Management Case Analysis - Blue Sky

Blue sky is a software consulting firm established by Max Blue with its headquarters in Cleveland Ohio and it operates in five regional offices. However, recently Max stepped down as the companys CEO and Jim Willis, HR software divisions Vice President become the CEO. Blue Sky consists of three divisions including machine tool software, HR software, and health payment software and each division has the Vice President as its head. The company is experiencing several management issues ranging from leadership to decision-making. In this light, the company has undergone leadership change from Maxs autocratic leadership style to collaborative, changes in employee motivation, strategic planning and decision making as well as design and control problems.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Management issues are the common problem Blue Sky face. The company does not have a strategic planning process which is important in the success of any business. Strategic planning is critical to a company since it outlines goals and provides a firm with a sense of direction. It is a significant tool in guiding daily decisions as well as assessing the changing approaches and progress when moving ahead. Generally, strategic planning is the means for a company to achieve desired, economically doable and profitable objective. Thats why Susy Hubres was insisting on the development of a strategic plan with the help in planning analysts. Another problem is reluctance to take risks. Focusing on one client especially the HR line since Best Dollar does not want to share the software with its competitors is bad for the progress of the company. The HR software serves only Best Dollar, there is need to widen the client base meaning the company need to pursue new clients. Also, the CFO declined Robertss pursuit strategy to create an information system module to meet the need of hospitals to have electronic medical records on grounds that the pursuit would be technically and financially expensive to the company and the project was very risky. Finally, decision-making is a problem especially in Maxs era where he was the only one making decisions regarding the company and directors involved in top management only.

Leadership in Blue Sky

Max Blue was the founder and CEO of Blue Sky until recently when Willis succeeded him. Max exercised autocratic leadership where Max had total control over all the decisions regarding the company. There was little input from the employees. From his quote saying that Blue Sky is his company and he knows what best for the company and ho to run it clearly indicated his autocratic leadership. According to Kippenberger (2002) some of the characteristics of autocratic leadership include leaders making all the decisions, no effort from the members, leaders dictate work processes and methods, and the leaders do not trust the member with important decisions or tasks. Max exhibited these autocratic leadership characteristics from development the software programs to running the company. Max personally led the development of the three software programs that Blue Sky offer and he made all the decisions himself. His autocratic nature explains the reasons why Max felt that it is unnecessary to have planning and meetings since he wanted to be in control in every situation. One of the advantages of Maxs autocratic nature is that it led to the successful development of Blue Skys three primary software programs which are the companys major competitive advantage. However, his leadership led to the development of a passive culture in the company, where the employees wait orders from the boss.

When Willie took office, he started exercising collaborative leadership.

References

Kippenberger, T. (2002). Leadership Styles: Leading 08.04 (Vol. 8). John Wiley & Sons.