Leadership in Business: Webasto Roof Systems Americas Analysis

This report examines the leadership challenges faced by Webasto Roof Systems Americas, including cultural, operational, and financial issues. The company implemented the SATURN transformation project to address hardware issues and a success-sharing program to improve employee engagement. The report highlights the importance of effective communication, including regular meetings, transparency, and the use of online collaboration tools. The analysis emphasizes the impact of employee behavior on organizational culture and the need for employee involvement in cultural change. The report underscores the significance of employee engagement, cooperation, team spirit, and good relations among organizational members to enhance productivity and performance. The report also provides references to various academic sources that support the findings and recommendations.

Running head: LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS
Leadership in business
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Communication strategy for Webasto Roof Systems Americas
Webasto Roof Systems Americas was facing the issues in terms of cultural challenges,
operational challenges and financial issues. In order to tackle the situation, the challenge was
divided into two fonts namely software and hardware. The hardware involved financial and
operational actions while the software involved culture and employee engagement. The
transformation project namely SATURN was developed to solve the hardware issues. A success
sharing program was initiated in order to enhance the employee engagement within the
organization. The organizational health index was very poor initially, which improved after a
term of eighteen months. The leadership team of the organization was reduced and the the VP of
HR was changed as he was considered to be the wrong person to drive the change successfully.
The human resource section of the organization was disorganized. The pay grades were
improperly aligned with the job description. It was finally Schramm’s efforts that improved the
organizational culture of the organization. Active meetings were held with the employees in
order to know their fears and expectations (Saks & Gruman, 2014). The entire sessions were
documented and the HR team worked upon the issues in order to resolve them. Another approach
adopted by the HR was to listen like a leader and organized training sessions for the appropriate
employees. These training sessions were not associated with the work instead, the sessions were
based upon how to communicate and interact with the people.
The project management team must ensure continuous communication through e-mails,
texts, video conferences, phone calls and direct conversations. In order to ensure effective
communication during a project, the team must meet regularly. This strategy enables the team
members to express their views and bring the necessary changes in the project. However, these
meetings must be kept short in order to avoid wastage of time. The meetings and the decision-

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making process must be inclusive and refrain from avoiding any member. The project
management team must keep their activities transparent and concise. This shall ensure that the
team members and the other employees who shall be affected by the changes shall be well aware
about the changes, which are to be brought within the organization (Argenti, 2015). The project
management team must use online collaboration tools, which shall make their job easier. Online
tools for project management are extremely useful to communicate effectively without wasting
any time. These tools can make communication easier and reduce the chances of communication
gap (Kasper & Kellerman, 2014).
Webasto can initiate an excellent communication strategy in order to raise the issues.
Since the organization aims at creating an ideal culture within the organization, the organization
must involve the employees and tale suggestions on how to improve their organizational culture.
Webasto Roof Systems Americas was facing the issues in terms of cultural challenges,
operational challenges and financial issues. In order to tackle the situation, the challenge was
divided into two fonts namely software and hardware. The hardware involved financial and
operational actions while the software involved culture and employee engagement. Employees of
an organizations and their behavior determines the organizational culture of an organization
(Crawford et al., 2014). Therefore, Webasto must involve the employees in the process of change
in the organizational culture. This shall enable the organization to devise a better suitable plan
for ensuring a great organizational culture. Due to the lack of proper organizational culture, the
organization has lost its competitive edge over the rivals therefore, it is essential for the
organization to devise a strategy, which would satisfy the organization’s need of appropriate
culture, work environment and team spirit (Mone & London, 2014). It is necessary that the
members of the organization consider the organization as their family and feel themselves a part

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of the family. This shall encourage them to put in extra efforts and improve their performance.
Proper employee engagement is essential for the success of an organization. Employee
engagement refers to the relationship between the employees and the organizations for which
they work. Engaged employees are considered to be those employees who are enthusiastic
towards their job role and are completely absorbed by their work. Such employees take personal
interests in the development and success of the organizations for which they work. Employee
engagement enhances the overall productivity of an organization (Anitha, 2014). Therefore, the
organization must build up a culture, which encourages cooperation, team spirit and good
relations among the organizational members. This shall improve the productivity of the
organization along with ensuring that the employees are satisfied and perform well.

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References:
Anitha, J. (2014). Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee
performance. International journal of productivity and performance management.
Argenti, P. A. (2015). Corporate communication. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Crawford, E. R., Rich, B. L., Buckman, B., & Bergeron, J. (2014). The antecedents and drivers
of employee engagement. Employee engagement in theory and practice, 57-81.
Kasper, G., & Kellerman, E. (2014). Communication strategies: Psycholinguistic and
sociolinguistic perspectives. Routledge.
Mone, E. M., & London, M. (2014). Employee engagement through effective performance
management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.
Saks, A. M., & Gruman, J. A. (2014). What do we really know about employee
engagement?. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 25(2), 155-182.