Malik Al-Huseini, ID#:140752

2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

Arab Open University

Tutor Marked Assignment (TMA 01)
Academic Year

20 14

2015

Semester Second, Spring

Program: MBA

Branch:OMAN
Course Title: Fundamentals of Senior Management

Course Code: B 713 I

Student Name: Malik Said Abdulla Al-Huseini

Student ID: 140752

Section Number:1

Tutor Name: Dr. Mohammed Al-Haziazi

Total Mark:
Questions

Q1

Q2

Q3

Allocated Marks

Weight

40

40

20

Allocated Marks

Marks
Criteria
Marks
Deduction

100

Total

/100
Presentation

Referencing/In-text
Citations

Word Count

/-05

/-10

/-05

Total

/-20

/100

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academic acknowledgement and documentation.
Verbatim copying of material from the Internet, including tables and graphics.
Copying other students notes or reports.
Using paid or unpaid material prepared for the student by individuals or firms.
B Penalties for plagiarism ranges from failure in the TMA to expulsion from the university.
Declaration: I hereby declare that the submitted TMA is my own work and I have not copied any other persons
work or plagiarized in any other form as specified above.
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Word Count ( 2669)

1

Date returned:

Malik Al-Huseini, ID#:140752

2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

Introduction
Nowadays management and leadership are necessary for every business in
order to grow and keep its position in the competitive market. The purpose of
this assignment is to identify the requirements, which is required by a young
manager and leader of Cloths and Accessories' store that had been declining
in performance. The first section of this assignment discusses the readiness
of Oliveira for the new job that had been given to him and discuss the
requirements of a leadership such as, set up his vision, align the employees
and motivate the staff in the store. In addition, it describes the process of
implement the changes. The following section will cover reflection on Oliveira
approach critically on leading the changes process in the store and how to
manage the store based on the leadership perspective. Moreover ,it explains
some issues that must be exist in Oliveira as a leader such as ,power,
influence and strategies for change. The third section will highlights the
reaction of the store manager Prado against Oliveira. Finally, the conclusion
will sum up the recommendation which should be followed by Oliveira in
order to lead the store.
Oliveira readiness for the job and how he should implement the
changes.
Oliveira had been assigned to manage the clothes and Accessories store in
downtown Vitoria which had dramatically worsened in last five years and this
is a challenge for a young person to make a change in his managerial
position. This section is going to discuss the Oliveira readiness and how
change can be implemented using his management skills. Readiness for his
job was gained by working in the Recife store that he had earned the
experience by working in all aspects of business such as unloaded trucks,
served as cashier, led small departments , acted as a store supervisor and
sometimes working as store manager when full time manager has long
vacation. after working in many branches with employees, he had earned
respect and friendship from all staff. Then, according to his good
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Malik Al-Huseini, ID#:140752

2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

performance, he was promoted to be a manager and given a new

assignment as leading and managing a store, which had been declining in
performance. As a leadership in new position, Oliveira try to implement some
talent that gained during his training. He started to implement the advice
that had given to him to know all the employees in the organization and
making meeting with each person, which mean that you have to make all
employees to respect and love the leadership. This is because good leaders
love those that follow them and this may look different for different ages and
places. So that, all employees want whats best for them and care about
them above any project. Then, he started to set meeting with the store
management team and give his order for everyone to stop their work and
help other departments when there are more customer and started to
change some of departments operations from current system of planning
and designating functions by people.
leadership can be defined as a process of social influence, which maximizes
the efforts of employees in the organization to reach the goal and he must
implement major changes that are very necessary to survive and compete
effectively in new environment( Kruse, 2013 ). Therefore ,Oliveira as leader
for this branch of clothes and accessories should make change by setting a
direction and developing a vision of the future of the store along with
strategies for producing the changes that are needed to achieve the vision of
organization . Vision is not only drives the leader to achieve the goal, but is
able to drive others and good leaders know how to take a vision that has
been birthed in employee and spread it to the people that follow them and
the people around them. Good leaders know how to spread that vision and
get people excited about it as if it is their own. Since the function of
leadership is to produce change, setting the direction of that change is
fundamental to leadership. Oliveira should gather data and look for patterns,
relationships, and linkages that help explain things in the organization. The
direction setting for him will create vision and strategies, which can describe
a business, technology, or corporate culture in terms of what it should
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Malik Al-Huseini, ID#:140752

2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

become over the long term and articulate a feasible way of achieving this
goal.
Next, he can follow a strategy that called aligning people which means
communicating the new direction to those who can create coalitions that
understand the vision and are committed to its achievement and improving
the performance in the store. Aligning people is different which involves
talking to many more individuals than organizing does. The target population
can involve not only a managers subordinates but also bosses, peers, staff
in other parts of the organization, as well as suppliers, government officials,
and even customers. So who can help implement the vision and strategies or
who can block implementation is relevant. Then, Oliveira to achieve vision of
store requires motivating and inspiring which means keeping people moving
in the right direction, despite major obstacles to change, by appealing to
basic but often untapped human needs, values, and emotions. Successful
motivation inspiration can ensure that staff in the store will have the energy
to overcome obstacles (kotter, 2001).
The suggestion that are needed to improve and implement a talent for
management process which refers to the range of activities engaged in by an
organization to enhance the performance of a target person or group with
the ultimate purpose of developing organizational effectiveness (DeNisi,
2000). Leading the store by Oliveira or any new leader for any organization
must implement all the skills which are needed to improve their organization
to achieve the goal. It is clear that skills will be important for Oliveira as to
exercise leadership. Effective persuasion depends on knowledge and
expertise. Some talent management which are related to his behavior is
Interpersonal skills .This skills are very important in activities such as
networking that could enhance his knowledge and help him to build
relationships with all employees. Also, this ability lead a group depends on
influence both within and outside the group . Communication skills are
needed in conjunction with all the skills a leader possesses and it is perhaps
4

Malik Al-Huseini, ID#:140752

2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

the most important way of leadership (Cameron, 2003) . The leader must
have a clear understanding of the message that he is communicating and he
must be aware that the aim of communication is to influence the allocation
of attention of the organization's members (Cyert, 1990).
The reflection on Oliveira's approach critically on leading the
turnaround process and what could be done differently by him. When
Oliveira arrived to his new workplace as a store manager and leading the
turnaround a store that had been declining in performance .He arrived a few
days before starting his new mission to explore the city which I think will be
best for a new employee to adapt with weather in new place of working.
After that, he was welcomed by his future direct reports and showed to him
to his new office . Then, he met the outgoing manager which explained to
him the problem that causes the declining of the downtown Vitoria but, he
decided to focus on factors inside the store before worrying about the issue
outside the store and this point I dont agree with him because he must
worry about outside environment that can attract people and could increase
the profit of the store. Also, the outgoing manager described to him the
supervisors and department leader and their experience and during these
first couple days in the store, he watched vigilantly for operational
improvement the he could leverage as he worked to turn's the store
performance around. The store was not crowded and few people were
standing in either fitting room or cashier .Also, he noted that the showcase of
store was not clean and he was bothered to see none of the employee were
smiling. Oliveira now is a leader as the assignment that given to him and
started to make a change in the store ,so for a new leader he must know the
skills of leadership and difference between the duties of management and
leadership. Leadership is making change in the organization to survive and
compete in the market. So that, according to transformational leadership
which is defined as a process where leaders and their employees raise one
another to higher levels of morality and motivation (Midtools.com,2015 ). In
addition, an effective leader is a person who does and creates an inspiring
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Malik Al-Huseini, ID#:140752

2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

vision of the future of the company, motivates and inspires employees to

engage with his vision, manages delivery of the vision and coaches and
builds a team, so it will be more effective at achieving his vision. These are
some skills that are needed for a leadership in any organization to achieve
the goal.
Oliveira started his mission by remembering the advice that was given to
him which is getting know your people first. This advice was important to him
because employees will respect and love him and good leaders love those
that follow them. He spent the first week meeting with each employee
individually ,inquiring their name ,experience and roles at the store. Then, he
started to set meeting with the store management team and give his vision
and strategies for changing the store to improve performance. After that, he
started to implement an urgency code that are used to organize the different
types of service notifications by priority and urgency. The urgency code was
to both cashier and fitting room staff and everybody should their work and
help these departments whenever there are more customer. He intended to
change some department operation from the current system of planning .I
argued with him because from leadership skills, he should make change by
setting a direction by developing a vision of the future of the store along with
strategies for producing the changes that are needed to achieve the vision
and improve the performance. This creates a common purpose with
employee toward a common goal. This communication needs to be face to
face with staff in the store and explaining what he is going to do, but, rather
than set his vision clearly to the employees, he established a sense of
urgency and trying to change the status without examining the market . So,
he failed to establish the urgency and it was difficult to move to the stage of
creating a guiding coalition because employees commitment in helping
move the effort forward and it requires senior leaders to create a sense of
urgency in the store to gain the cooperation of affected stakeholders
including employees and lower level managers (Help.isah.com,2015).
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Malik Al-Huseini, ID#:140752

2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

Moreover, Oliveira used his power from his position as a leader of the store
and gave an instruction to the employees to organize the work. Next,
Oliveira decided to keep everyone on track and established a weekly
meeting with management team, which would mean changing some
individuals schedules. He thought that his proposed changes would
generate good results and decided to check all departments to see the
implementation progress and as he visited each department, he was
surprised to find that nothing of the changes had been made. Consequently,
he decided to work on each departments to make sure that changes were
implemented. After one week of his first check up, he went back to each
departments and found that the new policies had stopped being
implemented. Actually, I agree with him that he must keeping check each
department individually and try to align all the staff in the store. According to
the leadership perspective, he aligned with all employees who involves
talking to many more individuals in the store. Although what he has done is
right from management perspective ,but the results were not achieved due
to employees responses. Achieving of his vision needs to motivate and
keeping employees in the right direction , despite major obstacles to change,
by appealing to basic but often untapped human needs, values, and
emotions.
Strategies of change which describe a specific ways to achieve the goal of
vision and it is a process of continuous learning which requires performance
measures to be adjusted constantly to reflect the changes in the value
system ( Feurer&Charbaghi,1995 ). Oliveira didnt establish his strategy of
change that I believe it can help him to minimize negative of changes. Also,
his persuasion influence was not effective because this influence depends on
expertise and personal characteristics which was not gained yet by him.
Something can be done differently if he had good experience on dealing with
market and made a full strategy and vision to achieve the goal to improve
the performance in the store.
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Malik Al-Huseini, ID#:140752

2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

Justification of Prado's reaction when Oliveira returned from his

vacation and the reasons that makes him to continuo and not fired.
Because Prado experienced the same situation when he was a young
manager and he knew that Oliveira will face such a challenge for instant, one
of the advice provided to Oliveira from one of the former store manager is to
get closer to the employees. This mean he must be friendly with all
employees. So, it will be easily to align the employees. In addition ,Prado
knew that store which was given to Oliveira was most challenging store in
the country and that would most likely get worse before they got better. So,
changing any business from worse to better are not easy for a young
manager without any experience but Prado trust Oliveira and can make a
change in the store because of his good capacity and performance during his
training for example, he had earned respect and the friendship by working
side by side with all employees in the previous store. Also, he was selected
and awarded one of twenty positions out of 10,000 applicants which I think
he has a good capacity and will make a change and will learn from his
mistake. Moreover, Prado knew that any leader of Cloths and Accessories
should have the space to make mistakes and can learn from them. Although,
he didnt explain the challenge that Oliveira will face in this store which I
think could help Oliveira to focus the problems that will face during his
process to implement the changes.
Oliveira should make a change in the transition in the store from one that
was focused on operations to one that people centric. This can be achieved
by performing any process within an organization that requires human
interaction can be defined, modeled, automated and people centric
process management allows all of an organizations processes to be
handled (Appian, 2015). I think because he can ensure that jobs can be
handled and he can motivate employees when he focus on people centric
to achieve goals. .

Malik Al-Huseini, ID#:140752

2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

Prado believe that an executive will have to pass through a restructuring

eventually because Oliveira will try to learn from mistake that will face him in
the store by himself. From this perspective, I think according to Oliveira
capacity and performance in his training ,any leader of Clothes and
Accessories can made mistake as Prado believe that and Prado didnt explain
the challenges that he expected Oliveira may face. I think Prado didnt fire
Oliveira because of all above mentioned reasons.
Conclusion
Success of any leader requires a proper planning and strategy in order to
improve the organization and referring to leadership perspective the
following recommendation should be followed by Oliveira in order to improve
the performance in the store of Clothes and Accessories. First, he should set
a vision of how to improve the performance and explain his vision to all the
employees. Then, align and motivate all the employees and should examine
the market. Furthermore, he should explain the weakness of each
department to the employees in order to improve their performance. Finally,
he must learn from mistakes that made during each process of change.
References
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2014/2015

B713_1,TMA01, section 1 Dr.Mohammed Al-Haziazi, spring

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