Leadership Assignment: Impact of Leaders & Managers on Coles Supermarket

Question

Task: Write a reflective journal on computer architecture assignment analysing the theoretical concepts captured from the weekly material.

Answer

A.1 Leadership Assignment Scenario
Introduction to the organisation and management structure
According to Bush, Bell &Middlewood (2019), leadership is considered about getting the people to believe and comprehend within the vision that is set for an organisation along with achieving the goals. However, management is much more regarding the making and administering of daily activities that needs to happen. Hence, the present study deals with the concept of leadership and management supported by different theories and models within the organisation of Coles Supermarket. This is a retail organisation that is headquartered in Melbourne Australia being the part of Coles Group. The total revenue of the organisation has been 38.175 billion in the year of 2019 and provides the retail products for the customers (Coles Supermarkets. 2020). The mission statement of the organisation is to provide the people of Australia with a shop that they can trust while delivering quality value and service as well.

Figure 1: Management structure of retail organisations
Source: (Podsakoff&Podsakoff, 2019)

As per the management structure of the retail organisations, it has been evidenced that the respective organisation focuses on three areas such as store operations; centralized operations and regional operations as well. The centralised operations involve jobs like human resources and store planning. On the other hand, regional operations involve warehousing and distribution along with the store operations that include marketing and merchandising as well. Thus, as stated by Bolden (2020), the management structure of the respective organisation seems to be beneficial as it tends to encompass overall areas of the business.

Role of managers and leaders
Leaders are defined as “the individuals responsible for commanding or leading an organization of a department within an organization”while Managers are defined as “the individuals responsible for administration and management of tasks within an organization or a particular department” (Zaleznik, 2014).Based on the differences of leadership and management, the leaders are found to emphasize on the roles whereas; the managers are known to focus upon the functions. The leaders tend to pull the employees for obtaining the objectives and goals of the company while the managers generally push their staff for achieving them. Thus, the differences within the roles of both the leaders and the managers are mentioned below:

Leadership Management
Leadership tends to involve or rather lead a group. This makes a leader to influence and drive the people. Management is mainly concerned for the responsibility. This makes a manager to ensure the daily activities whether executed or not.

Leaders create a vision for the employees aligned with the organisation. As evidenced by Hassi (2019), managers are found to create goals that need to be achieved for the company. Leaders are considered to be the change agent and are proud disruptors. Managers generally are found to maintain their status quo and refine the systems; processes and structures.

Table 1: Differences between the role of a manager and a leader
Source: (Developed by the Learner)

Different roles of leadership and management in different situations with theories and models
As per the views of Baker et al., (2019), there are different situations that demand the roles of leaders and managers accordingly. Recently, the organisation has faced a situation where the prices based on the dairy products were increased which opted for an effective implementation of such functions of the management along with the leadership skills for planning certain strategies that might handle the cost and increase the sales of the respective company. There were different theories that were incorporated for the concerned situation. for instance, the contemporary theory of management with the skills of leadership for increasing the operations.

Through this theory, the managers were able to plan strategies like selecting a supplier who might provide the company with the products at a lower cost. On the other hand, the leaders of the organisation used their trait for motivating the employees for the adoption of advanced technologies for lowering the manufacturing cost along with mitigating the resistance for change within the employees with the help of a trustworthy environment consisting of effective skills of communication. Behavioural theory of management was also applied within the respective organisation for creating policies along with following those considering the abilities and skills of the leaders with the use of transformational style of leadership. As evidenced by de Oliveira, Cavazotte& Alan Dunzer (2019), here the leaders were found to communicate with their employees for defining the policies in an effective manner.

Application of chaos theory and management by objectives within the organisation for sustainable performance
According to the chaos theory, the management of an organisation must place much more focus on initiative; adaptability along with an entrepreneurial creativity for coping up with the future which can be inherently unknowable. Thus, while implementing the respective theory within the Coles organisation, it can imply the need of an effective leadership along with a vision of guiding; organisational beliefs; stronger values as well as open communication. This can also help in changing the process of decision making for the management for instance, the evolution based on the teams that are high functioning. However, as put forward by Ameen, Raza, Shah &Matilo (2019), management by Objectives (MBO) has been a technique of personal management where the employees and the managers work together along with monitoring; recording and setting the goals for a particular period of time. Thus, these goals eventually are transformed as the personal goals of the staff members of the organisation.

Thus, the application of these two aspects aims in increasing the performance of the concerned organisation through aligning the goals along with the subordinate objectives within the company. This also helps in making the employees to get a stronger input for identification of their objectives and time lines as well.

Conclusion for the impact of leaders and managers in the organisation and recommendations for future improvement
As stated in the above study, it has been evidenced that the managers and the leaders tend to set a context where the employees strive for achieving the objectives of the organisation. The leaders are found to inspire shared vision that needs to enlist others through common process and vision. As argued by Shah, Maitlo, Jones & Yusuf (2019), they also need to enable the other people for acting and must encourage the heart based on their constituents for carrying on. However, the managers are also found to have a direct impact upon the employees of the company while carrying the responsibility for aligning the departmental performance along with their employees through overarching goals of the organisation. They tend to play an important role for shaping the culture of the organisation. Hence, the leaders are managers and need to provide focus along with the direction for others along with motivating them in achieving the goals of the organisation. The company can rely on theories and models like situational leadership and servant leadership, for defining the roles of leaders and managers within the organization. The leaders require participating with the employees in their chores and taking their views into consideration before the allocation of tasks. The managers can interact with the employees directly, to bridge any communication gaps and motivate the employees to work for the enhanced organizational productivity

A.2 Case Study
Question 1
Effective use of leadership and management skills As evidenced from the case study, Lucy has been considered as an associate director for the non-profit agency which provides assistance for the children along with their families. Thus, Lucy is referred to as the head of the department who emphasizes on the evaluation of skill-building programs that are provided by the agencies to the respective families. To be within the position of an associate director, Lucy has been responsible for organising; planning as well as directing the daily activities or rather the operations for a particular department. As opined by Hayes, Rahman& Islam (2020), the specific position is also responsible for overseeing along with training the employees in an assigned department along with providing a support of administration; greeting the visitors; performing data entry; answering the phone along with maintaining the records as well. The associate director is known to report to executive managers for a specific department and also works in different industries involving the human resource and education as well.

Hence, for the present context, a director is known to become both a manager and a leader. Nevertheless, provided with the fact that the two newly appointed managers are capable of performing tasks along with directly managing the overall staff of the department, Lucy must emphasize to be a leader while delegating the responsibilities of a manager to the respective two managers. As stated by Latta (2019), the implementation of the respective strategy can help in building the confidence of the managers along with enhancing them for solving any kind of problem for the employees. This can also in turn, make Lucy free for emphasizing on building the greater staff commitment towards the vision and mission of the respective organisation.

On the other hand, this can also help both the managers and Lucy to take a leadership or management assessment. This can help in ascertaining the skills of the individuals along with learning the way they can support their staff along with building strategies for working together (Teece, 2019). Making use of a style approach, the first manager can utilise the task oriented approach along with the second manager to demonstrate the relationship oriented style. Both the orientations are structured for supporting each other.

Lucy might emphasize to build the skills of leadership based on the recent strengths. For instance, according to the views of Podsakoff and Podsakoff (2019), Lucy can revisit the responsibilities for each of the positions along with her division that is aligned by the work with the mission of the organisation. Thus, aligning with the mission along with communicating with the employees can help in improving their morale as well as can bring clarity on the direction and role of each of the departments.

Question 2
Steps for building staff confidence with reference to leadership and motivational theories
Because of the higher turnover within the respective organisation and a negative conversation style of Lucy, the employees have been uncertain regarding their future within the particular company. As per the views of Connolly, James &Fertig (2019), there are certain steps that need to be considered for building the confidence of the employees. These steps are mentioned below:

• Providing the managers with a greater independence along with relevant information for managing the employees
• Supporting the workers for possessing the learning opportunities along with professional development and giving adequate time to do the same
• Regular communication should be enhanced with the employees regarding the changes
• Engaging within the interactions of team building
• Addressing the conversation style of Lucy along with explaining the way it affects the perceptions of the employees
• Incentivising a higher level of performance
• Communicating with the employees in a direct way besides the reprisal related to the issues which they might think of the cause for a higher turnover.

However, apart from these steps, there are certain theories of motivation which can help in building the morale of the staff. As put forward by Guhr, Lebek&Breitner (2019), one of the best theories seems to be Herzberg's Two Factor Theory. Here the author argues to consist of two of the main factors that are mainly considered by the people for motivation such as motivators and demotivators. The motivators are the satisfiers and the demotivators are dissatisfied as well. The main purpose of this theory helps in performing two of the things which are mentioned below:

Elimination of the factors of dissatisfaction
• Fixation of poor organisational policies
• Supporting and creating a culture for dignity for the employees
• Providing an effective; non-intrusive and supportive supervision
• Ensuring about the wages that are competitive

Creation of conditions regarding job satisfaction
• Providing with adequate opportunities for achievement
• Possible responsibilities for each of the staff members
• Recognition of the contribution of the workers
• Providing with the opportunities for advancing in the organisation through the internal promotions
However, as opined by Daniëls, Hondeghem&Dochy (2019), leadership style also needs to be considered for the respective theory and the situation. For instance, transformational leadership can be emphasized for the particular organisational environment where the employees are treated as human beings along with considering the perspectives and the emotions as well. On the other hand, this tends to build the motivation for the employees while creating clarity of vision and acting as a social architect as well as building a positive self-respect and building trust as well. Nevertheless, the skills are also important for creating an ability to solve any complex problems as the non profit seems to have different challenges within the level of the organisation involving a higher turnover.

References
Ameen, N., Raza, P. H., Shah, M., &Matilo, A. (2019). Preventing identity theft: identifying major barriers to knowledge-sharing in online retail organisations. Information Technology & People, 32(5), 1184-1214.

Baker, A., Bech, M., Geerts, J., Axelsen, S. M., Ullum, H., Krabbe, M. P., &Goodall, A. H. (2019).Motivating doctors into leadership and management: a cross-sectional survey. BMJ Leader. Bolden, R. (2020). Guest blog: Richard Bolden, Professor of Leadership and Management and Director of the Bristol Leadership and Change Centre. Notes.

Bush, T., Bell, L., &Middlewood, D. (Eds.).(2019). Principles of Educational Leadership & Management. SAGE Publications Limited.

Coles Supermarkets. (2020). Retrieved 14 April 2020, from https://www.coles.com.au/

Connolly, M., James, C., &Fertig, M. (2019).The difference between educational management and educational leadership and the importance of educational responsibility. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 47(4), 504-519.

Daniëls, E., Hondeghem, A., &Dochy, F. (2019).A review on leadership and leadership development in educational settings. Educational Research Review.

de Oliveira, L. B., Cavazotte, F., & Alan Dunzer, R. (2019). The interactive effects of organizational and leadership career management support on job satisfaction and turnover intention. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 30(10), 1583-1603.

Guhr, N., Lebek, B., &Breitner, M. H. (2019). The impact of leadership on employees' intended information security behaviour: An examination of the full range leadership theory. Information Systems Journal, 29(2), 340-362.

Hassi, A. (2019). Empowering leadership and management innovation in the hospitality industry context.International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.

Hayes, J., Rahman, A., & Islam, M. R. (2020).Shaping the Future of Multidimensional Project Management in Retail Industry Using Statistical and Big-Data Theories.In Statistics for Data Science and Policy Analysis (pp. 347-360).Springer, Singapore.

Latta, G. F. (2019). Models of leadership development: a conceptual framework linking theory to strategic practice.Leadership assignment International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 19(4), 367-390. Podsakoff, P. M., &Podsakoff, N. P. (2019). Experimental designs in management and leadership research: Strengths, limitations, and recommendations for improving publishability. The Leadership Quarterly, 30(1), 11-33.

Podsakoff, P. M., &Podsakoff, N. P. (2019). Experimental designs in management and leadership research: Strengths, limitations, and recommendations for improving publishability. The Leadership Quarterly, 30(1), 11-33.

Shah, M., Maitlo, A., Jones, P., & Yusuf, Y. (2019).An investigation into agile learning processes and knowledge sharing practices to prevent identity theft in the online retail organisations. Journal of Knowledge Management.

Teece, D. J. (2019). A capability theory of the firm: an economics and (strategic) management perspective. New Zealand Economic Papers, 53(1), 1-43.

Zaleznik, A., (2014). Harvard Business Review. Managers and Leaders: Are They Different. Available at: https://hbr.org/2014/01/managers-and-leaders-are-they-different.