Instructions:
- Select an OB-HR topic of interest to you. Examples include as leadership, team management, motivation, human resources practices.
- Develop questions about the manager’s organization, their overall role and general responsibilities, and his or her challenges and issues with respect to the topic from an organizational and managerial perspective.
- After the interview, prepare a 3-4double spaced assessment —not just a transcript— that includes:
- Brief profile of the manager
- Summary of responses with your analysis, your reaction, and notation of how the information or issues align with topics covered in class.
- Attachment of the interview questions
Evaluation: Evaluation of written assignments will be based on thoughtful, analytical, well-constructed composition demonstrating knowledge of the topic by citing examples of the key concepts covered in class.
Managerial Profile Interview
Leadership
MTA Transit (New York City Transit Authority)
MTA Transit (New York City Transit Authority) is one of the prominent public authorities in the United States. The company controls the public transportation in New York City. It contorts one of the busiest transit systems in the city. The role of managers and employees in making this public organization successful is in the spotlight. In this analysis, one of the managers of this company is interviewed. Some critical questions regarding the role and leadership have been asked. The most important thing is to obtain insights from answers and relate them to several topics which have been covered.
Brief Profile of the Manager
David Ortiz is a manager in MTA, and he is serving the company by using his experience and managerial and leadership skills. Being a manager in the company, he is always intended to lead stakeholders to contribute to the firm’s success. Due to his incredible approach, he always aimed to make this public organization successful.
Playing the role of the manager is a wonderful experience for David Ortiz. He is serving this public organization as a customer communication manager. The primary role of David is to maintain the voice of New York Transit and ensure timely, accurate, useful, and consistent information. When playing this role, he always has to work closely with different stakeholders such as executive management and people at the bottom-line. Due to the vast amount of technical knowledge, he played the role of the leader. By using expert power, it was easy for the manager to experience reasonable followership. Apart from the communication, David contains several field visits, which helps him to understand the ins and outs of the organization. He is playing the role of the bridge for this company, and he contributed to ensuring the adequate flow of information.
Summary of Responses
When I asked him about the role of leadership and his experience in the company, I realized that he was quite assertive in telling or revealing insights regarding his experience. For Instance, he said that he realized his leadership skills early in his career. According to him, managerial position is not just controlling and monitoring people, as leading them is one of the main priorities. In short, he was satisfied with his leadership role in this public transportation company. When I asked about delegation, he responded well. For Instance, according to him, he likes to delegate the work process, especially at the bottom-line of the people. He believes that leadership can be taught by delegating the work. With his in or out visits, he must have to delegate the process, and it is a great motivational source for people working at the bottom-line (Wang, 2018). When I asked about values, he showed his focus in the workplace. In the workplace, he carried several values such as honesty, accountability, ethics, and integrity. Interestingly, when building a workforce in an organization, these values are always carried. By understanding, self, and others to build a workforce team, goals and objectives can be met, and it is what I learned in the class. When deriving insights from David, I was revealed that he is trying to build a workforce, which can only streamline organizational interest. When answering the question regarding the leadership style, he asserted that democratic or participative style is always effective. He likes to integrate with opinions, reservations, thoughts, and ideas, which can help to make an effective decision. In the class, when navigating management and leadership approaches and theories, a democratic leadership style or approach was prominent. In modern organizations, democratic or participative leadership style is always valid, as can also facilitate building a relationship with stakeholders. David, being a manager in the company, still carries this approach to keep everything in the loop. One of the critical questions was about performance management. I was keen to obtain insights regarding his method of performance review. He responded that the critical incident method and 360-degree feedback are effective methods for him to evaluate the performance of others. It is a crucial management practice, which can be improvised in an organization, and it is what I learned in the class. Performance management or review is important for David, as he has to improve performance and identify possible loopholes. Based on the performance data, he led employees or groups of employees to improvements. Of course, it is the best way to start a journey or organizational and personal development (Hughes, Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2013). The final question was regarding the change process in the company. He responded by revealing his role in the change process. In his department, he has always intended to create urgency and rationalize the need for the change. He is always committed to developing a vision or mission regarding the change and collaborating with all key stakeholders. The most important thing for the manager is to understand the need for change, and accordingly, he can lead his team. It is a great leadership or management lesson, which is covered. David said he taught management and leadership skills to team members and people at the bottom-line, as ultimately, they have to become leaders or managers one day. It was the response of David Ortiz, and many topics are interrelated, which were covered in the class. Now, the list of interview questions is below.
Interview Questions
- How did you become a leader in a big public transport company?
- How you like to delegate the work of being a manager in the company?
- What are your leadership and management values in the workplace? How do these values create an impact on stakeholders, especially people at the bottom line?
- What is your leadership style or approach in the MTA? Is it impactful in terms of work and business outcomes?
- How did you evaluate the performance of people who are working in a team? What performance evaluation methods did you use to monitor performance?
- How do you respond to the change process of being a leader? How do changes create an impact on leaders and followers?
References
Hughes, R. L., Beatty, K. M., & Dinwoodie, D. (2013). Becoming a Strategic Leader: Your Role in Your Organization’s Enduring Success. Wiley.
Wang, V. C. (2018). Strategic Leadership. IAP.
