Analysis
Stent has clearly not lived up to the expectations that Zhang has set based on the growth of the company, as well as, the lack of clients being retained. Stent was described to have more of a “slow and steady” approach whereas Zhang wanted a model to jump the company forward quick. According to one staff member, “We were the only provider of travel services in China that focused on issues of good taste and integrity and was committed to providing sophisticated travelers with a high quality experience” (p. 5). This vision statement shows that …show more content…
Stent’s takeover resulted in a loss of a product-oriented leader since Zhang had been replaced. The other problem directly related to this is the Task Structure of the company. Before Zheng left, the company was unstructured but the company still ran at a very high efficiency. “I tried to run the organization without much hierarchy or formality. I wanted to be accessible to everyone. Roles were flexible” (p. 7). This defines how the company was run by Zheng and her employees were aware of their duties and performed them well. However, Stent did not have any task structure in the company because his employees as well as himself failed to execute simple matters such as turning a proposal in on time or planning a trip properly. Based on Stent’s problems with the trips it was clear that he did not emphasize the technical or task aspects of the job. This is shown through Zhang’s quote, “But as soon as the trip started so did the problems. One VIP group was traveling in rough terrain where normally we would use four-wheel-drive vehicles. Instead we sent a minivan that couldn’t fit through a gorge and then had to scramble to find five jeeps. By the time they arrived from 50 miles away, half of the day had been wasted. The clients were very upset. There were other cases like that too and, as I had feared, we were fired. The Nature Conservancy’s staff had told U.S. headquarters that they could do a better job running the tours themselves” (p. 13). This quote emphasizes the fact that Stent payed no attention to detail and did not put any value into the mission statement initially established by this company. Based on his actions, he did not put forth any effort in making sure that trips were executed effectively and to the standard that had been previously