They gradually recognised the importance of self-motivation, self-inspiration and how what motivates one person may not motivate another. With the same, they also realised that the non-critical feedback in providing constructive analyses of performance and of the clear processes on retention, recruitment, replacement, releases are based on the cultural motivations instead of financial incentives. They also gradually noticed that it were these variable that were influencing the level of productivity with the organisation and was resulting in staffabsenteeism. Furthermore,  these variables were also effecting the satisfaction level of these staffs due to which their interest in working for the organisation were going on decreasing with each passing days and for which, there was a  high rate of turnover in the organisation.

References:

Amabile, T. M., & Pratt, M. G. (2016). The dynamic componential model of creativity and innovation in organizations: Making progress, making meaning. Research in Organizational Behavior, 36, 157-183.

Anderson, N., Poto?nik, K., & Zhou, J. (2014). Innovation and creativity in organizations: A state-of-the-science review, prospective commentary, and guiding framework. Journal of management, 40(5), 1297-1333.

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons.

Huhtala, M., Tolvanen, A., Mauno, S., & Feldt, T. (2015). The associations between ethical organizational culture, burnout, and engagement: A multilevel study. Journal of Business and Psychology, 30(2), 399-414.

Jensen, M. C. (2017). Value maximisation, stakeholder theory and the corporate objective function. In Unfolding stakeholder thinking (pp. 65-84).

Kerber, K. W., & Buono, A. F. (2018). The Rhythm of Change Leadership. Organization Development Journal, 36(3), 55.