MSc Leading Business Organisations: Formative Assessment (Part Two)
BPP Coursework Cover Sheet
| Programme | MSc Management with Streams |
| Module name | Leading Business Organisations |
| Schedule Term | Academic Year 2019-2020 (Autumn 2019) |
| Student Reference Number (SRN) | |
| Report/Assignment Title | Leading Business Organisations Portfolio |
| Date of Submission (Please attach the confirmation of any extension received) | 02 January 2020 |
| Declaration of Original Work: I hereby declare that I have read and understood BPP’s regulations on plagiarism and that this is my original work, researched, undertaken, completed and submitted in accordance with the requirements of BPP Business School. The word count, excluding contents table, bibliography and appendices, is ___ words. Student Reference Number: Date: | |
| By submitting this coursework you agree to all rules and regulations of BPP regarding assessments and awards for programmes. Please note, submission is your declaration you are fit to sit. BPP University reserves the right to use all submitted work for educational purposes and may request that work be published for a wider audience. BPP School of Business and Technology | |
MSc Management with Streams
Leading Business Organisations Portfolio
AutumnTerm 2019
Student Number :
Submission :02 January 2020
Submission mode: Turnitin
Table of Contents
| Contents
| Page Number |
| Reflective Statement
| |
| Leadership Theories and Organisations
| 4 |
| Mission, Vision and Stakeholders within Organisations
| 5 |
| Leadership Strategies and Change Management
| 6 |
| Employee Engagement
| 7 |
| Self-Analysis : Potential Leadership Style & Personal Development Required | 9 |
| Management Report
| |
| Introduction
| 10 |
| Overview of ‘Servant’ Leadership
| 11 |
| A Critical Evaluation of Kevin Johnson’s Leadership Style
| 13 |
| Kevin Johnson’s Personal Brand
| 14 |
| Recommendations | 15 |
| Conclusion
| 15 |
| Reference Listing
| 16 |
This assessment is in two parts. Both parts should be presented within one portfolio document.
Part One : Reflective Statement
| Question | Reflection (Short Answers :200 words per Question) |
| Why do aspiring leaders need to have a clear understanding of leadership theories and organisational behaviour?
| A. The two fundamental questions that leaders need to ask themselves are Are my employees capable to fulfill the project? Is my project running with the schedule? These two questions will ensure employee’s skills, capability and schedule of the project.
B. The two critical aspects of leadership are Excellent communication Creativity These are the essential qualities that a leader should consider to become perfectionists. These qualities help to create a vision and fulfil organizational goals.
C. A leadership theory (style) is a discipline that helps to drive success in the workplace. The business strives to identify the behaviour and characteristics of a leader (Iqbal, Anwar & Haider 2015). Leadership theories are applied as per the actions tendencies and style of leaders.
D. Two very different leadership styles that are appropriate for the current volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) business environment are transformational and strategic leadership style. As per the current VUCA business environment complexity, volatility, ambiguity, and uncertainty are the main elements. I feel that leadership styles that can be used are Transformational leadership style Strategic leadership style
The leader should know e An aspiring leader, in-depth knowledge and range of leadership styles. This helps the leader to focus on the situation in the organization and use a particular leadership style to enhance productivity and profitability (Igbaekemen & Odivwri 2015).
|
| What are the main contributions that individuals, leaders and stakeholders make in creating and executing the mission and vision of an organization?
| A. The organizational vision is a long term objective that a company needs to achieve to become an aspiring leader in the market. A mission statement describes the efforts that the organization needs to focus on and achieve the vision of the organization.
B. I have learned that every person is responsible to focus on work duties and responsibilities. It is thereby essential to focus on organizational objectives. While achieving these objectives, the mission and vision of an organization are fulfilled. Efforts are made by each individual.
C. Leaders focus on several aspects to execute the mission and vision of an organization. Planning, organizing, staffing, directing and co-ordination are the activities implemented by the leaders to gain productivity and satisfy organizational goals (Sofi & Devanadhen 2015). Team development and motivation ensure employee engagement. D. Stakeholders are the investors of the company. Communicating an effective business strategy with stakeholders is essential. At the same time, stakeholders contribute to achieving mission and vision by investing in the business. E. Leaders need to evaluate the contribution of individuals, leaders, and stakeholders. I have learned that business leaders are responsible for addressing the performance of the individual and motivating individuals to focus on work responsibilities and duties.
|
| Why do aspiring leaders need to understand a broad range of potential leadership strategies (and individually change management strategies) to maximise organisational potential in a variety of different business contexts?
| a. A leadership strategy is a direction/map that focuses on leadership development to address the aspirations, goals, and strategy of the business. Leadership strategy ensures desired outcomes as it sets the primary purpose of the business b. Change leadership is the leadership in which the skills and abilities of individuals provide a change in the organization. Change management theory consists of a change in method, materials, technology or physical resources. c. The organisational potential is information about organizational capacity, skills, and increasing productivity concern. Organizational potential realizes organizational excellence (Longe, 2014). Ongoing efforts are made by leaders to achieve organizational potential and work as per the business standards and processes. d. A business context is an understanding of factors that impact the business from several perspectives. Effective decisions and long term efforts are made to achieve business goals. Critical implications are used to execute strategic initiatives and work on identified business context. e. I have learned from the lesson that aspiring leaders understand the importance of leadership strategy to be used, such as change leadership strategy, which will increase productivity and success of the business. A leader works on organizational potential and ensures business context for effective outcomes (Sougui, Bon & Hassan, 2015). |
| Why do aspiring leaders need to be able to critically evaluate a range of motivational (employee engagement) theories within a specific organisational context?
| A. Motivation theory drives employees to achieve organizational goals. Employees are interested in accomplishing their work duties with optimum utilization of resources. There are intrinsic and extrinsic factors that motivate employees to work. B. Intrinsic and extrinsic factors are two categories of motivational theory (Bhargavi & Yaseen 2016). I have learned that inherent factors are internal factors that motivate employees, such as recognition, personal growth, and achievement. Extrinsic factors are promotion, working conditions and pay system.
C. The contemporary term for employee motivation is a term that supports employees to accomplish business goals. There is a significant link between employee performance and motivation (Jyoti & Bhau, 2015). Motivated employees find it easier to achieve their goals and satisfy personal needs.
D. ‘Appreciative Inquiry Technique’ is a technique mainly focuses on business strength while considering a coevolutionary search in people and organizational capacity. This technique is an art of finding business strength and apprehend heightened positive potential. E. I have learned that leaders are motivators. Therefore they need to understand the aspects of motivational theories and practice motivation at work with intrinsic and extrinsic factors (Khajeh, 2018). An appreciative inquiry technique will be used by leaders to ensure business strength.
|
| Complete the attached ‘Potential Leadership Style’ Questionnaire and answer the following questions:
How would you define your potential leadership style?
What are your key strengths?
What are your key challenges?
What personal development do you need to undertake to develop your leadership ability?
Present the above as a Powerpoint Presentation utilising the slides provided.
| A. Based on the results of the potential leadership style questionnaire my possible leadership style is Transformation leadership style B. My key strengths are a commitment, confident, listening skills, communication skills C. My key challenges are Problem solving technique, team development, employee engagement, decision-making process and collaboration. D. The personal development I need to undertake to develop my leadership ability is knowledge, behaviour and skills.
|
Part Two: Management Report
Introduction
Servant leadership is a timeless concept with a revolutionary bunch taking the traditional leadership style to the next level with a modern leadership style (Northouse, 2017). The management report consists of critical evaluation of President and CEO of Starbucks leadership style. CEO of Starbucks, Kevin Johnson uses a servant leadership style that engages employees in organizational development. Training is provided to employees which makes the standards high and focuses on providing active customer service. The positive and negative elements of the leadership style adopted by Kevin Johnson is reflected in the report. Starbucks has achieved high profit and sales volume with Kevin’s leadership style; therefore, improved financial performance is noticed with an increase in sales volume.
Overview of the servant leadership style
Servant leadership
Power and responsibilities of the team are wholly changed with an upside-down concept in Servant leadership style. This concept puts employees demand and improves the overall management in the organization. The leaders working with this leadership style posses serve the first mindset, which focuses on uplifting and empowering the team (Gandolfi & Stone, 2019). Leaders tend to move beyond the traditional concept such as the transformational and transactional aspect of leadership style. They align and develop the employee’s attention to achieve company mission. Servant leaders are individuals who lead the team while putting the need for team members and gaining effective results. Servant leadership is considered to be a universal concept adopted by Eastern and Western culture.
Good practice servant leadership
Container Store was established in 1978 as a leading retailer storage organization in the United States. The company dedicates the primary focus on achieving results while engaging employees and taking care of employees. Founder of container store and CEO Kip Tindell indicate the belief in the business mantra is to focus on employee development and the needs. Employees are comfortable and can ask questions related to the development and growth of the business (Dyme 2019). This will ensure efforts to focus on development rather than individual decision making. Employee focus is a significant strategy rather than a customer focus. The company believes in creating a long-lasting bond with employees as well as customers to foster devotion which drives growth and profitability of the organization. Servant leadership is used in this case to ensure and expand employee strength and skills. This way, employee-first culture is created in the organization with the foundation principles that define the approach of maintaining relationships with employees, customers, suppliers and community.
Overview of potential difficulties and challenges
Many things are considered while implementing servant leadership style in the 21st century. Within a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous business environment, the leaders face challenges and difficulties. With the increasing speed and complicated operations in business, the challenges of technology and workforce demographics need to be addressed. Organizations that are not flexible will face difficulties in adapting to servant leadership. Employees quickly do not get engaged at work even though when leaders help to support and develop skills with the help of training and development programs. Employees and organization need to adjust a lot in terms of succeeding business to the next level. Employees might not be aware of the technology used in servant leadership. Therefore leaders need to communicate and ensure digital technologies that impact an organization (Kashyap & Rangnekar 2016). The global skills shortage in employees may lead to business failure as new hires need training and development. The laws and regulations adhere to customer focus rather than employee first serve motivation. At times the transparency and visibility in the international business drive to compliance and accountability. Servant leadership may bridge the gap, but the upside-down approach may not work, which seems to be ambiguous and no longer used by profit organizations.
Kevin Johnson’s leadership style
Kevin’s leadership style
Kevin Johson’s leadership style as CEO of Starbucks is a servant leadership style. He is a passionate leader who carries the legacy of Starbucks by considering a good connection with the human resources department. To drive the success and growth of the business, the company’s core strategy is to serve customers while considering employee needs. Kevin took the role of president and the as a CEO of Starbucks; he supported different functions addressing marketing, technology and human resources management with the help of a digital platform. Kevin’s commitment to innovation in the business led to a founding member of the company with a board member of NPower. Kevin has focused on improving customer service while engaging employees to develop and focus on innovative beverages in countries like China. Mobile order app was opened by Kevin Johnson in the US, which achieved a significant expansion of Starbucks in the world. He has shown signs of progress with operating metrics that help to track the sales of the company (Ward 2017). The value of Starbucks in 2018 rose to 15%, which was due to the leadership style used by Kevin and emphasizing the primary aspect of growth in the business. Employee training and engagement ensures increase in sales and profit index (Sun & Shang 2019). Employees create a warming environment for customers who didn’t happen earlier. Therefore servant leadership style worked wonders in case of Kevin Johnson’s strategy of engaging employees into organizational success.
Positive elements of servant leadership style
Kevin’s Johnson’s servant leadership style led to an improved position of Starbucks while creating an environment where employees are comfortable and provide customer service. Creating an environment where customers enjoy, spend time with colleagues and are satisfied with a cup of coffee has ensured increased financial performance. Starbucks financial position has improved with 15% due to the leadership style adopted by Kevin Johnson. The company dealt with ethical challenges and responded to the current situation while focusing on employee retention and fulfilling customer needs. Employees are given preference, and the conditions are understood to view differently rather than being strict with work and life (Gandolfi & Stone, 2017). From a management perspective, employees find Starbucks as a great place to work as it provides advantages that fulfils the need of employees. Most of the employees at Starbucks are students or aspiring students who engage in the work with like-minded coworkers and are dedicated for career success. Full tuition coverage is provided to students as a college achievement plan; a support team is offered to help students get through school, etc. are the benefits that derive benefits for employees to stick to the organization and ensure connectivity with the organization.
Negative elements
Harmful elements of Johnson’s leadership style are stress at work, several tasks at once, tendency to use people and spit them. The negative reviews of current employees have made a significant drawback of leadership style used by Kevin. This seems that employees are not happy with the job, and they believe that they are getting paid less and stress is at the peak point (Liden, 2015). Several tasks are carried at once, which ensures connecting with customers and working on a business schedule while expecting to communicate with every customer. Employees are not so happy with the partner perspective as they don’t feel secure and are not comfortable to serve the company (Brohi, 2018). Stores are destaffed due to the stiff leadership style as employees are behind the counter and managers to respond and retort towards working faster with the pace with smaller windows. Stress is overwhelming as the current employees at Starbucks report. The overall process of delivering coffee to the customer is exhausting as there are few employees on the floor to assist and register the order and support customer service. Due to medium volume and drive-thru situation, the person responsible for taking the prescription and helping customers is discomfort. Cleanliness is not maintained, which seems to be a problem in the workplace.
Key stakeholders
Servant leadership style Starbucks key stakeholders are customers, employees, suppliers, the board of directors and community. Board of directors and former CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz commented on Johnson’s performance by providing all the credit in the world. Howard is convinced with the working style and leadership style of Johnson as it has helped in bringing a level of transformation and innovation of Starbucks. Starbucks has worked on spectacular standards while ensuring operations in the company and focusing on employee development. Customers are satisfied with quality and customer service, which is the primary aspect of business growth and development of Starbucks. This seems that Starbucks is achieving its brand image with spectacular standards.
Kevin Johnson’s Personal brand
Kevin Johnson’s leadership style has made a very positive impact on the personal brand as a leader while serving the servant leadership style and his decision-making skills. He has made a substantial impact on Starbucks legacy in terms of human resource management. As a leader, Johnson is continuously working on customer service that has developed innovative products and has ensured international expansion. With the help of the technological aspect, the free order app has made continuous development in terms of building brand image and increase in sales volume. An increase of nearly 25% of sales has been encouraged by the CEO (Johnson 2019). New ideas to expand the market and increase the sales volume has ensured the Starbucks brand image. Employees are satisfied working for Starbucks as the benefits that Starbucks is providing is incomparable. He has made decisions that ensure the brand image and expansion of the business. Correct decisions of store layout, a warm welcome for customers, and paying attention to employees need are few to mention (Baldonado, 2019). Johnson’s leadership style has shown signs of progress in terms of operating metric and tracking sales volume. The value of shares rose to 15% in the year 2018, which seems to increase personal brand Starbucks.
The management team has been moving to asset-light and has ensured a cash-generating business model. Therefore, the business model adopted by Kevin Johnson is useful and influences investors to invest in the company, attracts customers to stick to the brand and retains employees while providing benefits working in the organization. The company expects to cater to the Middle East market and open new stores for long term objectives to be fulfilled (Schultz, 2016). This seems that the new target market that Johnson has analyzed is optimistic and has ensured success for the company while holding Starbucks image to a global position. The market share acquired by Starbucks in the coffee industry is the highest.
Ethical considerations that Johnson has admired in terms of leadership approach is above the standard and support for customers and employees is implacable. Support for customers in terms of making an improved nutritional choice, response to racial discrimination incident and working for Starbucks as a management perspective are some incidents that prove that Johnson has always attempted to clarify the situation. In an event, a racial discrimination incident, wherein Starbucks was not involved in the racial discrimination, a clarification by Johnson o Twitter proved that Johnson being a leader apologized for the situation and promised to investigate the facts about the case. Johnson apologized for the incident and vowed to make changes in the company practices and ensures that the situation will not happen again and prevention steps will be taken. Starbucks has then reassured firmly against discrimination. Johnson, therefore, is a leader who has managed the situations effectively and has considered growth while building a sharp brand image of Starbucks. Employees find a great place to work at Starbucks as they are given benefits like providing full tuition coverage for student employees, support team to help student employees, annual grant to employees, etc.
Recommendations
To build on the current success, Johnson needs to follow criteria that leads to sustainability and competitive advantage. To gain market share, Johnson needs to develop practical steps and analyze the business model.
Johnson needs to focus on beverage innovation as significant product development. A leader should focus on coffee innovation which will help bring success for the company. In a looming recession period, Johnson should focus on product expansion while ensuring a pace of change with technological aspects. The mission to consider China as a significant market shortly will develop a relationship with the Middle East countries and will engage in product expansion (Johnson, 2019). Moving a step forward towards international development is a sign of progress for the company.
Johnson needs to focus on price strategy for better results. The idea of negotiating price is remarkable because the customer will ensure value satisfaction. Cheaper price options with a quality product will ensure rules of successful negotiation. Competitors pricing strategy should be adopted to compete for the price specification. Price is the competitive measure that decides the success of the business (Fields, Thompson & Hawkins, 2015). Chance to counter with affordable pricing strategy is initially the relinquish opportunity to set the starting price of the product. The higher cost and competing price should be significantly considered. The classic model of reasonable price strategy should be the main goal which will save a ridiculous situation. Higher price strategy will lead to low sales volume (Winston & Fields, 2015). Knowing the limit of price strategy will lead to a certain amount of money which will not budge the significant aspects.
The powerful tactic will lead to affordable sales and profit of the company. Johnson should focus on tactics that will help to move away from customer problems and ensure success at Starbucks. Price quality relationships will impact positive market behaviour and will win the hearts of customers with price and quality (Brown & Bryant 2015). Consumers use rate as a significant factor in Middle East countries to buy a particular product. However, consumers also have an impact on brand image and at times are not concerned with price. Product quality and consumer satisfaction are related, which needs to be suggested for the success and growth of the business. Consumer behaviour might change the price perspective and consistently focus on positive brand image to be catered with actual brand price. Therefore the cost of the product, consumer satisfaction and product development are the primary basis to ensure the success of Starbucks. Johnson, as a leader is working on changing consumer tastes survey.
Conclusion
Kevin Johnson is an active role model who is serving the servant leadership style. Johnson has changed the overall perspective of Starbucks while providing better results in terms of sales and profitability. A significant change in the business is observed as employees are satisfied, and employee turnover is reduced. Employees are provided benefits with the changing management perspective and standards. The actions and the steps taken by Kevin has positively impacted Starbucks sales and has changed the viewpoint of Schultz, who was the CEO of Starbucks. Kevin deserves the credit as he is an extraordinary person with innovative ideas. He has changed the leadership approach to the next level with the help of people.
Reference Listing
| Surname(s) & Initial(s) of Authors(s) | Date Published | Title | Publisher | Page Number (if a direct quotation is used) |
| Brohi, N, Jantan, A, Qureshi, M, Jaffar, A, Ali, J, & Hamid, K, | 2018 | The impact of servant leadership on employees attitudinal and behavioral outcomes | Cogent business and management, | vol. 5, pp. 1-17 |
| Bhargavi, S. & Yaseen, A., | 2016 | Leadership Styles and Organizational Performance | Strategic Management Quarterly | vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 87-117 |
| Brown, S & Bryant, P | 2015 | Getting to know the elephant: a call to advance servant leadership through construct consensus, empirical evidence, and multilevel theoretical development | Servant Leadership: Theory and Practice | vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 10–35 |
| Baldonado, A | 2019 | Practicing servant leadership: Analysis of Wegmans Food Market, Marriot International and Starbucks, | International Journal of Managerial Studies and Research | vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 34-48 |
| Dyme, B | 2019 | 6 Leadership lessons from Kevin Johnson, Starbucks CEO, [online] Available at: https://www.perspectivesltd.com/2018/04/19/6-leadership-lessons-from-kevin-johnson-starbucks-ceo/ | CNBC | |
| Fields, J, Thompson, K, & Hawkins, J | 2015 | Servant leadership: Teaching the helping professional, | Journal of leadership education, | pp. 92-102 |
| Gandolfi, F, & Stone, S, | 2018 | ‘Leadership, leadership styles, and servant leadership, | Journal of management research | vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 261-269 |
| Gandolfi, F, & Stone, S, | 2017 | The emergence of leadership styles: A clarified categorization, | Review of International Comparative Management | vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 18–30 |
| Igbaekemen, G. O. & Odivwri, J. E., | 2015 | Impact of leadership style on organization performance: A critical literature review. | Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review | Vol. 5, no. 5, pp. 1-7 |
| Iqbal, N., Anwar, S. & Haider, N., | 2015 | Effect of leadership style on employee performance | Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review | 5(5), pp. 1-6 |
| Jyoti, J. & Bhau, S., | 2015 | Impact of transformational leadership on job performance: Mediating role of leader– member exchange and relational identification. | SAGE Open | 5(4), pp. 1-13 |
| Johnson, K, | 2019 | Starbucks CEO sees no signs of a looming recession, [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh8gT3nsM34 | CNBC | |
| Kashyap, V, & Rangnekar, S | 2016 | ‘Servant leadership, employer brand perception, trust in leaders and turnover intentions: A sequential mediation model,’ | Review of Managerial Science, | vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 437–461 |
| Khajeh, E, | 2018 | Impact of leadership styles on organizational performance | IBIMA Journal of Human Resource Management Research, | vol. 1, pp. 1-10 |
| Liden, R C, Wayne, S, Meuser, J D, Hu, J, Wu, J, & Liao, C, | 2015 | ‘Servant leadership: Validation of a short form of the SL-28,’ | The Leadership Quarterly, | vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 254–269 |
| Longe, O. J., | 2014 | Leadership style paradigm shift and organisational performance: A case of the Nigerian Cement Industry | African Research Review, | 8(4), pp. 68-83 |
| Northouse, PG | 2017 | Leadership : theory and practice / | P. G. Northouse | |
| Sun, P, & Shang, S, | 2019 | Personality traits and personal values of servant leaders. | Leadership & Organization Development Journal, | vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 177–192 |
| Sofi, M. A. & Devanadhen, D. K., | 2015 | Impact of Leadership Styles on Organizational Performance: An Empirical Assessment of Banking Sector in Jammu and Kashmir | IOSR Journal of Business and Management | 17(8), pp. 31-45. |
| Sougui, A. o., Bon, A. T. B. & Hassan, H. M. H | 2015 | The Impact of Leadership Styles on Employees’ performance in Telecom Engineering companies | Australian Journal Basic and Applied Science, | vol. 7, no. 13, pp. 1-11 |
| Schultz, H, | 2016 | Howard Schultz reflects on Starbucks future, [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gUgN-zfk74 | CNBC | |
| Ward, M, | 2017 | 3 Ways CEO Kevin Johnson’s leadership style could shape Starbucks, [online] Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/03/3-things-you-need-to-know-about-new-starbucks-ceo-kevin-johnson.html
| CNBC | |
| Winston, B E & Fields, D, | 2015 | Seeking and measuring the essential behaviors of servant leadership, | Leadership & Organization Development Journal | vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 413–434 |