Questions1. Using the information from the case along with appropriate theories, how would judge theleadership qualities of Jonathon as it relates to motivating his team?a. Ensure to evaluate and apply, the most relatable approach(es) to motivationcovered in unit 3 that Jonathon can deploy to address team problems in order toget the most out of the new team.2. Use the information from the case along with appropriate theories that you have studiedin this course and evaluate the three most important characteristics Jonathon’s teamshould have in order to facilitate team cohesiveness.3. If you were in Jonathon’s position, what you would do to facilitate group development at thisstage.Please provide scholarly references and articles. Teamwork or Division- Farecom, IncThe last thing Jonathon Downie had expected to miss about Montego Bay Jamaica, was itssunrises. Seeing one usually meant he had pulled another all nighter at the consulting firm where,as a vice president, he had managed three teams of manufacturing specialists. But as he stood onthe balcony of his new apartment in the city that was now his home, Jonathon suddenly felt a pangof nostalgia for the way the dawn plays off the hotels of Montego Bay. In the next moment, though,he let out a sardonic laugh. The dawn light was not what he missed about Montego Bay, herealized. What he missed was the feeling of accomplishment that usually accompanied thosesunrises. An all-nighter in Montego Bay had meant hours of intense work with a cadre ofcommitted, enthusiastic colleagues.Give and take. Humor. Progress. Here, so far anyway, that was unthinkable. As the director ofstrategy at Farecom, a regional fibre glass manufacturer, Jonathon spent all his time trying to gethis new team to make it through a meeting without the tension level becoming unbearable. Six ofthe top-level managers involved seemed determined to turn the company around, but the seventhseemed equally determined to sabotage the process. Forget camaraderie. There had been threemeetings so far, and Jonathon hadn't even been able to get everyone on the same side of an issue.Jonathon stepped inside his apartment and checked the clock: (only three more hours before hehad to watch as Phillip Louderback, Farecom's charismatic director of sales and marketing, eitherdominated the group's discussion or withdrew entirely, tapping his pen on the table to indicate hisboredom. Sometimes he withheld information vital to the group's debate; other times he coollydenigrated people's comments. Still, Jonathon realized Phillip held the group in such thrall becauseof his dynamic personality, his almost legendary past, and his close relationship with Farecom'sCEO that he could not be ignored. And at least once during each meeting, he offered an insightabout the industry or the company that was so perceptive that Jonathon knew he shouldn't beignored. As he prepared to leave for the office, Jonathon felt the familiar frustration that had startedbuilding during the team's first meeting a month earlier. It was then that Phillip had first insinuated,with what sounded like a joke, that he wasn't cut out to be a team player. "Leaders lead,followers...please pipe down! " had been his exact words, although he had smiled winningly as heand the rest of the group had laughed he in response. I one in the group laughingnow, though, least of all Jonathon.Farecom, Inc., was in trouble-not deep trouble, but enough for its CEO, Tom King, to makestrategic repositioning Jonathon's top and only task. The company, a family-owned maker of partsfor speedboats, waterslides, cars and other fibre glass novelties had succeeded for nearly 70 yearsas a high-quality, high price producer, catering to hundreds of Caribbean and International clients.Year after year, Farecom showed respectable increases at the top and bottom lines, posting $86million in revenues and $3 million in earnings three years before Jonathon arrived.In the last 15 months, though, sales and earnings had flattened. Tom, a grandnephew of thecompany's founder, thought he knew what was happening. Until recently, large national fibreglasscompanies had been able to make money only through mass production. Now, however, thanks tonew technologies in the fibre glassmaking industry, those companies could execute short runsprofitably. They had begun to enter Farecom's niche, Tom had told Jonathon, and, with theirsuperior resources, it was just a matter of time before they would own it. "You have oneresponsibility as Farecom's new director of strategy," Tom had said to Jonathon on his first day."That's to put together a team of our top people, one person from each division, and have acomprehensive plan for the company's strategic realignment up, running, and winning within sixmonths."Jonathon had immediately compiled a list of the senior managers from human resources,manufacturing, finance, distribution, design, and marketing, and had set a date for the first meeting.Then, drawing on his years as a consultant who had worked almost solely in team environments.Jonathon had carefully prepared a structure and guidelines for the group's discussions,disagreements, and decisions, which he planned to propose to the members for their input beforethey began working together. Successful groups are part art, part science, Jonathon knew, but healso believed that with every member's full commitment, a team proved the adage that the wholeis greater than the sum of its parts. Knowing that managers at Farecom were unaccustomed to theteam process, however, Jonathon imagined he might get some resistance from one or twomembers. For one, he had been worried about Chris Holden of manufacturing. Chris was a giantof a man who had run the furnaces for some 35 years, following in his father's footsteps. Althoughhe was a former high school football star who was known among workers in the factory for hishearty laugh and his love of practical jokes, Chris usually didn't say much around Farecom'sexecutives, citing his lack of higher education as the reason. Jonathon had thought the teamatmosphere might intimidate him. Jonathon had also anticipated a bit of a fight from Karen Jacksonof the design division, who was known to complain that Farecom didn't appreciate its six artists.Jonathon had expected that Karen might have a chip on her shoulder about collaborating withpeople who didn't understand the design process. Ironically, both those fears had provedgroundless, but another, more difficult problem had arisen. The wild card had turned out to bePhillip. Jonathon had met Phillip once before the team started its work and had found him to beenormously intelligent, energetic, and good-humored. What's more, Tom King had confirmed hisimpressions, telling him that Phillip "had the best mind" at Farecom. It was also from Tom thatJonathon had first learned of Phillip's difficult childhood yet inspirational personal history. Pooras a child, he had worked as a security guard and short-order cook to put himself through the statecollege, from which he graduated with top honors. Soon after, he started his own advertising andmarket research firm in Kingston, and within the decade, he had built it into a company employing50 people to service some of the Caribbean region's most prestigious accounts. His success broughtwith it a measure fame: articles in the local media, invitations to the statehouse, even anhonorary degree from The University of the West Indies. But in the late 1980s, Phillip's firmsuffered the same fate as many other advertising shops, and he was forced to declare bankruptcy.Farecom considered it a coup when it landed him as director of marketing, since he had let it beknown that he was offered at least two dozen other jobs."Phillip is the future of this company," Tom King had told Jonathon. "If he can't help you, no onecan. I look forward to hearing what a team with his kind of horsepower can come up with to steerus away from the mess we're in." Those words echoed in Jonathon's mind as he sat, withincreasing anxiety, through the team's first and second meetings. Though Jonathon had plannedan agenda for each meeting and tried to keep the discussions on track, Phillip always seemed tofind a way to disrupt the process. Time and time again, he shot down other people's ideas, or hesimply didn't pay attention. He also answered most questions put to him with maddeningvagueness. "I'll have my assistant look into it when he gets a moment," Phillip replied when oneteam member asked him to list Farecom's five largest customers. "Some days you eat the bear, andother days the bear eats you," he joked another time, when asked why sales to fraternities hadrecently nose-dived. Phillip's negativism, however, was countered by occasional comments soinsightful that they stopped the conversation cold or turned it around entirely - comments thatdemonstrated extraordinary knowledge about competitors or fibre glass technology or customers'buying patterns. The help wouldn't last, though; Phillip would quickly revert to his role as teamrenegade. The third meeting, last week, had ended in chaos.Chris Holden, Karen Jackson, and the distribution director, Carl Simmons, had each planned topresent cost cutting proposals, and at first it looked as though the group was making good progress.Chris opened the meeting, proposing a plan for Farecom to cut throughput time by 3% and raw-materials costs by 2%, thereby positioning the company to compete better on price. It was obviousfrom his detailed presentation that he had put a lot of thought into his comments, and it was evidentthat he was fighting a certain amount of nervousness as he made them. "I know I don't have thebook smarts of most of you in this room," he had begun, "but here goes anyway." During hispresentation, Chris stopped several times to answer questions from the team, and as he went on,his nervousness transformed into his usual enthusiasm. "That wasn't so bad!" he laughed to himselfas he sat down at the end, flashing a grin at Jonathon. "Maybe we can turn this old ship around."Karen Jackson had followed Chris. While not disagreeing with him - she praised his comments, infact - she argued that Farecom also needed to invest in new artists, pitching its competitiveadvantage in better design and wider variety. Unlike Chris, Karen had made this case to Farecom'stop executives many times, only to be rebuffed, and some of her frustration seeped through as sheexplained her reasoning yet again. At one point, her voice almost broke as she described how hardshe had worked in her first ten years at Farecom, hoping that someone in management wouldrecognize the creativity of her designs. "But no one did," she recalled with a sad shake of her head."That's why when I was made director of the department, I made sure all the artists were respectedfor what they are - artists, not worker ants. There's a difference, you know." However, just as withChris Holden, Karen's comments lost their defensiveness as the group members, with the exceptionof Phillip, who remained impassive, greeted her words with nods of encouragement. By the timeCarl Simmons of distribution started to speak, the mood in the room was approaching buoyant.Carl, a quiet and meticulous man, jumped from his seat and practically paced the room as hedescribed his ideas. Farecom, he said, should play to its strength as a service-oriented companyand restructure its trucking system to increase the speed of delivery. He described how a similarstrategy had been adopted with excellent results at his last job at a ceramics plant. Carl had joinedFarecom just six months earlier.It was when Carl began to describe those results in detail that Phillip brought the meeting to anunpleasant halt by letting out a loud groan. "Let's just do everything, why don't we, includingredesign the kitchen sink!" be cried with mock enthusiasm. That remark sent Carl back quickly tohis seat, where he half-heartedly summed up his comments. A few minutes later, he excusedhimself, saying he had another meeting. Soon the others made excuses to leave, too, and the roombecame empty. No wonder Jonathon was apprehensive about the fourth meeting. He was thereforesurprised when he entered the room and found the whole group, save Phillip, already assembled.Ten minutes passed in awkward small talk, and, looking from face to face, Jonathon could see hisown frustration reflected. He also detected an edge of panic just what he had hoped to avoid. Hedecided he had to raise the topic of Phillip's attitude openly, but just as he started, Phillip ambledinto the room, smiling. "Sorry, folks," he said lightly, holding up a cup of coffee as if it wereexplanation enough for his tardiness. "Phillip, I'm glad you're here," Jonathon began, "because Ithink today we should begin by talking about the group itself" Phillip cut Jonathon off with asmall, sarcastic laugh. "Uh-oh, I knew this was going to happen," he said. Before Jonathon couldanswer, Chris Holden stood up and walked over to Phillip, bending over to look him in the eye."You just don't care, do you?" he began, his voice so angry it startled everyone in the room.Everyone except Phillip. "Quite the contrary-I care very much," he answered breezily. "I justdon't believe this is how change should be made. A brilliant idea never came out of a team.Brilliant ideas come from brilliant individuals, who then inspire others in the organization toimplement them." "That's a lot of bull," Chris shot back. "You just want all the credit for thesuccess, and you don't want to share it with anyone." "That's absurd," Phillip laughed again. "I'mnot trying to impress anyone here at Farecom t. I don't need to. I want this company to succeed asmuch as you do, but I believe, and I believe passionately, that teams are useless. Consensus meansmediocrity. I'm sorry, but it does." "But you haven't even tried to reach consensus with us," Kareninterjected. 'It's as if you don't care what we all have to say. We can't work alone for a solution -we need to understand each other. Don't you see that?" The room was silent as Phillip shruggedhis shoulders noncommittally. He stared at the table, a blank expression on his face.It waswho b the silence. "Phillip, this is a team. You are part of it," he said, tryingto catch Phillip's eye without success. "Perhaps we should start again "Phillip stopped him byholding up his cup, as if making a toast. "Okay, look, I'll behave from now on," he said. The wordsheld promise, but he was smirking as he spoke them something no one at the table missed.Jonathon took a deep breath before he answered; as much as he wanted and needed Phillip's help,he was suddenly struck by the thought that perhaps Phillip's personality and his past experiencessimply made it impossible for him to participate in the delicate process of ego surrender that anykind of teamwork requires. "Listen, everyone, I know this is a challenge," Jonathon began, but hewas cut short by Phillip's pencil tapping on the table. A moment later, Chris Holden was standingagain. "Forget it. This is never going to work. It's just a waste of time for all of us," he said, moreresigned than gruff. "We're all in this together, or there's no point." He headed for the door, andbefore Jonathon could stop him, two others were at his heels.

Effective leadership and team dynamics are crucial factors in achieving success and productivity…

Answered: Questions 1. Using the information from…

Understanding Business

12th Edition

ISBN:9781259929434

Author:William Nickels

Publisher:William Nickels

Chapter1: Taking Risks And Making Profits Within The Dynamic Business Environment

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 1CE

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