How does his leadership style affect the motivation of employees at The Copy Center

Please apply detailed application of the course content, Attribution Theory and Heffernan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4OPtFCs_fw)

discussion answer

How does his leadership style affect the motivation of employees at The Copy Center?

First, let’s determine the leadership style that Daniel Shivitz portrays. Based on the path-goal theory, it is crucial that the leader uses a leaderships style that best meets follower’s motivational needs (Northouse, 2018, p. 117). This is exactly what Daniel has been able to accomplish at The Copy Center. Daniel easily resembles taking on a supportive leadership role which consists of being friendly and approachable and attending to the human needs of followers (Northouse, 2018, p. 120). The first way that Daniel resembles a supportive leadership style is his reputation for resolving scheduling conflicts considering most of the employees are students. He understands that the duplication work can be monotonous and tedious. Therefore, he makes the workplace as pleasurable as it can be by encouraging communication between coworkers, allowing them to wear casual attire, and choosing their own background music.

The proof is in the pudding here. The store garners more business than the two other national chain copy stores in the immediate vicinity. The students always talk about the feeling of inclusion and spirit within the company (Northouse, 2018, p.130). In Margaret Hefferman’s TED talk, she mentioned a rugby team manager who took his employees on a ski trip which resulted in an increase in team loyalty and camaraderie (Hefferman, 2019). This is exactly what Daniel does at The Copy Center. He focuses on relationships instead of performance which results in increased employee motivation. Part of the attribution theory is self-serving attributions which is the tendency to accept credit for success, but deny responsibility for failure. Daniel is the opposite of this. Although, he is the manager and leader of The Copy Center, he thrives on building a collaborative and healthy work environment.

References

Hefferman, M. (2019). The Human Skills We Need in An Unpredictable World. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_heffernan_the_h…

Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and practice (8th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

How do characteristics of the task and the followers influence Daniel’s leadership?

There are really four major components when it pertains to follower characteristics: needs for affiliation, preferences for structure, desires for control, and self-perceived level of task ability (Northouse, 2018, p. 121). We already established in the last questions that Daniel portrays a supportive leadership style. Based on the case study, the employees really fall into two different categories. You have the duplication workers whom fall under the needs for affiliation and then the desktop publishing workers whom fall under the characteristic of perceptions of their own abilities. The duplication workers do tedious, monotonous work, so having a supportive leader whom is friendly and concerned is a source of satisfaction (Northouse, 2018, p. 121).

The desktop publication workers are typically self-motivated and get their work done, but they do tend to need assistance from time to time. Daniel does a great job at attending to both types of employees by promoting a collaborative work environment and being available as a resource by assisting the desktop publication employees when they are having difficulties working on a project. According to Northouse (2018), “Highly repetitive tasks call for leadership that gives support in order to maintain follower’s motivation” (p. 122). In addition, a focus of the path-goal theory is helping followers overcome obstacles. This is exactly what Daniel does when he assists with troubleshooting problems with the desktop publication employees. In Margaret Hefferman’s TED talk, she mentions that compassion in the workplace has dwindled due to the rise, development, and implementation of technology (Hefferman, 2019). Daniel does a great job of combatting this by focusing on the human needs of his employees rather than focusing on goals. Overall, Daniel is an amazing example of practicing the right style of leadership in the given context.

References

Hefferman, M. (2019). The Human Skills We Need in An Unpredictable World. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_heffernan_the_h…

Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and practice (8th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.