Leadership and Motivation: Acme Manufacturing Case Study Report

This report analyzes Steve Arnold's leadership within Acme Manufacturing, highlighting concerns such as poor time management, lack of planning, and insufficient employee interaction. It identifies Steve as a transactional leader, recommending the application of transformational leadership principles to improve his skills. The report suggests that Steve needs to enhance his managerial skills, particularly in planning, scheduling, and time management, and provides recommendations for becoming a more effective leader, emphasizing the importance of clear goals, delegation, and adaptability. The analysis draws upon leadership theories and provides practical advice for improving leadership effectiveness within the organization. The report also includes references to support the analysis and recommendations.

Running head: LEADERSHIP AND MOTIVATION
LEADERSHIP AND MOTIVATION
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1. Critically analyze the specific concerns about Steve’s leadership approaches. Give
examples from the case and explain.
According to the situation provided in the case study, Steve Arnold has many employees
in the business organization are have the capability of handling different projects. However,
Steve lacks preliminary schedule and timings. He lacks timeliness which is critical for successful
completion of projects within the set deadlines as stated by Saeed et al. (2014). It is evident from
the case situation that Ruth, his secretary was not given the authority or the option to prioritize
schedules. As mentioned by Saeed et al. (2014), as a leader, Steve fails to prioritize his timings.
He fails to look at the overall picture of the company’s work. Further, it is evident that Steve
does to have personal interaction with the staff members and his employees. Therefore timeliness
and personal interaction are some of the concerns of Steve as a leader. Moreover, as mentioned
by Saeed et al. (2014), there is no proper planning done in the organization. Steve mainly
prioritizes timely production report rather than quality figure report (Saeed et al. 2014). In most
of the organizational meetings, it is evident that there was lack of proper planning and scheduling
done. The meetings conducted were ineffective, it failed to discuss on important issues. No
attention was provided to important issues in the business organization. He focused on things
that were not important in the business organization as stated by Saeed et al. (2014). He was
unable to focus on work and failed to mange his time. Steve also failed to delegate work on other
employees effectively. Ineffective time management and improper delegation of work are also
some of the concerns. He failed to follow up with Lucy Adams. He meeting with safety
committee was also unplanned (Saeed et al. 2014). He had no time to go through the proposals
for the meetings as well as for the quality control procedures.

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2. in your assessment, is Steve more of transactional, transformational, or charismatic
leader? Why? Which theory must be used to improve his leadership skills?
From the given case study it is evident that Steve implements a transactional leader. He is
responsible for the organization. However, lacks authority. There is lack of interaction with the
other workers. According to Riaz & Khalili, (2014), this leadership style is mainly characterized
as rewards and punishments. However, there is no evidence regarding the rewards and
punishments. The transactional leadership theory can be used to improve his leadership skills.
Initiating high performance workforce is highly essential in Acme manufacturing company. This
theory involves inspirational motivating, intellectual stimulation, idealized influence, and
individualized consideration. Leaders must have the ability to inspire other members and
employees of the business organization (Riaz & Khalili, 2014). Steve must be visionary, risk
takers, inspiring and motivational. He must have charismatic appeal for changing the way in
which the business organization operations. The transformational leadership theory can be used
to bring significant changes in the business organization and change the way in which it
operations (Riaz & Khalili, 2014). In order to successfully incorporate changes in the business
organization the leader must exhibit inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, idealized
influence, individualized consideration. He must have the ability to identify the required change
in the business organization, create vision to incorporate changes through motivation, inspiration,
and incorporating change in the organization. This is one of the most integral parts of leadership
model. He must develop challenging and attractive vision along with the workers and employees.
Specifically, concerning the situation provided in the case study, Steve must focus on his
personality and maintain timeliness (Riaz & Khalili, 2014).. Timeliness is one of the most

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important characteristics of being an effective leader. There are different leadership styles which
are applicable for different business situations. In Acme Manufacturing Company,
transformational leadership style is highly essential as change is required. Transformational
leaders must have the capability and ability to emphasize significant tasks and inspire the
employees to work effectively (Riaz & Khalili, 2014). The leader can motivate them to perform
in an effective manner.
3. in your critical analysis, what specific leadership characteristics must be improved by
Steve? Outline some recommendations on what Steve must do to become more effective
manager. Give details to support your answer.
It is recommended that Steve must improve his dealing of managerial tasks and other
responsibilities. He requires proper planning, scheduling, and executing the tasks and other
responsibilities. Most importantly, he needs to work on his timeliness and punctuality (Ejimabo,
2015). It is believed that an effective leader must have empathy, positively, vision, influence,
timeliness, communication, and accountability to become an effective leader or manager. They
must have the ability to communicate effectively and influence them to perform their work
effectively. It is recommended that Steve must make time for reflective planning, so as to make
time in dealing with critical problems and urgent tasks (Ejimabo, 2015). He must plan and
schedule his activities on weekly basis, this will help him to avoid last minute hassles and
organize work effectively without missing out important tasks. There is some degree of control
required in the business organization. In an unpredictable business environment, it is also

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important for the business organization to make contingent plans to handle unforeseen situations
(Ejimabo, 2015). It is the responsibility of the leader to have insights regarding the demands and
constraints. It is argued that time is a scare resource; therefore, the leader must effectively
manage time. They must have clearly set goals and objectives, so that they know what is to be
accomplished. He must have the ability to identify important activities and have proper planning
to make use of the available time (Ejimabo, 2015). Time management is highly essential in the
business organization. Proper planning with clear objectives will help the business organization
to improve time management. Steve needs to analyze the ways in which he uses his time. This
will help him to improve time management.

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References
Ejimabo, N. O. (2015). The influence of decision making in organizational leadership and
management activities. Journal of Entrepreneurship and Organization
Management, 4(2), 1-13.
Riaz, M. N., & Khalili, M. T. (2014). Transformational, transactional leadership and rational
decision making in services providing organizations: Moderating role of knowledge
management processes. Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Sciences
(PJCSS), 8(2), 355-364.
Saeed, T., Almas, S., Anis-ul-Haq, M., & Niazi, G. S. K. (2014). Leadership styles: relationship
with conflict management styles. International Journal of Conflict Management.