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 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 apang of 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,he realized. 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, thatwas unthinkable. As the director of strategy at Farecom, a regional fibre glass manufacturer,Jonathon spent all his time trying to get his new team to make it through a meeting without thetension level becoming unbearable. Six of the top-level managers involved seemed determined toturn the company around, but the seventh seemed equally determined to sabotage the process.Forget camaraderie. There had been three meetings so far, and Jonathon hadn't even been able toget everyone on the same side of an issue. Jonathon stepped inside his apartment and checked theclock: (only three more hours before he had to watch as Phillip Louderbaek. Farecom'scharismatic director of sales and marketing, either dominated the group's discussion or withdrewentirely, tapping his pen on the table to indicate his boredom. Sometimes he withheldinformation vital to the group's debate; other times he coolly denigrated people's comments. Still,Jonathon realized Phillip held the group in such thrall because of his dynamic personality, hisalmost legendary past, and his close relationship with Facecom's CEO that he could not beignored. And at least once during each meeting, he offered an insight about the industry or thecompany that was so perceptive that Jonathon knew he shouldn't be ignored. As he prepared toleave for the office, Jonathon felt the familiar frustration that had started building during theteam's first meeting a month earlier. It was then that Phillip had first insinuated, with whatsounded like a joke, that he wasn't cut out to be a team player. "Leaders lead, followers....pleasepipe down! " had been his exact words, although he had smiled winningly as he spoke, and therest of the group had laughed heartily in response. No one in the group was laughing now,though, least of all Jonathon. Eatecom, Inc., was in trouble-not deep trouble, but enough for itsCEO, Tom King, to make strategic repositioning Jonathon's top and only task. The company, afamily-owned maker of parts for speedboats, waterslides, cars and other fibre glass novelties hadsucceeded for nearly 70 years as a high-quality, high price producer, catering to hundreds ofCaribbean and International clients. Year after year, Eatecom showed respectable increases at thetop and bottom lines, posting $86 million in revenues and $3 million in earnings three yearsbefore Jonathon arrived. In the last 15 months, though, sales and earnings had flattened. Tom, agrandnephew of the company's founder, thought he knew what was happening. Until recently,large national fibreglass companies had been able to make money only through mass production.Now, however, thanks to new technologies in the fibre glassmaking industry, those companiescould execute short runs profitably. They had begun to enter Eatecom's niche, Tom had toldJonathon, and, with their superior resources, it was just a matter of time before they would ownit. "You have one responsibility as Eatecom's new director of strategy." Tom had said toJonathon on his first day. "That's to put together a team of our top people, one person from eachdivision, and have a comprehensive plan for the company's strategic realignment up, running,and winning within six months." Jonathon had immediately compiled a list of the seniormanagers 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 Fatecom 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.Although he was a former high school football star who was known among workers in thefactory for his hearty laugh and his love of practical jokes, Chris usually didn't say much aroundEatecom's executives, citing his lack of higher education as the reason. Jonathon had thought theteam atmosphere might intimidate him. Jonathon had also anticipated a bit of a fight from KarenJackson of the design division, who was known to complain that Fatecom didn't appreciate itssix artists. Jonathon had expected that Karen might have a chip on her shoulder aboutcollaborating with people who didn't understand the design process. Ironically, both those fearshad proved groundless, but another, more difficult problem had arisen. The wild card had turnedout to be Phillip. Jonathon had met Phillip once before the team started its work and had foundhim to be enormously intelligent, energetic, and good-humored. What's more, Tom King hadconfirmed his impressions, telling him that Phillip "had the best mind" at Eatecom. It was alsofrom Tom that Jonathon had first learned of Phillip's difficult childhood yet inspirational personalhistory. Poor as a child, he had worked as a security guard and short-order cook to put himselfthrough the state college, from which he graduated with top honors. Soon after, he started hisown advertising and market research firm in Kingston, and within the decade, he had built it intoa company employing 50 people to service some of the Caribbean region's most prestigiousaccounts. His success brought with it a measure of fame: articles in the local media, invitations tothe statehouse, even an honorary degree from The University of the West Indies. But in the late1980s, Phillip's firm suffered the same fate as many other advertising shops, and he was forced todeclare bankruptcy. Earecom considered it a coup when it landed him as director of marketing.since he had let it be known that he was offered at least two dozen other jobs. "Phillip is thefuture of this company." Tom King had told Jonathon. "If he can't help you, no one can. I lookforward to hearing what a team with his kind of horsepower can come up with to steer us awayfrom the mess we're in." Those words echoed in Jonathon's mind as he sat, with increasinganxiety, through the team's first and second meetings. Though Jonathon had planned an agendafor each meeting and tried to keep the discussions on track, Phillip always seemed to find a wayto disrupt the process. Time and time again, he shot down other people's ideas, or he simplydidn't pay attention. He also answered most questions put to him with maddening vagueness."I'll have my assistant look into it when he gets a moment," Phillip replied when one teammember asked him to list Eatecom's five largest customers. "Some days you eat the bear, and other days the bear eats you," he joked another time, when asked why sales to fraternitiesrecently 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: teamrenegade. The third meeting, last week, had ended in chaos. Chris Holden, Karen Jackson, andthe distribution director, Carl Simmons, had each planned to present cost cutting proposals, andat 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 obvious from his detailedpresentation that he had put a lot of thought into his comments, and it was evident that he wasfighting a certain amount of nervousness as he made them. "I know I don't have the book smartsof most of you in this room," he had begun, "but here goes anyway." During his presentation,Chris stopped several times to answer questions from the team, and as he went on, hisnervousness 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,in fact-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 toFarecom's top executives many times, only to be rebuffed, and some of her frustration seepedthrough as she explained her reasoning yet again. At one point, her voice almost broke as shedescribed how hard she had worked her first ten years at Farecom. hoping that someone inmanagement would recognize the creativity of her designs. "But no one did," she recalled with asad shake of her head. "That's why when I was made director of the department, I made sure allthe artists were respected for what they are - artists, not worker ants. There's a difference,know." However, just as with Chris Holden, Karen's comments lost their defensiveness as thegroup members, with the exception of Phillip, who remained impassive, greeted her words withnods of encouragement. By the time Carl Simmons of distribution started to speak, the mood inthe room was approaching buoyant. Carl, a quiet and meticulous man, jumped from his seat andpractically paced the room as he described his ideas. Farecom. he said, should play to its strengthas a service-oriented company and restructure its trucking system to increase the speed ofdelivery. He described how a similar strategy had been adopted with excellent results at his lastjob at a ceramics plant. Carl had joined Farecom just six months earlier. It was when Carl beganto describe those results in detail that Phillip brought the meeting to an unpleasant halt by lettingout a loud groan. "Let's just do everything, why don't we, including redesign the kitchen sink!"be cried with mock enthusiasm. That remark sent Carl back quickly to his seat, where he half-heartedly summed up his comments. A few minutes later, he excused himself, saying he hadanother meeting. Soon the others made excuses to leave, too, and the room became empty. Nowonder Jonathon was apprehensive about the fourth meeting. He was therefore surprised whenhe entered the room and found the whole group, save Phillip, already assembled. Ten minutespassed in awkward small talk, and, looking from face to face, Jonathon could see his ownfrustration 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, 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 succeedas much as you do, but I believe, and I believe passionately, that teams are useless. Consensusmeans mediocrity. I'm sorry, but it does." "But you haven't even tried to reach consensus withus," Karen interjected. 'It's as if you don't care what we all have to say. We can't work alone for asolution - we need to understand each other. Don't you see that?" The room was silent as Phillipshrugged his shoulders noncommittally. He stared at the table, a blank expression on his face. Itwas Jonathon who broke the silence. "Phillip, this is a team. You are part of it," he said, trying tocatch 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. Thewords held promise, but he was smirking as he spoke them something no one at the tablemissed. Jonathon took a deep breath before he answered; as much as he wanted and neededPhillip's help, he was suddenly struck by the thought that perhaps Phillip's personality and hispast experiences simply made it impossible for him to participate in the delicate process of egosurrender that any kind of teamwork requires. "Listen, everyone, I know this is a challenge,"Jonathon began, but he was cut short by Phillip's pencil tapping on the table. A moment later,Chris Holden was standing again. "Forget it. This is never going to work. It's just a waste of timefor all of us," he said, more resigned than gruff. "We're all in this together, or there's no point."He headed for the door, and before Jonathon could stop him, two others were at his heels.

To succeed as an organization in today's dynamic and cutthroat business environment, good leadership…

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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