Northmarq Leader/Follower Relationships 2 (Week 4)

This past week has led to the first signs of potential disconnect and strain present between the Northmarq’s leaders and the followers. During a company wide meeting, last week the top-level executives had made the decision to have all employees return to a mandatory in-person schedule that has them working all five days in the office. This was also the first time I had seen a real centralized use of leadership that has sweeping effects across the organization. From my experience, up to this point, individual department managers had a large amount of flexibility with regards to how they wanted their personal teams to interact between in-person or work from home basis and this intervention from executives was a clear difference. Although the way the executives communicated the message during the meeting was satisfactory, it was clear the employees were disappointed overall with the timing and lack of communication and input that was solicited for making such a substantial decision. The day employees must return to the office was only a week and a half after the notice giving people with childcare, or housing situations little time to manage such circumstances before returning full time. This was a clear breakdown in expectations and communication as everyone I had spoken to including my department manager had spoken about how it was more than likely going to be a hybrid model of back to work in the office that would be adopted. I think the largest cause of the mismatched expectations and results was the lack of consistent communication down the line. As a result there was a gap in knowledge that create ambiguity that allowed for individuals to fill in with their own assumptions. There is a good chance that this situation will damage some of the trust that has been developed between followers and the leaders. I think this is especially true given the circumstance that is being debated. Many employees I’ve talked to take the in-office orders as being a signal that the company’s leadership doesn’t trust its employee’s ability to remain as productive at home as they are in the office. Although this is not the reason for leadership’s decision, it is still perceived that way by some. For many of the executives who are older in age, the office workspace may be more comfortable and preferable to the leadership style they have developed over the years so they may be more eager to regain that strength. Overall, I still think the leadership does a good job in listening to their followers but this decision I believe was mishandled and will hurt their credibility and potential effectiveness in the near term.