unit 1 discussion board 2 1

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Discussion Board

Human Capital Management and Leadership Styles

Tue,2/25/20

Numeric

75

Primary Task: 400–600 words; Secondary Task: 2 100-word replies

Primary Discussion Response is due by Friday (11:59:59pm Central), Peer Responses are due by Tuesday (11:59:59pm Central).

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

Additional Information: Earlier today, you attended a meeting with Shawn Williams, the new VP of global human capital management at Atlantis Global Corporation (AGC), and John Dawson, the company’s chief executive officer (CEO). John was very concerned about the financial losses at AGC. John’s main concerns were product market share and the threat of losing AGC’s market position as the top manufacturer of electronic circuit boards for high-definition television screens. However, John did not mention any issues relating to the employees who work at AGC. Last month, the general manager of one of AGC’s global subsidiaries told Shawn that it is difficult to recruit talent for AGC, that employees are not happy, and that many are leaving AGC to work for other organizations. Shawn discussed developing a new recognition-and-rewards program to attract talent, motivate employees, and improve job satisfaction. When Shawn brought the up human capital concerns at AGC in the meeting, John was not very interested and thought that employee-related issues are not critical to AGC’s performance. Shawn thinks that it will be challenging to work with John to implement a global human capital management strategy.

You and Shawn are scheduled to meet next week with John and the board of directors at AGC. Due to the urgency of the company’s situation, you and Shawn decide to create a briefing about the value and need for an optimized program for the management of global human capital.

Review the AGC scenario for this course and with your classmates; discuss the following questions that will help you and Shawn prepare for the briefing:

  • What are the differences between the leadership styles of Shawn and John? What are the pros and cons of each style?
  • What is your own leadership style? During the briefing, how will you use your leadership style to illustrate the intrinsic value of human capital?
  • What human capital management strategies will you recommend to John and the board of directors? What examples from other organizations can you provide to strengthen the board’s knowledge of global human capital trends and problems?

Responses to Other Students: Respond to at least 2 of your fellow classmates with at least a 100-word reply about their Primary Task Response regarding items you found to be compelling and enlightening. Discuss the pros and cons of potentially conflicting leadership styles. Support your response with academic references from your textbook and reputable websites from which the author’s name may be specifically documented.

To help you with your discussion, please consider the following questions:

  • What did you learn from your classmate’s posting?
  • What additional questions do you have after reading the posting?
  • What clarification do you need regarding the posting?
  • What differences or similarities do you see between your posting and other classmates’ postings?

respond 1:

Shanay Hutson

02-20-2020

Discussion Board 1-2

Shawn and John have two very different leadership styles. John has an Autocratic Leadership style, whereas Shawn would like to adopt an Transactional Leadership style. John’s type of leadership tends to be the most toxic in a company. This is due to the leader not being concerned about what their employees or any one that reports to them and their concerns. This leadership style tends to lose employees more frequently, then being able to keep employees over a period of time. This can create a reputation close to that of the company Wal-Mart. They are known for not treating their employees well, I would know having spent over a year with them. This would be a major con to this leadership style. The pro as I would see it would be that the one person could pave their own desires into the company without fear of it hurting them in the future. Shawn wishes to adopt a Transactional Leadership style in order to appeal to future employees and to create a feeling of gratitude towards existing employees. This helps motivate the employees to live to a certain standard at work. I think that the pro in this case would be the motivation, incentives, and bonuses which could ultimately make the work environment better for the employees. A con to this would be that the employees would find the minimum amount to keep their jobs and go with it.

My own personal leadership style would have to be a more democratic leadership style. By listening to the employees and taking what they are saying into consideration it makes them feel as if they have a voice within the company. A company is able to retain employees better by listening to the problems that many of the employees are dealing with on a regular day. By using the Democratic leadership style during the briefing it can illustrate the intrinsic value of human capital because by involving the company’s employees into the decisions that affect them they are creating an environment that now will have more value. This will cause a chain reaction, the employees are more likely to stay with a company in which they feel like they are listened to land treated well. A company is only as good as its employees, however if that company does not care for the employees, how can they expect the same employees to stay if they are not treated fairly? By treating the employees better this will build up human capital within the company, making it more desirable to outsiders and investors.

The human capital management strategies that I would recommend to both John and the board of directors would be to first and foremost to begin investing into all the employees within the company. The core of any business is only as strong as its employees make it. Every employee matters and is at the company for a reason. By strengthening the employees with training and education in their field we are investing that knowledge and strength into the company. This will ultimately cut costs by needing fewer employees, but ultimately hiring stronger employees. Examples of a company that has outstanding human capital management and are successful are companies like FedEx Corporation. Their philosophy has been the same since 1973 respectively. They saw a dramatic increase in their success after they began their philosophy of investing in their employees and by each one of them knowing their worth to the company. Another example would be the Sage Products Inc. This company is a medical field corporation that invests in their employees. They offer numerous advantages of the health variety to their employees and the families of those employees. They have a great success rate of retaining their employees.

References:

Becker, B. (n.d.). The 8 Most Common Leadership Styles & How to Find Your Own. Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/leadership-styl…

Human Capital Theory. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://simpleeconomist.com/human-capital-theory/

Intrinsic Value Definition & Example. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.google.com/amp/s/investinganswers.com/…

Strategic Human Capital Management – Components, Values & Benefits. (2019, November 16). Retrieved from https://www.epaysystems.com/strategic-human-capita…

respond 2:

Bernadette M. Sacksteder

HMRT 620: Strategic Human Capital Management

Discussion Board 1-2

February 21, 2020

The way a leader responds to challenges, plans for the future, and drives plans to completion can be called his or her individual leadership style. The style an organization’s leader implements can have wide-ranging impacts on everything from corporate decision making, to setting the corporate culture. For example, a leader who adopts a democratic leadership style may help build an organization where every employee feels empowered to contribute thoughts and opinions and is deeply invested in the organization’s success (Cherry, 2020). Based on the description of the corporation John Dawson has helped shape, it appears that he may subscribe to a Bureaucratic style of leadership. This leadership style focuses on establishing clear processes and procedures that must be followed by everyone, as well as authority structures that make sure everyone knows where they belong and how the system works (Kukreja, 2018). While the frustrations of dealing with this style may be widely known, it is still a highly effective leadership style particularly for complex global organizations (i.e. most military organizations). This is shown at ACG is in the way managers rigorously implement the standard operations manual, and the emphasis Dawson places on following an established strategy even as he is highly concerned about his ACG’s financial woes.

It is more challenging to determine the leadership style of Shawn Williams, both because his short tenure at ACG means his style has yet to make an impact on the corporate culture, and because we are provided with exactly two sentences of information describing him. However, the fact that he is acknowledged as an expert in his field and that he is seen as “motivational” makes it likely that he is a Charismatic leader. These leaders are often skilled communicators who inspire and motivate those around them to do and be more (Riggio, 2012). They are exciting to be around and can have a powerful impact on the people and organizations they lead. However, the energy and momentum they generate may falter once the charismatic leader moves on to another project, or if the leader fails to follow through on his or her commitments.

My own leadership style is a blend of the Affiliate and Coaching styles. Affiliate leaders emphasize collaboration and connections between team members, viewing each team member as an important contributor to the work (Editorial Board, 2019). Coaching leaders focus on helping others develop skills and grow in their field. A large part of my job is developing and training other educators in my organization, many of whom do not have any formal training in education. Providing them with training and enrichment opportunities helps them gain confidence in their work and a hunger to learn more. Showing them how their work contributes to our employee’s and organization’s success helps connect them to a wider vision of what workplace education and training can be. During the briefing I could call on this experience to illustrate the power of employee development to build the skilled, engaged workforce that can make ACG’s objectives a reality.

ACG’s success depends on retaining a highly skilled workforce in communities where they are in direct competition with other corporations for the same workers. This may mean introducing more flexibility to appeal to the needs of workers in widely different cultures and time zones. This may include introducing more flexible work hours. A technical team in Ohio that regularly has to stay at work until 8pm to be able to video conference with a technical team in Korea just starting their day at 8am will quickly burn out and look for another job if they cannot adjust their work hours. While allowing for more flexibility may be challenging for a highly bureaucratic organization, it can come with significant benefits. Corporations which allow their employees more freedom to set work hours and other benefits can often expect and receive high performance. For example, Netflix allows employees to take as much vacation as they desire and structure their own compensation packages, but expects much more from their employees in return (Ouye, 2011). This can create a corporate culture where employees gladly give even more than they receive. This could be the kind of high performance that might help ACG regain its competitive edge.

Cherry, K. (2020). Is Democratic Leadership the Best Style of Leadership?. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-democratic-leadership-2795315

Editorial Board. (2019). Leadership and Ethical Decision Making. [VitalSource Bookshelf]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781945554766/

Kukreja, S. (2018). Bureaucratic Leadership Guide: Definition, Pros & Cons, Examples – Management Study HQ. Retrieved from https://www.managementstudyhq.com/bureaucratic-leadership-guide-definition-pros-cons-examples.html

Ouye, J. A. (2011). Five trends that are dramatically changing the work and the workplace. Retrieved from http://www.knoll.com/media/18/144/WP_FiveTrends.pd…

Riggio, R. (2012). What Is Charisma and Charismatic Leadership?. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cutting-ed…