Trevor Wilson

6/15/2023

OGL 343: Social Processes in Organizations

Bill Erwin

Module 5: Essay

Prompt #1:

The leadership paradox is the notion that one person taking the helm of group work being

the opposite of teamwork. “Traditional notions of leadership—that is, top-down, command-and-

control approaches may be ineffective in the team-based organization.” (Thompson, 2018, p.53)

Using the participative management system there are a few reasons why a leader would have

issues in a newly formed team or group. Per exhibit 3-9 on page 75 of our textbook, some factors

are highlighted in the job design section such as, lack of role clarity, unrealistic goals, highly

established work routines. (Thompson, 2018, p.75). Transformational leaders have skills that

include charisma, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. They differ from that

of a transactional leader who is more focused on setting competitive relationship and depends on

their power to have subordinates’ complete tasks. Transformational leaders see more satisfied

subordinates and a positive impact on performance because they trust their leaders. Currently, I

am having both transformational leaders and transactional leaders in my work life. My store

manager is a great leader who utilizes the traits of a transformational leader compared to our

District manager who is constantly pushing for more and wielding the stick to dangle the carrot
in front of us to do more. We trust our Store Manager to treat us fairly and do what’s right for us,

but I do not feel the same treatment would happen if my District Manager was in a reversed role.

Prompt #2:

Task delegation is one avenue to take in participative management and I’ve found, in my own

experience, that delegating tasks to followers is a great way to empower them to take ownership

in our task at hand. “There are right and wrong ways to delegate that depend on things such as

team members’ skill level and the nature of the work.” (Thompson, 2018, p. 77) This is

especially true in my day to day at Starbucks, there are certain things, as a leader, I can only do

and that I can’t delegate. In contrast, the things I can delegate I establish, in the moment, is it an

urgent task or something that I can give to someone new who can take the time to learn correctly.

If it’s the ability to train and coach a new partner I establish the goal, the routine, who their point

of contact is for question, and then I follow up at the end to observe how it went. Job

involvement is a great way to keep the mundane day to day from going stale for people. “…

Entails restructuring the tasks performed by employees to make them more rewarding, enriching,

and in the case of teams, more autonomous.” (Thompson, 2018, p.79) At any given moment

there are potentially 7 positions that can be filled at a Starbucks, and particularly a drive-thru. I

could always put people in the same spots and let them master those skills, but that leads to burn-

out, unrewarding, and a non-enriching work environment. Switching up daily and hourly tasks to

keep people feeling involved in their jobs and learning new skills keep them feeling rewarded,

enriched, and more involved in our over structure of the floor.

Thompson, L. L. (2018). Making the team: A guide for managers. Pearson.