(d) Family owned and managed businesses often find delegation and succession difficult pro

Question

(d) Family owned and managed businesses often find delegation and succession difficult processes to get right.

What models would you recommend that Tony use in looking to change his leadership and management style

to create a culture in the Shirtmaster Group better able to deal with the challenges it faces? (10 marks)

Answer 1

正确答案：
(d) Much has been written on the links between leadership and culture and in particular the influence of the founder on the
culture of the organisation. Schein actually argues that leadership and culture are two sides of the same coin. Tony’s father
had a particular vision of the type of company he wanted and importance of product innovation to the success of the business.
Tony is clearly influenced by that cultural legacy and has maintained a dominant role in the business though there is little
evidence of continuing innovation. Using the McKinsey 7-S model the founder or leader is the main influence on the
development of the shared values in the firm that shapes the culture. However, it is clear from the scenario that Tony through
his ‘hands-on’ style. of leadership is affecting the other elements in the model – strategy, structure and systems – the ‘hard’
factors and the senior staff and their skills – the ‘soft’ factors – in making strategic decisions.
Delegation has been highlighted as one of the problems Tony has to face and it is a familiar one in family firms. Certainly
there could be need for him to give his senior management team the responsibility for the functional areas they nominally
control. Tony’s style. is very much a ‘hands-on’ style. but this may be inappropriate for handling the problems that the company
faces. Equally, he seems too responsible for the strategic decisions the company is taking and not effectively involving his
team in the strategy process. Style. is seen as a key factor in influencing the culture of an organisation and getting the right
balance between being seen as a paternalistic owner-manager and a chairman and chief executive looking to develop his
senior management team is difficult. Leadership is increasingly being seen as encouraging and enabling others to handle
change and challenge and questioning the assumptions that have influenced Shirtmaster’s strategic thinking and development
to date. The positive side of Tony’s style. of leadership is that he is both known and well regarded by the staff on the factory
floor. Unfortunately, if the decision is taken to source shirts from abroad this may mean that the manufacturing capability
disappears.

6D–ENGAA
Paper 3.5
Tony should be aware that changing the culture of an organisation is not an easy task and that as well as his leadership style
influencing, his leadership can also be constrained by the existing culture that exists in the Shirtmaster Group. Other models
that could be useful include Johnson, Scholes and Whittington’s cultural web and Lewin’s three-stage model of change and
forcefield analysis. Finally, Peters and Waterman in their classic study ‘In search of excellence’ provides insights into the closerelationship between leadership and creating a winning culture.