Options for Implementing a Leadership Change

This study shows the leadership change in Gene One and this relates to the team analysis of the four members of the Gene One. Then the change strategy pairs with the combination of participative and direct leadership style of the company. Especially the change emphasized the significance of sharing end vision to obtain support and understanding from team member in the change. In addition, the study conducted to create specific strategy to guide the organization in change.

Team Analysis

Charles Jone is the Marketing Officer for Gene One and is significant person to the Gene One leadership team because of his successful risk-taking and connections in biotechnology. His responsibility is to develop and implement Gene One's marketing strategy. Moreover, Charles is self-confident and his behavior is ethical; therefore, he is also able to identify products that will sell, such as "Tender Tomatoes." Furthermore, Charles likes to focus on the big picture; that is why he is a marketing leader who knows how to lead Gene One into the future. In addition, he tried to clarify the organizational vision. This company has financial manager, Mitchell, who is an expert in handling finance as well as connection to FDA and government. However, she does not have experienced in large organization with finance and is not familiar with the IPO. Greg Thoman is Chief human resources officer and he is proficient in developing talented people and he has high-self confidence. However, as he tried to grow the company by hiring thousands people, he was too busy to focus on developing future talent and enhance the corporate culture. Teri Robertson is Chief Technology Officer and is part of the original start-up team. She has high reputation with genetic breakthrough discovery and holds dozen of patents in the field. She is typical researcher who is highly proud of her research and development and affects the research. Moreover, she has a talent in marketing, which gives huge influence on Gene One's business. Moreover, she knows the strength of the Gene One in the specific biotechnology and has high persuasive communication skill to lead team members in correct way. However, it seems that she interested in the company's going into public such as Wall Street. Rather she is kind of the person who indeed wants to enjoy in research (University of Phoenix, 2010)

Appropriate Leadership Structure and Styles Gene One into the Future

Directive and participative styles are best suited to move Gene One into the future because Don, the leader in the team has some excellent specialist in each field such as Teri, Charles. So it is better to share the information and give empowerment to team members in the specific field in terms of management. On the other hand, Don needs to fill in the "Gap" to in adaptation to move in the public. For example, IPO is essential for the move whereas the financial manager, Michelle Houghton is not familiar with IPO. Furthermore, she and Charles seem to have less experience in leading big organization. As subordinates would be glad to follow the direct leadership in the unpredictable in situation, Don directly needs to lead the team members in which the high risk factors hide for the move.

The End Vision

Sharing the positive end vision among teams is significant. In this case, Don aims for 40% of annual economic growth for the Gene One and he interested in going public in three years. The company should have the vision, which the company establishes win-win situation for farmer, consumer and, the company by possessing innovative biotechnology. In addition, once the company succeeds to go public in Wall Street, they would have high reputation in the crop biotechnology and this may be trigger to promote next level on the research to modify or to improve the technology so that they can contribute financial and health issue of farmers or consumers.

Change Strategy on the Gene One

Significance of Understanding the Change Process

Even though Don rushes to expand the size of the company, the leader needs to understand the change process in terms of resistance to the change before creating strategy. The change process has three phases: unfreezing, changing and, refreezing.

These phases include sharing information among the members, adaptation to new environment, and recognition of the change. Understanding the process eventually assist in guiding the employees to the change. As the Gene One does not have experienced staff with IPO and may face to lose some significant management members, Don needs to create specific strategy to lead this company effectively in implementing its change. In this case, few people have managerial experience in large scale organization and this causes employees to feel anxiety with unpredictable environment for the change. However, as the leader has excellent specialist in each field, the combination of directive and participative leadership should be the best choice to the organization (Robbins & Judge, 2007). According to judge, this type of implementation should refer to the following outline: (Robbins & Judge, 2007)

* Familiar with current situation and human resources in the organization

* Establish a broad coalition to support

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