Identify and briefly discuss TWO management challenges faced by Chris Paterson in the case study.

The main challenges that Chris faced in DSS project team were because of the management and company transformation. There were weak communication skills in the project team of DSS. Every team need good communication skills that is very much important for company’s future. It helps in the message flow from senior managers to their subordinates which also facilitate in creating favorableenvironment in the workplace. Managers need to communicate about the ultimate goals with their team in order to meet the expectations of the company. There should be a need to develop relationship with the managers so that they will feel easy to tell them about their perspectives of what are the areas that need the improvement and alternations in order to get better performance in a very effective manner (Drucker, 2007).

The other challenge that is faced by the team is the weak managerial support. Managers need to look after the inspiration of the team and that they are fully devoted and motivated for their tasks. The COO does not cooperate to give feedback to the team and advise some methods that they could apply to get new customers. Meg is not telling the team the needs for the projects to be successful for them so that they can apply their suggestions. After all this, company get great affect by their decision of making changes in the structure as well as the management styles. The decision that managers made; employees are not satisfied by them. Team members are scared of the changes that will be made in the company and will ultimately affect their performance.

Question 2

Discuss the approaches taken by Chris to deal with the challenges.   Were they appropriate?

Base on the case study,the communication skills of Paterson and Cooke was scarcely and poor. There was no arrangement for the regular meeting. Even if meetings are held, they are short.  Meetings don’t end up with clear conclusions. Communication is useful when both sender as well as the receiver both are able to understand this. Two concepts were introduced, Downward and Upward Communication, in order to solve this communication issue between Cooke and Paterson (Ricciardelli & Yager., 2015).

Downward communication: it is a management strategy for cascading information in the direction downward to the receiver using the particular information like face to face, virtually etc. Manager have their attention if their team memberhas got the information or not and they care about the feedback for the perfect understanding.

Upward communication: upward communication is for feedback mechanism which make the team member to feel involved and it helps manager to understand the progress of the team members.

It was recommended by HR department that there should be developedtwo-way flow of communication with Paterson, like status meeting periodically, emailing for asking questions, different ways to provide information to the team. Manager should make sure that she will get proper feedback periodically, this will make everyone participating. It will make manager to be in touch with the employees and can easily give them timely alert on their potential issues.

Question 3 

Who were the important people in the case study and what was Chris’ approach to the power relations?   What are the important power lessons from the case?

This case study is about the dispute between Ms. Cooke, DSS’s COO and Ms. Peterson, southwest regions team leader, about the issue in the organization. Cooke was the person who decided that Peterson project should get stopped as the team is not involved in product development anymore. So many problems were revealed regarding issues of Cooke as a COO and company transition process. Through many researches it has been revealed that Cooke actually lack the skills of leadership, management style, communication and management changes as well as the teamwork. The communication skills of Paterson and Cooke was scarcely and poor. There was no arrangement for the regular meeting. Even if meetings are held, they are short.  Meetings don’t end up with clear conclusions. Communication is useful when both sender as well as the receiver both are able to understand this.

HR department suggested that appropriate attention will be given to this case from the side of board. They tried to interview Cooke about his management skills and techniques for transition. They advised to put on training session in DSS for the introduction of management skills. Sub respective training was designed both for Coke and Peterson (Vanhoozer, 2005).

Question 4 

What skills does a manager of Chris’s position need to effectively head the Southwest Region team? Which skill is most important? Discuss.

Leadership: it is the method to influence activities in any group toward their achievement of goal in any given situation. Leaders are for motivating the organization members and impart different values in them like honesty, hardworking, concerns with customers etc. Continuous effective improvement depends on the capability of the manager to lead its team that each and everyone will involve in performing for the project.

Communication skills: Every team need good communication skills that is very much important for company’s future. It helps in the message flow from senior managers to their subordinates which also facilitate in creating favorable environment in the workplace. Managers need to communicate about the ultimate goals with their team in order to meet the expectations of the company. There should be a need to develop relationship with the managers so that they will feel easy to tell them about their perspectives of what are the areas that need the improvement and alternations in order to get better performance in a very effective manner.

Managerial skills: Managers need to look after the inspiration of the team and that they are fully devoted and motivated for their tasks. The managerial style influences the performance of the team and ultimately the outcome of the company. Managerial style is as much important as the management competence. Manager need to provide a goal, a vision and a mission to the team in order to have them a direction and strategy.

References of Chris Peterson at DSS Consulting

Drucker, P. F. (2007). Management challenges for the 21st century. Routledge.

Ricciardelli, L. A., & Yager., Z. (2015). Adolescence and body image: from development to preventing dissatisfaction. Routledge.

Vanhoozer, K. J. (2005). Dictionary for theological interpretation of the Bible. Baker Academic.