Alpha Mill Case Study

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1. Describe Ang’s leadership style in terms of the Allison (2015) and Vaill (1992) sources. Was there a shift in his style? A retrospective analysis of issues at Alpha Mill revealed issues related to management. The underlying causes arose from leadership styles of Ang Siow and Ian Davidson and the lack of consideration of cultural differences. Ang Siow Lee, as a teenager began work in the 1960s as a laborer at Alpha Mill in Malaysia. He successfully rose to senior production supervisor over palm oil processing after being the most senior non-managerial staff member. He reported to the mill manager with two junior supervisors and 25 operators under his supervision and assumed many responsibilities including human resource planning issues, …show more content…

Leaders, therefore, have a responsibility to help the members of the team become masters of their field of endeavor. This requires education, feedback, and the creation of processes that support beliefs and behaviors that produce excellent results…Leaders must create processes that incentivize superior performance. People cannot be forced to perform, but they can be coached and rewarded” (Allison, 2015, p. 3). Interestingly, after Ang allowed teams to work out issues without his interference and to think independently, mill performance improved. The positive turn-around in mill performance had a negative effect on Ang; he became more withdrawn and devastated by the team’s performance without his control. Understanding a country’s culture is critical to success as business is conducted on a global scale. Each country has its own culture or shared beliefs, values, and customs that shape their behaviors. Despite how influential as organizational culture may be managerial practices, the country’s culture may be even more influential. Geert Hofstede created what he called cultural dimensions to help managers understand the differences in cultures. His research showed that culture impacts employees’ work-related behaviors and attitudes (Robbins and Coulter, 2002). Those five dimensions are: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity, and time orientation (Grewel and Levy, 2013; Javidan and House,

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