Strategic Leadership Impact

Abstract

The leaders are also considered as facilitators and strategist, where they try to arrange the organisational resources and maximise employee’s capabilities to facilitate new activities and develop creative strategies to run the business functions successfully. The leaders also provide momentum, sharing and celebrating progress towards achieving the objectives of the firm by setting new targets and providing required resources to enhance employee’s capabilities. Through this study, it is possible to analyse the impacts of suitable leadership on the organisation performance of Sainsbury’s. The major leadership styles that the leaders adopt in the recent years are such as transformation, transactional, situational and democratic leadership style. These are effective styles of leading the people and inspiring them to contribute efficiently so that the organisational objectives can be met. Through effective leadership style, the organisational overall performance can be maximised along with the profitability and sales improvement in Sainsbury’s. There is strong linkage between leadership and organisational performance where the leaders can secure future organisational position through business creativity and running the operations strategically. For students seeking business dissertation help, understanding such leadership impacts can provide valuable insights into business dynamics.

Introduction

The leadership and management is the ability of an individual or a group of the individuals in the organisations in order to influence and guide the followers with the aim of achieving success in near future (Buil, Martínez and Matute, 2019). Leadership is hereby playing a crucial role in managing the organisational activities by influencing the managers and employees, who are the ain stakeholders of the business to run the operations. This literature study is effective to review the journals and annual report of the firm to understand different styles of leadership in the organisation Sainsbury’s. The paper also provides a scope to evaluate and discus the impacts of the leadership style and activities on the organisational performance of Sainsbury’s. Sainsbury’s is a famous retail organisation in the UK, which is successful in serving the customers with the best quality products. The company has generated approximately £29.048 billion revenue in the last year and it manages more than 180,000 employees, who are efficient to run the operations of the brand across the UK (Sainsbury’s, 2021a).

Leadership and its roles

The organisational leadership refers to the practice of leading a person strategically by guiding and managing a group of people to meet a common goal. The organisational leaders mainly focus on developing the best strategic planning to meet the organisational activities and secure future sustainable development (Buil, Martínez and Matute, 2019). The important role of a successful leader is to provide clear and compelling direction, along with this, the leaders of the companies ensure that the followers understand, embrace and work efficiently towards meeting the company’s goals. The leaders are playing a crucial role as a coach where it is the leader’s responsibility to develop others to succeed in their individual roles and prepare future tactics (Fitria, Mukhtar and Akbar, 2017). The leader of Sainsbury’s is visionary and the final decision makers, where they try to develop creative business solutions to make the firm unique and achieve future strategic objectives. The board members and managers of Sainsbury’s are also working as an influencer and team player, where the leaders focus on developing strong team and influence the employees to maximise their performance and productivity so that they can contribute proficiently and meet the strategic aim of the firm (Zheng, Wu and Xie, 2017).

Being guided in the right direction is important to achieve future success, and the leaders are playing a role as mentor as well as a communicator, where the managers and employees are encouraged to develop strong team to achieve the business aim (Eliyana and Ma’arif, 2019). The leaders in this regard retie and inspire the vision and shared values in order to create employees values and retain the experienced staff for long run. Demonstrating confidence as well as leading changes in the workplace for enhancing business innovation is also another role of the leaders (Fitria, Mukhtar and Akbar, 2017). The other responsibilities of the organisational leader at Sainsbury’s are such as inspiring and energising the people, employee’s empowerment, communicative openly, listening, supporting ad helping others in the workplace, so that the employee can cooperate with the leader and meet individual’s roles. Involving everyone by using team oriented approach, being visionary, continuous innovation and business creativity as well as coaching, bringing out best in people, encouraging and continuous monitoring process of Sainsbury’s leader are effective to run the operations and make the firm successful (Sainsbury’s, 2021b).

Leadership styles

There are different leadership styles through which the leaders aim at leading the people towards achieving the future corporate success and the major leadership styles are such as transactional leadership, transformational leadership, situational leadership and democratic or participative leadership (Zheng, Wu and Xie, 2017).

Transformational leadership refers to a leadership approach which helps to change social stem with innovation. In its ideal form, it mainly creates valuable and positive changes by achieving the ultimate goal of developing followers into leaders. In the recent globalisation era, the leaders follow the transformational leadership style in order to create a successful team in the workplace as well as manage the diverse workforce in the company (Al Khajeh, 2018). There are four functions through which, it is possible to develop transformational style of leadership, such as idealised influence, intellectual simulation inspirational motivation and individualised characteristics. The leaders try to influence the workers by develop good corporate governance which further helps to create organisational future with harmony and freedom to work, managing work life balance and working efficiently through partnership working practice (Miao, Humphrey and Qian, 2018). The individual traits and experiences can be maximised through continuous collaboration in the workplace. For example, internal transparency and accountability as well as employment ethics, safety of the workers are maintained well in Sainsbury’s with the aim of providing sustainable working environment to all the employees. Additionally, there is individual motivation through different reward system, self-actualisation and self-esteem management as well as the leader in Sainsbury’s tries to encourage individual creativity to empower the staff in the company decision making practice. Organisational commitment is maintained along with the increased group cooperation, partnership working practice and inclusion of all the staff in the company’s system.

Transactional leadership is mainly defined the practice of having effective control, being organised, and developing short-term planning, in which the leaders relies on a system of rewards and punishment to motivate their followers. Rewards and punishments are motivating for followers and it is effective for employee supervision and control. Adhering to the instructions of the leader is the primary goal of followers in order to meet the individual roles and responsibilities in the workplace (Subramony et al., 2018). For example, the leader of Sainsbury’s mainly focuses on quality supervision, organization, and performance management in order to achieve the strategic aim of Sainsbury’s. Contingency reward is hereby designed as per the employee’s job position and individual performance. There are several rewards system such as structured salary, performance related pay, bonus and incentives on organisational profit which are important to encourage the staff members for maximising their performance and productivity. On the other hand, unaccepted or deviated performance from the team is kept corrections and punishment in the workplace (Eliyana and Ma’arif, 2019). In order to control over the employees and improve their efficacy and productivity in the workplace, the leaders adopt such transactional style which further helps them to handle the workers and maximise their performance in long run.

Situational leadership is another effective leadership style that helps the leaders to develop good strategies for leading the employees towards achieving the business success. Delegating, supporting, coaching and directing are the four types under situational leadership. In the recent era of globalisation, the leaders mainly focus on coaching style of leadership in order to lead the employees efficiently towards achieving the future success (Fiaz, Su and Saqib, 2017). There is high directive and high supportive behaviour in the workplace of Sainsbury’s, where the management team can provide continuous assistance to the employees. There is high support from the leaders with the aim of leading the flowers successfully. The employees are supported and guided with latest information, technology and organisational resources to enhance their performance and productivity (Elbaz and Haddoud, 2017). The coaching leadership style at Sainsbury’s further motivates the employees and builds trust and loyalty among the staff. Sainsbury’s leader focuses on providing continuous support to the employees for creating values for them and developing good corporate governance through continuous communication and cooperation. The employees also can share their ideas and personal perspectives with the leaders for better achievements (Sainsbury’s, 2021b).

Democratic or Participative leadership is effective, where the leaders try to facilitate conversation and share all the necessary information and knowledge with others in the workplace. Engaging collaborative practice and exploring new ideas together further help to synthesise the available information to make the right decision. It reveals that, the leaders focus on redistribution of the power and authority between the managers and employees in order to provide the scope to the employees and managers to involve in the organisational decision making process (Xiao, Zhang and de Pablos, 2017). Hence, the collaborative decision can be made through participative leadership style, where the leaders encourage showing individual creativity and sharing their ideas to choose the best solution to the business. The provision of training and development to delegate the organisational tasks as well as accomplishing the task efficiently further help the leaders to hire the strategic aim of the business.

Impacts of leadership on the organisational performance at Sainsbury’s

Effective leadership skills will provide a scope to the corporate leaders to gain the trust of employees, develop good corporate culture with harmony and freedom to work where the organisational commitment will be fulfilled in near future. Under suitable leadership style, it is possible for the organisational managers to increase internal collaboration among different departments such as finance, operations, sales and marketing, customer’s relationship management, production and supply chain operations (Meng and Berger, 2019). For making the brand Sainsbury’s successful, the managers develop collaborative working practice at different departments so that they can work as a partnership working practice and achieve the company’s goal cooperatively. Suitable leadership style hereby has crucial impacts on maximising financial performance of Sainsbury’s, where it can maximise profitability and generate revenue in long run. The business creativity is improved day by day at Sainsbury’s through successful leadership style, where the leader and managers encourage employee’s creativity and improve the participation of the staff members in the workplace (Jena, Pradhan and Panigrahy, 2018). The leader of Sainsbury’s also tries to empower the people and developed collaborative decision by enhancing technological innovation and creativity. Hereby, the organisational creativity is maximised over the period of time, through successful leadership style, where the leaders inspire the workers, lead them with strategic changes and implement latest technology and business tactics to achieve the organisational aim successfully. The leaders are hereby efficient to ensure continuous busies creativity and resource utilisation to explore innovative solutions (Jena, Pradhan and Panigrahy, 2018). Sainsbury’s operational activities are hereby improved well under continuous support and guidance of the leaders. A successful leader is also efficient to manage the external stakeholders including suppliers, distribution, social communities and government who are engaged with the organisations (Sainsbury’s, 2021c).

Managing human resource department is an important business function where the leaders and managers try to handle the workforce efficiently. Through continuous motivation, employee’s empowerment and rewards system, the leaders are able to manage the diverse workforce and lead them towards achieving future success (Jena, Pradhan and Panigrahy, 2018). Hence, leadership skills are effective to reduce employee turnover rate and retain experienced staff for long run in Sainsbury’s. Apart from maximising sales and profit volume of the firms, the leader also contribute in maximising Sainsbury’s productivity and efficacy of each staff in order to improve their contribution in the company. Employee engagement and passion can be created by suitable leadership style which further leads to higher levels of service innovation, customer loyalty, and generate profitability. Hence, the good leadership is beneficial for Sainsbury’s to represent the brand successfully in the market and ensure good branding in near future. The leader in Sainsbury’s is able to improve organisational overall performance by engaging the employees, guiding them with adequate resources and encouraging their creativity in running the operations innovatively (Meng and Berger, 2019). The employment rule and business ethics can also be managed well in Sainsbury’s, where the managers try to share all the necessary information with the employees and develop strong teamwork to achieve future success. The organisations are hereby able to gain high competitive advantage in such intensely competitive global market through continuous business creativity and technical innovation (Sainsbury’s, 2021c).

Summary

Leadership and management practice in the organisation is hereby beneficial for achieving the company’s goals creatively. The leaders continuously try to utilise the resources and enhance the employee’s capabilities to achieve ultimate objectives. Through business creativity and technological innovations, the leader at Sainsbury’s tries to lead the employees and maximise organisational overall performance and thus it can be stated that, there is internal linkage between the leadership style and organisational performance. It is beneficial for the CEO of Sainsbury’s to adopt transformational leadership style to continuously motivate and encourage employee’s creativity to perform better. The leader focuses on developing trust and loyalty among the employees at Sainsbury’s by creating value for them through designing the monetary and non-monetary incentives. Hence, the leaders should adopt appropriate leadership style to manage the diverse workforce at Sainsbury’s across its different market and lead the workers efficiently towards achieving the aim of Sainsbury’s which is to serve the customers efficiently with the best quality products and services.

Reference List

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