Based on what has been presented so far, this analysis recommends that Miranda should attempt to pursue a leadership path that integrates sufficient relationship behavior into it. The fact of the matter is, the employee churn rate within the Runway is far too high to consider it to be a viable organization. Companies need talented employees to be successful and efficient; the current leadership style of Miranda, coupled with the highly toxic environment that she fosters, drives away good workers from the company’s competitors.
This is a detrimental action when taking into consideration market competitiveness and how these former employees would help in bringing down their former employer. It is based on this that under the concept of relationship behavior, Miranda should attempt to implement the following changes within the company:
- Create an atmosphere of open communication: as revealed within this paper, there is little in the way of proper communication and collaboration within the company. Orders from Miranda are in effect dictated to her employees and they are to be explicitly carried out. While this “pyramidal” form of communication may seem to be effective from the point of view of the movie, the fact remains that from a management perspective; this fosters not only resentment from employees but creates issues about project outcomes. No single person is infallible, people make mistakes and this needs to be pointed out when it happens. The only way this can occur is if there are sufficient communication and collaboration within an office. Unfortunately, as seen in the case with Runway, this was not evident would most likely result in an escalation rather than a reduction in the number of mistakes made. As such, this calls into question the efficacy of Miranda’s leadership style and the need to implement changes within the company.
- Implementation of Intrinsic Methods of Employee Motivation and Engagement – within the context of Miranda’s Autocratic leadership style is her use of a rewards and punishment system to derive the greatest amount of performance from her employees. This manifests itself in the extrinsic rewards system she utilizes wherein she doles out rewards to employees that follow her commands, create effective results, and please her. On the other hand, employees that displease her due to their performance or behavior are immediately punished in one form or another. While extrinsic reward systems have been utilized in various types of leadership styles, the fact remains that they foster a competitive rather than a cooperative atmosphere. This was evident in the movie wherein the cutthroat nature of the office was emphasized multiple times (Colbert, Barrickh & Bradley, 2014). However, within the concept of utilizing relationship behavior as an aspect of her leadership style, Miranda’s continued use of extrinsic methods of employee motivation and engagement could be considered as being detrimental towards the goal of fostering better employee relations. Instead, an intrinsic method of motivation would be better suited for such a task. Intrinsic methods of motivation focus on creating an internal means of fostering an employee’s outlook regarding their job (Tiffan, 2014). This can come in the form of creating a more hospitable and welcoming work environment, providing amenities such as free food, daycare facilities, and an assortment of other benefits that would make employees feel more at home as well as showing that the company truly cares for them instead of just thinking of them as a mere number on a balance sheet. By implementing intrinsic methods of motivation, helps to make employees more motivated to work or the company without creating the cutthroat competitive atmosphere that used to pervade the company.
As for the leadership style that Miranda should utilize, this paper recommends that Miranda should Team Management as her leadership style to compromise and place a strong emphasis on both tasks and interpersonal relationships. This particular style essentially states that to be an effective leader, the leader needs to have the ability to balance both task and relationship behaviors. It is within this context that the following recommendations have been developed:
- Task Delegation – in this case, task delegation involves creating leadership roles within the company wherein specific employees that how a considerable degree of merit are given positions as leaders within the company. This allows a far greater level of flexibility for Miranda when it comes to her schedule enabling her to address some of the more difficult problems that the company is facing (Zhang, Chao, and Tjosvold, 2011). Task delegation also enables employees to feel that they are valued members of the company and, as a result, fosters the desire to improve the company as a whole since they start to think of it as their own.
- Employee Empowerment – employee empowerment within the context of this paper focuses on enabling employees to feel that they are valued commodities within the company (Tiffan, 2014). This comes in the form of various methods of showing employee appreciation, such as award ceremonies, emails, and an assortment of other similar acts that show that the company recognizes their hard work and commitment towards quality results.
Reference List
Colbert, A. E., Barrick, M. R., & Bradley, B. H. (2014). Personality And Leadership Composition in Top Management Teams: Implications For Organisational Effectiveness. Personnel Psychology, 67(2), 351-387.
Tiffan, B. (2014). The Art of Team Leadership. American Journal Of Health-System Pharmacy, 71(10), 799-801.
Zhang, X., Cao, Q., & Tjosvold, D. (2011). Linking Transformational Leadership and Team Performance: A Conflict Management Approach. Journal Of Management Studies, 48(7), 1586-1611.