Applying the theories to the case Harvard Business Review

1. Mintzbergs managerial role:

Bill MacLeod
Has a decisional-entrepreneur role in which he was able to exploit the
technology boom occurring in the external business environment, in order
to increase the companys profitability and direction to become an
industrial leader. Demonstrates that Macleod is capable of taking
calculated risks by scanning trends in the external environment to
improve the organisations processes and the organisation overall to meet
its objectives.
Also has an interpersonal leadership role, in which he is able to instill the
culture of accountability and discipline. Culture of accountability is
beneficial to the enterprise as it increases the employees responsibility for
their role and therefore care in their work, better decision making, and
better cooperation with others and management in order to improve the
organisation.
Monitor information Macleod and the organisations management are
not consistent monitors of the environment which has resulted in their loss
of major client and decrease in competitive advantage, profits, etc. Their
inability to identify and adapt to the changing trends of product
differentiation towards cheaper output prices has resulted in their loss of
competitive advantage. This is due to a lack of monitoring the external
environment which affects the organisation and their competitors.
Contributes to their increase in inertia of the organisation.
Has a greater interpersonal role and concern for people and organisational
culture than decisional role and putting action into immediate effect.
Alston Gardner: Greater interpersonal role does not make him forceful
enough to force the change and gain immediate effects. This is because he
is more concerned about maintaining the organisational culture of the
organisation and leadership as presented in his evaluation of Shapiro. More
difficult and time consuming to overcome inertia.
Andrea L Dixon concern for existing customers and their connection to
the organisation who may not approve of seeking existing customers
may be freezing the organisation from implementing the proposed
integrated solutions.
Elena Gonzalez:
Leader, Disseminator, Negotiator:
Leader she is able to attract people through motivating and guiding her
team to achieve their victories. Charismatic and self-less not grabbing
glory for herself.
Disseminator Evident when Gonzalez had informed the board of the
objectives and achievements of the organisations competitors, and the
reasons behind their clients rejection of the organisation and signing of
another.
Negotiator responsible for representing the organisation and bargaining
with other organisations or clients to sign with the organisation in order to
remain competitive in the market.
Has a higher informational and interpersonal role than decisional roles.
Jon Shapiro:
Leadership is not as effective as the remainder as he does not
demonstrate any action of motivating employees. More of a Machiavellian
manager as suggested by his high turnover among staff and his negligence
to it as it is more concerned with the performance of the organisation.

Entrepreneur takes very risky actions in order to improve the operations

of the organisation such as understanding effectively the environment in
comparison to the CEO of the organisation, and replacing all staff with new
staff in order to improve the organisation. Very effective in analyzing and
exploiting trends in the external environment.
Analysis has a higher decisional role than interpersonal.

2. Big 5 personality:
Bill MacLeod:
Has high extroversion as reflected by his status as a manager. He is able to
communicate effectively with the board of directors and the leading board
of directors, Zorthian. He is able to conduct interviews and is highly
sociable with the members of the organisation
High agreeableness Very involved in the changes required in the
organisation and the directives employed by Zorthian and the board of
directors. Is aware of the necessary changes that the organisation is
required to make in order to improve its performance.
High conscientiousness very concerned about achieving high levels of
performance and is very calculated and careful in planning. Once hired, he
was able to establish the organisation as a leader in its market reflecting
his high dependability
Emotional Stability highly stable is calm and highly enthusiastic to
solving the issues problems. Is able to communicate calmly and
confidently with employees, as exhibited when communicating to Jon
Shapiro who had embarrassed him
Openness to experience high as evident by his exploitation of technology
growth and boost in the economic environment.
Elena Gonzalez
High extroversion able to motivate and lead and team members are
attached to her. Position as sales director and her responsibilities of
meeting clients adds to high extroversion and high ability to communicate.
High agreeableness is able to agree with the changes the organisation
desires to implement. Is able to understand why the client has not signed
with the organisation
High conscientiousness concerned with the welfare and benefit of the
business. Is able to achieve organisation goals and victory to improve
effectiveness
Emotional stability highly stable as shown in her position in the hot seat
at the board of directors meeting. Maintained confidence and
professionalism.
Openness to experience high, not shown as much by Gonzalez. However
she understands and recognizes the need to examine the external
competition to determine what is driving sales and profitability. May be
heading towards inertia.
Jon Shapiro:
High extroversion able to communicate with people, although not
sociably due to blunt and direct nature and attitude. Is confident in talking
and meeting with new people as reflected by role as manager
Low-to-moderate agreeability Shapiro has bluntly stated his
disagreement to the organisations processes for instance, he mentions
that he was underwhelmed by the organisations process.

High conscientiousness Shapiro is highly concerned for the performance

of the organisation. This is evident through his Machiavellian means to
replace an entire team to improve profits.
Emotional stability is high remains calm in all situations
Openness to experience high understands and attempts to immediately
integrate external changes that are beneficial to the organisations
performance and activities.
Analysis the above managers are all highly extrovert in that they are confident
in communications and do not shield themselves from interaction and socializing
with others. Although Shapiros means of interaction is more blunt and less
interpersonal. Shapiro who is external to the organisation has low agreeability
to the functions and processes of the organisation and its initiatives in contrast to
the high agreeability exhibited by Macleod and Gonzales. The above managers
have a high conscientiousness and are highly achievement oriented which is
beneficial to the organisation. Each have demonstrated this achievement
orientation through their respective activities. Emotional stability for each is high
as they remain confident and secure in fluctuating times of operations in the
organisation. They remain level headed and calm to the situation. This enables
them to approach the situation more effectively prevents distortion from
emotions.
Openness to experience, all managers are open to new experiences that aim to
improve the organisation.
3. Attribution Theory:
The boards and Macleods behaviour to divert strategies to compete on the basis
of selling solutions rather than superior products come from external factors the
organisations competitors. It comes from the consistency and consensus of other
competing firms in utilizing selling solutions as a source of competitive advantage
such as Network project.
The behaviour of Hartley is attributed internally as his dissatisfaction of the new
strategy is not high in consensus. Other employees such as Gonzalez and
McGowan are not responding similarly to Hartley despite being placed in the
same situation. Hartleys skepticism and silent objection has resulted in the
negative processes of the organisation by producing troubling signs which is
hindering and postponing the implementation of the new strategy such as failing
to act on the proposed plan for training and overhauling incentives for the
implementation of the new plan. Furthuremore, the employees of the product and
service units and sales division can be considered as external for each division as
they collectively lack support in the new strategy, and internal to the overall
organisation. Their lack of support internally has resulted in the failure of
satisfying expectations of Professional services to which McGowan states that the
employees resist the changing prices and their resentment of the consultants
and misunderstanding of their roles.
The consistency and consensus of Gonzalez staff however are attributed
externally, as all employees have become motivated by the implementation of
the new strategy to meet expectations and attempting to change their ways of
doing business.
Shaprios behaviour of offending MacLeod is reflected externally. His opinion of
the organisation and its processes are consistent and in consensus with other
stakeholders such as competing businesses and clients. However, his brashness
and Machiavellian approach is driven internally as it is an unsual behaviour and
remains consistent within himself. This is reinforced by his behaviour of replacing
most of his workforce with a new workforce in order to achieve the objectives of
the organisation.

4. Fiedler model of leadership:

Elena Gonzalez:
Evidently greater in relationship-orientation than in task-orientation. She is
primarily interested in good relationships with co-workers. Evidently,
Gonzalez is able to motivate and guide her team effectively to achieve the
organisations objectives, and currently to strive towards the
implementation of the new strategy imposed by the organisation.
Furthermore, her relationship orientation has resulted in a greater level of
productivity in her workers which is differentiated by her teams higher
level of commitment in compared to McGowens team. Elena Gonzalez is
operating under the contingency dimensions of a high degree of leadermembership relations as her team members are attracted to her charisma
and leadership, a low task structure and weak position power as she is not
capable of hiring, firing and displaying coercive and reward power over her
employees, no evidence. Thus this places her in the 4 th category which
reflects the moderately favourable conditions in which she is currently
operating. Therefore according to Fiedlers evaluation, Gonzalezs
operating style, of relationship-oriented is most effective in moderately
favourable contingent situations.
Jon Shapiro:
Evidently, Jon Shapiros relationship style can be defined as task-oriented
as disclosed by Macleod in the case study. This states that Macleod is
primarily concerned with the increase in productivity and getting the job
done, which is further reinforced by his actions at his former work in which
he replaced his work team and by his unsatisfying evaluation of the current
processes of Fusiliers. With the assumption that Shapiro is hired into the
worforce, replacing Gonzales and assuming that all other contingent
dimensions remain the same, Fiedler identifies that a task oriented
leadership style will be inefficient and ineffective within a moderately
favourable contingent situation. In describing Shapiros past environment,
in which there was poor leader-member relations, high task structure and
high position power, it reflects a moderate environment which also is
ineffective and incompatible to Shapiros leadership style. Thus it would be
better to retain Gonzales in the operations.
5. University of Michigan Studies:
Two dimensions of leadership behaviour: employee oriented and production
oriented.
Elena Gonzalez:
Elena Gonzalezs attitudes and behaviour positions her as employee
oriented supported by her interpersonal roles. She emphasizes
interpersonal relations, as evident by her concerns of going around the
organisations major client to gain a competitive advantage, and support
from her team.
Job Shapiro:
Production oriented leader, who tended to emphasise the technical or task
aspects of the job, concerned about accomplishing objectives and
regarded organisational members or team members as means to that end.
Reflected in his discarding of workforce and replacement and highly
achievement oriented focus.
The Michigan university studies conclusively stated that leaders who were
employee oriented were able to get high group productivity and high member
satisfaction.
6. Recruitment and Selection:

Recruitment method:
External recruitment method which has increased the supply of potential
candidates for the business, further enabling them to attract the most suitable
candidate for the job. It can also introduce new ideas and methods of
approaching strategies and objectives in the organisation innovative ideas
such as Shapiros high achievement-orientation which would be beneficial for the
organisation to execute immediately the intended strategies of the organisation
and prevent its continual delay.
Selection method:
Interview An interview was conducted. The interview was valid in that it
discloses the nature of the potential candidate and their viewpoints about the
organisation. This further enables the selectors to gauge the potential of the
candidate in working with its operations and how well they will fit into the
organisation and its intended strategies. A background investigation has also
been performed to understand and determine the experiences of the potential
candidate and therefore aligning these experiences with the organisational
structure, strategy and job descriptions and requirements.
7. Competitive Advantage:
The main issue for Fusiliers inability of securing its largest client and demotion in
its market leader position is due to their lack of competitive advantage. Their preexisting core competencies of product differentiation is no longer accepted and
demanded by the market, instead they are now acquiring products from
organisations with lower costs. Thus Fusiliers failure to recognise and adopt this
trend has caused it to lose its major client, Chase Dynamics. This failure to
recognise can also be accounted for by the organisations lack of IT spending and
research and development costs.
Although quality products are still being produced by Fusilier, it is not enough to
meet the demands of the market as cost has become more prioritized and has
become the core competency granting organisations with a competitive
advantage.
They have not been able to sustain their 5 year long competitive advantage and
market leadership due to their failure to exploit their capabilities and to push for
more involvement in the CRM and finance projects.
In order to achieve profitable growth, the company has now attempted to
implement the integrated solutions strategy, announced throughout Fusilier
which involved Fusilier to bundle its own consulting, hardware and customized
software as well as other products to meet the needs of its users in areas such as
marketing, sales, finance and human resources. Product differentiation through
customizing offerings to customers operations around the globe, researched by
marketing to bring in premium prices and therefore higher profitability.
Two challenges to achieving their competitive advantage included: building
relationships with executives beyond the IT department and getting Fusiliers
disparate product and service units to work seamlessly with one another and the
sales force. Professional services and sales division have been conflicted as
professional services was not meeting the expectations of the blueprint set out to
achieve its integrated strategy due to the lack of support from product and
service units.
To facilitate this competitive advantage consider the conflict between hiring
Elena and hiring Jon. Who will be able to lead the integrated strategy to its
implementation and exploit its desired effects to improve the organisations
growth and competitiveness.