Spice-Trail Oriental Condiments and Relishes

Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 3 The position of Spice-Trail ............................................................................................................. 3 The opportunities for culture change .............................................................................................. 6 The Leadership approach ................................................................................................................ 7 The change and Leadership process ............................................................................................... 9 Reference ...................................................................................................................................... 12 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 12

Introduction The Spice Trail Oriental Condiments and Relishes was set up in way back in 1992 by a group of six friends, Pritpal Ghuptra, Kim Fung, Mehwish Nagi, Paul, Usmann Adid and Sarah Bowers. With much research they finally decided to start its business of spice. In 1992 the company secured financial baking with one of the investment bank. The company employed seven operatives to look after the site and the roasting, drying and its grinding operation. Pritpal was appointed as the CEO; Paul became the general manager and looked after the production process. The marketing department was looked by Sarah and Usmann. Kim looked after the administration and management information system. Eventually the company became a major player in spices of the food industry. The position of Spice-Trail The company has started off well and by 2000 the company took over a bread making company and included them in its product range. In 2005, the company introduced pre-prepared sauces and pastes which shoot up to their success. In the current scenario, Paul Bowers is the CEO; and all other members remained in their previous position. The company had two plants which had its own operational manger. The functional specialist normally favoured either one plant over another. There was a friendly rivalry among the two plants. Kim has realised that the friendly banter that existed between the two sites had become barbed and relationship had got less friendly. By May 2010 the company had 1750 employees working for Spice-Trail. Kim had taken into consideration the major incident which occurred in the company within the past few months and among them four incident that took place has majorly affected the company and its 3

employees. The first incident that Kim noticed was the cultural difference among the two teams. A very unpleasant scene happened to develop in the training session of the two teams. Janice who was heading the Quality Operation was one of the favoured employees of the company and most of the companys success is attributed to her. The two teams PR and PS did not mix well with each other and Kim had wished if she could do something to get them together. The second incident that Kim noticed was the incident regarding the warehouse. The warehouse was operated by Noddy Bones. Due to small sack size, the warehouse was labour intensive section of the company. The warehouse has 30 employees taking care of the sacks. In an incident, a coriander sacks accidentally caught the corner stanchion and the whole rack of coriander crumpled. This incident injured one of the drivers of the company and an investigation was followed which stated that the company was at a fault for not monitoring the situation and let the driver operate without anyones presence. The third incident took place over the annual pay review. The annual pay review took into consideration the development needs and salary progression. The employee base pay was about to increase by 2.75% and a bonus of 1.5%. The meeting took place between the employee and their respective manager which has been noticed as a matter of concern. Joel Barker team were not satisfied with the pay review. Following the decision many of Joel team members began to stay away from work and during the month July and August, the absentees record increased. This situation was made worse when two of Joel core member resigned. To handle this problem, Mo Travis was elected as the spokesperson and explained that the employees felt that they were let down by the management. When compared it was found out that the staff received 0.5%less 4

than relish plant, they were offered more training and so on. The main issue was of grievance between the two teams and which lead to discomfort in the environment. The last incident that Kim took into consideration was when Kim had decided to open a new company. Kim had informed through email to all the departmental heads asking for nomination in order to join the new company. The intention of Kim was to establish a steering group which would identify its in house coaches and mentors. But Kim was embarrassed to see the lack of enthusiasm and the rudeness of its staff towards its visitors. It was made clear by the staff that they were not interested in the initiative taken by Kim. These four incidents made clear about the malaise that was creping the company. Therefore to tackle the problem, Kim has decided to appoint an external change agent. Aidan Roberts was chosen as the consultant who conducted a survey among the employees and reported that morale of the employee was reasonable but there was a difference between the two plants. The highest was recorded in warehouse with 3.75 as compared to spice plant which recorded an average of 2.05. Secondly the management did not act but only preached; the relationship between the staff was said to be not satisfactorily, there as a dissatisfaction in relation to the general harmony of the company. About 73% of the employee thought that the company had a good future but opinions from the spice plant was not optimistic as from the other sections of the company. The employees felt that they were not motivated as they were 2years back; the employees wanted the company to concentrate on other forms of rewards other than pay. Also a majority of employees gave a positive feedback about the management but they also believed that more recognition should be given to the contribution of the employees. 5

During the process Joel Barker resigned from the company and it was proposed by Malcolm to place Billy Sharman in the place of Joel Barker. But Kim appointed Thomas Festinger who has already worked as an operation manager in Europe and Far East. By 2011 November, Thomas has settled and is accepted as the member of the company and was involved in the change initiatives as deceived by Kim. The opportunities for culture change Cultural change has been regarded as one of the fundamental aspect of organizing. Employees do not form a permanent part of the organisation, they come and go, new policies and producers are implemented and with new products and services being introduced. Each of these factors creates an opportunity for the organisation culture to change. The culture of organisation is directly tied with the interaction of the organisational member and is the same with the organisational change process both are interrelated with each other. One of the effective ways to accomplish cultural change is by way of creating opportunities for employees (Keyton, 2010, p.130). Driving the change effectively is not an easy task; it demands a clear vision, mission and the right strategies to succeed in the cultural change (Siegel, 2011). When mangers decide on to make changes or cultural changes they address the issue of organisational climate. Climate forms an integral part; it is regarded as an artifact of culture. It is not possible to create a climate of cooperation and teamwork if the assumptions of culture are competitive and individualistic. Therefore change program often fails when the cultural assumptions are not addressed properly (Keyton, 2010, p.134). For a cultural change agent, every deviation in culture is an opportunity that must be leveraged in an effective way (Abrahamson, 2004, p.104).

In order to create opportunities for cultural change, the first step is to create coalition by the management that shares values and agrees on the change. Here Kim as an integral part of the management must decide on the change and further plan for it with the consent from all the other core members of the organisation. Kim needs to concentrate on organisational values keeping in mind the goals or objectives of the company. Kim has appointed Thomas Festinger as a replacement for Joel Barker as a consultant. Therefore in the same way an agent must be appointed by the management who would look after the cultural change or the management itself should look for opportunities for cultural change. New ideas in the organisation often create an opportunity for cultural change as the members get aware of the culture. The top management can emphasis on internal problems or opportunity and act as a motivation for cultural change. Organisational change is more likely to happen when it is internally driven rather than externally. The Leadership approach The leadership approach is important for the firm and it is the responsibility of the firm to create and manage culture. The view that the employees usually have that a leader has a monopoly on its employees needs to get replaced by a view of a leader who is more emergent, reflective and organic. Effective leaders facilitate rather than impose on its employees, a vision that inspire and empowers the employees. Leaders get close to the culture when they work within a culture. A leader must be able to influence assumption, norms and values if the leader understands the artifacts, assumption and values and how these factors influence the organisational practise (Keyton, 2010, p.149). In case of Spice Trail, leaders act as mangers; control the financial, 7

strategic activities. Kim leads the administration and it is the duty of the administrator to keep inform about the environment to its top level management. The environment was not like it was two years back, thus Kim has investigated and found that the employees were not happy with a management and thus a change was needed in the culture as well as in the environment of the company. Therefore an effective leader can fairly influence culture but it depends on which role it is played. Kim can also reinforce leadership to get back the desired culture in the organisation. Therefore individuals who are managers can influence culture in a much effective way. Leaders provide a vision for the organisation that shapes the culture of the organisation. In order to implement the new vision leaders must understand the values that the organisational members holds and should try to incorporate the values in the new vision. There are six leadership approaches that a company gets to choose from. Every company or an organisation follows a different kind of leadership behaviour. The types of leadership style include autocratic leadership, transactional leadership, participative leadership, charismatic leadership, laissez faire leadership, bureaucratic leadership and transformational leadership (Brophy, 2010, p.15). The most effective form of leadership style that Spice Trail should adopt is of participative leadership style. The participative leadership style is also known as the democratic leadership style. This type of leaders has strengths in allowing the positive as well as negative input to an idea before it gets implemented. This form of leadership style is very effective as it gives room for the employees to keep their opinion in front of the management (Draft & Lane, 2007, p.44). As the company is facing some issues regarding the management it would be suitable to adopt the participative leadership style and let its members share their 8

opinions about the issues faced by the employees. This style requires the leader to be a good listener and allowing its subordinates to share their ideas and opinions to shape the organisation in an effective way. This type of leadership style is most widely accepted by the employees as its a two way process which lets its employees express their ides and share their opinions. Kim should implement the participative or the democratic leadership style in order to tackle the malice that had governed the company. Most importantly the management should take care of the grievance that was slowly arising in the minds of the employees especially between the two teams. One of the most important tools used for achieving the desired change in the organisational culture is role modelling. Here the leader must walk the talk to reinforce the new cultural values and the assumptions. The management of Spice Trail should use this tool and implement new culture in its organisation. The change and Leadership process The change and leadership process must be followed as per the requirements of the organisation. A cultural change is as important for the organisation as an adoption of leadership style. In the process of cultural change the new values and assumption needs to be communicated to the members of the organisation which would let know that the new values were connected to the new culture (Keyton, 2010, p. 134). This can be done by modelling the values and norms and rewards can be given to those members who follow the new values. In a survey conducted by Thomas Festinger, it was founded that the employee demanded other forms of rewards other than only pay. This would be a good opportunity for the organisation to introduce rewards for the 9

employees which would motivate them. Also the employees did not accept the change regarding the annual pay revision so if the company provided with a detailed financial information, the employees would knew the current condition and financial stability and act accordingly. Therefore it was a perfect opportunity for the management to provide information and change the culture of the organisation and make it friendlier. The organisational structure needs to be altered. The organisation should formalise the market oriented culture. Kim should implement new personal development and evaluation system which are tied directly with the companys mission and values of the organisational culture. A proper training would reinforce the new values. The training must be provided for all the employees so that the employees get together and provides a friendly atmosphere which was lacking previously in the organisation. With respect to leadership style, the most effective form of leadership style, the democratic style should be adopted by the Spice -Trail Oriental Condiments and Relishes. This is because the democratic leadership is accepted and fits well with the personal values and necessities of the organisation. Since the democratic form of leadership allows the employees as well as the management to take active part in the management, it should be realised that moving towards the democratic world some managers tend to lose their advantage (Goethals, et.al, 2004, p.337). The leader should understand the responsibility to look after the team functionality and productively. In order to fulfil the responsibility, the leader might need to make his decision outside the democratic process (Taylor, 2006, p. 37).

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The leader must talk with the employees regarding the issues that were concerning the employees and find solutions to the problems. Also the major problem of grievance must be solved before it gets to a level which cannot be solved. The employees should be given a more involved role so that they feel a part of the organisation and reward them at their achievements. Therefore the issue raised by the survey conducted by Aidan Roberts can be solved by way of democratic leadership style as the employees demanded more involvement in the work process, it was founded that the relationship between the staff were not positive. Thus to bring in order the management should follow the participative form of leadership and effectively address the problem of us and them between the two teams of the company.

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Reference Abrahamson, E. (2004). Change without pain: how managers can overcome initiative overload, organizational chaos, and employee burnout. Harvard Business Press. Brophy, J.R. (2010). Leadership Essentials for Emergency Medical Services. Jones & Bartlett Learning. Draft, R. L. & Lane, P. G. (2007). The leadership experience. Cengage Learning. Goethals, G. R. Sorenson, G. J. & Burns, J. M. (2004). Encyclopaedia of leadership, Volume 1. SAGE. Keyton, J. (2010). Communication and Organizational Culture: A Key to Understanding Work Experiences. SAGE. Siegel, J. S. (2011). New Opportunities Present Challenges Require Culture Change. [Online]. Available at: http://www.cutimes.com/2011/05/23/new-opportunities-present-challenges-requirecultu. [Accessed on December 14, 2011]. Taylor, J. (2006). A survival guide for project managers. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Bibliography Pride, W. M. Hughes, R. J. & Kapoor, J. R. (2009). Business. Cengage Learning. Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational Culture and Leadership. John Wiley and Sons.

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Schyns, B. & Hansbrough, T. (2010). When leadership goes wrong: destructive leadership, mistakes, and ethical failures. IAP. Weiner, A. S. & Ronch, J. L. (2003). Culture change in long term care. Routledge. Wormer,K. S. V. Besthorn, F. H. & Keefe, T. (2006). Human behaviour and the social environment, macro level: groups, communities, and organizations. Oxford University Press.

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