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Analysis of John Terrill Leadership

1           Introduction

In order to effectively influence the followers in any specific situation, the leader needs to adopt the most suitable approach and style of leadership which is well aligned with the given situational context. While the contemporary organizations and business environment is becoming more complex, the leaders are also required to be more flexible in their approach. The underlying report is focused on analysis of DGL case, whereby technical division of company is completely showing low productivity, in spite of having best qualified and highest paid engineers. John Terrill was appointed as the head of the division and current report has critically investigated his style of leadership along with source of power being used by him to influence his followers. The identification of issues in the his leadership style has served as the way of making recommendations regarding changes needed in leadership style of Terrill to make it more effective for enhancing productivity of Technical division of DGL.

2           Issues identified in leadership style of Terrill

Investigation of Terrill’s leadership has highlighted that he presented limited focus on enhancement and implementation of task structures. As indicated in the case, Terrill has organized meeting with engineers to assure them off their welfare and made an effort to assert the right of engineers in front of senior management. To maintain good relationship with engineers in his technical team, he made a trade off with task structure consolidation. Under the tenant of behavioral theories of leadership, the focus of Terrill was on people oriented behavior while remaining completely ignorant of task oriented behavior (Santoso et al., 2020). So, he did not focus on providing task related guidance and creating shared work responsibilities for engineers to enhance performance of the division. His lack of concern towards task behavior might further lower the commitment of employees, thus leading to even severe performance and productivity issues in Technical division of DGL (Meier, 2016). Likewise, it could also lead to ambiguous task goals formation and conflict generation among other issues.

3           Leadership style of Terrill

The leadership style of Terrill can be viewed through the lens of situational leadership theory, which has four different styles of leadership, characterized by two key variables; task behavior and relationship behavior (Thompson and Glasø, 2018; Hersey, Blanchard and Natemeyer, 1979). These four styles are; directing (low directive and low support), coaching (high directive and high support), supporting (low directive and high support) and delegating (high directive and low support) (Santoso et al., 2020). In the light of this theory, Terrill’s leadership style can be best described as supportive leadership style, whereby Terrill is more supportive and less directive towards the engineers in his team. The justification of his leadership style can be given by considering the readiness level of his followers (engineers). In the Technical department of DGL, engineers have enjoyed possess high level of job readiness as they are receiving highest salary that is backed by very good qualification level. This information shows that engineers had high working competence, as they possess needed level of knowledge, skills as well as experience to work effectively on their respective job positions. The second factor which defines readiness of engineers is their willingness and commitment to perform. In case of engineers’ of Technical team, they had to spend high time of writing reports which has substantially lowered their morale and willingness to perform. These evidences clearly indicate that development level of engineers was best suited to D3 (Henkel and Bourdeau, 2018). In D3 level of employee development, they have moderate to high level of competence and low level of commitment, which is indicated in case of engineers of Technical division of DGL (Meier, 2016).

It has been indicated from the model of situational leadership that when employees are highly competent and able to perform their task appropriately yet have low level of readiness, then they need high support from leaders (Cote, 2017; Zigarmi and Roberts, 2017). As indicated from case, Terrill has maintained high focus on creating conditions for employees through which their willingness to perform can increase. For instance, Terrill has called meeting to provide opportunity to engineers for giving their views on factors which are hindering their performance. The employees were free to provide their suggestions regarding work and Terrill has assured to support them in their work.  It shows that Terrill was highly inclined towards relationship development with engineers. On the other hand, he has focused less on directing them and invested little time and energy in guiding the staff on task related activities. As shown by case information, “My job is to stay out of your way so you can do your work, and I’ll try to keep top management off your backs, too”. It clearly shows that he has not focused on task structure development and has not implemented any procedures to guide employees on their work activities. Therefore, it can be concluded that John Terrill has adopted supportive leadership style, while being highly supportive and less directive.

On the other hand, it is witness able from the case information that he even assured his followers that he will take top management off their backs, such that they can work with greater autonomy and discretion. The leader whose influence is derived from relationship, rather than formal authority is recognized as interactive leader (Wright, 2017). Here, John Terrill has also acted as an interactive leader and he has tried to create conditions whereby his followers can collaborate with him on the issues experienced by them. It is noticeable that Terrill tried to be empathetic from the start and never tried to coerce any of his engineers to improve productivity by all means. Rather he acted as their support system and assured them that they will be provided with the working environment which is desired by them to work efficiently.

4           Source of power used by Terrill

There are different sources through which managers and leaders can obtain power to influence the actions and behavior of their subordinates. The key sources of power are; legitimate power, reward power, coercive power, expert power and referent power (Murphy and Bratton, 2020). In order to effectively guide individuals and to influence them, the reliance on suitable source of power is important for leaders (Lunenburg, 2012). Based on the analysis of John Terrill’s case, there are two sources of power which are being used by him to influence his followers. Firstly, legitimate power was key source for John Terrill to be able to influence his followers. The use of legitimate power is indicated by following aspects; 1) John Terrill has been able to communicate with engineers and extract information as he was appointed the head of division and he had been given power from this position, 2) By use of legitimate power, Terrill was able to direct and regulate engineers in the Technical division and 3) he was able to communicate with other departments and even senior leaders of the organization. These aspects show that key source of power was legitimate power.

On the other hand, referent power was also been used by John Terrill, as he has made reliance on his personal charisma and relationship skills to interact and communicate with his followers. For instance, his ability to empathetically communicate with employees has enabled him to extract information from them (Salehzadeh, 2017). Additionally, his emphasis on personal welfare of engineers rather than goals and performance of division has also enabled him to seek approval of engineers. By influencing engineers through his personal power, he was able to make them speak about the issues faced by them. As noted by Murphy and Bratton (2020) the development of good relationship is difficult to establish by making sole reliance on position of leader.  This influence was not supported by position related power (legitimate power) but was supported by personal characteristics and skills of Terrill (Referent power). Therefore, it can be mentioned that Terrill used both legitimate as well as personal power to influence engineers in his division.

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1           References

Cote, R., 2017. Vision of effective leadership. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics14(4).

Henkel, T. and Bourdeau, D., 2018. A field study: An examination of managers’ situational leadership styles. Journal of Diversity Management (JDM)13(2), pp.7-14.

Hersey, P., Blanchard, K.H. and Natemeyer, W.E., 1979. Situational leadership, perception, and the impact of power. Group & Organization Studies4(4), pp.418-428.

Lunenburg, F.C., 2012. Power and leadership: An influence process. International journal of management, business, and administration15(1), pp.1-9.

Meier, D., 2016. Situational Leadership Theory as a Foundation for a Blended Learning Framework. Journal of Education and Practice7(10), pp.25-30.

Murphy, J. and Bratton, J., 2020. Power and Leadership. Organizational Leadership, p.57.

Salehzadeh, R., 2017. Which types of leadership styles do followers prefer? A decision tree approach. International Journal of Educational Management.

Santoso, B., Imaniyati, N., Hufad, A. and Rahmat, A., 2020. The Effect Of Situational Leadership and Motivation on Employee Performance. Talent Development & Excellence12(1).

Thompson, G. and Glasø, L., 2018. Situational leadership theory: a test from a leader-follower congruence approach. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.

Wright, E.S., 2017. Dialogic development in the situational leadership style. Performance Improvement56(9), pp.27-31.

Zigarmi, D. and Roberts, T.P., 2017. A test of three basic assumptions of Situational Leadership® II Model and their implications for HRD practitioners. European Journal of Training and Development.

FEEDBACK

  1. Introduction

In order to effectively influence the followers in any specific situation, the leader needs to adopt the most suitable approach and style of leadership which is well aligned with the given situational context. While the contemporary organizations and business environment is becoming more complex, the leaders are also required to be more flexible in their approach. The underlying report is focused on analysis o f [Remember to use the denite article 'the' before nouns that are denitely being referred to.] DGL [With acronyms, spell out the words on rst use, put the acronym in parentheses ( ), then use the acronym for all subsequent uses. ]case, whereby technical division of company is completely showing low productivity, in spite of having best qualified and highest paid engineers. John Terrill was appointed as the head of the division and [Remember to use the denite article 'the' before nouns that are denitely being referred to.]current report has critically investigated his style of leadership along with source of power being used by him to influence his followers. The identification of issues in the his leadership style has served as the way of making recommendations regarding changes needed in leadership styl [You have repeated this word/phrase.]e of Terrill to make it more effective for enhancing productivity of Technical division of DGL.

  1. Issues identified in leadership style of Terrill

Investigation of Terrill’s leadership has highlighted that he presented [Remember to include indenite articles (a or an) before a singular noun that is being referred to.]limited focus on enhancement and implementation of task structures. As indicated in the case, Terrill has organized meeting with engineers to assure them off [This spelling is incorrect. Please review.]their welfare and made an effort to assert the right of engineers in front of senior management. To maintain good relationship with engineers in his technical team, he made a trade off with task structure consolidation. Under the tenant of behavioral theories of leadership, the focus of Terrill was on people oriented behaviorwhileremainingcompletelyignorantoftaskorientedbehavior (Santosoetal.,2020)[Please remember to check all referencing against your institution's referencing style guide.]. So, he did not focus on providing task related guidance and creating shared work responsibilities for engineers to enhance performance of the division. His lack of concern towards task behavior might further lower the commitment of employees, thus leading to even severe performance and productivity issues in Technical division of DGL (Meier, 2016). Likewise, it could also lead to ambiguous task goals formation and conflict generation among other issues. [The paragraph requires a concluding sentence to link back to the main idea of the paragraph.]

  1. Leadership style of Terrill

The leadership style of Terrill can be viewed through the lens of situational leadership theory, which has four different styles of leadership, characterized by two key variables; task behavior and relationship behavior (Thompson and Glasø, 2018; Hersey, Blanchard and Natemeyer, 1979). These four styles are; directing (low directive and low support), coaching (high directive and high support), supporting (low directive and high support) and delegating (high directive and low support) (Santoso et al., 2020). In the light of this theory, Terrill’s leadership style can be best described as [Remember to include indenite articles (a or an) before a singular noun that is being referred to.]supportive leadership style, whereby Terrill is more supportive and less directive towards the engineers in his team. The justification of his leadership style can be given by considering the readiness level of his followers (engineers). In the Technical department of DGL, engineers have enjoyed [Try and avoid the use of unnecessary words as it leads to wordiness and poor readability.]possess high level of job

readiness as they are receiving highest salary that is backed by very good qualification level. This information shows that engineers had high working competence, as they possess [Remember to use the denite article 'the' before nouns that are denitely being referred to.]needed level of knowledge, skills as well as experience to work effectively on their respective job positions. The second factor which defines readiness of engineers is their willingness and commitment to perform. In case of engineers’ of Technical [Please revise your use of capital letters here.]team, they had to spend high time of writing reports which has substantially lowered their morale and willingness to perform. These evidences clearly indicate that development level of engineers was best suited to D3 (Henkel and Bourdeau, 2018). In D3 level of employee development, they have moderate to high level of competence and low level of commitment, which is indicated in case [Remember to use the denite article 'the' before nouns that are denitely being referred to.]of engineers of Technical division of DGL (Meier, 2016).

It has been indicated from the model of situational leadership that when employees are highly competent and able to perform their task appropriately yet have low level of readiness, then they need high support from leaders (Cote, 2017; Zigarmi and Roberts, 2017). As indicated from [Remember to use the denite article 'the' before nouns that are denitely being referred to.]case, Terrill has maintained high focus on creating conditions for employees through which their willingness to perform can increase. For instance, Terrill has called meeting to provide opportunity to engineers for giving their views on factors which are hindering their performance. The employees were free to provide their suggestions regarding work and Terrill has assured to support them in their work. It shows that Terrill was highly inclined towards relationship development with engineers. On the other hand, he has focused less on directing them and invested little time and energy in guiding the staff on task related activities. As shown by case information, “My job is to stay out of your way so you can do your work, and I’ll try to keep top management off your backs, too”. It clearly shows that he has not focused on task structure development and has not implemented any procedures to guide employees on their work activities. Therefore, it can be concluded that John Terrill has adopted [Remember to include indenite articles (a or an) before a singular noun that is being referred to.]supportive leadership style, while being highly supportive and less directive.

On the other hand, it is witness able from the case information that he even assured his followers that he will take top management off their backs, such that they can work with greater autonomy and discretion. The leader whose influence is derived from relationship, rather than formal authority is recognized as interactive leader (Wright, 2017). Here, John Terrill has also acted as an interactive leader and he has tried to create conditions whereby his followers can collaborate with him on the issues experienced by them. It is noticeable that Terrill tried to be empathetic from the start and never tried to coerce any of his engineers to improve productivity by all means. Rather he acted as their support system and assured them that they will be provided with the working environment which is desired by them to work efficiently.

  1. Source of power used by Terrill

There are different sources through which managers and leaders can obtain power to influence the actions and behavior of their subordinates. The key sources of power are; legitimate power, reward power, coercive power, expert power and referent power (Murphy and Bratton, 2020). In order to effectively guide individuals and to influence them, the reliance on suitable source of power is important for leaders (Lunenburg, 2012). Based on the analysis of John Terrill’s case, there are two sources of power which are being used by him to influence his followers. Firstly, legitimate power was key source for John Terrill to be able to influence his followers. The use of legitimate power is indicated by following aspects; 1) John Terrill has been able to communicate with engineers and extract information as he was appointed the head of division and he had been given power from this position, 2) By use of

legitimate power, Terrill was able to direct and regulate engineers in the Technical division and 3) he was able to communicate with other departments and even senior leaders of the organization. These aspects show that key source of power was legitimate power.

On the other hand, referent power was also been used by John Terrill, as he has made reliance on his personal charisma and relationship skills to interact and communicate with his followers. For instance, his ability to empathetically communicate with employees has enabled him to extract information from them (Salehzadeh, 2017). Additionally, his emphasis on personal welfare of engineers rather than goals and performance of division has also enabled him to seek approval of engineers. By influencing engineers through his personal power, he was able to make them speak about the issues faced by them. As noted by Murphy and Bratton (2020) the development of good relationship is difficult to establish by making sole reliance on position of leader. This influence was not supported by position related power (legitimate power) but was supported by personal characteristics and skills of Terrill (Referent power). Therefore, it can be mentioned that Terrill used both legitimate as well as personal power to influence engineers in his division.

  1. References [Please remember to check all referencing against your institution's referencing style guide.]

Reflection on Studiosity feedback

The feedback obtained from studiosity on draft of the report is valuable for guiding me on my mistakes and to improve the final report. For instance, the feedback has directed me on the appropriate use of definite and indefinite articles. Different grammatical mistakes are also being highlighted. Additionally, the feedback has made me understand that how use of repetitive words can lower the quality of my manuscript. Additionally, the consideration has also been offered to align reference list with referencing style of the university. By considering these valuable comments, I can bring substantial improvements in my final report and can make it a quality piece of writing.

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