MANAGEMENT STYLES!!!

October 1st 2019 08:30 AM

Good Morning Mr. and Mrs. Montague,

Thank you for allowing me to provide recommendations and observations as we continue to

recover our current and future management preferences, to better serve our clients and Sunnyvale

Insurance. I believe you will find clarity of the concerns presented, while also permitting this to be a

learning experience company wide – of opportunity to rise and improve professionally and personally,

from this provisional hindrance.

Currently, the office has lost morale, resulting in a tension filled work environment. The

employees don’t seem to be as happy as they once were, and I have noticed an increase in employee

turnover. If employees are continuing to leave and the morale cannot be lifted, Sunnyvale will struggle in

reaching their future initiatives. In order to address the workplace environment and employee turnover,

we must determine the cause of the company’s drastic satisfaction decline over the last six months. Our

clients, your employees and your company’s success rely on the Sunnyvale Insurance leadership.

Regrettably, it has become apparent that leadership is no longer present, and Sunnyvale’s vision has

been omitted.

As the technology industry grows our clients want to have access to our services online. The plan

in place to better serve our clients by incorporating and developing an online insurance sales’ and

consulting team. In addition, we are planning to expand Sunnyvale Insurance internationally. Developing

an online platform will satisfy our current clients while it also allows for exposure to new clients and

future sales.

Management traits can vary from each manager as they are usually formed from our

personalities; however, there are specific traits that are valued in diverse teams like Sunnyvale’s. Some

traits are more important to have while experiencing a shift in the workplace. Traits that are significant

and would address the employee turnover and low morale are: integrity, intelligence, open to

experience, conscientious and extraversion. Those who are honest and are guided by their morals to

make good choices; are leaders who have integrity. If a leader lacks good integrity, the entire company

can be affected and criticized. The employee turnover should have been an indication for any manager

to step back and investigate the reasons why; however, leaders who lack integrity can be passive or naïve

to what should concern them or their behavior and often doesn’t deal with conflict or see themselves or

the success they’ve created as the problem. Leaders with intelligence have higher mental abilities and

can easily perform their duties; but, leaders also need to have a higher emotional intelligence in order to

control their own emotions but also understand others’ emotions, motivations and social skills as this is

a big part of being effective. If employees knew their manager cared about their emotions and

motivations; turnover would decline, and employees would feel they were truly cared about. Leaders

who are open to experience demonstrate that they are open to trying new things, are original and

typically, tend to be creative. Employees would respond better to managers who allowed their thoughts

and ideas to be considered instead of making changes from their own perspective. Extraversion

demonstrates that leaders can be sociable, assertive and energetic. This plays one of the strongest roles

in being an effective leader. If employees see their managers putting forth this energy while also being

able to enjoy their duties, employees would feel more comfortable in speaking to them and wanting to

demonstrate those same qualities. Leaders who can be conscientiousness are those who are organized,

take initiative and are persistent in their actions. If managers lead by example, employees would follow

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their lead, resulting in a team filled with dependable employees who will take initiative without needing

delegation. As most of these traits vary from one another, it’s easily seen that if leaders possessed all

these traits, their efforts to leading and working with and through others, could be almost effortless and

empowering. (Talya Bauer, Berrin Erdogan, Jeremy Short and Mason A. Carpenter – 2016)

Unfortunately, the current workplace environment is filled with tension and unhappy

employees. As a result, our clients have become unsatisfied. From my own observations, I believe this is

from the difference in management styles and traits due to a new manager joining Sunnyvale Insurance.

Once Mary retired, Scott was onboarded and immediately implemented changes that affected the

employees and their job duties. As Mary and Scott both served the insurance industry and both had

many years of experience in management, it is certain their styles of management and the traits they

exhibit are completely opposite of one another. Scott has implemented a tardy rule which has never

been implemented, requires employees to attend weekly meetings beginning at 8am when their work

days don’t normally begin until 9am, created new strategies to improve sales however, results in

employees being based on incentivizes on how much money they make and those who don’t meet a

certain threshold are put on a performance plan; and lastly, has increased the cost of insurance plans

Sunnyvale Insurance offers. Scott has proven with his numbers financially he can produce the business

Sunnyvale needs; however, Sunnyvale was founded to better serve the community in finding the best

priced insurance for the clients’ needs and budgets while upholding the notoriously friendly and relaxed

atmosphere.

I recommend implementing a transformational leadership style as the preferred management

approach. The strengths of this approach include inspiring and empowering employees, focuses on

values, emotions, ethics and long-term goals while assessing motives and satisfying the organizations

needs in a transformational course that changes individuals and can be viewed in a diverse range of

leadership roles. However, some weaknesses revealed are people needing to change and not be

themselves and the time frame available to adapt to this preferred approach. Transformational

leadership is a good approach as it allows the company to restructure their brand. A small owned

insurance business who was founded to serve the community can be rebranded and transformed to

serve internationally, to meet our future initiatives. As this development and process begins, opportunity

to correctly educate leadership and employees becomes available and during this phase leadership will

be solely invested into the employees as this process is dependent on the bond between leader and

follower. As Sunnyvale Insurance rebrands to better serve our world internationally, they also resurface

with effective leadership, empowering employees and renewing the vision and mission Sunnyvale has

previously followed, but can be revised internationally to impact any and all of those who cross paths

with Sunnyvale Insurance. (Talya Bauer, Berrin Erdogan, Jeremy Short and Mason A. Carpenter – 2016)

Styles and leadership methods managers can employ to better support a diverse and

increasingly virtual workforce is supporting employees during changes within the organization, giving

employees trust and empowering employees to adjust to the changes and contribute their ideas for the

changes. Managers will be able to hold discussions with their employees, informing them and engaging

them to interact with one another while building their trust to them and the organization. Situational

management theory is another style manager can follow to provide better support for the diverse and

virtual workforce. Managers would want to adapt to each employees’ needs but should mostly stay

apart of the Coaching and Participating leadership styles within situational leadership. Coaching

leadership is when employees have desires to work independently but do not have the skill to work

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independently. As communication and trust is built because the progress and skill are improved, the

employee will slowly gain more responsibilities. Participating leadership is when employees are capable

but temporarily unwilling to adapt. These employees understand the task at hand but are insecure and

reluctant of the coming changes. Managers should support these employees and increase their

confidence by stimulating their decision making. (Mulder, P. – 2012) Each leadership style and method

will have its own set of strengths and weaknesses. As situational management theory is meant to

approach each employee differently in respect to each employee’s ability, that would become exhausting

and very time consuming as a manager over multiple employees. However, this leadership style also

allows for the employee to grow with confidence and knowledge as they are only exposed to what they

are truly capable of. Supporting employees is crucial during this time as most employees feel they lack

support and communication. During this organizational change, employees should feel they can

communicate with their manager while feeling their ideas or concerns can be addressed. Informing and

engaging employees is a strength as it provides the confidence and communication our employees need.

However, this can also be viewed as a weakness as informing and engaging employees during an

organizational shift can be time consuming, repetitive and leave room for uncertainty especially if

answers or information has not been fully provided. (Mulder, P. – 2012)

Resources and strategies for supporting a diverse and virtual environment is to fully

communicate the organizational goals and changes to all team members. The virtual team should be

included in all communications or changes taking place in the office setting while in office members are

communicated with about the same for virtual members. Virtual teams and in office teams should be

introduced to one another physically early on. Communication is key and clarification of all duties and

tasks must be understood. Adapt weekly meetings to be done by video conferencing in order to make

things easier but also make room for a more normal approach for virtual team members. Video

conferencing allows for a “face to face” conversation where members can engage in conversation and

connect personally according to tone and body language. Managers should commit to one on one

interactions and performance or coaching interactions for virtual members as they would for in office

members. The same language should be used with virtual members and in office members to establish

consistency across the entire team. (Watkins, M. D. – 2013)

Using the preferred management approaches supports a positive company and workplace

environment as it strengthens the trust and support in the Sunnyvale Insurance employees. It provides

an honest and meaningful approach of change for the organization and its employees. This approach

provides inspiration and empowerment to employees, personally and professionally as they feel

important and involved in their organization. When the employees are satisfied, the clients are satisfied,

and then our shareholders are satisfied; which results in success for Sunnyvale Insurance and our plans

of future initiatives can be achieved.

References

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Talya Bauer, Berrin Erdogan, Jeremy Short, and Mason A. Carpenter. (2016). Principles of

Management. Boston, MA: FlatWorld

Mulder, P. (2012). Situational Leadership Model (SLM). Retrieved [insert date] from ToolsHero:

https://www.toolshero.com/leadership/situational-leadership-hersey-blanchard/

Watkins, M. D. (2013). Making Virtual Teams Work: Ten Basic Principles. Harvard

Review Digital Articles, 2–5. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-

com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsu&AN=124065759&site=eds-

live&scope=site

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