Leadership in Action

Smith & Falmouth (S&F) is a tele-shopping and mail order network company that is run by the CEO, Irene Seagraves. Irene is looking to consolidate S&F operations and increase the reach of the company’s online services. To do this Irene has hired Ms. Gwen Philips as the new Chief Operating Officer of S&F Online, whose role includes streamlining the online operations, increasing the reach of the Online Sales Channel and make S&F Online a profitable Strategic Business Unit. Ms. Philips has until the end of the year, nine months, to accomplish this goal. The COO has observed all departments within the online operations and has concluded that the current culture of the department is different groups and cliques which are outside of the normal organizational structure in an organization. Within this scenario, there is the web development team which reports to the project manager, the logistics team which reports to the logistics manager, and the logistics manager also reports to the marketing manager who reports to the COO. The project manager James and the logistics manager, Brian, appear to have a good working relationship which has produced good results. However, James does not like anything that causes a restriction on the power he has.

In order for restructuring to take place, the COO will need to identify the major players in the organization whom have influence over the different social groups and cliques. The COO will need to find a way to get the decisions makers to become part of the team so they will in turn influence the group to become part of the team as well.

II. Current Culture

S&F has been operating under the management of three team leader’s, Project Manager: James William Argyle, Logistics Manager: Brian Kervor and Marketing Manger: Adam Searle and their teams for some time. There is a set understanding how things have worked in the past and the new changes have been hard for the teams to adapt to. Ms. Philips has run into some resistance and...