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Leadership Change at Charles Hargrove & Associates

Diana Hargrove

South Texas College

ORGL 4361-VF4

Dr. Patricia Blanco

March 3, 2023
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Leadership Change at Charles Hargrove & Associates

Whenever any company chooses to go into business there is one thing that will always be

inevitable, problems. Dealing with and handling any problems that may arise is an essential part

of any company doing business. Many people in business will tend to lean on theories that have

already been developed and applied in the real world to see if they actually work. People also

choose to use solutions that have been proven to work in past experiences. Handling any conflict

or problem is something every leader must learn how to deal with and handle effectively.

Charles Hargrove & Associates is no exemption to this rule. This company is going to be going

through a huge change at the end of this year with the President and Vice-President retiring. In

order to handle this problem the theory that will be used is Administrative Theory by Henri

Fayol. The two other theories that will also be discussed are Human Relations Theory by Elton

Mayo and X&Y Theory by Douglas McGregor. It is also important to utilize theories of change

whenever an organization is going through change of any kind. The two theories that will be

most beneficial to this company are Kotter’s eight step model of change and Lewin’s force field

theory.

Foundational Theories

Administrative Theory by Henri Fayol was first published in 1916 in his book

Administration Industrielle et Generale, and consisted of five elements which include planning,

organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling (Voxted, 2017). This theory’s aim is

provide a structure for the organization as a whole. It provides a formalized organization

structure that clearly divides job duties and delegates power. An example of administrative

theory in use is when a company is first starting out they are able to use these five functions and

create a plan of action for the organization. Current research that has been done on
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Administrative Theory is by Carpenter et al. (2009) when they combined the commanding and

coordinating function into the leading function, which is now known as the P-O-L-C framework.

The P-O-L-C framework is currently used by many organizations and students. An example of

this is any business that is starting out and creating a business plan. The organization is able to

use this framework to develop a plan of action and figure out exactly what needs to be done.

Anytime there is also change within the company or new criteria being implemented, the

company is able to use Henri Fayol’s Administrative Theory or the P-O-L-C Framework in order

to effectively execute their strategy. A current example of this is quality control that is set up by

organizations utilizing the control function. Monsanto is a seed company that produces GMO’s

and they have set very high standards set for quality control. As one Monsanto spokesperson

reported, “The company's rigorous testing program was designed to find any possible

contamination problems and stop them,” (GM Watch, 2022). When utilizing these control

processes, the company goes back to the standards they developed in the planning phase and

compares the results to the goals.

The Hawthorne studies were conducted by Elton Mayo and his associates from 1924 to

1932, which later developed into Human Relations Theory based on what was learned from

conducting this research (Freedman, 2023). The study originally set out to determine how

physical conditions, such as lighting affected workers productivity, but what was discovered was

that the biggest factor affecting productivity was whether or not the workers were being observed

by others (Freedman, 2023). These determinations is what the Human Relations Theory is

grounded in, the motivation of workers by the influence of others. Communication is a very

important step in this theory. Also, the way conflict is handled within the workplace is another

important concept. Another aspect of Human Relations Theory is the Hawthorne effect, which
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states that the amount of productivity of workers increases dramatically if they feel they are

being heard (Saha, 2018). Google is one of the most sought after employers in the world, who is

known for their work environment. They give employees a lot of benefits they may not get

otherwise. For example, free food and greater participation in decision making. Google is a

company that utilizes the Human Relation Theory. They are continuously innovating and

experimenting in order to find the best ways of doing things that lead to greater work efficiency

and employee satisfaction (Tran, 2017).

Douglas McGregor published his book titled Human Side of Enterprise in 1960 that

detailed his view on X and Y Theory. Theory X and Theory Y are very different from each other.

Theory X is a very autocratic management style that focuses on centralization of the managers

that allows them to make decisions without taking into consideration the opinions of others at

work (Touma, 2021). Theory X believes that people by nature dislike work and therefore should

be micromanaged. They are rewarded for good performance, yet punished for bad performance.

It is a set of strict standards that must be met in order to achieve the required results. Very strict

centralized companies are the ones that currently use Theory X. There are a lot of small

businesses that use Theory X, since there are only few employees and decision making is very

centralized. Another example is Apple. Steve Jobs has always been widely known for his very

autocratic leadership style. Apple is a company that is very centralized and control remains with

a select few. With Tim Cook taking over as CEO, the company has become more democratic, yet

the company still remains centralized, therefore utilizing Theory X. Other examples are fast food

chains, such as McDonalds and Burger King where the decision making lies within a centralized

unit that oversees thousands of chains. These companies do not ask for input from the

employees, but simply set the standards they are to meet.

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On the other hand, Theory Y leans towards managing people as little as possible and

instead focuses on helping others be successful in order for the company to succeed (Touma,

2021). Theory Y relies heavily on trusting employees that they have the motivation and skills

needed to get their job done. The more you trust people, the more productive they will be.

Theory Y focuses on leading people by investing in growing and developing the workforce.

LinkedIn is a company that utilizes Theory Y. It is a company that offers a fun environment for

their employees which gives them the ability to be at their creative best while also being

productive (Kannan, 2015). A lot of companies these days are giving the employees the

opportunity to work from home, which is also utilizing Theory Y by allowing them the flexibility

and opportunity to be self-motivated and responsible for finishing what needs to be done.

Background and Issue

Charles Hargrove and Associates is a commercial paint contracting company located in

in Lubbock, TX. This company was first started by Charles Hargrove Sr. in the 1957. The

company began by painting residential houses. Charles Hargrove Jr. went into the business with

his father and they became partners in 1980. At this point the company was growing and doing

some schools and commercial work. With the retirement of Charles Hargrove Sr., Charles

Hargrove Jr. took over the business and in 1990 he established the company as an LLP. He

brought in his brother Deke who has been his partner since then. The company now only does

commercial contracting work and they are the biggest commercial paint contractors within a 300

or more mile radius. Over the years Charles Jr.’s son, C.J. and Deke’s son, Austin have also been

brought in as partners and now the four of them make up the general partners of this business.

Right now there are seventeen employees. There are a total of five foremen, the President of the

company runs jobs as well as does a lot of office duties, and there is one HR/Office Manager
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position. The President and Vice-President of the company are solely responsible for the success

the company has had. The President bids all the jobs, deals with all the general and

subcontractors, ensures all contracts are in place, keeps up with expenses of jobs, and so much

more. The Vice-President is responsible for running all the jobs out in the field. He decides

where to put each employee, who is going to run which job, and also does a lot of the work on

the jobs. Their partnership has worked out so well do to the fact they work great together, they

have respect for each other, they listen to each other and they consult one another. The issue that

this organization is facing right not is that the President and Vice President will be retiring at the

end of the year. This puts a huge strain on the company and leaving many things unknown. In

September of 2020, Charles Jr.’s daughter, Diana was brought in and Deke’s other son, Trey.

While they have not made partner yet, they are both set to help take over the company and

transition into new leadership.

Henri Fayol’s Administrative Theory

In order to effectively lead this company to handle this change the theory that will be

applied is Henri Fayol’s Administrative Theory. Henri Fayol was born in 1841 and graduated at

the age of nineteen as a mining engineer from the National School of Mines at St. Étienne

(Lynch, 2023). He then began working a job in the mines of the Commentary-Fourchambault

Company (Comambault) in 1860 and remained there until his retirement in 1918 (Lynch, 2023).

During his time at this job he learned a lot about management and his viewpoints on how to have

a successful company. He wrote many papers and a book over his principles of management he

developed through all the years of his working experience. He is widely known for his fourteen

principles of management that were developed, as well as Administrative Theory. Administrative

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Theory is structured around five functional areas of management which include planning,

organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling.

Planning

Planning is the first step in Administrative Theory and is where a set of activities or goals

are established in order to direct the organization (Schraeder et al., 2014). The plan of action for

Charles Hargrove and Associates is the effective retirement of the current President and Vice-

President and how the company will continue to succeed. This will include restructuring the

company. The President and Vice-President have said they will continue to be involved for one

year following their retirement if needed. They will be more in the background than be day-to-

day working at the jobsites. The company needs to establish who will be in charge of specific

duties and the remaining partners will need to figure out how to work cohesively together.

Additional planning will require which employees will be under each specific foreman. The plan

should also incorporate specific opportunities for advancement and the ability to adapt to change

if needed. This stage should also incorporate all the employees and partners coming together to

make a specific plan of action.

Organizing

Organizing is the second step in Administrative Theory and it is where resources are

allocated in order to support the achievement of the plans and goals that were developed in the

planning stage (Schraeder et al., 2014). The main thing that this company will need to work on

during the stage is the organizational structure of the company. What will need to be established

is who is going to be in charge of what specific jobs. Another issue within the company is new

employees. When new people are hired they are placed at different job sites throughout the

week, therefore having different foreman. One thing that Fayol stresses is his principle of Unity
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of Command is each person should only be accountable to one specific boss or superior

(Uzuegbu & Nnadozie, 2015). So, for every foreman there should be between three to five

employees under them. If a new employee is hired, they should be placed with one foreman that

they stay with. If an employee has an issue they should report it to their foreman. If there is still

an issue that the foreman cannot handle, then the issue should be dealt with at the partner level.

The current suppliers that the company is using now should remain the same. There have been

some discrepancies with the subcontractors that have been used. The four remaining partners

should get together and decide to continue working with the current subcontractors or finding

new ones. Also, if anyone in the company wants to advance in any way, such as becoming a

foreman or having more job responsibilities they should be given the opportunity to. Right now

the company does not offer health insurance. That is an issue that needs to be dealt with by the

new partners. Adding more job benefits will give people more job security and the company will

not see a high turnover rate with some of the new employees coming in.

Commanding

Commanding is the third step in Administrative Theory and it is where those in charge

will lead the company and employees in order to execute the goal and vision developed in the

planning stage. There are a few things to keep in mind during this stage. These are to try to get

know your employees better, be a good personal example, be aware of details of contracts

between the company and employees and subcontractors, and hold meetings with the leaders of

the company (Jonas, 2021). One of the main concerns this company will need to work on is

setting a personal example. The current President and Vice-President are always the first one on

the jobsites and the last ones to leave. They personally set a great example for any employee to

follow. The remaining people set to take over the company do not set such a great example.
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Since they are paid salary instead of hourly they tend to leave the jobsites sometimes at 2:00 or

3:00 o’clock. The company’s work day ends at 4:30, so the foreman should all remain on the

jobsite until then. If the company expects the workers to fulfill the requirements of their jobs,

then those in charge should also be doing the same thing. The workers should be able to look at

their foreman and imitate what they do in order to produce a job well done. Weekly meetings

should also be held with the leaders of the company. These should be held on Friday afternoons

or Monday mornings. This way everyone in the company is aware of any issues or problems

arising and everyone can help to be part of solutions. Another part of the commanding phase

will be to ensure all subcontractors and employees are fulfilling the duties of their contracts. This

should be something that is evaluated weekly so that the company does not get behind and

remains on schedule to finish the job on time.

Coordinating

Coordinating is the fourth step in Administrative Theory and includes ensuring that all

employees understand their responsibilities and resources and activities among the organization

work in harmony with each other to achieve specific goals (Ward, 2021). The main goal of the

organization at this point is to ensure the continued success of the company. Diana will continue

to be in charge of ordering all supplies and bookkeeping. Each foreman will be responsible for

their own jobs. If anyone needs anything from someone else, they must reach out and

communicate their needs. Every employee should do their part in ensuring the company

continues to run smoothly. If there is an issue with a supplier, that should be reported to Diana,

since she is the one responsible for ordering all of the supplies. Each job has a different project

manager; relationships should be built with these project managers to ensure open

communication and completion of jobs. The workday is typically from Monday through Friday.
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Sometimes the jobs do require the employees to work on Saturdays. That should be

communicated with employees at the beginning of the week if they are needed to work that

weekend. If employees want overtime, the opportunity should be given if allowed at the jobsite.

Everyone working cohesively on the jobs and doing what is specifically required of them will

allow for effective coordination of the company.

Controlling

The last step in Administrative Theory is controlling, which is the managers efforts

toward continued monitoring of both the employees and organizations performance and progress

towards their goals (Schraeder et al., 2014). During this stage it is imperative to continue

monitoring progress towards the goals and ensuring actions are aligning with the goals. This also

includes taking corrective action when necessary and problems arise. It is realizing that there are

issues that need to be addressed and addressing them appropriately in an adequate amount of

time. This is important to ensure problems don’t get larger or out of hand. The controlling

process consists of three steps which are establishing performance standards, comparing actual

performance against standards, and taking corrective action when necessary (Carpenter et al.,

2012). An important part of the controlling process of this company will be employee reviews.

These should be done at least every six months. Every foreman should be responsible for filling

out the reviews for all their employees. Then, meetings should be held with each employee by all

partners of the company to go over performance. Also, for employees who are meeting and

exceeding expectations the opportunity should be given for advancement and a raise in pay.

Another important factor in controlling is ensuring employee satisfaction. The employees should

also be given reviews to fill out anonymously on their foreman and leaders in the company

where they are able to express their viewpoints and any issues they may have. There should be
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an open door policy where any employee at any time can go to their foreman or leader in charge

and address any concerns or issues they are having. In the weekly meetings with the partners of

the company any issues or problems should also be dealt with then. Part of running a company is

handling any problems that come your way and handling them in a timely and effective way.

One of the biggest issues during the controlling phase is also going to be profit and loss. The

partners should go over this ledger, as well as individual job expenses every month to ensure the

company is not over spending and still making money. The main goal of this company is to

continue to be successful, which requires continuing being as profitable as the company is now.

Change Theories

Since Charles Hargrove and Associates is going through such a big change, it is also

helpful to take consideration theories of change. This will help the company better execute and

handle the transition. The first theory to consider is Kotter’s eight step model for change.

Kotter’s created his model in 1995 which consist of creating a sense of urgency, building a

strong coalition, creating a vision, communicating the vision, empowering others, creating small

wins, building on the change, and implementing the change (Carman et al., 2019). There are

three steps that will especially be helpful in this transition. These are steps two, five, and six that

the company should really focus on. The first is building a strong coalition. The four partners set

to take the company over should really work and strive to develop a strong relationship with one

another that is built on communication and trust. Also, incorporating the foreman into the

building of a strong team will help in gaining the remaining employees trust and equipping them

to handle the change. This will also lead into the fifth step of empowering others. The employees

should still feel like they are part of the team and their voices should still be heard. If an

employee or foreman has any issues at all, they should immediately be addressed by the
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appropriate supervisor. This is a team effort that will require everyone to be on board for the

change process to go over smoothly. The sixth step is creating small wins. Whenever a team

finished a specific project, they should be taken out to lunch or celebrate in some other way that

gives the team a sense of accomplishment. There is currently not any system set up for creating

small wins. Any motivation and encouragement that can be given to the employees to let them

know they are valuable and the company is successful because of their hard work should be

established. This will also lead to the last steps of building on the change and embedding the

change.

The next change theory that would also be helpful is Lewin’s Force Field Theory. One

component of this theory states that there are forces driving change and there are forces resisting

change and that for change to be accomplished the driving forces need to be greater than the

resisting forces (Burnes, 2019). The company should meet with the organization as a whole,

every employee, foreman, and partner. Everyone should come together and identify any issues

within the organization that are resisting the change and any factors that are for the change. If

there are factors resisting change, they should be dealt with immediately and alleviated. The

company needs to make sure that the factors driving the change are greater than those resisting

change.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the future of Charles Hargrove and Associates still remains unknown. The

retirement of the current President and Vice-President is the biggest change and issue that the

organization has ever seen. The question remains, will the remaining partners be able to

adequately handle this change and continue to run the business as successfully as it is today? The

theories that have been used should be able to provide a firm foundation for the company to
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continue running smoothly. When looking at different theories of management that have been

used it is important to keep in mind that different theories work differently for each business.

Just because one theory works well for one business, doesn’t mean it will work well for another.

There are a lot of variables to take into consideration when utilizing theories to handle problems

within organizations. For example, the scope of work of the organization, the number of

employees, and the personality of all those involved are just a few considerations one must take

when providing recommendations to a company. Administrative Theory by Henri Fayol will

serve as a great plan of action in order to effectively handle this change at Charles Hargrove and

Associates. The change theories provided will also help to transition the company into new

leadership. Communication, coordination, and trust of everyone in the company will be

imperative to handling this transition. Right now everyone in the company is very good at taking

direction and doing what they are told. The important factor here will be if the remaining

employees can take the initiative and figure out what needs to be done. With the help of

everyone involved Charles Hargrove and Associates can and will continue to provide great

service, be a beneficial place to work, and continue to be a successful company.

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