Leadership Style of Virgin Group Ltd - Case Study Example

? Sir Richard Branson, Chairman, Virgin Group, Ltd. Case Study Question One Leadership style can be recognized as one of the most crucial ways of motivating the employees, guiding them and thus attaining the objectives of the organization. Leadership styles need to be adapted in order to meet the requirements of a particular situation, the specific needs of the people involved and the challenges faced by the organization. A leader can be stated to be effective if he/she is capable of making use of the adequate leadership skills in each context. It can be mentioned that the leader might either make use of one particular leadership skill or he/she might as well make use of the combination of the leadership skills in order to enhance the effectiveness of the organization. It is the leadership policies that facilities to identify the capabilities of each and every leader’s leadership style. The leadership styles are mainly adopted in order to meet the goals and the objectives of the organization. The basic leadership styles that a leader might follow are autocratic, bureaucratic, laissez-faire and democratic (Sage Publication, 2012). It has been evident from the case study that Sir Richard Branson is one of the most effective and prominent leaders. Out of the various leadership styles that have been demonstrated above in terms of authentic leadership style, expert power as well as referent power, Sir Richard Branson seems to be practicing laissez-faire leadership style. He believes in doing things in an innovative way so that the customers can be fascinated with the brand. He believes in working with people whom he knows and can trust. Sir Richard Branson values his employees and thus involves them in the process of decision making. He believes in autonomy of choice for the employees thereby leaving them alone so that the employees are capable of doing what they want to do. It has been quite apparent from the case study that Sir Richard Branson possesses innate leadership qualities. He has been found to make use of natural capabilities as well as skills. He believes in the fact that the employees need to be valued and their opinions need to be sought in order to make the company grow bigger. It is a well known fact that the authentic leaders learn from their mistakes and their failures that occurred in the past. Whenever Sir Richard Branson experiences any sort of setbacks, he always picks himself up and tries again. He prepares himself to have another attempt at certain unfulfilled aspects with the knowledge or learning that he has gathered from the failures in the past. Authentic leaders tend to gain encouragement from their own lives (University of Technology Sydney, 2012). He has been quite motivated by his mother who revealed the fact that one must not look back in regret but must move to the next thing. It can be mentioned that an authentic leader is someone who is not afraid of confessing his/her faults. He/she therefore makes an attempt in order to overcome his/her drawbacks. From the case study, it has been recognized that Sir Richard Branson also practices expert as well as referent powers. Sir Richard Branson seems to possess the necessary skills as well as knowledge which can be utilized by someone else (Martin, 1978). He has the capability to impact others’ behavior because of the recognized competencies, specialized knowledge as well as talents. It has been apparent that Sir Richard Branson possesses the power of holding the capability to manage other persons’ feelings related to personal recognition (Nwlink, 2012). According to Sir Richard Branson, the correct pecking order in an organization is employees first, customers next and shareholders at the end. This perception demonstrates how much importance his company places on the employees. It can be mentioned that Sir Richard Branson’s leadership style has been quite effective for Virgin Group Limited. He has been capable of taking the company to great heights and to be recognized as among the most famous brands in the world. Most of the leaders in the United States tend to possess participative leadership style. Therefore, Laissez-Faire leadership style might not be completely effective in the United States. Question Two It has been apparent from the discussion above that the leaders in most of the United States’ companies make use of the participative leadership style. Therefore, it can be suggested that Sir Richard Branson can make use of the participative leadership style. By practicing participative leadership style, Sir Richard Branson will be capable of involving all his members in a team in recognizing the necessary goals and creating methods as well as policies in order to attain those goals. Sir Richard Branson will act as a facilitator instead of merely issuing orders or making assignments. One of the vital advantages that participative leadership style offers is that the procedure permits for the creation of additional leaders who can perform in order to attain the goals of the organization. It is because of the fact that leaders making use of the participative leadership style foster involvement of all the team members, the employees will be capable of articulating their creativity and revealing capabilities as well as talents which would not be apparent otherwise. Sir Richard Branson will be capable of guiding his employees on how a certain task can be conducted. The employees of Virgin will be capable of communicating the problems that they face in the organization and gain recommendations as well. Although the final decision making power will rest with Sir Richard Branson however the team members of Virgin will be included in the process related to making decision. The company will possess staffs who are highly satisfied and productive enough since they are more involved in the process of decision making. By practicing participative leadership in the organization the skills as well as the knowledge of each individual of Virgin Group Limited will be developed (Dolatabadi & Safa, 2010). Question Three With the recent trend of globalization and internet technology, it has been observed that most of the companies are quickly making use of global teams. It is generally noted that creation of the global teams is a challenging task for the leaders. Effective leadership skills need to be used by Sir Richard Branson so that he can manage a team to facilitate his project of space tourism. One of the biggest challenges when developing a global team is that individuals belonging to distinct racial as well as ethnic backgrounds will be required to work together in Virgin. Although most of these teams are created in order to bring together the resources and thus escalate operational effectiveness, the cultural diversity related to the team members may develop a longer learning curve for designing effective methods than culturally similar teams (Maznevski & Distefano, 2000). Sir Richard Branson will have to access the strengths of each individuals of the global team and thus try to minimize the coordination difficulties arising because of the communication problems, language dissimilarities, distinct style of working of the members and misunderstanding. Global teams are created so that the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization can be enhanced by a considerable extent by making effectual utilization of the diversity of viewpoints. Sir Richard Branson needs to instill the required skills as well as capabilities so that he can act in an adequate way in a global environment. He can intend to possess adequate knowledge related to technology as well as cross-cultural knowledge. At the outset, Sir Richard Branson needs to be a good team member so that he can easily comprehend the problems of each global team in space tourism. Change management plays a significant role in terms of managing global teams. Conflicts are likely to occur among the members since each team belongs to culturally different backgrounds. Social cohesion needs to be stimulated among the members of the team. It would be prudent if Sir Richard Branson is capable of offering cross-cultural training to the members of the organization. The global team can learn the methods in which the cultural differences can be reduced in an effective way (Cornell University, 2012). Question Four It can be mentioned that Sir Richard Branson has been a personality who is capable of attaining success for the organization by incorporating his human resource capital in organizational progress. He chalks out a course for his organization and attempts to set a new course if he feels that it is necessary to do so. Sir Richard Branson can be characterized as being a commendable person. It is his high confidence level that helps the organization in attaining success. The case study makes it evident that Sir Richard Branson pays due attention when he recruits people for the organization. He is not as much concerned with the industry-specific expertise as he is with strong communication and teamwork competencies in a person while recruiting which aligns with the culture of Virgin Group. This quality of Sir Richard Branson can be effectively utilized in the workplace. It teaches the fact that the employees are the key to success for any organization. They must be given due priority in an organization so that the overall effectiveness and efficiency can be increased. Sir Richard Branson is always focused upon active listening which can be inculcated in an organization. It is quite significant to listen to the problems confronted by the employees. By doing so, the employees will feel free to express their problems to the leaders. He was found to accept risk gracefully which can be inherited in any organization. Any new task comprises certain degree of risks. The leaders must be capable of accepting those risks and should work towards the attainment of the goals of the organization (Girlscout, 2012). References Cornell University. (2012). Global teams: trends, challenges and solutions. Retrieved from http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs/hrSpectrum/upload/Spring10Meeting_VirtualTeamsWhitePapers.pdf Dolatabadi, H. R. & Safa, M. (2010). The effect of directive and participative leadership style on employees’ commitment to service quality. International Bulletin of Business Administration 9, pp. 31-42. Girlscout. (2012). Five qualities good leaders express. Retrieved from http://www.girlscouts.org/for_adults/leader_magazine/2004_fall/five_qualities.asp Martin, R. (1978). Expert and referent power: A framework for understanding and maximizing consultation effectiveness. Journal of School Psychology 16 (1), pp. 49-55. Maznevski, M. L. & Distefano, J. J. (2000). Global leaders are team players: Developing global leaders through membership on global teams. Human Resource Management 39 (3), pp.195-208. Nwlink. (2012). Leadership style. Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadstl.html Sage Publication. (2012). Laissez-Faire leadership. Retrieved from http://www.sagepub.com/northouseintro2e/study/chapter/encyclopedia/encyclopedia3.2.pdf University of Technology Sydney. (2012). Leadership style. Retrieved from http://www.clg.uts.edu.au/pdfs/LGAQLeadershipStyle.pdf Read More