Assignment task: Service Quality and Leadership
Michael Tam is the operations director for regional software company to support BusyLink Credit Card Service Company. The operations involved in functions such as billing, sales, authorization and credit collection/receivables.
Recently there has been numerous complaints from BusyLink on their quality of service rendered. The CEO of the company hired an independent consultant Amy to investigate. Amy found out there were many operations issues, billing defects, declined sales and slow credit collection/ receivables. However, the most serious issue were billing defects related to account numbers, customer account transactions, interest charges and penalty charges. She suspected that the operations managers might not receive enough supervision from Michael.
Amy first interviewed Michael and three other direct managers who report to him. Michael claimed that he supervised four managers and believe in management by exception where he is hesitant to get involved in how his managers conduct their work. He holds weekly meeting, conduct annual performance reviews but prefers to spend more time to network with major corporate customers and senior executives. Amy interviewed another manager, Kavita who is responsible for account receivables processing function. When asked about Michael's leadership, Kavita said he is macro-manager who had minimal contact with the group and did not seem to even care what was happening. The manager said, "I recently asked Michael's advice about finding a good contact who could introduce me to the finance manager of a multinational corporation to solve quality expectations. Michaels told me that a big part of my job was to develop contacts on my own. As a result, my department cannot solve issues. Our key performance indicators had deteriorated, transactions incurred longer processing time much to client's frustrations".
Joseph who managed the customer account transaction commented that Michael is a nice manager. "I don't need a boss to remind me to attain my goals or get my work done on time. A little smile of encouragement here and there is all I need," the manager said. The manager responsible for credit collection/ receivables, Nurul said to Amy, "I remember meeting Michael a few times, but I don't remember much about him. I don't care if my comments received response, because I'm joining competitor next month."
Amy wonders how she should conclude her findings with an objective report.
Question: Evaluate the strengths and weakness of Michael's leadership approach. Propose the leadership approach for Michael to be a more effective leader to improve service quality.