Affecting Change in Business

Affecting Change

Smith & Falmouth (S & F) is a medium-size tele-shopping and mail order network in the United States and Canada. The company is looking to expand their business in the next few years by creating an online division, S & F Online. The leadership structure of S & F Online comprises of a Project Manager, a Logistics Manager, and a Marketing Manager. The Project Manager supervises a six-member web development team and is in charge of the online sales channel and online payment gateway. The Logistics Manager has oversight of order handling, customer support and delivery operations. The logistics team has three members. The Marketing Manager receives order fulfillment status report from the logistics team. Additionally, he coordinates product lines, promotional activities, and oversees the marketing budget.

S & F Online is important to the expansion strategy of the main company. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) recruited a Chief Operations Officer (COO) to streamline the online operations, to increase the reach of the Online Sales Channel, and make S & F Online a lucrative moneymaking strategic business unit. The COO has a tough job ahead of her. She spent the first two weeks on the job hoping to make connections with the staff. Her efforts were in vain. The staff members were resisting her leadership. They kept their distance and thwarted all efforts toward welcoming the COO to their group.

Yuki in Leadership in Organizations stated, “Influence is the essence of leadership. To be effective as a leader, it is necessary to influence people to carry out requests, support proposals, and implement decisions” (2006, p. 145). At this point, the COO is not able to exert any influence over the team members. The team members recognizes her authority which according to Yuki “involves the rights, prerogatives, obligations, and duties associated with particular positions in an organization or social system” (2006, p. 146). However, this is far from...