Title: A case study on Managerial styles and Employee motivation at Jazz.

Abstract

This case study examines the difficulties Jazz, a fast-paced telecom company, faces when a new
Senior Marketing Manager known as Mr. Ali Ahmed brings antiquated management techniques
into an environment where employees are given the full liberty to take their own initiatives, and
empowering them to make decisions themselves. The case study focuses on how a junior
employee, Mr. Nasir is affected by Mr. Ali Ahmed’s authoritarian management style and how
the HR manager, M.s Ayesha handles this issue. The case study explores how companies can
improve employee motivation and overall performance by cultivating a culture of creativity,
initiative, and open communication.

Case study

Jazz is a multinational company operating under its parent VEON ltd and has been in business in
Pakistan since June of 1994. The company has emerged as a market leader with a whopping 38%
market share and providing multiple services such as telecommunication and finance to over 43
million customers. In 2017, Jazz was able to successfully merge with Warid and dominate the
telecom market. The success of Jazz is a result of organizational structure where it promotes
creativity and awards employees for their ideas by giving awards such as, “Employee of the
month” and giving annual awards such as “Divisional champ” to employees on the basis of their
overall performance. This includes not only achieving financial goals of the company but also
other key performance parameters such as teamwork, communication, feedback and
improvements are evaluated.

In 2022, Mr. Ali Ahmed applies for the vacant Senior Marketing Manager position and
participates in an interview to display his qualifications and competencies for the role. He is a
highly qualified individual who holds various degrees including a MS in marketing and digital
design from USA, and a little bit of experience in the corporate sector. Prior to this, he was
serving in the government sector for a long period and therefore, due to his qualifications,
experience and contacts due to government service, he is hired by Jazz as the senior marketing
manager. However, the arrival of Mr. Ali with a penchant for micromanagement and an
adherence to Theory X management principles has introduced a conflicting dynamic within the
organization

Mr. Ali finds it difficult to adjust to the organizational structure of Jazz, which is a flatter
structure with distributed power along all levels of hierarchy and employees are given the
opportunity to think creatively, brainstorm their ideas, take initiative and make significant
decisions. However, he is still employing his old habits of micromanaging the employees under
his command as he served in the Government sector for a couple of years, where there is a
vertical hierarchical structure and greater centralized authority. On a daily basis, he expects his
employees to brief him regarding their work as he closely monitors each employee in his team,
and has strict adherence to timings.

In the month of March, the COO, Mr. Kazmi calls an important meeting for the marketing
department, where he points out that the forecasted demand for the number of downloads of the
Jazz cash app per month remains unfulfilled, and simultaneously the number of active users is
decreasing. He also instructs the whole team to work on the software and user interference of the
Jazz cash app, because there have been numerous complaints of lag issues in the UI of the app,
as well as multiple app crashes have been reported. Altogether, Mr. Kazmi addresses these
issues, as he motivates the marketing team to give their best and come up with optimal solutions
for each problem.

As a result of the instructions given by the COO, Mr. Nasir, an employee of the marketing
department starts his working and begins his research on unique and viable solutions to meet the
forecasted demand of the Jazz cash app downloads. He decides that the best way to tackle this
problem would be to identify the target audience that prefers to use digital mobile payments, and
the locations where these are feasible. Upon analyzing his options, he comes up with two famous
café’s in Islamabad names as Sage café and grill, and Roasters. Mr. Nasir is confident that at
least one of these restaurants would be up for a collaboration.

The next day, he works through all the office hours as well as his lunch break to figure out a way
to market Jazz cash through Sage café and grill. Finally, after working diligently towards the
cause, he proposes the idea of providing cash backs to the customers of Sage café and grill who
use Jazz cash app as a mode of payment for their food bills. Moreover, Mr. Nasir’s creativity
allows him to come up with a marvelous idea of using Jazz cash QR codes for secure and smooth
transactions. This way, the forecasted demand of Jazz cash app downloads would be fulfilled and
greater number of customers will be familiarized with the app, and hence greater chances of
customer retention.

Mr. Nasir presents this idea to Mr. Ali Ahmed, who is his senior. Despite the potential benefits,
Mr. Ali dismisses the idea without due consideration, reflecting a lack of appreciation for
employee creativity and autonomy. He replies, “Mr. Nasir your approach is very farfetched and I
think you should be focusing on his everyday tasks, the problem highlighted by the COO will be
dealt by the managers themselves”. As a result, Mr. Nasir was deeply hurt, demotivated and
there was a subsequent decline in his performance.

In subsequent days, Mr. Nasir gets very demotivated. He feels that his work is not valued by his
manager and therefore, he stops putting any effort in his work. Coming late to work becomes his
habit and he also starts feeling lazy and is often seen with his head down on the desk.

Initially, his coworkers notice that. One of them, who is also very good friends with Nasir
beyond the workplace, Ms Ayesha, approaches him. She asks Mr nasir why he is feeling so
demotivated, even though last year he had received divisional champ award in North division.
Upon this, Mr Nasir tells Ms ayesha about the entire situation and his idea being out rightly
rejected by the new manager. Ariba also feels that the new manager is not very open to
experience and his attitude towards employees is rather discouraging. They both then discuss
possible solutions to the problem.

A few weeks later, the HR lead for the marketing department, Ms. Ambreen notices that Mr.
Nasir has irregular attendance and that he is not being able to meet any goals set by him or his
those set by his team members. Mr. Nasir has been providing his services to Jazz for the past 5
years and has worked in different departments, including compliance as well as the analytics
department. During his tenure at both these positions, he was able to exhibit excellent teamwork
due to his exemplary communications skills. He was also great at problem solving, which can be
linked to his strong hand on data analytics, analyzing data and then interpreting it to see areas of
improvement and then act to rectify it. The current performance of Mr. Nasir was concerning and
therefore Ms. Ambreen decided to call upon him and discuss any possible reasons for such.
Mr. Nasir had a detailed discussion with Ms. Ambreen and she was made aware of the recent
issue arising with the new manager and how he is not providing the freedom that was once
provided in the marketing department in order to do their work. He also told her about his idea
for a cashback offer that was rejected by his senior Mr. Ali, without providing any proper basis
for it. Ms. Ambreen then thought it was best to have a word with Mr. Ali as to not prolong the
issue and miss a potential opportunity that can be served by this idea.

She then schedules a meeting with Mr. Ali for the following day and the meeting is held. There
Mr. Ali is asked about Mr. Nasir’s low performance, about which he is also concerned since it is
very unlikely from Mr. Nasir. Ms. Ambreen then proceeds to subtly shed light on the
management style of Mr. Ali which does not correspond to the practices at Jazz. Mr. Ali is then
reminded about how they practice a voting policy for any idea given by an employee and that it
is key to critically evaluate the pros and cons, comprising of both financial and non-financial
aspects before finalizing a decision.

Subsequently, a meeting is called for which the agenda is that employees present their idea in
order to boost downloads for jazz cash app and also to increase customer retention. One
employee presents their idea to run new ads on social media websites such as Facebook and
Instagram. Mr. Nasir presents his idea for cashback on sage café and grill on payment using jazz
cash. Both ideas are critically evaluated and Mr. Nasir’s idea is voted by the majority, citing
reasons such as the popularity of Sage Café, thus their high demand and the offer looking
attractive for customers. It is then decided that the employees will now formally contact Sage
Café to finalize the terms and conditions, such that it benefits both the parties involved.

After meeting with the Sage representatives, a formal contract is finalized and agreed upon.
Instructions are carried out to the respective employees and steps are taken to fulfill the task at
hand. After a while Mr. Nasir, who is selected as the lead of the team throughout the process,
senses that there is confusion among workers and the common goal is getting mixed up. Rather
than employees working together there is a conflict due to which the deadline is getting nearer
and the team is falling behind. Mr. Nasir calls a meeting to discuss why there seems to be such a
difference in steps being taken in the process and it turns out that different employees have been
approached by the senior manager Mr. Ali and the COO which has resulted in the instructions
getting mixed up. Employees express their concerns about there being no unity of command and
needless creation of confusion among each other. Upon hearing everyone out Mr. Nasir decides
to come to a conclusion of what steps to be taken by the team as a whole to achieve a common
goal and meet the contract requirements by the deadline. Employees convey their thoughts and a
plan is finalized with clear instructions for everyone. This creates a better understanding within
the team and shows how sitting together and working an issue out is helpful to the company.

Finally, the collaboration between Jazz and Sage Café was a very successful process that had a
tremendous influence on consumer engagement and staff motivation throughout the firm. Mr. Ali
Ahmed's introduction, along with his authoritarian management style, initially created an
incoherent atmosphere in the Jazz School's marketing department, making him hesitant to accept
the company's flat organizational structure and commitment gives employees freedom
demoralized, in his performance, and his overall motivation diminished. However, the
intervention of Mr. Nasir's colleague and friend, Ms. Ayesha, and HR Manager Ms. Ambreen
was critical in resolving this situation. Recognizing the value of professional liberty and
innovation at Jazz, Ms. Ambreen convened a meeting offered by Mr. Nasir, which resulted in a
preferred choice.

This resulted in a collaboration with Sage Café. The collaboration with Sage Café has been an
enormous success, exceeding expectations and adding to Jazz's overall growth. The cashback
offer drew a large number of clients, resulting in a huge rise in app downloads. Collaboration
also enhanced client retention since customers valued Jazz's unique approach and intriguing
rewards. The implementation of this relationship relied heavily on collaboration. Mr. Nasir, as
the team's leader, displayed great leadership abilities by resolving issues and encouraging open
communication. The employees' ability to overcome problems as a group demonstrated their
passion and commitment to reaching a common objective. Team members who took part in the
Sage Café partnership and collaboration were properly honored for their great contributions. By
giving "Employee of the Month" awards to individual workers, the company continued its
practice of rewarding great performance. Team members received praise and awards for their
contributions to the project's success.

Although the collaboration with Sage Café began as a workflow challenge, it eventually became
a shining example of how a firm can leverage its workers' creativity and autonomy to encourage
innovation and achieve a variety of business goals. The favorable outcomes not only confirmed
employee engagement, but also Jazz's dedication to a collaborative, initiative-driven, and open
communication culture. Over the course of the six-month partnership with them, it became
evident that these kinds of projects not only result in short-term success but also support the
company's long-term viability. By recognizing and utilizing its workforce's talents, Jazz not only
addressed the immediate issue but also established the framework for an ongoing innovation and
expansion culture.