Bodine’s Autocratic Leadership Style and Competitive Working Environment
Discuss about the Role Played By Leadership Working Environment.
Bodine created the sales culture of the organization, Inpace cut-throat and moving. He is always focused on making the work culture innovative, so that the employees are engaged to give their best effort to the company. The leadership role played by Bodine is autocratic style of leadership and the working environment within the company is very competitive. He always inspire the employees to compete with each other. thus the employees themselves remain in a robust competition with each other. all of the employees work hard and put their best so that they can prove their eligibility to Bodine. Therefore it can be said that the given case study is an example of ethical dilemma which is of pre-condition level. The employees robustly compete with each other and inclined to win by using any means as they remain under the pressure of robust competeting environment. Therefore such kind of environment pushes them to develop within themselves, a cut-throat behavior. As a result of this, the employees often ignore their indigenous worth and indulge into competition. Instead of working for the organization, the employees work for their own interest which is the urge of the prove themselves before Bodine. Bodine incorporated the strategy of rewards in the work place which made the employees focused on earning rewards. The case study clearly shows that Bodine’s this strategy really work as it motivates the employees to bring out the best version of themselves. The employees obey their leader in order to avoid any personal consequences in the organization. Bodine, who is in the leadership position of the company, follows an autocratic style of leadership. every knowledge and skill with which he elevates the performances of his employees to the level of his expectation. Being the head of the organization, Bodine masters in the area of sales. He also encourages his employees to learn from his expertise like his strategies and understanding of the subject and follow them. He uplifts the work force in the company by motivating them with his speeches. He believes in the strategy of competition. as per his ideology, employees can be motivated to put their best effort in if they are into competition against each other. so that it can be said that the business strategy he follows is the aggressive style of business strategy. he believes that young generation has the ability cope up with his style of business policy. Thus he hires the best talents from the top-notch universities. He nurtures the young talents to adopt his strategy to be more productive, efficient and effective for the completion.
Ethical Dilemma Faced by Ali
The case study shows that Ali has witnessed ethical dilemma. Ali Sloan along with Codi Russell were being considered for a coveted assignment for a major account with a company that had has recently expanded its base into the state. She was expected to submit a proposal for the assignment to seize the assignment and prevent the possibility of the rival company Raleigh-Tech from seizing the opportunity. Ali grabbed the opportunity and expanded their influence with the company. This was also done with the intention of building reputation. However, things too a bad turn when Cody on one fine night stormed into Ali’s office and kept the file on the desk. The file comprised of all the trade secrets of Raleigh-Tech, the biggest competitor of In-Place solutions. I feel that it is quite difficult to decide what would Ali actually do in this situation. It is because the file comprising of the important information and data of the rival company could change the fate of Bodine in the market. I would not say that the company was not doing well in the market, however accessing the key information of a rival company had its own share of advantages. First of all these information would enable In-place solutions to have an idea about the marketing strategies and the business model of Raleigh-Tech. Since In-place solutions was always motivated to take away the opportunity for sales of its competitors in the market (in this case Raleigh-Tech). This would help In-place solutions in entrenching its competitive advantage. In-place solutions are known in the market for its penchant for hiring to-grade graduates who have graduated from some of the best business schools. For Bodine who is the sales manager of the company, it would be a great opportunity to reap the benefits that would be generated through the inside and detailed information about Raleigh-Tech. Therefore, based on the competitive advantage that Bodice would generate from the information about its rival company Ali may refrain from making a call and let her company bask in the potential advantage that it would have. However, another alternative would be to call Bodine and inform him about the unethical means adopted by Cody. Given the body of work by Bodine and his reputation he might allow such unscrupulous means to succeed in the business. Competition in business is quite natural as it reflects the vision, will and determination of the company to give their best efforts. However, adopting unfair means to level the game, in this case using espionage service to topple the game of the rival company is unethical. This directly assaults the principles of honesty, integrity and ethical means that are considered the foundation of an organization. Adopting of unethical and unfair means to stay ahead in the competition is reflective of poor leadership skills and the lack of confidence in oneself. Therefore, I feel that if I were in Ali’s situation it would be equally tough for me just like her to come to a decision about should be done given the complexity of the situation. On one hand, those information would be beneficial for In-place solutions and help in chiding away the competition. On the other hand, letting this incident happen without raising protest would lacerate my professional integrity that I have leant and maintained in my professional journey. May be after much deliberation, I would actually call up Bodine and inform about Cody’s unethical means. It is important to maintain an organizational culture that is fair and where people would feel inspired to bestow their contributions.
Importance of Ethical Decision-Making in Business
Ethical decision-making is a key component of business and leaders make decisions about their organizations drawing from the different approaches of philosophy. The foundation of individualism in decision-making revolves around adopting the best method for business that is guided by self-interest where everyone would benefit. As a result of this business leaders prefer to adopt this approach believing that it would enable them to entrench and consolidate their business. Considering the principle of individualism as one where companies encourage employees to veer towards personal benefits and seek strategies that would help them in entrenching long-term interest, the decision of Cody to hand over the secret information of the rival company Raleigh-Tech to the sales manager, Bodine looks like a fair enough decision. Since he and Ali were competing for the same assignment, Cody understood that this secret trade information would not only help Bodine in gaining competitive advantage over RT but at the same time would help him to topple Ali from the competition and make him the sole competitor for this assignment. However, there is drawback of individual ethical decision-making that is it motivates employers or employees to seek short-term goals to succeed in the business instead of long-term benefits. Therefore, this approach is concerned solely with the personal benefit of the individual. The next approach that could be used as framework to assess the decision adopted by Cody would be the utilitarian approach. The core value of the utilitarian approach is that it strives to achieve greatest good for the greatest number. Another aspect of this would be to create least harm to the organization or other stakeholders who are involved in the process. It focuses on ensuring the interests of every entity. Therefore, an utilitarian approach ensures that everyone involved in the process would reap benefit from the process. If Cody would have drawn from the utilitarian approach he would have stayed away from pursuing the current mode of strategy that posits to topple Ali and solely secure him benefit. He would have made the decision to not adopt unfair means in securing his individual interest but also look at the concerns of Ali. He might have made Ali a party into this strategy and together they could have presented the file by allowing Ali to also have her share of advantage. He might have in statistical analysis of the probable outcomes like the benefits assessment, classic costs and consideration of the marginal utility. Therefore, the central idea would be to not harm Ali or ruin the reputation of the company. Another approach to ethical decision-making in business would be the practical approach that could be adopted by Cody. According to this approach, managers need to encourage their staff and value ethical priorities through encouragement of all the employees. According to this approach, sound ethics are integral for business as it encourages the managers to deliver their best efforts. Considering that, this would be the approach adopted by Cody, then he would refrain away from this act and rather encourage Ali to compete on level playing field. The highlight of this approach is that it seeks ethical practices based on the situation that would maximize the potential of each of the employees. The practical approach challenges the unethical means. Practical ethics links ethics to discipline. It also tries to establish professional ethics with the broader social context. The practical approach further takes into account the institutional context. Accountability is also another feature of the practical approach, therefore drawing from these features it can be said that the fear of accountability would have refrained Cody from adopting such an unethical measure. He would have adhered to an approach that w would be rational and avoid deception, favoritism and leads to the conflict of interest. He would not have used his power and influence to sought the files and topple RT with will-motives. He would have rather worked hard, strategize and entrench his position that would have given him a competitive advantage over Ali and naturally would have given him the confidence. He should adopt professional integrity into business and not let difficult situation, in this the decision of toppling Ali and ruining her career possibilities. Most importantly, he would try to live up to the core values of Intech Solutions as envisaged by Bodine.