Running head: SYNTHESIS PRESENTATION 1

Synthesis Presentation

Lizzeth Martinez

South Texas College

Issues in Organizational Leadership

October 11, 2018

SYNTHESIS PRESENTATION 2

Synthesis Presentation

When you run an organization your main goal as a leader is for it to be successful. In

order to create an efficacious organization, you have to implement various elements to your

leadership and organization. This synthesis will discuss the importance of several concepts that

need to be applied to an organization for it to be successful. Some concepts that are essential in a

successful organization are leadership style/behavior, ethics, motivation, communication,

accountability, social responsibility, technology, culture and diversity. This paper will be

addressing and analyzing all these concepts based on the issues involved in the case given. The

summarization of the case is a structural, dictatorial CEO of a marketing research company that

does not trust people under thirty years of age and prefers not to have anyone under that age

working on his company. He also is interested in having the business grow, and perhaps even

expand into foreign markets.

When dealing with an organization, the key element is to always do the best possible

effort to ensure the growth and the success of the organization. Overall the leader wants the

success for the organization, success for the employees, and overall a positive way of looking at

things, work related. When dealing with an organization, key topics such as leadership

style/behavior, ethics, motivation, and culture, just to name a few, come into play. These and

other topics will portray the way the organization indeed goes about doing things. These topics

will also be a factor in having the organization be molded into the vision the leader has for it.

Theoretical speaking, the leaders are the main ones that are in control of the organization. The

organization’s success as well as the organization’s failures, rely mostly on the leader. In this

particular case we are dealing with a CEO, who is extremely crucial when it comes to the

individuals that work and will work for his particular organization.
SYNTHESIS PRESENTATION 3

Now for the analyzation, starting with the leadership style and behavior of the CEO, there

are different types of leaderships style that can be looked at. Some examples are

transformational, transactional, servant, authentic, and passive avoidant. The conclusion can be

that his style is more of a dictatorial, structured style, he does not trust employees. He feels he

can better control this type of employee because his style is more dictatorial and structured. He

would maybe be categorized as a transactional leader with a behavior facet of management by

exception active. A transactional leadership is someone who values order and structure.

Transactional leadership depends on self-motivated people who work well in a structured,

directed environment (University, 2014) . They tend to monitor performance, they micro-mange

and do not trust employees and take corrective action if deviation occurs. Transactional

leadership focuses on results, conforms to the existing structure of an organization and measures

success according to that organization’s system of rewards and penalties (University, 2014).

When dealing with ethics, it is dealing with a set of values and principles that guide the

behavior of an individual or group. Look at things such as what believed, what are the important

values and ways of doing things. He strongly feels that it is older, more experienced and mature

employees that will help him most effectively expand his business. The CEO feels that by having

older employees, success will be achieved faster because of their maturity and experience rather

than by having young individuals work for his organization. He feels the youth (individuals

under 30) have no major importance in the success of an organization because they do not value

responsibility. He believes they are more interested on other things, such as social media for

example. The ethical thing that the CEO needs to take in mind is that the right thing to do is give

people opportunities based on their work ethics not based on their age. The market research this

firm does is mainly for companies that sell consumer electronics such as Bluetooth devices,
SYNTHESIS PRESENTATION 4

gaming products and other audio products. In a graph presenting the results of an annual survey

among a representative group of video game users regarding their age they stated that “In 2018,

29 percent of the responding video gamers were 18 to 35 years old” (Statista, 2018). One can

conclude from this statistics that the CEO should take into consideration hiring youthful staff to

help him with the objective of the market research, that is to determine if there is a market for a

product and to identify the type of potential clients. People that are younger than thirty can have

more experience and expertise regarding these products compared to people older than thirty

who may not be in accordance with the latest technology novelties.

Another key concept of leadership is motivation. As a leader one must find ways to

motivate employees to make them work more efficiently and to increase productivity. Another

issue that the CEO has is the assumption that all people under thirty years of age are addicted to

social media and want nothing more than to have fun and do not focus on their work

responsibilities. He needs to provide motivation to his employees by doing so we can look at

another behavior facet of transactional leadership, which this CEO possesses is contingent

reward. This refers to leaders clarifying the expectations and goals in exchange of promises and

resources, in other words a reward or punishment based on work performance. In a case study:

The Impact of Performance-Contingent Rewards on Perceived Autonomy and Competence

studies showed that “The present studies examined the impact of performance-contingent

rewards on perceived autonomy, competence, and intrinsic motivation. In addition, results

suggest that performance-contingent rewards have a positive effect on feelings of competence.”

(Houlfort, Koestner, Joussemet, Nantel-Vivier, & Natasha, 2002)

Communication, based on the knowledge acquired from the research, is one of the most

important concepts in an organization. Communication needs to be clear and concise. It needs to

SYNTHESIS PRESENTATION 5

be efficient and successful because it is used as a tool to convince to complete projects

successfully and reach goals set in the organization. A leader has the ability to take charge,

enable and stimulate employees to enable them to participate and understand what is expected

from them. Communication can be used as a way to inculcate principles and values, but it goes

both ways, a communicator has to speak but also listen. Always keep an open door for feedback

and take into consideration the opinions and emotions of the receiver. This CEO in particular

does not trust people, he needs to realize that one cannot build trust because trust is gained. He

needs to become an effective communicator to convince followers of their moral ideologies

which in return will create trust. Communicating clearly about the organization's strategy, speed,

direction, and results, but also verbally and nonverbally, the way in which the leader

communicate humbly, passionately, confidently has more impact than the words they choose.

(Burnison, 2012)

Accountability in the workplace is someone who accepts responsibilities and is self-

accountable. First a leader must get the right person, for the right job, with the right skills and the

right talents. It is their job to choose the right fit for the right position. They then, proceed to

clarify the roles for both employees and owners, and then each staying in their own proper lane,

both are held accountable for their own responsibilities. Finally, the leader use consistency of

leadership to put pressure and maintain accountability consistent. Consistency carries out the

message, makes them relevant and establishes the reputation as a leader. This CEO needs to

create accountability in the work place to ensure responsibilities are being accounted for whether

young or old each person is accountable for their own tasks and completion of goals.

Social Responsibility and technology must be taken into consideration and applied into

an organization. Social responsibility refers to the equilibrium maintained between economic

SYNTHESIS PRESENTATION 6

growth and the welfare of society and the environment. (Alliance, 2018) When dealing with

technology it is dealing with the use of tools and knowledge to influence the environment.

Globalization deals with the flow of money, products, information, services, expertise, and

individuals. Both topics in my opinion show where the youth desperately should come into play.

In this case, the CEO does not want young employees for his organization, but hypothetically

speaking they are the ones that will know what works and what does not when it comes to

technology and globalization. His vision of wanting to expand on items such as electronics, in

my opinion should have the influence of younger individuals who understand technology a little

better and are more up to date with it. That brings out the topic of sustainability, which deals

with the process of meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations

to meet their needs. Again, another situation where the advantage of having young employees

will benefit an organization because as years pass the younger generation are using technology

more often in a daily basis they are more experienced and knowledgeable in the technology

innovations. He can contribute to the youth by making donations to better educate students for a

future opportunity in this type of business.

The CEO is interested in having the business grow, and perhaps even expand into foreign

markets in order to accomplish this he needs to consider culture and diversity in the work place.

Increasing diversity in a company makes for a more successful company. Diversity is defined as

“acknowledging, understanding, accepting, and valuing differences among people with respect to

age, class, race, ethnicity, gender, disabilities, etc.” (Richard, Katharine, & Schorr, 1995). The

CEO needs to be open minded when it comes to diversity and realize that age is just a number

that is not related to the capacity of knowledge a person has. He can really take advantage of a

diverse work place, one of those advantages can help him with his interest of expanding the
SYNTHESIS PRESENTATION 7

organization into a foreign market. Diversity in the organization has both its advantages but also

can have challenges. Some of benefits of a diverse workplace are increase in productivity and

marketing. It can also help in the reduction of lawsuits; it can bring more creativity and new

concepts to the company. Diversity can really help in the process of expansion to the foreign

market because of the different ethnicities, the variety of different culture knowledge and

different languages, this will increase work performance and improve customer service. Some of

the challenges that may come up when dealing with diversity is discrimination, the valuing of

differences in beliefs and sometimes will establish inclusiveness. It is often perceived that the

benefits of a diverse work place outweigh the challenges. A diverse workforce is a reflection of

embracing individualism, it brings high value to the organization, it is the change the

marketplace needs. A diverse workplace creates a fair environment for opportunity and

challenges for everyone. Education on diversity is also important, which should address the

issues, the law and regulations.

In conclusion the CEO of this marketing research company needs to stop the stereotyping

of young employees, he needs to be more open to the idea of hiring a diversity of employees in

order to expand his organization. He needs to establish his leadership style and motivate people

by contingent reward and by giving them sense of ownership to grow as individuals and be better

at their jobs. Communication between leader and employees is essentially important, he needs to

establish goals and values of the company. The CEO needs to create accountability in the

workplace by clarifying roles of employees and be consistent to establish reputation. Even

though he is used to a structural setting he needs to be able to change to create diversity and

culture in the workplace to accommodate everyone’s needs. In order to reach his goals of growth
SYNTHESIS PRESENTATION 8

and achievements for his organization he needs to specifically look into each of these different

concepts and apply them to the company to reach the maximum level of success that he wants.
SYNTHESIS PRESENTATION 9

References

Alliance, P. (2018). Social Responsibility and Ethics. Retrieved from Pachamama Alliance:

https://www.pachamama.org/social-justice/social-responsibility-and-ethics

Burnison, G. (2012, April 5). Book excerpt: Why communication is essential for great leaders

from The Twelve Absolutes of Leadership. Retrieved from The Globe and Mail:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/careers-leadership/why-

communication-is-essential-for-great-leaders/article4098019/

Houlfort, N., Koestner, R., Joussemet, M., Nantel-Vivier, A., & Natasha, L. (2002, December 4).

Motivation and Emotion. The Impact of Performance-Contingent Rewards on Perceived

Autonomy and Competence.

Richard, G., Katharine, E., & Schorr, H. M. (1995). Workplace diversity. A manager's guide to

solving problems and turning diversity into a competitive advantage. Adams Media Corp.

Statista. (2018, October 9). Age breakdown of video game players in the United States in 2018.

Retrieved from Statista: https://www.statista.com/statistics/189582/age-of-us-video-

game-players-since-2010/

University, S. T. (2014, November 25). What is Transactional Leadership? How Structure Leads

to Result. Retrieved from STU Online: https://online.stu.edu/articles/education/what-is-

transactional-leadership.aspx
SYNTHESIS PRESENTATION 10