联系我们： 手动添加方式: 微信>添加朋友>企业微信联系人>13262280223 或者 QQ: 1483266981 Case Study Analysis Word limit: 1500 (please state your word count on the front page of your coursework) Formatting: Font 12, double line spaced Please read the following case and answer ALL subsequent questions. Dyers Furnishings (DF) is a retail company specialising in high-end home decor and furnishings. DF is owned by Simon Parks who set up the business in Surrey, England. The distinguished showroom in Surrey is home to 30 employees, and comprises 8 floors of designer home products that Simon purchases while visiting international exhibitions. Simon is highly driven with meticulous attention to detail, and has set up a very prosperous business that successfully caters for its clientele. Simon is described as a very hands-on leader, making sure floor staff display products appropriately and know the details behind each of the products. Simon is generally very busy and does not leave much time for random chit-chats. He recently hired an IT firm that set up an automated system to manage human resources at DF. By doing so, Simon now does not have to meet with staff often and can just authorise/decline their requests via the system. His staff are aware he does not like to be disturbed when in his office, and would only approach him with a client request or to resolve a difficult problem with a product. Having gained enormous financial success over the years, Simon wanted to expand his business with another branch on Bond Street in London. Simon is aware this expansion means he requires further assistance in terms of choosing and buying products, and running the original showroom. He considered appointing one of his floor staff to take on this challenge but, because of the very high turnover amongst the employees, he could not find a suitable candidate that has worked for DF for over a year. After searching for a new employee using word of mouth and industry recommendations, he eventually hired Lauren. Lauren is well known in the industry for her remarkable aesthetic sense, her imagination, and her willingness to experiment with different designs. When Lauren first met Simon she was impressed by how charming and persuasive he was, and was captivated by his vision for DF. From their conversations Lauren could see that Simon was ambitious. She too had a passion for high-end home products and did not hesitate in accepting his job offer. On her first day at FR, Laren arrived feeling excited and enthusiastic. As she entered, she found Simon and the employees gathered on the ground floor of the showroom. Simon briefly introduced Lauren and told the employees that she would now oversee DF’s operations, including the management of staff, and of DF’s products. Simon mentioned that he would be busy setting up the new showroom in London. Simon then abruptly left, without taking questions or making further comments, leaving Lauren with 30 employees staring at her. Quickly realising that she needed to address the employees, Lauren smiled and thanked the staff for the time they took to gather and meet her. She introduced herself and said that she will be working together with them to achieve targets. Lauren then asked each employee to introduce themselves and tried to memorise as many of their names as possible. She then explained how she has an ‘open-door’ policy and that they were welcome to discuss matters with her when they arise. She thanked them again and the meeting ended. Eight months into her time at DF, Lauren had gained considerable success. Filling in for Simon as lead purchaser, she travelled to exhibitions all over the world and picked the best of products to feature in DF’s showroom. Her chosen products soon became the reason behind the success of DF. She also managed to gain the staff’s trust and formed good relationships with them. She observed a remarkable difference in staff motivation and job satisfaction in comparison to when she first started her job. Lauren encouraged staff to be involved with purchasing decisions, and found a number of staff who had a good eye for products. She also encouraged staff to get involved with managing customer relations, giving more leverage in decisions about how to handle customer feedback. To strengthen the sense of belonging amongst employees, she took to organising social meetings outside working hours which the staff happily endorsed. Being a very good listener and a ‘people’s person’, the staff liked Lauren and they looked up to her for inspiration. When Lauren felt staff were suffering or had low morale, she used the lunch break and gave them words of encouragement, or offered her time to listen to their issues, and tried to come to a solution with them. Staff really enjoyed the time they spent with her and frequently felt energised after meeting with her. Although Lauren had some control over decision making, Simon still could overturn her decisions in no time. Simon thought Lauren gave the employees too much of her time, and that her efforts should be expended in purchasing products and handling customer relations instead. Almost every time Simon arrived at the Surrey showroom, he was dissatisfied with something, often minor things, and he would shout at those around him. Lauren felt such erratic behaviour overturned weeks of progress she had made in terms of staff satisfaction. She knew that she and Simon had very different leadership visions, but she did not possess enough resources to counter the effect of Simon’s bad temper and approach to staff. When she first started at DF she was enthused by the challenge and did her best to motivate employees. However, she began to feel a sense of burnout, exacerbated by immense pressure from Simon who had begun contacting her at all hours of the day to discuss work, sometimes at 9pm. The situation came to a head during a text communication. The text messages read as follows: Lauren: “Hey Simon, I’ve been quite poorly the last couple of days and I developed a fever today. I’ll try to stay in the showroom till 2.00 pm and then I’ll head home. Thank you” Simon: “We have to prepare an order for the supplier we discussed. Did you meet with them ”. After this exchange, Lauren started looking for another job and soon handed in her notice. Simon was shocked when he received Lauren’s resignation letter and wondered why she wanted to leave. While he realized he sometimes had a temper, he felt that was because of the pressure he was under to satisfy customer need. In a rush, Simon appointed Joseph to replace Lauren. Joseph had shadowed Lauren in her purchasing role but had no experience in managing people. Joseph was very good at his technical job and the operations did not suffer because of the transition. Being quite inexperienced, Joseph focused on staff he already had good relationships with, leading to some other staff feeling left-out. Joseph was aware of this and wanted to be a good leader but felt he had no one to turn to. He tried asking Simon to support him in his new role but to no avail. Simon always seemed busy handling customers and suppliers, and showed no interest in giving Joseph time to properly train or mentor him. Joseph wondered whether getting coached by Simon was even a good idea, given the type of leader Simon is. Ultimately, Joseph resigned from DF. When Joseph left Simon noticed a sharp drop in staff satisfaction and commitment. Turnover was high again, staff were not interested and engaged in their jobs, and customer complaints soared. Reacting to the situation, and particularly to the customer complaints, Simon stormed into the shopfloor and started shouting at staff. Five members immediately left as a result. Simon felt angry and sad about the situation, retreated to his office and shut the door. Please answer all 3 of the case study questions: 1) Building on what you’ve learned about traits and leadership, analyse the traits of Simon and Lauren and how they relate to leadership effectiveness. 2) Using theory and evidence on leadership behaviour, compare and contrast the leadership behaviour of Simon, Lauren and Joseph 3) What advice would you give Simon to be a better leader.