Graduate School of Business

UNIVERSITI TUN ABDUL RAZAK

GHRM5243 – PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
PROF. DR. IBRAHIM ZAHARI

NAME : NUR ATIQAH BINTI ANNUAR

MATRIX NUMBER:M20301003
PROGRAM : MASTER IN MANAGEMENT

ASSIGNMENT 2: Article on ‘The Unmanageable Star Performer’.

“The regional head of business contemplates the best way to handle the hotheaded but highly
effective leader of the India office.” Do you allow such behavior in your organization? Why? And
Why not?

When leading or managing a company, hot headed leaders are often associate with
creating workplace drama. Due to this uncontrollable tyranny and perfectionist, the staff members
of the unit will eventually find it difficult and intimidating to work with this type of leader. This a
problem that almost everyone who has worked for some time in any industry would have come
across and it is also happened in the case of Vijay Kumar, the Managing Partner of Leman
Highlander & Company office in Mumbai. In the case study ‘The Unmanageable Star Performer’
published by Harvard Business Review, May 2013. Although Vijay has been delivering results for
the company but due to his work ethic, most of the employees cannot stand to work with him thus
making the turnover rate increase until 32%.

The high turnover rate will increase company’s cost on recruitment and training, and will
jeopardize the competitiveness of the company. Neglecting this problem will result in a greater
turmoil in two to three years down the road when the company losing not just the employees but
also the customers. Therefore, Stefan as the Head of Consultancy for South East Asia and Middle
East is on the right track when he interviewed and listen to the Mumbai workforce representatives.
It was evident from the meeting that most of the employees are frustrated and feels intimidated.
Effective communication in a cohesive group environment where people can express frustration,
excitement and concerns is in of the way to extract details and information on the issue. Based
on Salleh et al., 2012 study, employees’ internal satisfaction such as opportunity for self-
development and achievement as an intrinsic element is crucial for the organization to prosper as
a whole.

Therefore, is allowing this kind of behavior will flourish or become the doom factor for the
organization? In this case, the key aspect of any leadership is not just about attracting people and
clients but actually attracting the right people and keeping them. Vijay has made it clear that by
following his work principles, the employees are actually working because of fearing him rather
than respecting him. He also being inconsiderate by neglecting the most fundamental needs of
any homo sapiens which is the need of work and life equilibrium, the need to feel motivated and
inspired.

There is pros and cons in allowing this kind of behavior in the organization. For the pros
side, as any profit based company in the world, profits will always come first thus the organization
will take a ‘put up or shut up’ approach upon any complaints from the employees as long as profits
keep pouring in. As a managing partner and leader at the Mumbai office, Vijay is actually doing
really well for the task given to him which is to ensure the thriving growth for the Mumbai company
thus in line with the main responsibility of a leader which is, to deliver whatever mission assigned
by the Headquarters (Taylor,2018). Furthermore, according to Wang et al., 2017, because of this
chagrin expressions of the leader, it actually can spread positive implications on the leadership
effectiveness. Employees tend to be more hardworking and trying to adhere with all the tasks and
directions to avoid unwanted eruption from the manager.

For the contrary aspects, hot headed leader such as Vijay who are currently being
successful and efficient, might face risk of disruption towards their future career. Due to this
weakness, it might pull the team and also the whole organization (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2017).
Imagine all the positivity in the room when the employees were discussing about their project
challenges, their newly created idea just vanish in the thin air as the leader walk in and express
his passive aggressive supervision. Unsatisfied employees will come and go and company will
loose all the other professionals and expert just because the company wanted to retain and keep
their so called star manager. This dictatorship also can abruptly block the employees’ passion
and their productivity and limiting their creativity (Bradberry, 2017).

Therefore, during the dinner, Stefan might want to explain and confront with Vijay
delicately because it will determine the future direction of the Mumbai office. Firing Vijay is not the
best decision as he has proven to be a valuable asset to the organization. Getting Vijay’s view
and oversight might assist in determining why does he leads in an aggressive manner? By
questioning Vijay’s vision and objectives might help in determining the best solution for this issue.
According to Marquardt 2011, it is essential for leaders to listen attentively and knowing the correct
or suitable question to ask. Stefan may start to fill the gap through ‘respectful enquiry’ by asking
open questions and try to listen what Vijay wants to explain. From there, basic psychological
needs for competence, relatedness and autonomy can be develop and discussed (Van
Quaquebeke & Felps, 2018).

By building this rapport and careful assessment, Stefan can highlight and remind Vijay
again on the organization goal, are Vijay’s goal align with the organization goal? Based on Busch
& Hostetter, 2009 study, these managers need to be always reminded to engage with their
subordinates in the workplace as well as populations where the company’s serve.

As a conclusion, it is a shame to let go an efficient leader like Vijay without trying to give
him a chance and give him more exposure on leadership skill. This is what management are for
(Stefan), to manage subordinates to be align with the organization goal and together achieve
amazing results. Although it has been 8 years since Vijay came into the company but with no
behaviour changes, company cannot just forget all the achievement that had been delivered by
Vijay. However, if Vijay still does not change in the given period, company might have to work on
a leadership replacement plan and try to execute it as soon as possible.

REFERENCES

Bradberry, T. (2017). 9 Things That Make Good Employees Quit. Huff Post.

Busch, M., & Hostetter, C. (2009). Examining organizational learning for application in
human service organizations. Administration in Social Work, 33 (3), 297-318
 Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2017). Could your personality derail your career?. Harvard
Business Review, 95(5), 138-41.

Marquardt, M. J. (2011). Leading with questions: How leaders find the right solutions by
knowing what to ask (Vol. 180). John Wiley & Sons.

Salleh R, Nair MS, Harun H. Job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover
intention: A case study on employees of a retail company in Malaysia. World Acad Sci Eng
Technol. 2012; 72(12):316-323

Taylor, R. L. (2018). Military leadership: In pursuit of excellence. Routledge.

Van Quaquebeke, N., & Felps, W. (2018). Respectful inquiry: A motivational account of
leading through asking questions and listening. Academy of Management Review, 43(1), 5-27.

Wang, L., Restubog, S. L. R., Shao, B., Lu, V., & Van Kleef, G. (2017). Does anger
expression help or harm leader effectiveness: The role of competence-based versus integrity-
based violations and abusive supervision. Academy of Management Journal