Strategic Management and Leadership - Assignment Example

Strategic Management and Leadership Name Institution Date Introduction Strategic management and leadership provide the direction, vision and purpose for growth and context for success of the organization. The concept is used by senior managers and directors of an organization who have personal inspiration and authority to translate the organizational strategy into effective performance. Senior managers build on skills in strategic management and leadership which help them to focus on the requirements needed to achieve the organizational strategy. The management team of Virgin Atlantic was required to develop their experience and skills as leaders. The executive team recognized the need to create a strong leadership team that could lighten the work for directors and quickly respond to novel business opportunities. This leadership was to be based on developing excellence from within other than external recruitment. The leadership development programme was established around the stated business manifesto of growing the company into a profitable airline which individuals love to fly and where individuals love to work. The leadership development programme was aimed at equipping the teams which leadership skills which could enable them to express a strategic vision for the company and to effectively manage and motivate employees to attain this vision. Task 1 Analytical discussions of the link between strategic management and leadership based on Virgin Atlantic Strategic management is a systematic analysis of factors linked with competitors and the company itself to offer the basis for maintaining optimum management practices. It is a goal oriented management whereby the planned achievements and mission of a company are clearly established and all management procedures are designed and monitored toward achieving the overall goals of the organization. Strategic management process helps organizations to recognize what they plan to attain and how they will accomplish outcomes (Morden, 2007). The management team of Virgin Atlantic recognized that in order to meet the organizational goals, it needed to develop experience and skills as leaders. Strategic management focuses on establishing a foundation that will help the company to capitalize on opportunities and it is the task of a leader to plan the business at highest level possible. Leadership entails setting of a new vision or direction that a group is supposed to follow, while management directs or controls resources or people in a group in accordance to values or principles that have already been established by a leader. The Executive team of Virgin Atlantic recognized the need to develop a strong leadership team to lighten the work of directors and respond quickly to new business opportunities. Strategic leadership utilizes strategy in management of the employees and has the potential to affect organizational members and to implement organizational change. The major objective of strategic leadership is strategic productivity, development of an atmosphere in which workers forecast the needs of the organization in the context of their own work (Adair, 2010). The Virgin Atlantic leadership identified the traits that made the organization successful in the past, which enabled them to establish what the company needed so as to guarantee future success and the traits that would propel the change in which Virgin Atlantic operates. A leadership profile was created, summarized by principles like aggressively focusing on profit, delivery of basics, be adventurous and bold, inspiring and engaging employees and ensuring great people are able to perform great work. Different management and leadership styles could have on Virgin Atlantic strategic decisions. Autocratic leadership style In this form of leadership, the manager retains a lot of power and authority on the process of decision making. The manager doesn’t consult workers and they are not permitted to offer any input. Workers are expected to follow orders without being given any explanations and motivation environment is generated by developing a structured set of punishments and rewards. If this form of leadership is utilized by Virgin Atlantic, it implies that people could not have an influence on the strategy decision because all decision making authority is held by the management. Bureaucratic leadership style In bureaucratic style of leadership, the manager manages through policy or procedure. Bureaucratic leaders create and depend on policy to meet the organizational goals. If this form of leadership is used Virgin Atlantic, employee would not influence the strategy decisions because policies drive strategy, execution, objectives and outcome. Bureaucratic leaders are normally strongly committed to processes and procedures other than on people and therefore employees are not involved in the process of decision making. Democratic leadership style Democratic leadership style, also known as participative style actively involves workers in the process of decision making within an organization. According to Lane, & Daft, (2007), whereas the manager maintains control over the decision making process and gives the final say, employees are offered a voice in the process of decision making. If this form of leadership is used in Virgin Atlantic, it will give employees the power to influence the strategy decisions. Democratic leadership will encourage collaboration in the workplace and give employees an active role and voice in decision making process. Democratic leaders usually inspire good cooperation among workers and invite employees to discuss factors that will affect a certain decision. As a result, employees gain a better understanding on how decisions are made and when they believe that their thoughts are considered, they are highly likely to be committed to final decision that is made, even if they aren’t in complete agreement with this decision. Different leadership styles can be adapted to address the challenges in at least two different situations in the organization or in different organizational context. Virgin Atlantic management team is faced with the challenge of developing the experience and skills of the management into effective leaders. In addition, reliance on external recruitment in the past has diluted the vibe of workplace. Therefore, the company can use different styles of leadership such as selling, telling, delegating and participating depending on the situation facing the company. A situational leadership adapts behaviors of leadership to features of followers and situation. The leadership style of the Virgin Atlantic manager should be flexible and adaptable to meet the changing requirements of situation and employees and must also be matched to maturity of subordinates. Maturity is assessed in relation to a particular task and entails two parts; job maturity and psychological maturity. Job maturity is the leader’s technical knowledge, relevant skills and capability to carry responsibility; the capability to establish high goals, and also manage them, while psychological maturity is the leader’s self confidence and readiness and ability to accept responsibility and be capable to manage the assigned task. As maturity of the subordinate increases, leadership is supposed to be more relationship motivated than task motivated. Virgin Atlantic can adapt the telling style, the selling style, the participating style and the delegating style of leadership. The telling style will be useful when the members are inexperienced or new, and require a lot of assistance, encouragement and direction to get the work done. The selling style will be useful when group members are a bit more experienced and responsible, and willing to undertake the assigned task but don’t have the essential skills. The participating style is a helpful style that can be used in Virgin Atlantic when group members have the capability to do management work but might but be not willing to begin or complete the task. The delegating style is helpful when groups are able and willing to take the responsibility of directing their personal behaviour. Task 2 Theories of management and leadership that could possibly have on organizational strategy of Virgin Atlantic The Hersey-Blanchard situational theory of management and leadership The Hersey-Blanchard situational theory of management and leadership asserts that managers are supposed to utilize different styles of leadership depending on the situation. This model allows managers to analyze the needs and the situations the organization is in, and then utilize the most suitable leadership style (Williams, 2008). The theory states that rather utilizing just only style of leadership, successful leaders are supposed to change their styles of leadership based on maturity of the individuals they are leading and details of the task. This theory is will influence Virgin Atlantic strategy of leadership development programme ,because leaders will be required to put less or more emphasis on the job, and less or more emphasis on their relations with the individuals they are leading, based on what is required to get the work done successfully. Fiedelr’s contingency theory of management and leadership Fiedelr’s contingency theory of management and leadership asserts that if a company is attempting to attain group effectiveness via leadership, it is necessary to evaluate the leader according to an underlying feature, evaluate the circumstanced being faced by this leader, and construct an appropriate match amid the two. Thus, if the style of leadership doesn’t match the situation, the leader has is supposed to be replaced or the situation adapted. This model will influence the leadership development strategy of Virgin Atlantic because according theory there isn’t an ideal leader and thus relation and task oriented leaders are efficient if their orientation fit into the situation( Smith, 2002). The theory also presumes that since personality and thus the orientation are comparatively stable, effectiveness can be improved by changing the situation. Therefore, the effectiveness of the leader is determined by interaction of style of behaviour of the leader and favorableness of situational characteristics, with the most positive situation being when the member-leader relationships are good, the task is greatly structured and the leader possesses a strong position power. Leadership Strategy That Supports the Organizational Direction as One of the Leading World’s Airline in the Aviation Industry Transformational leadership strategy Transformational leadership is a leadership model that causes change in social and individual systems. It creates positive and valuable change in followers with the ultimate goal of building followers into leaders. Transformational leadership strategy will enable Virgin Atlantic to inspire and motivate employees to support the direction of the company as one of the global leading airline within the aviation industry (Eisenbeiss, 2008). This strategy offers a sense of meaning and purpose that can connect employees to accomplish a universal set of objectives and goals. Transformational leadership enhances a redefinition of individual’s vision and mission, a rejuvenation of their commitment and reorganizing of their schemes for goal achievement. It is a relationship mutual elevation and stimulation that changer followers or employee into leaders and also changes leaders into moral agents. Isaksen, ( 2007), argues that t transformational leadership promotes capacity growth and creates increased levels of personal commitment amid employees to organizational goals. Transformational leaders elevate and broaden the interests of their staff, when they create acceptance and awareness of mission and purpose of the group and stir workers to look beyond their persona self interest for the benefit of the company. They elevate individual from low levels needs, focused upon survival, to higher levels of needs. They also motivate employees to transcend their personal interests for collective purpose, but at the same time assist employees to satisfy several of their personal human needs. Transformational leaders stimulate admiration, loyalty, respect and trust amid their followers. This type of leadership necessitates leaders to engage with workers as whole people other than merely as an employee and thus emphasize the actualization of employees. It is also based upon self reflective changing of beliefs and values by the leaders and followers (Adams, 2009). Task 3 Methods and approaches in reviewing current leadership requirements in Virgin Atlantic Strategic management entails implementation of new objectives, new strategies, and introduction of a major change into the organization. The leader acts as the change strategist, whose function is to lead, to champion changes, to promote vision, to take the company moving in the selected direction and to make sure that the people involved in implementation of the changes and strategies perform to the highest of their capability. Therefore Virgin Atlantic requires coaching and teaching skills through which executive management will be able to coach and teach other leaders. This is effective because the top management are viewed as experts in leadership and as a leader, one is supposed to be extremely interested in development and growth of individuals who are directly reporting to you. According to Lyons, & Goldsmith (2006), coaching and development will be beneficial in the organization because managers will have an opportunity to develop the team of leaders who will lighten their load or replace them from a succession planning. In addition, employees like challenges of new assignments and teaching and coaching them to be leaders motivates them to work toward the organizational mission and vision. Delegating and motivational skills are other leadership skills required in Virgin Atlantic. Delegation is one of the most significant management skills and the logical techniques of delegation will help the top management to properly delegate tasks and new responsibilities to the team of leaders. Good delegation will Save time, develop and motivate people and help them to respond swiftly to new business opportunities. Motivational skills will enable managers to have leadership teams that are focused, effective and committed to the goals of the company. Topping, (2005) argues that teams only perform effectively if managers are effectively motivating them. Therefore, Virgin Atlantic management is required to acquire motivational skills so as to be capable to motivate their leadership teams so that they can develop a productive working atmosphere. Through merging good motivational practices with meaningful job, setting of performance goals and employment of an efficient reward system, the leader is able to establish a type of culture and atmosphere that will enable the organization to work toward leadership development. Leadership plan for the Virgin Atlantic future circumstances or situations that require effective and strategic leadership to lighten the load of the top management A leadership plan is a plan through which leadership is developed and sustained within the organization or team. The top management is supposed to spell out its personal plans and vision and link them to the organizational plans and visions and also become aware of its style of communication, decision making and, leadership and their impact on the employees. The Virgin Atlantic leadership will entail leadership coaching which will be directed at developing strategic leadership skills of the leadership teams who will take over leadership roles and reduce the load of top management and also support development and implementation of strategy and vision. The leadership plan will be an entirely customized, personalized development experience for Virgin Atlantic executives and managers who are in need of transferring their leadership capabilities to their employees. The coaching task will focus on developing the capacities and skills of leadership teams in visionary and strategic thinking, personal awareness, communication and execution. The plan will spring from the top management’s fervor for personal developments and its aspiration to assist the leaders to make an optimistic difference in the organization (Amabile, & Khaire, 2008). The leadership planning will also require personal visioning , where the top management the underlying processes and principles of team planning and visioning will apply equally well on the personal level. This is because for a tem or organization to be powerful in leadership, its vision must link to personal visions of the stakeholders. Personal visioning enables the individual to explore his situation, challenges, strengths and issues, and helps one to find a way to clear self direction and that of the organization. The leadership plan will entail strategic leadership development which will enable leaders to reach their goals for becoming more successful strategic leaders. This procedure will help people to reach their goals through a wide range of coaching techniques such as reflection, modeling, inquiry, self observation practices, accountability and commitments. Change management coaching will be used to support individuals make the strategy or vision to become a reality. This type of coaching will focus on frequent planning of resources, objectives, tasks and stages with frequent checkpoints for accountability. It will help individuals to maintain a strategic perspective, recognize challenges and solve them, look for ways to inspire more support and cooperation. Task 4 How the organization can effectively plan for the development of leadership skills for the succession of its future leaders Leadership succession planning stays at the core of Virgin Atlantic company ability to continuously compete and convey shareholder value in the quickly evolving worldwide economy. The dynamics of modern day marketplace dictate that organizations take a highly proactive model to their practices of succession planning. Lack of a practical framework of succession planning, implies that any company is at a high risk of unexpected executive rotations or departures, or changes in strategy that need diverse leadership talents (Miles, 2007). Commitment to succession planning procedure helps an organization to safeguard itself against unanticipated execute changes, as well as ensuring that plans of succession are aligned with talent plans and business strategy. Effective leaders are supposed to have the ability to motivate and inspire employees and have high emotional intelligence levels, strong leadership skills and be able influence the strategy of the organization. While technical and academic skills are a portion of the recruitment mix, breadth and depth of experience from the business success to the capability to handle challenges and changes are vital characteristics of good leaders, and essential l to development (Rothwell, 2010). Therefore, Virgin Atlantic can effectively for development of leadership skills for the succession of its future leaders through the top management constructing a powerful vision that aligns and directs the company toward an aspired future state. Through this, the leadership capability of the company will be capable to be continually strengthened so as to offer strategic direction, to create capability for continuous growth and to guide the guide fulfillment of the promises made to the customers. In addition the top management is required to develop the confidence and competence in these capabilities to enhance high performance teamwork, leadership of business change, business skills that will develop the company along with its employees. The capabilities should also be able to effectively communicate with every stakeholder and motivate the workers to high performance levels. Key leadership roles will be filled with appropriate leaders for the organization’s strategy, to align and mobilize the company into the aspired future direction. The usefulness of the methods adopted in planning the development of leadership skills for the afore-mentioned succession of future leaders of Virgin Atlantic. Individual development planning, coaching and 360 degree feedback methods of planning and development of leadership skills will be useful in succession of future leaders in Virgin Atlantic. The 360 degree method will offer feedback and enable leaders to recognize strengths and areas for development on the basis of their personal and other’s perception. The feedback will be delivered in combination with one on one coaching opportunities, since several participants view feedback hard to translate into daily behaviors (Brown, 2009). A trained coach will help the people being equipped with leadership skills to make their personal development plan that will address competencies highlighted in feedback report. Once the individual development plan has been endorsed by direct supervisor of the participant, it will become a blueprint for the leadership development efforts of the participants. Another method used in enhancing development of leadership skills is action learning which is a typical educational model whereby participants learn through addressing matters that are distinctive to their own company. This method entails a continuing procedure of learning and reflection and is built on learning groups whose aim is to get work related initiatives achieved (Miles, 2007). Conclusion Strategic management and leadership is a significant aspect of management and organizational development that will help Virgin Atlantic company to plan achievements and mission of the company and establish management processes that are monitored toward achievement of organizational goals. The development programme will enable the company to equip the leadership with strategic leadership skills that will enable them to strategically manage employees and influence them to work and move the strategic direction. Because leadership development at Virgin Atlantic is aimed at developing leadership team which will take over the leadership role of directors and light the load of directors, the leadership style utilized will be adaptable and flexible to meet the skills required in management of employees. Therefore, adoption of a transformational strategy of leadership will enable the managers to provide a sense of purpose and meaning and motivate and inspire workers to support the direction of the organization of becoming the global leading airline in the aviation industry. References Morden, T., (2007). Principles of strategic leadership. England: Ashgate Publishing. Adair, J., (2010). Strategic Leadership: How to think and plan strategically and provide direction. New York: Kogan Page. Holbeche, L., (2005). The high performance organization: creating dynamic stability and sustainable leadership. Butterworth-Heinemann: New Jersey. Lane, P., & Daft, R., (2007). The leadership experience. London: Cengage. Smith, J., (2002). Contingency rules theory, context, and compliance behaviors. Human Communication Research, 10, 489-512. Isaksen, S., (2007). The climate for transformation: Lessons for leaders. Creativity and Innovation Management, 16, (1): 3. Williams, C., (2008). Effective management. New York: Cengage. Topping, P., (2005). Managerial leadership.London: McGraw-Hill. Miles, E., (2007). Innovation and Leadership Values. California Management Review, 50, (1): 192-202. Rothwell, W., (2010). Effective succession planning: ensuring continuity and building talent from within. New York: Amacom. Adams, B., (2009). Transformation, Leadership Excellence, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 14-15. Amabile, M., & Khaire, M., (2008). Creativity and the role of the leader, Harvard business review, 86, (10): 100-115. Ayman, R., & Korabik, K.,( 2010).Leadership , American Psychologist, vol. 65, no. 3, pp. 157- 170. Brown, T., (2009). Leadership in challenging times. Business Strategy Review, 20, (3): 36-42. Eisenbeiss, S., (2008). Transformational leadership and team innovation: Integrating team climate principles. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, (6): 14- 38. Lyons, L., & Goldsmith M., (2006). Coaching for leadership: the practice of leadership coaching. 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