The Micromanager essay
In the contemporary business environment the development of effective leadership style is crucial for the successful business development and maintenance of positive interpersonal relations within organizations. In this regard, the case of George and Shelley reveals the full extent to which the leadership style can affect not only interpersonal relations but also the professional performance of employees as well as organizational performance. In fact, George fails to elaborate the effective leadership style that turns out to have a negative impact on the performance of Shelley. As a result, she cannot perform her functions properly at the position of marketing director. Therefore, the leadership style can influence the professional performance and organizational performance that means that leaders should be able to be flexible enough to find the personal approach to each employee, while employees should also be able to adapt their performance to the leadership style of the leader.
George’s leadership style is authoritarian in its essence and paternalistic in a way, because he tries to keep Shelley, a recently employed marketing director, under his total control and guides all her actions (Fryer, 2004). Such leadership style is the characteristic of authoritarian leaders, who want to keep under control all the staff and the entire organization (Mohrman, 2011). In fact, George believes that he is doing good for Shelley assisting and supervising her and he is absolutely unaware of the fact that his leadership style is destructive and deteriorates not only his relations with the marketing director of the company but also threatens to the performance of the entire department. Shelley, being frustrated from his leadership style, cannot perform effectively.
At the same time, such leadership style is not appropriate in relation to Shelley, who came to the company being full of aspirations that she will have an opportunity to lead the marketing department of the company her way. Instead, she faces the permanent pressure, control and interference from the part of George. Such leadership style is inappropriate because it makes Shelley feel as if George does not trust her and does not believe that she is a well-qualified professional, worthy of being the marketing director in the company. In such a situation, the risk of conflicts between George and Shelley emerges because Shelley cannot work as she wants, while George cannot focus on his own functions since he keeps supervising Shelley’s work tightly.
In such a situation, Shelley may consider changing her relations with George. She should state clearly that she is the marketing director of the company and she is fully responsible for outcomes of her performance and performance of her department. This is why she should ask George to let her work for a month on her own without interference and supervision from the part of George and, if George turns out to be dissatisfied with her performance and performance of her department, he could dismiss her. In other words, Shelley should ask George to ask for a chance to show her professionalism and to persuade George that she can work on her own and does not need the support of George or his excessive supervision. Moreover, such position of Shelley would show George the full extent to which Shelley is certain in her professional skills and abilities that she is ready to put her position at stake.
The problem of George is his authoritarian, hand on management style which turns out to be depressing for Shelley, who feels her sense of professionalism being offended because of such excessive supervision from the part of George. George fails to establish positive interpersonal relations with Shelley that leads to the steady deterioration of her performance not because of her professional skills and abilities but because of George’s constant interference into her work.
The cause of the problem is the failure of George to change his management style and adapt it to the specific employee, namely Shelley. George keeps supervising Shelley depriving her of an opportunity to manage marketing department as she wants to.
The possible solution to the problem of George and Shelley’s poor interaction is the change of George’s management style, which involves granting Shelley with larger autonomy and independence in her work. In such a way, Shelley will not feel being offended because she believes that George considers her unprofessional (Chambers, 2005). At the same time, this solution will give Shelley a chance to manifest her professionalism, while George will have more time on other tasks and problems, which he can solve, aside of Shelley’s tasks and functions, which he attempts to supervise at the moment.
Thus, George and Shelley should step to the next level in their professional interaction. George should let Shelley work autonomously, while Shelley should prove George that she is qualified enough to work on her own.
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