Leadership Final Report

8/8/2019 Leadership Final Report

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"I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce

more leaders, not more followers."

Ralph Nader

Avanza SolutionsAn analysis of the Leadership styles, Teamwork and the Corporate

Social Responsibility at Avanza Solutions.

PREPAREDBY:

CHANDAN KUMAR

HINA JAFRI

HIRA ANSARI

MUZAMMIL SHAHID BHATTI

SARAH SARFARAZ

MBA IV/II (MORNING)

4/23/2009

SUBMITTEDTO:

M. KAMIL SHAHBAZKER


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ContentsContents ..................................................................................................................... 2

TRAITS ........................................................................................................................ 5

Mr. Junaid Khans Traits ........................................................................................... 5

Intelligence: .......................................................................................................... 5

Self-confidence:.................................................................................................... 5

Determination: ..................................................................................................... 5

Integrity: ............................................................................................................... 5

Sociability: ............................................................................................................ 6

Mr. Mehmood Kapurwalas Traits ............................................................................ 6

Intelligence: .......................................................................................................... 6

Self-confidence:.................................................................................................... 6

Sociability: ............................................................................................................ 6

Integrity: ............................................................................................................. 6

SKILLS ......................................................................................................................... 7

Mr. Junaid Khans Skills .......................................................................................... 7

Mr. Mehmood Kapurwalas Skills ............................................................................. 8

STYLE .......................................................................................................................... 9

Mr. Junaid Khans Style: ........................................................................................ 10

Mr. Mehmood Kapurwalas Style ........................................................................... 10

Situational Approach ................................................................................................ 11

Path Goal theory ....................................................................................................... 12

Leader Member Exchange theory ............................................................................. 14

Teams at Avanza ...................................................................................................... 21

Organization Structure .......................................................................................... 21

Teams in E-Business .............................................................................................. 21Sequential Interdependence in E-Business ......................................................... 22

Teams in E-Banking ............................................................................................... 22

Sequential Interdependence in E-Banking .......................................................... 23

Nature of E-Business & E-Banking Teams ................................................................. 24

Team Effectiveness .................................................................................................. 25


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Organizational and Team Environment ................................................................. 26

Reward Systems: ................................................................................................ 26

Communications System and Physical Space: ................................................... 26

Organizational Environment: .............................................................................. 26

Organizational Structure: ................................................................................... 26

Organizational Leadership: ................................................................................. 27


Task Characteristics: .......................................................................................... 27

Team Size:.......................................................................................................... 27

Team Composition: ............................................................................................ 27


Team Norms: ...................................................................................................... 28

Team Roles: ....................................................................................................... 28

Team Cohesiveness: .......................................................................................... 28

Virtual Teams: .......................................................................................................... 29

CSR Today ................................................................................................................ 29

CSR Tomorrow .......................................................................................................... 29


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Introduction

Avanza Solutions is a USA based company, with its representation in Spain, USA,

Middle East and Pakistan. It was founded by Mr. Junaid Rabbani, Ex MD and GlobalHead of Derivatives at Citicorp. The company has evolved from a small IT solutions

firm to one which now provides solutions to the Banking Industry in Pakistan. It was

recently selected by Kabul Bank, one of the largest in Afghanistan, to provide them

with ATM Solutions.

Vision of Avanza Solution

To be recognized and respected as "the best in class Software and Services

Corporation" an organization built on core values of integrity, professionalism and

excellence.

The Leadership through the Past 10 Years

Former CEO: Junaid Hamid Khan

Former CEO: Naseem Siddiqui

Current CEO & Former CFO: Mahmood Kapurwala

Why Avanza?

A yet unexplored company and a relatively less known industry

The leadership styles of companies within the IT industry differ from other

industries, that encompasses unique leadership styles and relatively high

dependence on teams

We wanted to investigate as to how the CEOs instilled the aspect of

teamwork and how their leadership style has affected as the teams

operation in this organization


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Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of people to

achieve common goals.

TRAITS

Research has proved that a leader requires certain traits which equip him/her to

influence others more easily. To describe leadership as a trait is quite different from

describing it as a process. The trait viewpoint conceptualizes leadership as a

property or set of properties possessed in varying degrees by different people. We

analyzed Mr. Junaid Khans and Mr. Kapurwalas stand on their traits.

Mr. Junaid Khans Traits

Intelligence:

Coming from an IT background and possessing a degree from one of the top most IT

institutions, Mr. Junaid was equipped with the best technical expertise. He had

excellent communication skills. It was his self-assurance that enabled him to assure

himself that his attempts to influence his employees are appropriate and right. The

sole reason for choosing him as the CEO was the combination of his excellent

managerial and leadership skills. He is labeled as sharp for his superb intelligence.

Self-confidence:

He always showed great confidence not only in his own work but also that of his

employees.

Determination:

His determination made his get the job done through his employees effectively. He

provided them with the right level of motivation and then gave them empowerment

to get the work done as suited by the individual. He was proactive and had the

capacity to face the obstacles heroically. He was always available to give directions

to whoever desired them. He believed in focusing on getting the work done rather

than petty issues demanding his employees to come to office early morning.

Integrity:

His employees trusted him as they had his support and his presence never made

them uncomfortable.


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Sociability:

His employees looked up to him as a friend rather than a boss, a trait which helped

him getting the required work done much quicker and much efficiently. His friendly

nature put them at ease. He always made them feel that it is he who is at the front-

line. Whatever adversity comes, will come to him first and then to them. This helped

his subordinates to tackle with their fear of making mistakes.

Mr. Mehmood Kapurwalas Traits

Intelligence:

Not having a formal IT education, according to Mr. Kapurwala, was not a disability

but a challenge for him, a challenge which he faced bravely and successfully. But

being able to drift swiftly from a finance field to the IT field gives evidence of his

intelligence. He has strong verbal, perceptual and reasoning abilities.

Self-confidence:

During the interview, he showed noteworthy confidence. His speech and body

language demonstrated extroversion and self confidence. It was obvious that his

sense of self-esteem is high and he really believes that he can make a difference to

the organization. He has always faced the business challenges willingly, global

recession being the most recent challenge.

Sociability:

He gives considerable importance to seeking pleasant social relationships, a trait he

learned from Junaid Khans success. He believes in treating his employees asfriends. When he became the CEO, he put substantial amount of time and efforts in

building relationships and according to him, it has paid off well. He wants to

understand his employees problems and issues. For this, he holds regular lunches

with them to be informed about them by promoting informal discussions. He wants

to empower his employees so that the organization as well as the employees can

gain benefits.

Integrity:

But above all, he says, is that to be able to have others look up to you, one has to

prove that he is worthy of it. One has to become a role model for others. One has to

prove of his trustworthiness. Only then will the employees consider the leaderdependable.


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SKILLS

According to the three-skill model, a leader should hold three skills which are:

Technical, Human and Conceptual. The top level management required lesser

technical skills and more human and conceptual skills.

Mr. Junaid Khans Skills

Before joining Avanza Solutions, Mr. Junaid had worked for NCR-Dubai and TPS. NCR

has its own ATM machines and provide software solutions whereas TPC is a direct

competitor of Avanza. The purpose of including these details is that he had prior

technical experience and expertise. He joined Avanza as the Chief Technical Officer

and his performance on this job was outstanding.

Despite of the top level management requiring lesser technical skills, the businessthat Avanza is in demands great technical skills even at the top level. Thus, Junaid

outshone in all the three skills. This was another important reason for his

effectiveness as a leader.


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Mr. Mehmood Kapurwalas Skills

Mr. Kapurwala holds an MBA in finance from SZABIST. Prior to joining Avanza, he

has worked for Stocksage and Newer Vision, both of which are finance related

jobs. He joined Avanza in 2001 as the Head of Finance, was promoted as the ChiefFinance Officer of the middle-east and Pakistan and finally made the CEO. The

reason for choosing him as the CEO was that all the CTOs were performing well on

their jobs and the movement of any one CTO would have created disturbance in the

business. Choosing any person from within Avanza was the priority as internal

employees have knowledge and are already aware of the business conditions.

Since the CEO has to deal with the bidding and pricing of the software and Mr.

Kapurwala had that experience therefore, he was chosen for that position.

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, Kapurwala ranks IT skills need for a CEO

as 7. He admits he lacks any formal IT education, but on the other hand, he says the

motivation for moving from the finance side to the IT was desire of learning andhandling corporate affairs. He had always looked for challenges in not only IT area

but also marketing and operations. But the lack of IT skills has impacted his ability

to become as effective as Junaid, a fact which reinforces that certain skills are

required to achieve leadership.

As for his conceptual skills, they are excellent and are a vital force in letting him

carrying out the leadership position.


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STYLE

The style approach emphasizes the behavior of the leader and focuses exclusively

on what leaders do and how they act. Leadership is composed of two general kinds

of behaviors: task behaviors and relationship behaviors. Task behaviors facilitate

goal accomplishment; they help group members to achieve their objectives.

Relationship behaviors help subordinates feel comfortable with themselves, with

each other and with the situation in which they find themselves. The central

purpose is to explain how leaders combine these two kinds of behaviors to influence

subordinates in their efforts to reach a goal.


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The leadership grid demonstrates how leaders help organizations to reach their

purposes through the two factors stated before: concern for people and concern for

production.

Mr. Junaid Khans Style:

His style was such that he always put strong emphasis on both tasks and

interpersonal relationships. He believed in getting work done from his employees by

being friendly with them. He promoted a high degree of participation and teamwork

at Avanza. His employees enjoyed working for him and Avanza was a successful

organization during his tenure which proves that the work was done efficiently.

Despite having close relationships with his subordinates, few employees were

dissatisfied with the reward system of Avanza. They felt they were poorly rewarded

and since the reward system of any organization should be decided strategically bythe top level management, Junaid should have taken measures to address to this

problem.

He believed in empowering his subordinates and trusted them to complete the work

at their own pace within the deadline. It was only in times of crisis or the handling of

a very big project that he ever intervened. Therefore, his dominant style was

medium concern for people and high concern for production. It was only a few

exceptional times that he had to use a backup style which was the Authority-

Compliance Management to obtain results.

Mr. Mehmood Kapurwalas Style

After becoming the CEO of Avanza, lay offs have been done in order to cut costs

even though the performance targets for the first quarter of 2009 have been

achieved. Mr. Kapurwala has taken this step not because of the poor performance of

the firm at the moment, but because of the potential future problems he has taken

such a strict measure. Thus, his concern for results is high and concern for people is

low. There could have been other ways to cut costs and avoid future problems, for

example, reducing expenses, cutting salaries or reducing bonuses. This his style ofleadership is Authority-Compliance Management. He failed to communicate with

his subordinates about this decision.


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SITUATIONAL APPROACH

The situational approach focuses on leadership in situation, as different

situation calls for different kind of leadership. For a successful leader to

assess what is needed in a specific situation, a leader needs to understandthe employees motivation and degree of commitment and accordingly take

appropriate leadership style.

Considering the situational approach of leadership, comparing Junaid Hamid

Khan and Mahmood Kupurwala, we have found that Junaid Hamid Khan can

be categorized as supporting in leadership style. As he had very sound

technical background therefore he used to be very interactive and talked to


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people and helped them getting out of trouble when they stuck into. He kept

a balanced between task accomplishment and social support of the

employees. Listening, interacting and giving feedback was very much

observed in his attitude during his tenure at Avanza. He was of the opinion

that just assigning task to team or project manager was not sufficient to for

effective production until and unless you have right motivation and

productivity of the lower level of employees, hence he was very encouraging

to lower employee and helped them both morally and technically. As we

have asked one of the employees, he responded that though he was CEO of

the company yet he used to sit together with software engineers, listen their

problems and discuss them to get the optimal solution of the problem. This

has created a friendly environment in the organization which has boosted

innovation and employees never get feared to make mistakes; and thus

helped to develop a culture of finding better, feasible and cost effective

services for the clients.

Regarding Mahmood Kupurwala, the current CEO of Avanza solution, he can

be categorized as delegating in leadership style. As having no technical

background and less one to one interaction, he normally delegates authority

to team leaders and let them do their tasks. He has less involvement in

providing technical support to them; however he strongly motivates and

keeps confident in the team efforts and thus support their initiatives. Though

he has good relationship with the upper management yet he is trying to build

good relationships with lower employees as well. After assigning tasks he

gives full authority and let subordinates take responsibility for getting the jobdone the way they see fit.

PATH GOALTHEORY

The concept of Path goal theory tells about how leaders motivate

subordinate to accomplish designed goals. The path goal theory explains

how leaders can help subordinate along the path by selecting specific

behaviors that are best suited to subordinates needs and the situation inwhich subordinate are working.


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The concept of path goal theory cant be directly applied to the above

leaders, as the task accomplishment is delegated to project manager,

support manager and team leader; hence it is not the responsibility of CEO

to involve actively at every step for task accomplishment. The CEO is

responsible for getting good clients, creating good relationship and providing

quality products to the corporate clients. He is more concern to grow Avanza

and compete into the dynamic market. While getting maximum and effective

outcome is assigned to project manager and they are responsible to convey

and communicate goals to their team members, support them in day to day

operation, provide them technical and necessary support so that the

accomplishment of project can be made certain. Here, project manager

make confirm that their team is well aware of the goals, defines specificdeadline and provides supports at every step so that task can be get

accomplished in due time. The involvement of Mahmood Kupurwala has not

been much unless a critical situation needs it. There has been restructuring

of their organization and he meets monthly to the head of department and

discusses updates and status of each project. The head of departments then

communicates to the project manger about the expectation and new


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direction given by the CEO. On the other side Junaid Hamid Khan was very

interactive; he used to be very participatory and get direct feedback from

them. As one of the employees remarked that Junaid Hamid Khan was not

comparable with Mahmood Kupurwala as both having different ways of

getting worked done from the employees. Mahmood Kupurwala has set an

organized structure of reporting, however at Junaid Hamid Khan there was no

such system of organized reporting, yet there was no question on his

exceptional performance. Junaid Hamid khan had achievement oriented

leadership style as due to technical expertise and participatory in nature, he

used to challenge and guide their employee to bring new and cost effective

product into the market.

LEADER MEMBER EXCHANGETHEORY

Leader member exchange theory focuses on interaction between leader and

follower. The central concept is the dyadic relationship that a leader forms

with each of his her subordinates. The theory explains the differences in how

goals are accomplished using in group as compared to out groups are

substantial.

The concept of Leader- Member Exchange theory can be applied as former

CEO; Junaid Hamid Khan served for a considerable tenure and developed a

good relationship with their employees. This has turned employees to work

for organization more than their job description. Secondly development of

software products calls for flexibility and mastery on a number of skills,

hence the concept of in group emerges and it is necessary for employees to

be in group so that they can better meet the dynamic nature of the products.

Considering the nature of product development, Junaid Hamid Khan

supported in group environment where people can share their expertise,

taking on new and different responsibilities so that subordinate can work on

different and new task efficiently. On the other side those who keep them

isolate and think that they are responsible tasks matching their job

description are part of out group. These people cant sustain in the very


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dynamic nature of job at Avanza. Subordinate who are in group are very

much rewarded and supported and their initiatives are considered for their

promotion. Mahmood Kupurwala has set organized structure of reporting and

meets every month to the head of the department and discusses them about

the progress and updates of different projects. The process helped boosting

accountability and interaction among employees.


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The Charismatic Leader

An analysis of the leadership styles, traits and methods leads to the conclusion that

while Junaid Khan lies in the between a transformational and transactional leader,

Mehmood Kapoorwala is transactional with some signs of Laissez-faire. This

distinction comes due to difference in the educational backgrounds and working

knowledge of the two leaders.

Avanza Solutions is a high technology dependent organization. For this reason, it

requires the CEO to have some measure of technical know-how. Where Junaid Khan

is a hardcore developer, Mehmood Kapoorwala comes from a financial, non-

technical background. Theoretically, the company can run soundly even withoutextensive technical knowledge. However, the highly supportive relationship that

became the culture of Junaid Khans tenure has caused some pressure for Mehmood

Kapoorwala. Even though he is thoroughly knowledgable about the company

functions, projects, customers and operations, the lack of IT know-how has forced

him to act as a more transactional leader by delegating tasks to the subordinates.

The factors that make Junaid Khan a transformational leader are:

1. Idealized influenceJunaid Khan had the personality that influenced those who worked under him

to look up to him for direction and motivation. The initiatives that Junaid Khan

took to control employee turnover and reduce dissatisfaction amongst theemployees contributed to establishing his influence. These include:

Birthday parties every 3-4 months

Annual dinner and award night

Company picnics

2. Inspirational motivation

Laissez-faire

Leadership

Transactiona

l Leadership

Transformationa

l Leadership

Junaid

KhanMehmood

Kapoorwala


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His close association with his employees encouraged them to seek him out as

a leader. Motivational factors like easy working environment and

empowerment in taking work related decisions.

Mehmood Kapoorwala has further empowered employees as he does not take

project decisions. However, his attitude is also more comfortable with thesenior executives but not with the entire work force.

3. Intellectual stimulationAvanza Solutions operates on pre-developed business solutions. However, the

development team keeps on updating and upgrading the product. The

implementation team is responsible to customize the solutions to fit

organizational needs and the Q&A team works to keep the systems at the top

level of quality. The new projects continuously keep the employees on their

feet to set and accomplish new targets.

4. Individualized considerationAs mentioned previously, Junaid Khan had the unique relationship style

whereby he took interest in individual performances and achievements,

rewarded personalized efforts and shared the success and failures of all

individual employees. He tried to maintain a dyadic relationship, which was

restrained by organizational structural constraints.


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Junaid Khans charisma

Background:

One of the factors that made Junaid Khan more comfortable to work with was his

technical knowledge and background. With a computer science degree and havingworked in the software industry as a developer, he could easily relate to employee

problems, dilemmas and needs.

Personality:

Junaid Khan was a man of determination. He wanted results and for that he took all

possible courses of actions that made people put in their best efforts into their jobs.

His self-confidence and integrity drew the trust of his subordinates.

Reducing employee dissatisfaction:

To overcome employee dissatisfaction and high turnover rates, which are a

common feature in the software business, Junaid Khan introduced an Event

Management Committee. The tasks of the committee included planning and

conducting extra-curricular activities for the employee. Some of these activities

were:

Annual dinners where distinguished employees were awarded Discouraged late sittings Company picnics

Junaid also established a culture that discouraged late sittings, another norm of the

software (and other services) industry.

Relationship with subordinates:

Junaid Khan tried to establish a dyadic relationship with his subordinates. At his

level, this relationship was strongest with the top executives of the company.

However, at the same time, he tried to keep good ties with lower level management

and task force.

Empowering employees:

The most interesting factor in the organizational culture set by Junaid Khan was the

power awarded to the employees to determine their own course of action when

dealing with clients. Higher management involvement was limited. Almost all the

transactions were carried out by the work teams themselves.


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Challenges faced by Mehmood Kapoorwala:

Background:

Mehmood Kapoorwala comes from a financial background. Previously he served

Avanza in the capacity of a CFO. His valuable services, good repute and honestinterests in Avanza got him his position as the current CEO.

For any organization, high conceptual and average human skills are acceptable to

lead the organization successfully. However, in the wake of Junaid Khans legacy,

the absence of technical knowledge is causing a strain between the Mr. Kapoorwala

and his subordinates.

Relationship:

Being from the executive body of Avanza prior to becoming the CEO, it was easy for

Mehmood Kapoorwala to resume very good relations with the executive team.

However, this is not true for the rest of the crowd. Not being very social, the other

employees of the company hardly know him. This would take them time to

recognize him as a new leader.

Leadership:

Mehmood Kapoorwala has continued to adapt Junaid Khans methods of looking

after employee interests. In the process, his limitation in technical knowledge has

given him a disadvantage as he has not taken up any new initiatives on his own.

However, it should be kept in mind that Mr. Kapoorwalas tenure has only been of a

short 2 year period as yet. Given time he may be able to improve on the situation.

Dealing with a crisis situation:

The true test of leadership comes at the time of a crisis. One may speculate that

Mehmood Kapoorwala did not clear it with flying colors. Due to the recent

recessionary period, Avanza Solutions also came under tight monetary constraints.

This is because their projects are high costing solutions that other companies may

not be willing to indulge in right now. At such a time, when jobs are also short in the

market, Kapoorwala responded by laying off 40 employees. This move by a

relatively new CEO has led to further distance between the leader and his

subordinates rather than vice versa.


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TEAMSAT AVANZAThe structure of teams at Avanza can be understood by looking at the organization

structure.

Organization StructureThere company is divided into two main departments,

1. E-Business

2. E-Banking

Teams in E-BusinessE-Business is a project based department i.e. it does not offer any specific products

to potential clients. If any organization or potential client wants to get a system

developed, it submits the functional specifications or requirements to the e-Business department. Once the project is signed-on, the project development

teams, consisting of Software Engineers and developers, first design the product

and then develop its prototype. The prototype is then extended to a final product

through continuous client feedback.

Besides the Project Development team, e-Business has its own Quality Assurance

team, which tests each project and ensures if it meets client specifications or not.


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The Quality Assurance team carries out several rounds of tests both at the office

premises and at the client site, once the project has been deployed. The Quality

Assurance teams consist of Quality Assurance Engineers.

Sequential Interdependence in E-Business

Quality Assurance team is sequentially interdependent on Project Developmentteam. The project has to be developed by the software engineers first, before it can

be passed on to the Quality Assurance Team for testing.

Sequential Interdependence in E-Business

Teams in E-Banking

E-Banking is a product based department, i.e. it offers banking solutions. Two of itsmost prominent products are Nimbus and Rendezvous, which automate

transactions like ATM transactions, credit card/debit card transactions, mobile

phone transactions and transactions over IVR (Interactive Voice Response). E-

Banking is structured into three teams namely, development team, implementation

team and quality assurance team.

Since Nimbus and Rendezvous provide solution to a multitude of banking activities,

these products need only to be customized to the needs of each individual bank

(client). The responsibility of the Development team is to enhance and upgrade

these products, and add features to them as the changing banking environment

deems it necessary. The Implementation team customizes these products to match

the requirements of the client. It ensures that the functions and features requested

by the client are in place in the version being deployed, and that those which have

not been requested are removed. It also has the responsibility to deploy the system

at client site. The Quality Assurance team in e-Banking helps to make the system

error free, similar to the Quality Assurance team in e-Business.


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Sequential Interdependence in E-Banking

There is sequential interdependence between the three teams in e-Banking. Product

features are added by the development team, customized and deployed by the

implementation team if requested by the client, and tested by the quality assuranceteam both at office and at client site.

Sequential Interdependence in E-Banking


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NATUREOF E-BUSINESS & E-BANKING TEAMSTeams at Avanza fall in the permanent and formal category. Teams in the e-

Business and e-Banking departments have defined hierarchy, which makes therelationship formal. Also the teams have been permanently created, and projects

are assigned to teams as they come up, rather than teams being formed for every

project that is signed on.

Temporary teams are formed for special projects that come up, which require the

expertise of people from different existing teams. For such unusual and special

projects, people from different teams are picked up and assigned to the project.

Such temporary teams exist as long as the project is in progress and adjourn once

the project is complete. However, these teams too have a formal reporting structure

and fall in the temporary and formal category.


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TEAM EFFECTIVENESSTeam effectiveness is the extent to which a team achieves its objectives, achieves

the needs and objectives of its members and sustains itself over time. It refers to

how a team affects the organization, individual team members and the teams

existence. We will examine the team effectiveness at Avanza Solutions under the

following Team Effectiveness Framework.ORGANIZATIONALAND

TEAM ENVIRONMENT

Reward Systems

CommunicationSystems

Physical Space

OrganizationalEnvironment

OrganizationalStructure

OrganizationalLeadership

TEAM

EFFECTIVENESS

AchieveorganizationalGoals

Satisfymember needs

TEAM DESIGN

TasksCharacteristics

Team Size

TEAM PROCESSES

TeamDevelopment

Team Norms


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Organizational and Team Environment

Reward Systems:

The reward system at Avanza Solutions is not well established. The members are

rewarded based on their individual performance and not the basis of their team

performance. Since in the IT industry, nearly all projects are team based, the team

work aspect is not taken into account. Instead personal performance of an

employee is the indicator of the rewards that they will be entitled to.

Communications System and Physical Space:

The communications system at Avanza is well established. The cubicles with the

working space are randomly assigned to encourage interaction among team

members and office colleagues. This encourages interaction among the team

members and its helps in building a health relationship. Most of the formal

communication is done over email and telephone.

Organizational Environment:

Avanza Solutions enjoys a good reputation in the market. Mr. Mehmood Kapurwala

told us that Avanza has a number of corporate clients and strategic clients. It has

enjoyed good reputation with its clients, which has helped it to spread it wings

globally. It enjoys good relations with its clients and rarely faces any trouble in

managing its clients and external resources.

Organizational Structure:

The Organizational structure at Avanza Solutions is a purely flat team based

structure. Every team has a team lead. However the team members enjoy open

communication with the team lead. The CEO is also easily accessible. The individual

teams are given enough autonomy to select and manage the projects on their own.

The CEO only gets involved, when a project does not meet the company strategy or

when the strategic partners interests are at stake.


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Organizational Leadership:

The leadership at Avanza needs to be more encouraging and motivating. The team

members at Avanza Solutions are not motivated enough, mainly due to the rewards

systems. Also since the teams are given too much autonomy, they are responsiblefor any mistakes and actions on their part. Therefore they sometimes get

discouraged. Therefore the management needs to make an effort to make the

environment more encouraging, motivating and rewarding.


Task Characteristics:

This involves the concept of task interdependence i.e. the degree to which a task

requires employees to share common inputs or outcomes or to interact in the

process of executing their work. They follow the model of Sequential

Interdependence. The team members depend on each other and the work output is

regularly shared among the employees. In an IT industry, the team members work

on their separate modules and come together for the final integration. However this

is a continuous process and the modules have to be aligned properly. Therefore

team members task characteristics, within the Development, implementation and

quality assurance teams, fall into the category of Sequential Interdependence,

which involves continuous updates from every team member within the loop.

However Pooled Interdependence exists for e-Banking and e-Business Departments

on Marketing and Human Resource Departments

Team Size:

The team size is small. It comprises of 3-4 individuals working under a team lead.

The team members have diverse capabilities to make up for the dynamic nature for

the industry and the project.

Team Composition:

Teams at Avanza Solutions are mostly homogeneous i.e. the team members share

common technical expertise, qualification and skills. There is a lot of gender

diversity; however the male population is larger.


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Team Norms:

The teams at Avanza follow certain norms. One of them is punctuality. Team

members adhere to being punctual and on time during their office reporting hours.

Secondly, the team members resort to information sharing. It is not as if they

withhold information. They work for the company and whatever information is

necessary for the successful completion of the tasks and projects is shared with the

team members. Thirdly, the team members take initiatives to come up with unique

problem solving solutions which is important in todays dynamic industry. They also

adhere in meeting the tight deadlines that might exist.

Team Roles:

The team roles are well defined at Avanza Solutions. The team works independently

under a team lead. He reports to the project manager. The team lead has a number

of developers and software engineers working under him.

Team Cohesiveness:

The teams at Avanza are pretty much cohesive as members come from almost the

same background. The team sizes are small, ranging from 3-5 individuals, which

encourage open communication among the team members. Also member

interaction in encourage to build team cohesiveness. The team often faces critical

situations, such as an approaching deadline and work together in order to overcome

it. Due to high team cohesiveness, a high task performance is seen.

Based on all this we conclude that the Team Design and Team processes help

achieve the organizational goals of Avanza Solutions. However despite having a

good team based structure, we do see some dissatisfaction among the team

members. This is due to the fact that lack of guidance and leadership in certain

critical situations leads to dissatisfaction among the team members. Members also

sometimes feel that they are poorly rewarded. The turnovers rate it very high and

new members come in to create entirely new teams. This takes up valuable time

and the new employees take some time to adjust to the environmental fit. The high

employee turnover is an indicator of member dissatisfaction.


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VIRTUAL TEAMS: The virtual teams at Avanza are organized as such that they have several

communication channels on which they communicate with the team members. The

primary mode of communication is through email, while they also communicate

through phone. The team tasks are divided as such so that every team member is

aware of his or her responsibilities. The tasks are not ambiguous. The teams arecomposed of individuals with diverse background and experiences so that they

complement each other.

CSR TODAYAlthough Avanza has progressed quite rapidly in the Software Industry and has

developed a strong standing in banking solutions, the company lags in the area of

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). One major reason for negligence of corporate

social responsibility is lack of CSR initiatives by other companies in the Software

Industry. There is no trend of CSR activities in the Software Industry and thecompanies are primarily focused on profit making and on capturing a larger share of

the market.

Another factor for low consideration of CSR is the size of Software companies in

Pakistan. Most of the software firms in Pakistan are medium-sized. Since no support

is given by the government for the development of small and medium sized

enterprises, these firms have to strive hard to grow to international markets, and as

such no attention is given to the well-being of the society in the initial growth years

of the company.

CSR TOMORROWNow that Avanza has successfully developed a global presence with strong

domestic and international clients, the companys new CEO plans to initiate CSR

projects as well. One of the CSR projects in line is the COMPUTER EDUCATION &

TRAINING OF THE UNDERPRIVILIGED. Under this program, the company plans to

provide computer education and training to young people who can not afford to get

a computer degree from a reputable organization. The plan is to provide education

and training at the companys expense, and to target individuals whore willing to

pursue a career in the software industry.

This program will help the company get access to cheap resource, meeting the skilland expertise needs of the company. The trained individuals can then be offered

jobs in the company, giving a decent livelihood to the individual and offering the

company skilled human resource.


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Recommendations

After studying the leadership styles and team formations at Avanza solutions, we

came up with the following recommendations for the company:

Mehmood Kapoorwala should adopt a more transformational style to win the

trust of his employees

Leadership at the team level i.e. Team leads should be more directive and

structure tasks

More initiatives to build employee association with the company should be taken

Teams should be seated together to improve intra-team communication

CSR initiatives should be taken up to enhance company image


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References

Mr. Mehmood Kapoorwala, CEO Avanza Solutions

Leadership, Teamwork and Corporate Social Responsibility Course Book, Compiled

by IBA

Leadership Final Report

Documents

Transcript of Leadership Final Report