Organizational Behavior Issues in SheffLink Case Study Analysis

The SheffLink case study examines organizational behavior issues within a warehousing and parcel delivery firm, focusing on challenges that arose after a leadership transition. The report identifies key issues including leadership style, perception discrepancies, conflicts between team members, and...Read More

SheffLink Case Study
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
OB ISSUES AT PLAY IN SHEFFLINK AND EXPLAIN THEIR IMPACT ON BEHAVIOUR IN THE
COMPANY?...............................................................................................................................................3
RECOMMEND WAYS THAT THE ISSUES IDENTIFIED ABOVE MAY BE RESOLVED BEFORE
SHEFFLINK CAN SUCCESSFULLY CONSIDER ADOPTING NEW WAYS OF WORKING.............4
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCE..............................................................................................................................................6
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INTRODUCTION
The concept of organizational behavior is all about the set of actions as well as attitudes
possessed by employees towards each other and the company that further puts an impact on
overall functioning and performance (Oore and et.al., 2015). The present report is based on a
case study of Shell limited which is warehousing and parcel delivery firm that has its network in
distribution market of South Yorkshire. The firm started facing performance related issue after
the retirement of John Draper who worked on setting up the company in the year 2002. Hence
the report on the basis of the case has focused on the impact of organizational behavior issues on
company and the ways to resolve the same.
OB ISSUES AT PLAY IN SHEFFLINK AND EXPLAIN THEIR IMPACT ON
BEHAVIOUR IN THE COMPANY?
Several issues can be identified as per the case study which is as follows;
 Leadership – as per the planning of Sue, the company had to undergo a very big change
in terms of cost cutting measures such as creation of flexible work forces; removal of
annual Christmas party (highlight of year); reduction in training and other benefit;
contractual working g of delivery team as per the parcels delivered among others. Very
first issue that was there in leadership style of Sue was that such a change was not
supported by principles of open communication as well as utter lack of consultation with
the important members of the staff about the issues going on within the company and the
strategy she wanted to take in order to resolve it (Tucker and Singer, 2015).
 Perception – The case study also describes the issue of wrong perception that was
developed by Sue and Michale towards each other. Sue also perceived the presence of a
union official to be a waste of time and she was not ready to tolerate any disagreement
from him.
 Conflict – there was also an issue with management of Hari as a team leader who did not
paid attention to the conflicts and personal differences that were going within his team.
He kept a much laid back attitude which resulted in a high staff turnover in Warehouse
department. Moreover the conflict between 2 team leaders being Hari and Sam were so
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much that the meetings ended up in sarcastic comments as well as insults. Conflicting
situation also arose between sue and Michael that made things worse.
 Motivation- The case study further describes the issue of motivation in the warehouse
team as the employees were not given bonuses on the basis of their punctuality but the
delivery team got bonuses with respect to delivery of order. This demotivated the staff
members and the warehouse team thus started taking adverse steps such as being slow in
supplying items to delivery team so as to lessen their bonuses. This kind of demotivation
and is after effects were quite detrimental to overall functioning of the company (Oore
and et.al., 2015).
The above issues are important ones that have put an impact on the overall working of the firm
especially at the management level. The need here is to resolve them in the best possible manner
so that financial condition of the firm can be improved.
RECOMMEND WAYS THAT THE ISSUES IDENTIFIED ABOVE MAY BE
RESOLVED BEFORE SHEFFLINK CAN SUCCESSFULLY CONSIDER ADOPTING
NEW WAYS OF WORKING.
As per the above identified issues as well as findings from the case study several ways
can be recommended by which issues can be resolved before Shefflink adopts to new ways of
working. In order to sort the issue of leadership the need on part of Sue is to utilize democratic
leadership where subordinates are required to be consulted with respect to the decisions
undertaken by Sue. The need is further to utilize concept of downward communication so as to
get the support of staff members in the decisions taken by her. Then only she can be successful
as a leader rather than just running the company. She could have further made use of Kurt Lewin
approach to change management and focus especially on unfreezing stage where Sue should
make the board members understand why the existing measures undertaken by company cannot
continue and why she wishes to introduce cost cutting measures. The need is to create strong
motivation among those board members so that they get ready for change then comes change
stage where the employees will start looking at things from new dimension as introduced by Sue
followed by refreezing where the employees will get confidence and comfortable in the new
way of working (Zhang and et.al., 2015).
Next step is to work on the negative perception held by Sue and Michael towards each
other which can be done by ensuring that they both communicate properly with each other
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(Coghlan and et.al., 2015). Sue is further required to take the opinion of Michael with respect to
possible changes to be introduced by her and thus gain his backing. Sue may not feel the support
to be important one but this is required if she wishes to be a people’s leader as that was the
strategy which was followed by Michael’s father.
Other than this, several conflict resolution strategies can be adopted by the company
between team leaders being Hari and Sam such as collaborating where the ideas of both the team
leads can be set out and acceptable solution can be found which is acceptable to both. However,
this strategy should be done in front of management so that a proper decision making can be
done. The conflicting situation between Michael and Sue is also required to be resolved which
can be done by adhering with compromising strategy so that both of them reach at an acceptable
solution if not an agreeable one (Oore and et.al., 2015). The perception issue in the present case
can be resolved out by undertaking an open and direct communication with each other being
Michael and Sue. They must try to focus on view points of each other and also develop a positive
attitude so as to resolve the problem before it gets out of the track.
The need is to further to work on the issue of demotivation that is being faced by
warehouse team. This can be done by fixing performance bonus for them as done with delivery
team. This will not only aid in boosting up the morale but also resolve out the conflicting
situation between both the teams to a maximum possible extent (Brubaker and et.al., 2014). The
need is further to focus on maintaining open communication with the employees in order to
assess the set of issues that are being faced by them. Other than this, attainable goals can also be
set for the staff members of warehouse and delivery team. Top performer rewards can also be set
which may involve for verbal recognition, preferred parking, gift cards etc. that are not so costly
and most likely to save the company from increased cost.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded the case study has depicted towards the
presence of several issues but majority of them were from the end of management. Hence the
need is to bring a huge change in leadership styles so as to help in overall success of
organization. Other than this, rests of the issues are trivial one and can be handed by strategies
such as motivation, conflict resolution and communication among others. This is a must so as to
ensure towards successful functioning of the organization and increasing chances for its long
term future sustainability.
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REFERENCE
Gilin Oore, D., Leiter, M. P., & LeBlanc, D. E. (2015). Individual and organizational factors
promoting successful responses to workplace conflict. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie
canadienne, 56(3), 301.
Zhang, Y., Waldman, D. A., Han, Y. L., & Li, X. B. (2015). Paradoxical leader behaviors in
people management: Antecedents and consequences. Academy of Management
Journal, 58(2), 538-566.
Tucker, A. L., & Singer, S. J. (2015). The Effectiveness of Management‐By‐Walking‐Around: A
Randomized Field Study. Production and Operations Management, 24(2), 253-271.
Coghlan, D., Rashford, N. S., & de Figueiredo, J. N. (2015). Organizational change and
strategy: An interlevel dynamics approach. Routledge.
Brubaker, D., Noble, C., Fincher, R., Park, S. K. Y., & Press, S. (2014). Conflict resolution in the
workplace: What will the future bring?. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 31(4), 357-386.
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