Leadership and communication strategies for Riverside Club

Promote Team Effectiveness

In this time of upheaval within Riverside one of Aileen's major functions is to lead. Briefly describe how Aileen will lead her newly developed teams to ensure that all members are clear on their role and direction.

Aileen can lead the team by bringing them into the process. This means that she must listen to their ideas and implement them as a part of the practices of the club. One way that this can be achieved, is to invite important individuals into the process and work with them to implement certain ideas in order to improve efficiency. They could recommend procedures which reduce the possibilities of mistakes and allow everyone to more effectively service cliental. For instance, reducing shift changes to times when they are not busy will make everybody more productive and it will help clients to feel as if they are receiving greater amounts of support. This will ensure that members have superior service and it will increase the professionalism of the organization. As a result, Aileen must lead her team by having flexibility, openness and the capacity to adjust with critical challenges. This will make it easier to deal with problems and it will change the atmosphere inside the organization. In many ways, one could argue that this is the key for being successful in the long-term. (Anderson 2008) (Patton 2008)

Question 2

Over its many years it is obvious that communication within Riverside has been ineffective. What evidence can you see within the case study to support this statement? What should Aileen do to ensure that effective communication channels exist between all staff and management at Riverside?

There is a clear case of communication issues between the board, management and employees. In the case of the board, they want to see the profits from the club increase. Yet, they do not like the fact that new members want different services in comparison with those from the past. At the same time, they demand that mangers must meet unreasonable objectives and do not want to hear any kind of excuses. This places added amount of pressure on them. The managers are failing to discuss what is happening with employees and do not want to what to hear about any challenges. The employees feel that management and the board are out of touch and disrespectful. Aileen should bring all of the stakeholders together in a committee. They will deal with grievances and reduce the contentious atmosphere. (Anderson 2008) (Patton 2008)

Question 4

Bearing in mind the history of Riverside how would Aileen overcome resistance to the establishment of operational teams bearing in mind that the resistance is likely to come from within the ranks of the teams and from management and the committee.

The best way to overcome resistance is to invite a variety of stakeholders to become a part of an oversight committee. They have the power to deal with critical challenges and address any kind of grievances early on. It will have individuals from different segments to include: employees, board members, veterans and managers. The committee can override policy changes from the board and remove members who are failing to follow certain practices. These procedures will be outlined by a mission statement, code of ethics and values. This will help to guide the firm and make it more responsive to the needs of stakeholders. Over the course of time, these ideas will change the mindset of the organization. When this happens, the Riverside Club will understand and adapt to what is most important to various segments by listening to contrasting of viewpoints. (Anderson 2008) (Patton 2008)