Screening and Recruiting

HRM must recruit the best candidates regarding the job analysis for a vacant position. Often, screening becomes challenging since seemingly equally qualified candidates might apply for an opening (course reading; module 7). As such, Tasty Products has requested Wiz Consultants to help to recruit one of the best three candidates identified by the Human Resource Director. The selection will compare the management skills, leadership skills, and leadership styles of each candidate with the criteria for the opening, to rank them from top to bottom.

Management Skills

Max has proven problem-solving, communication, delegation, project management, and adaptability skills. She created Community Communications to keep farmers updated, and has been rated as a good communicator. She designates roles but makes visits to working sites. She is adaptive in that she can work with anyone.

Bean is an entrepreneur and has planning, communication, organizational, and innovation skills. He started and grew the Bean’s Frozen Health company from an in-house business to a multimillion-dollar company. He has proven planning skills and communication, which is mostly informal.

Penney is detail-oriented, a good decision-maker, planner, delegator, and a mentor. He relies on many details to decide and plans on when and how to give updates. He delegates work, but he is a hands-on manager to mentor employees.

Leadership Skills

Max is skilled in managing people, communication, planning and delivery, and strategic thinking. Her roles have, in the past, entailed running teams where she delegates work. She appears as one with adequate communication proficiency, with openness in conversations, but before answering questions, she needs time to think (Hoem, 2006, par. 4). She has created programs and made deliveries for both organizations and the community.

Bean is persuasive and influential, a skilled manager, strategic thinker, planning and delivery, and a good communicator. He is a popular figure in the company and very accommodative. He has led town hall meetings to rally troops and communicate the vision. He is focused on strategic thinking, plans, and makes things done. He seems a good communicator in that he keeps talking to people, making sure not to waste their time.

Penney is a great manager, strategic thinker, planning and delivery expert, and a communicator. Employees respect and love his management, describing him as a fair manager. He makes decisions only after gathering enough details concerning the issue at hand. He has been involved in planning committees for Tasty Products. He has relatively excellent communication, where he calls for a specific meeting with detailed reports. 

Leadership Style

Max is an employee-centered leader and uses a laissez-faire approach. According to course reading (module 10), leaders who use employee-centered style value and focus on relationship building. They support and encourage employees, giving them mentorship and favorable opportunity to make them more qualified and productive (Alwi et al., 2016, p.496). For instance, Max likes to surround herself with good people and delegates duties so that employees can have a chance to make decisions. This approach makes her less hands-on – a laissez-faire approach.

Bean is a task-centered and autocratic leader. He is actively involved in operations and is known to be focused and driven. He has regarded himself as a doer and driver of others. His perspective of leadership is authoritarian, where he gives instructions and directions to achieve goals efficiently and effectively.

Penney is an employee-centered autocratic leader. He is described as a fair manager and applies policies evenly for all employees. He sees himself as a mentor and manager and is interested in employee development. Employees-centered leaders are concerned about the performance of employees and work to provide a shared vision and empower them (Summerfield, 2014, p.134). JC is an autocratic leader who makes decisions and gives directions (course reading; module 10).

Candidate Recommendation

Based on the requirements for the position of Executive V.C. at Tasty Products, Wiz Consultants recommends the recruitment of Bean. His leadership skills, styles, and experiences align with the portfolio description for the position of Executive V.C. Tasty Products have explained that they want an innovative candidate, a good marketer, a manager of people, good in articulating a clear vision, and with strong leadership skills. In that perspective, Bean has a track record for innovation from the start to the sale of Bean’s Frozen Heath. He has led the company from making the first sale to making $360 million annually. He has also facilitated a town hall meeting to articulate its mission to influence new and existing customers. Besides, he is a focused and dedicated leader who mobilizes employees through task-centered and an autocratic style (course reading; module 10). This style makes him ideal for this position, as the company is looking for a candidate who will be viewed by current employees and newly hired employees and their manager (Ruzgar, 2018, p.50).

Besides, he has 15 years of experience in an executive position, leading through the stages of product development and marketing. Both stages are critical for the role of Executive V.C. at Pasty Products. This gives him a competitive advantage over the other candidates. He has been referred to as a charismatic leader, one who can solve complex issues. Thus, in this position, he will innovate and, through entrepreneurial spirit, move the new product throughout its stages. Lastly, he has been in the company for a while, and thus understands the mission, vision, and culture of the organization, as per the recruitment criteria.

Rejected candidate (second choice)

Max ranks second-best candidate for the position of Executive V.C. at Tasty Products. She has very competitive metrics, but she could not fulfill all the requirements for the position of Executive V.C. at the company. For instance, she is an employee-centered leader and uses a laissez-faire approach, which might challenge the employee perception and enable speedy learning and handling of complex management and leadership tasks (Skogstad et al., 2007, p.86). Often, the laissez-faire approach leads to slow implementation as employees have the freedom to manage their time. Besides, she subtle and less strict, which might not play well in introducing, developing, and marketing a new product. Nevertheless, she is educated, has experience in executive roles, and leadership skills.

Rejected candidate (third choice)

Penney ranks last. First, his leadership style is relatively slow, which risks the speed for product development throughout its stages. He is not fast in making decisions and relies on employees to make critical decisions. Besides, he can be distracted by operation details, which is a leadership weakness. While he has worked at the company for a long, his leadership skills and styles do not rank highly with the required criteria for the position of Executive V.C.

Conclusion

After analyzing the leadership skills, management skills, and leadership styles of the three candidates, they have been arranged from top to bottom. Each candidate has management skills and leadership skills such as planning, delegation, communication, among others. However, they differ in leadership styles. Max is an employee-centered leader with a laissez-faire approach, Bean is task-centered, and an autocratic leader, and Penney is an employee-centered autocratic leader. Bean ranks first, Max ranks second, and Penney ranks last regarding the criteria for the position of Executive V.C.

References

Alwi, A., Munirah Raja Mustapha, R., Kadir Othman, A., Asiah Md. Shahid, S., & Syazreena Azmi, F. (2016). Change-Centered, Employee-Centered and Product-Centered Leadership Behaviours and Organizational Commitment. International Journal Of Social Science And Humanity, 6(7), 496-499. https://doi.org/10.7763/ijssh.2016.v6.698

Course readings; module 10: What Makes an Effective Leader? https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wmopen-principlesofmanagement/chapter/what-makes-an-effective-leader/

Course readings; module 7: Recruiting and Selecting Qualified Job Applicants https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wmopen-principlesofmanagement/chapter/recruiting-and-selecting-qualified-job-applicants/

Hoem, J. (2006). View of Openness in communication | First Monday. Firstmonday.org. Retrieved 27 September 2020, from https://firstmonday.org/article/view/1367/1286.

Ruzgar, N. (2018). The Effect of Leaders’ Adoption of Task-Oriented or Relationship-Oriented Leadership Style on Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), In the Organizations That Are Active In Service Sector: A Research on Tourism Agencies. Journal Of Business Administration Research, 7(1), 50. https://doi.org/10.5430/jbar.v7n1p50

Skogstad, A., Einarsen, S., Torsheim, T., Aasland, M., & Hetland, H. (2007). The destructiveness of laissez-faire leadership behavior. Journal Of Occupational Health Psychology, 12(1), 80-92. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.12.1.80

Summerfield, M. (2014). Leadership: Three Key Employee-Centered Elements With Case Studies. INNOVATIONS In Pharmacy, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.24926/iip.v5i2.335