ORG.

BEHAVIOR & LEADERSHIP

Case Incident One
Lessons for Undercover Bosses
MBA Program
Fall 2014

Submitted To

Instructor Dr. Hina Khan

By

Daneyal Mirza
L1F14MBAM7012

Question No: 1 what are some of the things managers can learn by walking around and having
daily contact with line employees that they might not be able to learn from looking at data and
reports?

s we know that managers are pivotal & indispensable organ for implementing organizational
behavioral ploys and maneuvers effectively. Therefore their (managers) involvement with
the line employees is very imperative and paramount for this purpose.

Firstly, manager is the one who must know how actually the structure, framework and configuration of
individuals and groups work, is it according to what the proposed culture was? Is there any paradox in
actual happening? If yes, then to what degree is the divergence? All these questions are beyond the
bounds of any data reports, therefore MBWA enlightens the manager by providing firsthand knowledge
of all these cultural aspects of the organization. Hence increasing the overall business knowledge the
manager possess.
Secondly, the manager becomes a diligent and alive participant in the organization, not a serious shy
guy sitting behind a desk delegating orders, the manager turns into a manager-on-the-move or a
mobile-manager, hence facilitating communication & eradicating any impediment or obstructions in
the way. So you may feel the pulse of whats actually happening, helps you stay on top of your
employees work in a mutually beneficial manner.
Thirdly, the day your staff sees you as a person, an individual entity irrespective of your position in the
organization, that is the day wonders will happen, theyll open up to you, making you the nucleus for all
their troubles and their solutions, increasing their trust in you, theyll share more information with you,
that is the day you are bossing their hearts as well as their minds. So it increases your accessibility or
come-at-able.
Fourthly, as the manager meets his employees regularly, the employees make commitments to work
harder, these commitments are much stronger, feasible & prone to be completed, rather than those
agreements through e-mails and all. Hence face to face covenants & pacts are making the employees
more accountable. And MBWA stimulate to share their dissatisfaction in an easy manner, it creates the

space such sharings, which enhances employee morale to a level which can never be attained behind
those office concrete walls.
At last, many great ideas are born in the fountain of casualness, just like that in a mere second million
dollar ideas have been born, so as the manager moves around asking for participation in idea generation,
the employees may give a scheme or design for better business propositions. Therefore making the
productivity shooting through the roofs.

Question No: 2 As an employee, would you appreciate knowing your supervisor regularly spent
time with workers? How would you knowing top executives routinely interact with line employees
affect your attitude toward the organization?

y personal presupposition about MBWA is that its like up-close-and-personal

management, which I personally adore, my superior craving to spend time with me, and
cater my needs personally, what more one can ask for?. So yes, I highly relish and

treasure any such practice of my manager, because normally I imagine myself yearning for glance of
the executives who reap the benefits of being on a higher level than I am and I absolutely would just
savor a manager who is down to earth, unpretentious and free-spirited towards being with his
employees whenever he or she can.
As i consider myself to be very creative and prolific idea generator, therefore if i am placed as a line
employee where autonomy is equal to none, that is where a manager with MBWA Style will come to me
and I can disclose my ideas which I have accumulated while working in the organization on how to
improve the part of work the line employees do. Hence this luxury of having someone superior listen to
you is a tranquilizing encounter.
Now to the other part of the question, of what my attitude would be towards an organization practicing
MBWA, so as mentioned above I highly appreciate any endeavor from the executives to reach out to
their employees, hence enhancing my attitude to high levels of positivity for the organization. As I feel
that I am being monitored on such regular and up close and personal basis, I will feel more meaningful

to the organization and will be motivated to prove myself to the mobile-executives. I will be displaying
best of my behaviors because I am positively stimulated to do so. So for me personally, a commendatory
pat on my back from a superior is much bigger honor than any monetary reward. These things will make
me love my job, therefore MBWA directly links to employee satisfaction & employee morale.

Question No: 3 what ways can executives and other organizational leaders learn about day-today business operations besides going "undercover?

he major chunk of the case suggests, MBWA is the best way to know about day to day
operations, because it a mild and light take on the all incognito espionage thingy of going
undercover, in MBWA the employees know you are the boss and you are at their door step

asking for suggestions, your desk is your domain, the boss is at your place to know how you go about
things daily, giving a sense of daily chores that go into making his business work. That how harsh or
difficult the nitty gritties of running a business on the functional line could be.
Other than going for MBWA, go for open pipelines of communication between the boss and the
employees, no hindrance of any sort in between, no middle man what so ever. Employees are can report
something significant to the boss directly, any major achievement should be conveyed by the employee
who achieved it.
Another technique called visible management, can be used to learn day to day operations, in this a
executive goes to the functional floor and work with the employees for some time, he leads by example,
if knows how to do something he will show it himself and even if he lacks something he will show how
to learn it from the supervisor or the trainer. Its kind off a Teach-the-boss workshop approach, where the
boss is ready to walk a mile in his employees shoe.
Or take a casual approach of informal meetings or leisure outings with the employees, that way they
will feel friendly and open up to you, expressing their views of their work, because talking outside an
organizational setting helps a lot in communicating effectively with the employees. Therefore all these
approaches are essential to become an affective manager and effective manager.

Question No: 4 are there any dangers in the use of a management by walking around strategy?
Could this strategy lead employees to feel they are being spied on? What actions on the part of
managers might minimize these concerns?

ndeed there are pitfalls & flaws in this approach, like being ruinous to employee space and
privacy, and that they may feel they are being looked after like infants. Employee may feel a
victim to bossy espionage of some sort, which is normal keeping in view the general autocratic

view of a boss. And MBWA is very labor intensive and time consuming, demands physical presence of
the executives every time everywhere. At last but not least, MBWA can be taken as or encourage
oppressive management style, the boss just use MBWA as a means of 'cracking the whip'. The boss
become overly critical and tyrannical which will further turn off the employees. Hence making MBWA
ineffective but realistically speaking, the downsides of MBWA really only occur where the practice is
not actualized properly.
So question arises, how to minimize such damage to MBWA? Answer lies in the effective
materialization of this practice. Starting with, making it a part of your routine, but dont make it
routine because element of surprise leads to greater returns and a healthy exchange. Dont bring
groupies or a team with you, the employee shouldnt feel that he is ganged up by executives. Try to
visit everybody, means at least a glance at everybody is required and exchange of smiles. And please be
an active listener, listen more than you talk. Offhand recognitions are a very good tool to make
employees love MBWA, just like that be spontaneous in praising if you see something go happening.
Dont go looking for the bads, go looking for the goods.at last but not least dont be over critical ever,
take this time to be appreciative and deal with the concerns privately later, after your visit.