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Essay: Manager interview: motivation, leadership style, key challenges

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A interview conducted via Skype that gave an insight into the manager’s trait and behaviors discussed and described in this report. The manager is a 57-year-old male individual with a work experience of thirty years in the IT sector for the same company, including twenty in a managerial position. Currently, he is working as an IT manager for western Europe, coordinating the IT functions of the organization and making sure the work is harmonized across the different countries (G.A., personal communication, October 25, 2018). The manager’s tenure is strictly organized, but not in a dominant manner. His three main goals are delivering in time, quality and budget. He does not play an autocratic role within the workgroup, but is rather an example for his subordinates, by making them understand what he would like them to do so that the goal can be achieved as a team. Furthermore, the managerial tenure involves frequent contact with subordinates, trying not only to inform them as much as possible but also to involve and engage them in the task. Summarizing, the manager views himself as a “pull manager”, as he tries to pull the people along to go into the same direction, rather than to push them (G.A., personal communication, October 25, 2018). Lastly, the manager operates in the Medical Equipment Industry and has a total of fifty subordinates.
Due to ethical considerations regarding confidentiality, the manager’s name will be replaced by G.A and other identifiers will be excluded.
Individual Observations:
The first impressions of the manager were mainly unanimous. The manager is an impressive man due to his background and everything he has achieved, with self-confidence and knowledge of what he does and his abilities. The team members agreed that he seemed disciplined, selfless, positive but mainly proud of what he does. The interviewee’s personality was described as being laid back, proactive, open-minded, consistent and effective. This was because he did not seem rushed when answering the questions and due to his leadership style, which is very low in pressure, as he gives space for his subordinates to take their own decisions. He was also perceived as being charismatic, rendering him friendly and approachable. The team agreed that he was very proud of his work and enjoys every part of his job, as he stated: “For me, it is somehow like a game where we are having this interaction and we are trying to make things happen together (G.A., personal communication, October 25, 2018).” Additionally, the manager seems to be very involved in and dedicated to his job. He mentioned that he is always available for his subordinates to contact him and that he does follow-ups for issues that can appear in his team. Although he loves his job, it is not the company that he loves but the position and what he can do within the company. The team members agreed that if he was offered a job in another company where he would like the outcome of his job more or “make more or more important things happen”, he would change companies. The first impression about the manager’s motivation style was by making the subordinates feel relevant and important by taking time to schedule big meetings for them to express their opinion, and by giving them credit for their work. He also creates a trusty and honest environment where employees feel responsible to meet the interviewee’s expectations. The manager’s desire to motivate people to get things done and his responsibility are what makes him a leader. He is goal oriented as he gives a structured and detailed explanation of his expectations to his employees. The team differed on whether he was a paternalistic leader or not. As he mentioned in the interview, he leads by being an example and caring for his employees and expects trust and loyalty from his subordinates. However, other team members argue that he was simply practicing the saying of “walk the talk” as he is an example of what he expects from his subordinates.  Despite the manager explicitly saying that he did not feel like he faces significant challenges, he stated that there are some things he dislikes about his job because they make “things happen” slowly. These factors are the bureaucracy and the silo effects within the organization. Also, managing people from completely different environments and cultures to work and agree as well as balancing their working style can be a challenge for him.
Manager’s personality and key job attitudes
To describe the personality of our manager, the Big Five model can be used as a framework to define personality within five basic dimensions (Robbins, Judge, & Campbell, 2010).
Firstly, considering the dimension “Extroversion”, the interviewee can be characterized as extroverted and comfortable with relationships (Robbins et al., 2010). This assumption can be strengthened by the high result of the survey and by his statement that having regular meetings with his subordinates to discuss goals and improve their relationship (G.A., personal communication, October 25, 2018).
Moreover, extroversion is connected to agreeableness, which is the extent of being cooperative and deferring to others (Robbins et al., 2010). Our manager shows high agreeableness by having his subordinates trust him with issues they are facing and by his altruistic behavior of being available all the time (G.A., personal communication, October 25, 2018).
According to the Job attitudes, the manager has a lot of positive feelings about his job, thus he exhibits high levels of Job satisfaction (Robbins et al., 2010). This can be seen in the interview when he is talking about his job: “I very much like what I am doing, and I am getting back a lot from the people (G.A., personal communication, October 25, 2018).” Also, he revealed that he is happy when he notices progress and that the rewards for his effort are put out into work.
A reason explaining his Job Satisfaction can be found in the survey in his high result for Managerial Self efficacy which means that he is aware of his ability to achieve goals in certain situations (Robertson & Sadri, 1993). He states “I am recognized by my executives as a person that, as I said before, delivers in time, in quality, in budget, in line with the strategy, and together with my team (G.A., personal communication, October 25, 2018).” showing his awareness of his abilities.
Besides the Job satisfaction, Psychological Empowerment, the manager’s assumption how much he influences his work environment (Robbins et al., 2010), is demonstrated as well by these quotes: “I put a part of myself into making things happen” and “I am personally able to motivate the others (G.A., personal communication, October 25, 2018).”
With respect to his leadership style and its effectiveness, the survey results claim that the interviewee is a leader with a high leadership identity in general and on the relational level, so he judges his leadership identity by its effect and the connection he has with his subordinates (Johnson, Venus, Lanaj, Mao, & Chang, 2012). The following quotes describe how he sees himself as a leader: “I can definitely say it is effective because I get a lot of positive feedback from my team and from my board”; “I really want to show them that I am present and I am available and that I can represent them in front of the board (G.A., personal communication, October 25, 2018).”
Motivation
The manager’s style of motivation essentially coincides with the so-called “Goal Setting Theory”. The manager motivates his employees by setting specific and challenging goals and creating a sense of engagement in each employee. The three principal steps of this process are the “Goal Commitment”, or the confidence of an employee in his capability of achieving a goal, the “Task Characteristics”, the influence the task composition has on employee motivation, and the “National Culture”, the influence different cultures have on the Goal Setting theory (Robbins et al., 2010). Since the manager’s team is spread over a number of western European countries, the manager especially needs to focus on the “Quality Circle”, by scheduling weekly conference call meetings and monthly physical meetings to discuss problems in the various subsections of the team (G.A., personal communication, October 25, 2018) and to, in cooperation, attempt to find causes and solutions to these problems and possibly take corrective actions (Robbins et al., 2010). This obviously significantly contributes to Employee Involvement by adopting a participative management style. When possible, meaning when the board leaves the manager the freedom to make his own decisions, the manager lets the employees contribute by creating a setting that makes it possible for them to share their ideas with superiors, not only by scheduling regular meetings but also by creating a comfortable environment for the subordinates to share thoughts, ideas, and opinions (G.A., personal communication, October 25, 2018). This gives the employees a feeling of importance within the group, further enhanced by the possibility for the manager to share individual feedback with each employee. Both these factors are a type of intrinsic motivation, which, especially for the long term, is a more powerful stimulator than extrinsic motivators such as financial rewards, for example (Robbins et al., 2010).
The Job Characteristics Model states that positive feedback on a task is important to the subordinate is highly motivating (Robbins et al., 2010). By being as transparent as possible the manager’s feedback will be perceived as completely honest, leading to employees listening, not only to corrective feedback, but also being highly motivated by positive feedback about a goal, since, as previously mentioned, the manager engages the employees as much as possible, making the tasks and goals relevant and important to them (G.A., personal communication, October 25, 2018).
Furthermore, since through the transparency a feeling of trust and respect for the manager is created, the employees will take the feedback into account and attempt to fulfill the manager’s expectations in the best way possible, simultaneously improving individual and team performance (G.A., personal communication, October 25, 2018).
Leadership style
“I am the director of the orchestra, but they are playing, I am not playing (G.A., personal communication, October 25, 2018).” can be considered as to how the manager views leadership, which can be explained by theories and frameworks.
The first set of theories focus on personal qualities and behaviors differentiating non-leaders from leaders. The manager scored high on the following Big Five personality traits: extraversion (4.2), conscientiousness (3.3) and openness to experience (4.3) which, according to Trait Theory, are the most predictable traits in leaders. This theory argues that high scores in these traits allow the prediction of leaders as they are sociable and assertive, committed and disciplined, and creative and flexible in their decisions which is essential in the management of people (Robbins et al., 2017).
However, this theory is more useful to predict the emergence of leaders than to distinguish between effective and ineffective leaders (Robbins et al., 2017). The interviewee did not actively look for the managerial position; he started as subordinate and, due to his experience and abilities, was promoted to a managerial position (G.A., personal communication, October 25, 2018). This exhibits how individuals can have “leader traits”, but not be in a managerial position and if they are assigned to a managerial position those traits may not be enough for them to be efficient, as the interviewee stated “Of course I was not prepared for that…” when asked about his first managerial experience. Nonetheless, the behavioral theory of leadership argues that specific behaviors differentiate leaders from non- leaders (Robbins et al., 2017).  The interviewee exhibited a balanced combination of leadership behavioral dimensions. In the initiating structure (production-oriented leader according to the University of Michigan) the interviewee defines and structures his expectation to his subordinates by giving detailed descriptions of how he wants the job done and by setting goals within timeframes. In the consideration dimension (employee-oriented leader), the interviewee’s relationship with his subordinates involves mutual trust, as the manager trusts his subordinate to do a good job since he is not constantly controlling them. He rather tries to schedule weekly meetings where subordinates can express issues they are facing, and he respects their ideas and feelings (G.A., personal communication, October 25, 2018). This balance between these two dimensions may be due to the fact that the manager works with a diverse group of people stemming from different cultures and environments which differ their working styles and the way they need to be managed.
The interviewee’s leadership style can be explained through the contemporary theories of situational leadership, path-goal theory and transformational leadership. These theories combined capture the interviewee’s leadership style, as a single leadership theory cannot describe every aspect of the interviewee’s style. Firstly, the situational theory focuses on the the ability of the manager to accommodate to his followers. The interviewee claimed to adapt to his followers’ cultures and working styles (G.A., personal communication, October 25, 2018). Secondly, as stated above the interviewee is heavily goal-oriented, thus the path-goal theory explains his leadership style best, he sets a clear and detailed expectation of what is asked. He is directive when giving instructions on what the expectations are and how they have to be met, supportive, as he “always has the door open” and tries to do weekly meeting for any query or issues, and participative, as he is involved in the process of achieving the goal by checking the progress and connecting the right people. Finally, the transformational and transactional leadership theory. The interviewee has a combination of characteristics of transactional and transformational leaders but he tends to be more transformational than transactional. He is an idealized influence rather than a contingent reward, as he provides a mission and vision to achieve a goal and install a sense of pride by recognizing good performance. He is an inspirational motivator by communicating high expectations in clear ways and having individualized considerations by coaching with each subordinate individually when they are having issues. However, he both manages by exception and promotes intellectual stimulation as he prefers subordinates that understand what is wanted from them and that does not need constant supervision. However, he intervenes if standards are not met.
Key Challenges
The manager is currently dealing with coordination problems. He is responsible for several teams in several countries, so frequent international video calls are a part of his job. He described the key challenges he faces as “we are quite often having sides that are totally disconnected” and ‘‘It is not always easy in a corporation that has a lot of silence, a lot of politics, to be immediately understood (G.A., personal communication, October 25, 2018).’’ Yet he did mention that these issues are not creating huge problems for him as his company is not defined as big.
Besides that, as a manager of an IT company he points out the workload as he stated, ‘‘the demand for IT is increasing, so sometimes it is a bit overloading and expectations are high (G.A., personal communication, October 25, 2018).’’ It is undoubtful that his work requires discipline and solid leadership skills which he seems to be fulfilling.
In this circumstance, we would propose the manager to work more on European leadership styles.  Duncan in his book, Leadership: a Question of Culture.1, says that expected leadership styles differ from country to country and he collects them under three clusters: The Anglo culture, Scandinavian countries, Mediterranean cluster (Robbins et al., 2017)
There are more to come with studies (East-West Europe)
He says that even though his definitions are not complete, it would help the leaders to have different perspectives (Robbins et al., 2010).
As our manager is dealing with this issue and he has said over, words mean different things to different nationalities, we believe that having more knowledge on this topic would be crucial for him to adapt his leadership style if needed and avoid and overcome any miscommunications.
Reflection and discussion
The combination of the qualitative data with the interview and the quantitative data with the survey was partially relevant and beneficial to prove the arguments. For the Personality and Job attitudes part, it was a benefit because the survey and the interview complemented each other, meaning when the manager had a high score in a certain characteristic, in the interview, it was shown as well so it was easy to find prove out of both sources and combine them.
For the part of the leadership style, the quantitative data from the surveys helped establish statements like how the manager scored high in the extroversion dimension in the Big Five allows for trait theory to predict leadership. Additionally, the qualitative data from the interview helped expand on how the manager think and behave, as well as the motivations behind his actions. However, the quantitative data from the survey was a little hard to analyze because of its conclusive nature and the fact that we only had the manager score and average score to compare it with.
However, for the Motivation part, the information extracted from the interview was quite comprehensive and satisficing and did not require further data for clarification. Furthermore, the survey’s data did not seem fully relevant to the motivational style aspect of the manager and was thus unnecessary to include as a source.
For the key challenges part, the interview was essential. It showed the key challenges the manager faces and how he deals with them. Qualitative data was important to understand the issues which cannot be extracted from the survey. Howsoever, quantitative data from the survey gave us a better understanding of our manager’s attitudes, which helped us draw a portrait of our manager and lead us to give better suggestions. The combination of both, qualitative and quantitative data, was necessary for this part, in order to be able to fully comprehend our manager’s key challenges and his perspective of them.

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