Running head: CASE ASSIGNMENT

Case Assignment
Jamila M. Callwood
Webster University
April 24, 2016

Leadership Case Problem B: Ashley wants to Boost Team Work

Question 1
Ashley could become a more effective team leader in several ways. This would be largely
dependent on her attitude towards her team members and how she communicates to them.
In order for Ashley to become an effective leader, she needs to be more persuasive and
sensitive in the way she responds to others. The lack of these attributes is evident when
she responds to the queries posed by her team members tartly. According to Xu and
Thomas (2011), another attribute of an effective leader is honesty, organization and
optimism. If incorporated well into her daily interactions with her team members, Ashley
could become an effective leader who succeeds at getting her team put more effort and
become more committed to tasks at hand.
Question 2
In order to get her team more interested in functioning as a team, Ashley needs to lead by
example. This would be far much better that just ordering her team members around on
what they are supposed to be. Ashley also has to help her members own the team
initiative and realize the greater impact of their team work to the external environment.
Other ways of helping her team maintain cohesion would be through the implementation
of team building activities from time to time. This would help in brainstorming the
various issues that face the company in addition to those faced by the group members.
Such strategies help team members know each other and as such feel more accountable
Question 3
Personally, I find Ashleys charisma lacking in several ways. She is poor at coaching and
does not take time to explain about the initiative by the companys management. She is
quite ignorant as she assumes people in the team are aware of their roles and what is
expected of them. She is also good at ordering people and poor at listening to peoples
thoughts and opinions. As such, this prevents her for achieving the full potential of an
effective leader.
Leadership Case Problem A: We Need More Engagement around Here
Question 1
According to the exhibit, employee engagement and motivation are quite low. This is
from the fact that a greater percentage of employees did not understand why they were in
their job positions. Particularly, only 45% employees felt that they were committed to the
company. Another 48% believed that their work was not important. Even less employees
did not take home any work from the company.

Question 2
Based on this situation, the companys management needs to develop strategies that are
aimed at increasing levels of employee engagement and motivation. For instance,
rewards are a great way of expressing appreciation and challenging other employees to
work harder (Markos & Sridevi, 2010).
Question 3
From the exhibit, 48% of employees do not feel that their work is not important. As such,
this inhibits their willingness to deliver good quality services and products. Moreover,
employees that do not believe that their work is not important continue to ruin the
growing prospect of job positions. This is also the reason why only 34% of the employees
in the company are looking forward to leave the company in a span of three years.
However, Margot and her team need to address these issues.