The culture Prior to the expansion, Encore Capital Group had a family feel. To some degree, this

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The culture Prior to the expansion, Encore Capital Group had a family feel. To some degree, this feeling still remains. However, due to the larger organizational structure, the organization has had to become more formal. Encore is trying to keep a small company feeling in a bigger organization. Employees still need to make decisions quickly using a small organization approach.
Communication strategies Face-to-face communication is key to Encore. The CEO frequently goes on road shows. At these road shows, the CEO talks about success stories. After the road show, follow-up communications, such as emails and newsletters, reinforce the message. Encore also holds monthly town hall meetings at which employees can ask questions of senior management. Management by walking around is also conducted. Encore has skip level meetings in which employees can bypass their managers and go to different levels to get answers to their questions. This opens the eyes of management to employee issues. These meetings are held on an ad hoc basis and when red flag issues arise. Encore uses an open floor plan. The offices are in an open cubicle format. The key is collaboration at Encore, and the open floor plan supports this.

Sometimes it can be noisy, but the benefit is that it breaks down barriers between staff. One thing that can be a struggle is the desire for more structure from some of the new employees. But the open floor plan can also be appealing. People need to fit the organization, and the people Encore is looking for (team-oriented and collaborative) like the open floor plans. Encore had a newsletter but stopped using it a few years ago. It was a burden to put the information together when the company was smaller (prior to the acquisition). However, Encore is now considering bringing the newsletter back. Today, Encore relies more on the Internet. The electronic newsletter, which is still utilized at Encore, is used as a follow-up to the town hall meeting to apprise those who missed the meeting of the highlights. The company intranet is being enhanced.

It was easier to manage when Encore was smaller, but now that the company is bigger, everyone wants to put something on it. Currently, there are too many entry points, and a logical structure is lacking. The intranet is being simplified to become a two-way vehicle, rather than an archive of information. Encore uses open book management. The staff at Encore is results-oriented so they need to know where they are in financial terms at any time. One lesson the company has learned is that goals must be tangible and achievable. Encore uses dashboards to release the results on a regular basis.

All business units have a dashboard that they monitor, which includes their targets and their results. The targets are based on company targets and then broken down into the different divisions. Encore conducts employee engagement surveys, from which management learns a great deal about the organization. Management relies on these surveys to determine annual benchmarks. The survey drives communication and includes benchmarks from the Great Place to Work Institute. These electronic surveys are used to identify gaps between Encore and other companies. The response rate from the survey is between 80 percent and the low 90s. Encore schedules times during the weekday when people can complete the survey. Although Encore does not have a formal suggestion system, employees are expected to come up with ideas.

Communication strategies have changed as the size of the organization has changed. Encore must determine the messages it wants to communicate and the key objectives that employees should meet through internal communication practices. The CEO road shows, town halls, e-mails to the workforce and round tables (monthly meetings that include a group of nominated employees) have been key. The emphasis is on bottom-up communication.

Answer the following questions based on the case:

1. How is mentoring valuable to leadership? what are the keys to effective mentoring.

2. How do you think a leader (or manager) can use ‘feedback’ to ensure the growth process for employees and themselves?

3. Identify at least two situations in the case where communication could be required. Identify whether the communication in the two situations is downward, upward, or lateral. Explain your answer.

4. Which leadership approach is being recommended in the case – transactional or transformational? Justify your answer by listing and explaining the principles/ characteristics of the approach that you find in the case.