Leading Lean Project

This report analyzes the case of SINTEF PVT. LTD. and suggests the best leadership style and tools for implementing lean principles in the company.

Running head: LEADING LEAN PROJECT.
Leading Lean Project
Name of the Student:
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Author note:

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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
2.0 Discussion............................................................................................................................2
2.1. Comparison between various styles of leadership..........................................................2
2.2. Selection and explanation of the preferred leadership style............................................5
2.3. Characteristics of becoming a valuable team member for "THE A TEAM...................5
2.4. Tools and techniques for facilitating the lean business operations.................................6
3.0 Conclusion............................................................................................................................8
4.0 References:...........................................................................................................................9

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1.0 Introduction
Both leaders and leadership skills play a crucial part in the overall long term growth
and development of an organization. The styles that leadership follows gives the
organizational members a wide latitude for managing the projects, resolving disagreements
and solving issues within the organization (Taucean, Tamasila & Negru-Strauti, 2016). The
objective of this report is to analyze the case of SINTEF PVT. LTD. and suggesting the
senior management team of the company to best possible leadership style to suit its
organizational structure and context. It is to note that SINTEF is a functional organization
that has many departments like engineering, finance, production, human capital management,
sales and marketing, warehousing, procurement and information technology. The senior
management of the company has identified that agile best practices can be a mechanism for
implementing the lean principles within the company and that many leadership styles can
guide the initiative of extending the agile best practices to many business functions of the
company apart from only the IT domain. This paper would elaborate on comparing and
distinguishing the various styles of leadership that could potentially be adopted by the
selected project manager and would suggest one method that would be the best option for the
structure and context of SINTEF. With the same, the paper shall also shed light on the
characteristics that would be required for becoming a valuable team member of "THE A
TEAM" and would propose different tools or techniques that could be implemented in many
departments of the company and are likely to improve its efficiency.
2.0 Discussion
2.1. Comparison between various styles of leadership
Leadership is all about influencing other people's behaviour in a way that they can
strive enthusiastically and willingly towards attaining group objectives. It is imperative in the
organizational context for initiating the actions, providing motivations to the employees,
providing guidance, creating confidence, inducing change, creating successors, developing
coordination and building a work environment (Trivisonno & Barling, 2016). Leaders must
always possess the ability to maintain good interpersonal relations with the subordinates or
followers and at the same time, motivating them for helping in attaining the organizational
goals and objectives. There are different leadership styles that the selected project manager of
SINTEF could potentially adopt that, and they are as follows:

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a) Autocratic or Authoritarian leadership- The autocratic style of leadership is the style
where the leaders take all the necessary decisions all by himself. This type of leaders
hold sole authority in a company and is a typical style in which all the essential
decision go through a prominent figure (Nawaz & Khan, 2016). Although this
leadership style is less popular and preferable among the employees but is a preferred
strategy in the companies where the employees are required to perform some
streamlined functions and where control is considered to be the key to success and is
more important than creativity. This type of leaders is generally confident, disciplines
and decisive.
b) Democratic or Participative leadership- The democratic style of leadership is the style
where the leaders consult their subordinates before making the final decision. This
leadership style requires collaborative energy, group level decision making and
delegation of the roles and responsibilities. It demands the leaders who know the ways
of cultivating the participation, empowering their team members and working directly
along with the members of the organization or team at every level (Iqbal, Anwar &
Haider, 2015). Also, this of leaders distributes the power, ability and influence of
contributing to the decisions widely across the different levels and departments. It is
to note that such leaders are highly accountable, supportive and actively engaged in
nature.
c) Laissez-faire or Free-rein leadership- It is that style of leadership where the leaders
give their subordinates the complete freedom of taking the decisions. They avoid the
use of power and responsibility and are considered to be the non-interfering type of
leaders that pass on the duties of deciding their subordinates and take minimal
initiatives in the administration process (Saiki et al., 2016). The advantage of this
leadership type is that it provides the subordinates of the leader a wide latitude in the
process of managing projects, resolving conflicts and disagreements and solving the
problems. This type of leaders are generally trusting, communicative and are open-
minded.
d) Bureaucratic leadership- This leadership style is based on some fixed official duties
present under a hierarchy of authority. Bureaucratic leaders apply a system of rules
for the decision making and management process. This leadership role is played
through the processes, procedures and structures that are highly formalized in nature.
Also, here, the policies, rules and hierarchies form some precise set of expectations
and at the same time, explicit the chain of command. It is also to mention that the

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bureaucratic leaders lead by the channelling of some established rules and regulations
along with some enforcing current structures and by presiding over some set segments
of hierarchy. According to Nielsen and Moynihan (2017), these leaders are highly
focused, organized and consistent.
e) Transformational leadership- The transformational style of leadership is the style
where the leaders work with the teams for identifying the necessary change, creating a
vision for guiding the change via inspiration and by executing the change in tandem
with the committed members of a team. They always seek for the ways for getting the
best potential and performance out of their every subordinate and takes courage for
being a transformational leader. They often challenge the old ways of doing things in
favour of more intuitive, efficient and better strategies. They are highly innovative,
motivational and empathetic.
f) Transactional leadership- Such type of leadership succeeds the best in the
organizational structure and context that is ordered, structured and is a rigid hierarchy.
Transformational leaders define the roles and the responsibilities of the subordinates
very clearly and strictly and make sure that they are performing as per their roles, and
the overall performance of the team is producing positive outcomes. With the same,
often, these leaders introduce a transparent system of rewards and penalties for their
performance in place, including the opportunities, pay and bonuses for the upward
mobility. These leaders do these for identifying the strengths and weeding out the
weaknesses among their subordinates. These types of leaders are generally highly
focused, efficient and controlled in nature.
g) Servant leadership- it is the style of leadership where the main aim of the leader is to
serve. According to (Allen et al., 2016), it is a decentralized style in which the leaders
satisfy the needs and requirements of the stakeholders. This types of leaders empower
their subordinates and interact and communicate directly with the clients and at the
same time, recognize their roles in the organization as a part of the community. The
top qualities of the servant leaders are that they are highly encouraging, receptive and
persuasive.
h) Situational leadership- Situational leadership, on the other hand, is less of a style and
more of an idea of leadership where leadership is thought of an inherently adaptable
responsibility. This type of leadership often remains highly flexible every time, and at
the same time, they are also capable of adjusting with the vision, strategies and
procedures as per the circumstances, events and demands. They often possess the

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agility of adapting the changing strategy for changing dynamics. It is to note that the
top qualities of a situational leader are that they are highly adaptable to change, agile
and versatile in change.
2.2. Selection and explanation of the preferred leadership style
Organization agility is regarded as a prerequisite for most of the companies in the
contemporary world. Leaders find it very challenging in handling the uncertainty, turbulence
and the continuous changes present in the business market. It is suggested that for SINTEF, a
suitable leadership style can be of transformational leadership.
Leaders in this company need to engage and motivate all the employees to ensure that
they are aiding to organizational development. Everyone needs to feel the obligation of
contributing and taking on the responsibility and understanding their importance for ensuring
that the organization is developing and that the event is sustaining. It is to note that the
creation of agile culture needs the leaders to be highly skilled in the total number of abilities
for handling the arena of complexity and turbulence. Transformational leadership makes use
of inspiration, motivation, and intellectual stimulation and at the same time, encourage
creativity and innovation in the workplace (Allen et al., 2016). It is essential for SINTEF,
especially for now, when it seeks to implement the lean principles using agile best practices
to its other business functions as well. The leaders should work with the teams for identifying
the necessary change, creating a vision for guiding the change via inspiration and by
executing the difference in tandem with the committed members of a team. It is one of the
most inspiring styles of leadership where the leaders or the project manager of "THE A-
TEAM" can inspire the project members to embrace change using fostering the culture of
accountability, workplace autonomy and ownership in a SINTEF. Using this style of
leadership, the project manager will seek for the ways for getting the best potential and
performance out of their every subordinate and takes courage for being a transformational
leader. They often challenge the old ways of doing things in favour of more intuitive,
efficient and better strategies. With the same, though this style of leadership, the project
manager can give the employees more room to showcase their level of creativity and look to
the future and find out new solutions for the old issues. The team members in this way will be
on the leadership track and will be prepared for becoming the transformational leaders if
given proper training and mentorship.

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2.3. Characteristics of becoming a valuable team member for "THE A TEAM
."
Competent team members are the people who have different strategies for working together
in new ways and at high speeds for achieving the top-notch outcomes. For being a valuable
team member for "THE A-TEAM", one should:
a) First, have a good understanding of his roles and the expectations of the project
manager related to his characters.
b) With the same, they must also possess the attributes of being future-focused and
optimistic. He or she should strategically approach their work and must anticipate the
actions that they could take for adding value to the business outcomes.
c) They must be focused and show genuine committed towards successful
implementation of the lean principles using agile best practices to its other business
functions.
d) Furthermore, he or she should also be flexible enough to adapt to the change that is
required to make within the team for a successful project.
e) Apart from all these, the valuable team members for “THE A TEAM” should also
possess the skills of active listening, active speaking and that of effective
communication.
f) Furthermore, he or she should be reliable enough so that the project manager can trust
them with their roles and responsibilities.
g) They must be honest and straightforward so that the project manager could count on
him or her who will help him what's what, regardless of whether it is wrong or good
news.
h) A valuable team member will always have a positive attitude as the "can do", and a
positive attitude is very critical for the success of the overall project.
2.4. Tools and techniques for facilitating the lean business operations
SINTEF is striving for creating lean logistics operations in its business processes.
After all, elimination of the waste always keeps the costs low and with the same, saves the
time of the business. It benefits every department of the supply chain of a company.
However, the achievement of lean logistics takes more cost-cutting measures if customer
satisfaction and quality of service are to remain at the top levels. It is to note that lean
logistics needs some tools and techniques to facilitate lean business operations at every level

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of SINTEF. These tools and techniques include asset tracking, big data, business intelligence
software, predictive analytics and the real-time tools of modelling.
a) Asset tracking- It makes use of identification of technology like barcode scanners,
RFID, handheld devices and barcodes for helping the employees in locating the assets
and inventory. It will help in improving the efficiency of inventory.
b) KPI reporting- For the finance operations management of the company, the KPI
reporting tool can be used. It will help in visualizing the KPIs on the customized
charts and at the same time, can make the interaction with the data a pleasure
(Sreedhar, Neelima & Ramesh, 2016). Also, one can monitor and measure the KPIs
for assessing whether the operations are delivering the expected results.
c) Big data- Right from tracking the transportation and handling to warehousing, and
inventory working capital costs by the end-customer will allow the company to
capture more value. If armed with this tool, the company can harness the power of the
big data and can quickly provide a complete view of the supply chain.
d) Business Intelligence software- This technique will further help in harnessing the big
data and in increasing the visibility to conduct the trend analysis and developing the
data-driven strategies of business for promoting the lean operations (Larson & Chang,
2016).
Assumptions
Firstly, utilizing asset tracking the employees in SINTEF can locate the assets and
inventory. It will help them in improving the efficiency of the stock; thus, it can be used in
the production department, warehouses and human capital management department of the
company. Secondly, by making use of KPI reporting for the finance operations management
of the company, the employees can visualize the KPIs on the customized charts and can make
the interaction with the data a pleasure. They can also monitor and measure the KPIs for
assessing whether the operations are delivering the expected results. Thirdly, big data will
help the logistics department of the company the power of considering all the customers and
suppliers flows all at once. It helps in tracking the transportation and handling to
warehousing, and inventory working capital costs by the end-customer. This will further
improve the company is reaping the benefits of strategic network planning, customer loyalty
management, risk resilience and evaluation and real-time route optimization. Lastly, the
business intelligence software will help in analyzing the current trends and in developing the

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data-driven strategies to cope up with the change and improve overall organizational
efficiency.
3.0 Conclusion
Hence, from the above analysis, it is to conclude that transformational leadership is
the best suitable leadership style for SINTEF’s organizational context and structure.
However, the team members also need to prove themselves valuable for the team and must
possess specific characteristics to ensure successful implementation of the project. Also,
while working towards leaner operations, the above mentioned technologies can provide a
solid foundation for the application of lean principles and change to boost the organizational
efficiency and reducing the waste and errors and at the same time, optimizing the processes
by driving better results.

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4.0 References:
Allen, G. P., Moore, W. M., Moser, L. R., Neill, K. K., Sambamoorthi, U., & Bell, H. S.
(2016). The role of servant leadership and transformational leadership in academic
pharmacy. American journal of pharmaceutical education, 80(7), 113.
Iqbal, N., Anwar, S., & Haider, N. (2015). Effect of leadership style on employee
performance. Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, 5(5), 1-6.
Larson, D., & Chang, V., (2016). A review and future direction of agile, business
intelligence, analytics and data science. International Journal of Information
Management, 36(5), 700-710.
Nawaz, Z. A. K. D. A., & Khan_, PhD, I. (2016). Leadership theories and styles: A literature
review. Leadership, 16, 1-7.
Nielsen, P. A., & Moynihan, D. P. (2017). How do politicians attribute bureaucratic
responsibility for performance? Negativity bias and interest group advocacy. Journal
of Public Administration Research and Theory, 27(2), 269-283.
Saiki, D., Kandiah, J., Beard, K., & Jones, J. J. (2016). Leadership Styles and Collaboration
Among Members of the A American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences.
Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 45(1), 17-33.
Sreedhar, J., Neelima, M., & Ramesh, D. (2016). Online Analytical Report, Recommender
System. International Journal of Science, Engineering and Computer
Technology, 6(3), 98.

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Taucean, I. M., Tamasila, M., & Negru-Strauti, G. (2016). Study on management styles and
managerial power types for a large organization. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 221, 66-75.
Trivisonno, M., & Barling, J., (2016). Organizational leadership and employee commitment.
In Handbook of employee commitment. Edward Elgar Publishing.