Affecting Change

Running Head: Affecting Change

Affecting Change

University of Phoenix Online

March 22, 2010

Affecting Change

Leaders of any organizations are many times confronted with challenges of developing employees to get use to organizational structural and culture changes. Leadership is defined as the ability to guide, direct, or influence people. “To be effective as a leader, it is necessary to influence people to carry out requests, support proposals, and implement decisions.” (Yukl, 2006, p.145) In the scenario, the newly hired Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Smith & Falmouth (S&F), was faced with a challenge of leading a group of difficult employees to achieve the company’s goals. Therefore, the purpose of this paper will address the present culture within S&F and will make a recommendation for restructuring the department that will improve the culture while empowering the employees.

Restructuring Department to Improve Culture and Empower Employees

The organizational structure at Smith & Falmouth resembles the departmentalization. The departmentalization means the basis by which jobs are grouped together, by functions performed within the groups (Robbins & Judge, 2007). S&F is currently broken down into the following divisions: web development team, logistic team, and marketing team. In the simulation the project manager James Argyle manages the web operations department which maintains the online sales channel composing of the website and the online payment gateway. The logistic manager, Brian Kervor who works very closely with James, manages the order handling, customer support, and delivery operations. The marketing manager is Adam Searle coordinates product lines, marketing budgets, and promotional activities, also receives reports of order fulfillment status from Brian. James and Brian appear to have a good working relationship, which has produced some good results. However, James has been in control of the operation of the...