(MGT808) Leadership assignment identifying responsible leadership to be implemented at Coles, Inc.

Question

Task: Write a 2000-word policy memo to the Board of your current organisation or other approved organisation. Include an analysis of the key planning and innovation challenges faced by contemporary business organisations and business leaders in your leadership assignment. Identify potential responsible leadership strategies which could be incorporated into strategic planning and change for the organisation.

Answer

Case study overviewin the leadership assignment
The Australian grocery chain Coles is the centre of this leadership assignment, which analyses the many challenges, issues, and difficulties that the company is facing. The staff at Coles is not very technology friendlyduring the time of implementing innovation and need guidance to overcome the challenges. Employee morale and teamwork suffer as a result. Integrity and trust in commercial dealings are the company's biggest challenge. It has also been claimed in the leadership assignmentthat businesses must put their trust in their staff, treat them with respect, and actively seek out a wide range of talent from inside the company itself. High turnover is Coles' top human resources problem. The reason for this is because workers at Coles are underpaid which reduce their motivation. Many of them feel this is not sufficient, and they place little importance on their poor income. Coles' major issue is the lack of communication and coordination among its staff. Inadequate leadership and teamwork inside the company contribute to a lack of coordination and cooperation among workers (Keith, 2012).

Workers start focusing on their own tasks rather than those of the team as a whole, which has a negative impact on communication and cooperation. The result is an unsafe workplace, which in turn generates internal concerns and issues that impede progress toward the organisation stated goals. This kind of incompetent management mentioned in the leadership assignmentnot only adds stress to the business and its operations, but also encourages individuals to think of themselves as contributors rather than as members of a team, which in turn hinders effective communication, collaboration, and teamwork. When an organisation is led by someone who is ineffective or unstable, it faces a host of challenges.

Analysis of case study
Communication Challenges mentioned in the leadership assignment
The executives are having problems communicating with their employees, and the innovative ideas that the executives of Coles aim to undertake are not being conveyed to them in a clear and concise manner. The incapacity of superiors to express the level of commitment they anticipate from younger managers and staff creates a barrier that prevents the necessary openness in the communication that takes place between managers and their subordinates. The workers according to the leadership assignmentare not aware of the innovation plans established by management, and their comments are not respected, which is another factor that contributes to the formation of communication gaps (Massa & Tucci, 2013). The knowledge gaps that now exist among workers mentioned in the leadership assignmentare also a contributing factor to the difficulties that are encountered with communication, and the capacity of individual employees is not adequate to comprehend the significance of innovation planning. The notion that communication is vitally crucial for the survival of every single human being is put up by S. F. Scudder, who advocates for the communication theory (Hedman,&Valo, 2015). The key of communication, therefore, is to impart the thoughts and visions the business has of the new meanings it aims to apply, and the executives at Coles have been unable to implant this principle, which has resulted in the firm's failure to communicate effectively. The innovation strategy can no longer provide the desired results (Van der Voet, 2014).

Coordination Challenges
When it comes to establishing collaborative connections with their subordinates, overcoming this obstacle mentioned in the leadership assignmentis a very crucial problem that a leader must deal with. The fundamental reason for this is because there are significant cultural and language differences among managers and subordinates, which makes it challenging for managers to cooperate with subordinates (Pisano, 2015). The incorrect allocation of labour among subordinates is the root cause of leadership deficiencies, which in turn leads to coordination issues as per the analysis in the leadership assignment. This leads to discrimination among subordinates and reduces the overall productivity of the team. Crowston and Malone are mostly credited with popularizing system theory and reinforcing the fundamental idea of groupware maintenance inside teams. They believe that members of the team should each be given separate responsibilities, that these responsibilities should be distributed evenly, and that new team members should not be brought on to maintain an ordered and structured workflow (Tamunomiebi,& John-Eke, 2020). As a result, those in charge of the company considered for this leadership assignmentwere unable to identify the factors that contributed to the failure of the innovation strategy.

Lack of Motivation
It is critical for managers to consistently encourage the people under their supervision to put up their maximum effort in order to realise the organization's objectives. On the other hand, since there is so much pressure on the corporation to fulfil its objectives, the executives almost never take this element into consideration. The primary objective of the organization considered in the leadership assignmentis to increase revenue, achieve a favourable standing in the industry, and expand the size of the existing client base. When managers are under a lot of pressure to reach all of the objectives, they tend to become extremely impatient and have a tendency to criticize the work of their subordinates and question if it was done correctly (Braver, et al., 2014).

This has a significant demoralizing effect on the workers, making it far less likely that they will complete their task. As a result, this contributes to the existence of variability inside the organisation, which in turn reduces its level of production. According to Herzberg's theory of motivation, mentioned in the leadership assignment, a person has to have their motivation properly instilled in them, and motivation is dependent on two variables: cleanliness and motivation. Leaders implant these characteristics in their followers in order to encourage them and emphasised that there is a need. The senior management of the organisation was unable to infuse this philosophy into the workforce, which resulted in the collapse of the innovation strategy (Dörnyei, 2020).

Conclusion
The conclusion of the leadership assignmentis reached as a result of the fact that the whole of the difficulties that Coles encounters while attempting to adopt innovations in their company are thoroughly covered in the research material. The various types of difficulties that are associated with implementing innovation in companies were discussed, various leadership theories that are effective at bringing innovation in companies were emphasised.
Additionally, possible leadership methods were found and outlined in the leadership assignment, along with suggestions that were made to assist in mitigating the challenges that were found in the leadership assignmentthat came before this one.

Recommendation
Recommendations reached out in the leadership assignmentthat have shown to be successful in assisting businesses in mitigating the effects of their issues are the most effective style of leadership for reducing the problems that businesses confront in the process of bringing innovation into their operations is transformational leadership.

In order for workers to feel appreciated and have an understanding of the changes that Coles intends to adopt, it is necessary for leaders to distribute tasks across their workforce.
Workers should be appropriately informed about the innovations the business is going to adopt, and managers should do so in a timely manner, so that employees may conduct research and acquire knowledge on the innovations the company is about to implement (Harris, 2013).

In order to foster innovation and creativity, as well as to provide staff with the tools necessary to adapt to the new changes that the firm will be implementing, might be a viable trading strategy as per the leadership assignment. Maintain their enthusiasm, and provide assistance in any areas in which they are struggling with their performance (Glatthorn, et al. 2016). Executives are tasked with the development of tactics that will successfully impact clients and entice them to the newly introduced product (DeMatthews, 2014).

Potential transformational methods are more focused with the growth of the company as a whole as opposed to the development of the employees, and as per the findings in the leadership assignment, they are not well-suited for effective organisational innovation (Menaker, 2013).

Guidance
In order to exercise responsible leadership, one must take into account the legitimate interests of others while simultaneously attending to the requirements of many stakeholders. In order for leaders to understand how service is delivered to their workers, they need to guide and anticipate every genuine issue, anticipated future need, and concern that employees have. The leadership approach of responsible leadership mentioned in the leadership assignmentmeets the demands of employees of the organisation and inspires them to accomplish common objectives as the management of Coles discovers issues connected to coordination and motivation. One of the key tenets of leadership theory is that members of staff should be considered assets that should be deployed in both the internal and external environments of a company.

Creating plans and visions for higher objectives, developing standardised processes, assuring continual growth and innovation, and sharing authority and communication with staff are some of the techniques that govern responsible leadership. Contains a variety of different organisational techniques. In the leadership assignment it is claimed, leadership that is coupled with effective mentoring can foster constructive attitudes toward organisational as well as individual outcomes, such as identity, communication, and work engagement. This, in turn, can motivate, coordinate, and empower employees in the workplace while also producing an environment conducive to strategic planning.

Improving empowerment and trust
The adoption of an efficient risk management plan is required in order to get good outcomes in spite of the complexity of the endeavour. The complexity of an organization's culture has to be simplified in order for them to tackle the challenge.
It is essential as per the leadership assignmentthat Coles provide its workers the tools they need to become more productive and efficient in their work. In order to empower its workforce, Coles has to give ownership as well as authority via the delegation of duties. It is crucial for Coles to foster an environment in which workers feel comfortable communicating openly with their superiors and with one another. For a business to become stronger, it is also necessary to provide people with chances for professional development.
In order to boost the effectiveness of the company as per the analysis in the leadership assignment, Coles has to recruit qualified individuals who are capable of doing the appropriate actions. At the same time, companies should encourage workers to share their thoughts with the organisation in order to assist the company in determining the legitimate demands of employees and in meeting those needs. It is important for organisations to include managers in the process of organising training in order to evaluate employee performance and strengthen any areas of weakness.

It is essential for Colesas per the findings in the leadership assignmentthat staff be encouraged to engage in independent learning. Employees should be appropriately advised by their employers on the significance of engaging in self-directed learning. In addition, Coles has to ensure that its workers have sufficient time to study and think critically about what they have learned by providing them with their own personal time slots.

References
Books and journal
Braver, T. S., Krug, M. K., Chiew, K. S., Kool, W., Westbrook, J. A., Clement, N. J., ... & Somerville, L. H. (2014). Mechanisms of motivation–cognition interaction: challenges and opportunities. Cognitive, Affective, &Behavioral Neuroscience, 14(2), 443-472.
DeMatthews, D. E. (2014). How to improve curriculum leadership: Integrating leadership theory and manageme strategies. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 87(5), 192-196.
Dörnyei, Z. (2020). Innovations and challenges in language learning motivation. Routledge. Glatthorn, A. A., Boschee, F., Whitehead, B. M., &Boschee, B. F. (2018). Curriculum leadership: Strategies for development and implementation. SAGE publications. Harris, A. (2013). Distributed leadership matters: Perspectives, practicalities, and potential. Corwin Press.

Hedman, E., &Valo, M. (2015). Communication challenges facing management teams. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
Keith, S. (2012). Coles, Woolworths, and the local. Locale: The Australasian-Pacific Journal of Regional Food Studies, 2, 47-81.
Massa, L., & Tucci, C. L. (2013). Business model innovation. The Oxford handbook of innovation management, 20(18), 420-441.
Menaker, R. (2013). Leadership strategies: Achieving personal and professional success. Medical Group Management Association.
Pisano, G. P. (2015). You need an innovation strategy. Harvard Business Review, 93(6), 44-54.
Tamunomiebi, M. D., & John-Eke, E. C. (2020). Workplace Diversity: Emerging Issues in Contemporary. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 10(2), 255-265.
Van der Voet, J. (2014). The effectiveness and specificity of change management in a public organization: Transformational leadership and a bureaucratic organizational structure. European Management Journal, 32(3), 373-382.