Reflection Paper: Ant Culture

If I was the tiger, wouldn't fire the ant. In the first place, it was wrong of him to assign a supervisor
to the ant. He concluded so suddenly and didn't study the situation first. The ant was so productive
unsupervised, meaning there is no need to hire all those unnecessary supervisors and assistants.
The ant's attitude towards his work is fueled by having the feeling of control over his work. Being
told what to do sometimes affects productivity because employees may feel dependent of what
supervisors direct to them compared to when they work alone, and they push themselves to their
limit so they can feel good about themselves without needing validation from others. In the point of
view of the company, it will be like hitting 2 birds with one stone. Empowering employees by
making them feel good about themselves, and higher productivity for the company as a whole.
What the tiger should have done is improve the corporate culture. Seeing the ant's behavior
towards works unsupervised, he should've concluded that it is one corporate behavior that
positively affects the performance of the business and will further improve the business if put into
practice by all the employees. He should've selected the ant as an informal leader so that other
employees may adapt his behavior towards work. As a leader, he shall encourage initiative among
the employees. Employing all those unnecessary additional staff impairs the initiative of the
workers. Additionally, as a leader, he shall use Value-driven decision making. Making the decision to
employ staff that do not add to the value of their operations (non-value added) is the reason for the
over staffing. If I was in the tiger’s position, in dealing with the overstaffing, the first one I will lay-off
was the monkey and his assistant because as I said earlier, the ant doesn’t need a supervisor. The
monkey even had an assistant just for computer stuff and answering calls for him. Additionally, He
made a bad impression of purchasing stuff that aren’t necessary for operations. These expenditures
are non-value adding costs. It indicates that he may be not disciplined when it comes to money.