Superior Reliable Efficient Transportation (S.R.E)

Superior Reliable Efficient Transportation (S.R.E)

Superior Reliable Efficient Transportation (S.R.E) is a truckload carrier operating the best fleet on American roads. The company specializes in managing a tractor fleet under the co-ownership of the organization and owner-operator drivers. S.R.E transportation company’s operations deal with more than 50 significant terminals, which are situated near the main traffic lanes and freight centers in the United States. The primary desire of the company is to offer customers an opportunity to enjoy a “one-stop shopping” to cater to their specific truckload transportation needs. At S.R.E Transportation, the company’s mission is to attain and retain clients through the provision of top-notch transportation solutions and fostering a culture of trust, safety, and profitability. The company adopts various strategic, operational measures to facilitate the continued domination in the industry. Through a reflection on diverse theoretical frameworks, the paper looks into leadership approaches adopted by the company in responding to the problem of conflicting workers, which risks it to performance deterioration.

Leadership Problem

Conflict among supervisors is the dominant leadership problem that risks the company to an ultimate failure if not adequately addressed. Supervisors play an essential role in facilitating the efficient flow of services rendered by the company. Supervisors are tasked with diverse roles, including leading and managing driver availability towards maximizing fleet productivity. Besides, the supervisors are tasked to develop high performing drivers by engaging them daily through positive reinforcement and coaching. Similarly, the supervisors are expected to formulate measures in assisting others to achieve the set objectives. As such, supervisors are at the center of the company’s success. Lack of cooperation among employees hinders the realization of organizational goals (Banaeianjahromi & Smolander, 2019). For example, the supervisors are always conflicting about various chores hence curtailing them from working towards a specific common goal. Most of the supervisors assume leadership positions, therefore, fail to appreciate decisions made by their colleagues. When working with the company, I realized that the problem translated into persistent confrontations, thus ultimately curtailing the realization of the desired functional goals. Through the literature review, there are diverse approaches that can help the company to alleviate the problem.

Literature Review

1. Leadership Theories

The study of leadership, which is traceable back to the Ancient Egyptians, is an essential consideration by investors when responding to various functional problems facing an organization. Scholars and academicians look into some of the leadership theories and how managers can utilize them to enhance the realization of organizational goals. Expectancy, goal-setting, equity, and the Great Man Theory are some of the theoretical frameworks considered by most scholars and academicians when reflecting on the aspect of organizational progress. According to the expectancy theory, an individual’s expectations play a critical role in influencing their actions (Lloyd & Mertens, 2018). The theory points out that a leader should consider the motivations behind employees’ behavior to enable them to formulate excellent measures to counter actions that might adversely affect the organization.

Secondly, the goal-setting theory is a theoretical framework looking into the essentiality of formulating the targeted outcomes to guide employees’ day-to-day actions. The theory argues that setting goals is significantly impactful in influencing continuous organizational performance (Locke & Latham, 2012). The argument is linked to task performance and denotes that the formulation of challenging and specific goals translates to better performance of diverse organizational tasks. Theorists who adopted this framework argue that practical purposes are those that are challenging, have feedback, have clarity, and evidence task complexity. According to the theory, leaders should formulate such goals to guide workers as they render their day-to-day services to an organization. On the other hand, equity theory is a framework that reflects on the implications of rewards as far as organizational performance is concerned. Theorists adopting this theory argue that most workers remain sensitive to the amount of awards earned by others in the workplace. Such comparison is critical in influencing their attitude and may curtail mutual relationships if some of the workers feel discriminated against when compared with others.

2. Conflict resolution

Dealing with employee conflict is part and parcel of any successful organization. According to scholarly reflection by various academicians, the diversified nature of the workforce leads to opposing points of view among employees, thus translating to conflicts. Successful leaders should have the ability to consider the factors translating to the disputes and adopt extraordinary measures to restore normalcy. Conflicts among workers may curtail the attainment of the desired functional goals (Al Qawasmeh, 2016). Various procedural steps can enable leaders to address conflicts among workers. Understanding the nature of the conflict forms the initial step in conflict resolution. Leaders should analyze the situation and understand the factors behind the differences. Secondly, leaders should encourage conflicting workers to come up with a decision and address their differences. Thirdly, leaders are expected to analyze both sides and understand each of the worker’s points of view to enhance the formulation of unique approaches. Finding a solution and writing it up forms the last fundamental steps in conflict resolution. Leaders should try and resolve the conflict in a manner leading to the satisfaction of each of the confronting employees.

Resolving the conflict facing S.R.E Transportation

The literature review above gives an insight into some of the approaches that can enhance the response to the problem facing the company. As briefed earlier, the company’s continued success is risked by the persistent conflicts among the supervisors. Supervisors play an essential role, and the company depends on their advice when formulating various decisions. Cooperation among the supervisors will enable the management team to get the best information hence leading to the formulation of faultless operational decisions. A consideration of the procedural steps of conflict resolution is critical in responding to the problem. Situational leadership is one of the most effective approaches in resolving conflicts in an organization (Rahim, 2017). Leaders in the company can adopt the plan. The leader should take the theory and follow the steps of conflict resolution to enhance the ability to respond to the problem. It is worth for the leader to critically analyze the problem leading to the challenge to enable them to address the matter. Through this approach, the leader should utilize various styles incorporated under the theory to enhance perfection in resolving the conflicts.

Summary and Overview

The paper reflects on some of the theoretical frameworks guiding leaders on the best approaches to ease the realization of the set goals. Leaders are at the center of any organization’s success. They guide junior workers and influence their day-to-day performance. While working at S.R.E Transportation, I realized that conflicts among supervisors were a detrimental problem that risked the company to ultimate failure. Through the literature review, the paper reflects on some of the best approaches towards enabling the company’s management team to resolve such conflicts and restore normalcy. Managers to the company should consider theoretical frameworks and procedural steps guiding conflict resolution to allow them to respond to the confrontations.

References

Al Qawasmeh, R. (2016). Corporate Governance and Conflict Management. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 7(6).

Banaeianjahromi, N., & Smolander, K. (2019). Lack of communication and collaboration in enterprise architecture development. Information Systems Frontiers, 21(4), 877-908.

Lloyd, R. A., & Mertens, D. (2018). Expecting more out of Expectancy Theory: History urges inclusion of the social context. International Management Review, 14(1), 28-43.

Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2012). Goal-setting theory. In Motivation: Theory and research (pp. 23-40). Routledge.

Rahim, M. A. (2017). Managing conflict in organizations. Routledge.