Analysis of Issues and Relevant Leadership Process - Coursework Example

? Leadership Process in an Industry Table of Contents Introduction 3 Discussion 3 Leadership Process in Global Retail Chain Industry 4 Analysis of issues and Relevant Leadership Process 6 Conclusion 8 References 9 Introduction Leadership can be defined as the process of cultural and social influence in which an individual can enlist the support and aid of others in the achievement of a common task. Leading organizations within an industry tries to implement effective leadership strategies based on the workplace characteristics and organizational culture. It is important for several leading multinational or small-medium organizations within an industry to ensure effective and appropriate leadership style in order to ensure effective business performance (Sperry, 2013, p.112). Effective leadership style helps an industry to overcome several workplace conflicts and issues, such as gender, ethics and culture which can affect the workplace environment and business performance of the organizations within the industry. Global retail chain industry has been chosen for the study. This essay will determine the issues that are affecting the performance of global retail chain industry and will provide recommendations with appropriate leadership process in order to overcome them. Discussion Global retail chain industry has become highly competitive as several leading organizations, such as Walmart, Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrison is competing with each other. The demand for diversified and differentiated service or product lines is increasing among the target customers as these are available in the retail chain organizations (Saolini, 2013, p.94). In addition to this, the organizations within the retail chain industry prefer international business expansion in order to gain the advantages of globalization. Challenges increases for the industry when the organizations within it try to expand their business operations in global markets. It is highly difficult for an industry to maintain same workplace environment and organization culture in different countries due to different cultural background and practices of customers and employees (DeClerk, 2008, p.13). Challenges like gender issues, ethical issues, cultural issues and negotiation issues use to develop due to adoption of inadequate and inappropriate leadership styles of the organizations. It is true that the possibility of workplace conflict can get increased due to the workplace diversity. It is highly challenging for several industry leaders to manage such a diverse workforce around the world (Daft, 2010, p.82). Effective leadership process can help the organizations within the industry to overcome these various types of issues and conflicts. Leadership Process in Global Retail Chain Industry Leadership style in an industry can be categorized into four parts, such as visionary leadership style, empathetic leadership style, humble servitude leadership style and ethical or moral leadership style. The organizations within a particular industry used to adopt a specific leadership style depending on the business characteristics (DuBrin, 2008, p.367). Generally the global retail chain industry develops and implements business and organizational strategy based on the market demand and customers’ needs (Malan and Smit, 2001, p.136). However, in several times the leading organizations within the global retail chain industry faced workplace conflict related issues due to unaware of the significance of organizational ethics, employee loyalty and healthy workplace environment. Entire retail chain industry is facing similar challenges and issues due to lack of adoption and implementation of employee and workplace centric strategies and activities (Hegar, 2011, p.382). Walmart is one of the leading retail chains around the globe due to its strong international presence and high business profitability. The organization significantly contributes to the global retail chain industry. Humble substitute leadership style is important and required in the global retail chain industry as the organizations within the global retail chain industry have to develop customer centric business strategy in order to maintain strong market share. Walmart faced several ethical issues in recent past due to poor adoption and implementation of workplace diversity process (Hall, 2005, pp.11-13). Ethical issues like favouritism towards a particular group of employees and sexual harassment of women employees affected the reputation and corporate image of Walmart. In addition to this, discrimination in pay, compensation, promotion and job hours affected the motivation level of the women employees (Acker, 2006, p.5). Most importantly, the organization committed to maintain the peace and collaborative workplace performance. However, poor leadership style and loose supervision process make it difficult for the female employees to work under unconditional workplace environment. Tesco Plc. is also considered as one of the largest and leading organizations within the global retail chain industry. A multinational organization cannot maintain strong global presence without an adoption of effective workplace diversity strategy. Tesco accused by the British employees in UK on outsourcing of foreign employees in lower cost. Major problem rose when the employees made complaint that the organization is trying to exclude the British employees from several benefits and services. According to employment policy developed by regulatory bodies, each and every employee in a particular workforce need to be treated similarly (Atari, 1999, p.21). In addition to this, the organization is suffering from the consequences of inadequate organizational communication process. The organization failed to implement the workplace diversity process successfully. Growing language barrier within the workplace is affecting the decision making and strategy implementation process. These are the two examples that can prove that the global retail chain industry is suffering from various cultural, gender and ethical issues. Analysis of issues and Relevant Leadership Process It is clear from the above discussion that the organizations within the global retail chain industry are facing several key ethical issues. There are four leadership styles. Based on the issues and challenges that are faced by the retail chain industry it would be effective for the organizations to adopt moral or ethical leadership style. It is highly difficult and challenging for the leaders or the managers within a multinational organization to diverse workforce due to difference in cultural background, genders and languages of the employees. The global retail chain industry needs to give value to the employees as the employees are considered as one of the important growth drivers for the organization (Kanungo and Mendonca, 2006, p.17). The organizations within the global retail chain industry needs to maintain strong ethics in strategy development and implementation process as it can help them to attract several key external and internal stakeholders in the decision making process. In addition to this, ethical strategy development process will also help the industry to motivate the employees to perform effectively. It is important for the strategy makers or the decision makers to develop similar strategies for each and every employee. The moral or ethical leadership style will influence the industry leaders to evaluate each and every developed strategy depending on the created issues and challenges (Schyns and Hansbrough, 2010, p.72). Gender conflicts, racial conflicts or cultural issues can affect the workplace environment. It is important for the multinational organizations to focus on the collaborative work performance in order to maintain its competitive position in global market place. The leaders or the managers need to ensure the collaborative work performance. It is clear from above discussion that Tesco Plc. is facing employee wages related issues in UK. Managers within the retail chain industry should organize effective training and development programs for the employees. In addition to this, the management of the organizations should try to communicate with the entire workforce in order to determine the workplace related problems and issues. This monitoring strategy will help the strategy makers and leaders of several leading retail chains to give appropriate solutions to the problem. Walmart made commitment about positive workplace diversity in which the male and female employees can work collaboratively without any conflict and work stress. Lack of implementation of moral or ethical leadership style made it difficult for the strategy makers and the leaders of Walmart to find out actual problem (Bielby, 2005, p.7). In this particular scenario, the organizations within the global retail chain industry should ensure positive communication process among the departments of entire organization. The characteristics of an effective leadership process are to understand the needs of employees, motivate the employees to perform effectively and meet organizational goals and objectives. Social appreciation and effective compensation are considered as major employee motivational tool. It is important for the industry leaders to understand both personal and professional needs of the employees in order to ensure significant business performance around the globe. The leaders or manager need to have supportive leadership characteristics (Ciulla, 2004, p.19). These specific leadership characteristics will help each and every organization within the global retail chain industry to encourage the employees. The organizational culture, ethical values and developed policies need to be maintained by the industry. On other hand, the governments have developed several employment and wage distribution regulation (Peterson and Ferrell, 2005). Adoption and practice of ethical leadership process will help the organizations within the global retail chain industry to avoid existing workplace problems and issues. Conclusion It is clear from above discussion, analysis and examples that a specific leadership style has a strong effect on organizational performance. The global retail chain industry is mainly focusing on humble servitude leadership strategy in order to develop potential customer base. But, in several cases the organizations are finding it difficult to handle a large diverse workforce in several countries due to cultural differences, gender issues and wage distribution issues in workforce. The time has come for the organizations to consider ethical leadership style as the employees are considered as the major growth drivers. Without effective performance of employees, the global retail chain industry cannot attain sustainable growth rate. References Acker, J., 2006. “Inequality regimes gender, class and race in organizations”. Gender & Society, 22(1), p.5. Atari, A., 1999. “Leadership and Job Satisfaction”. American Journal of Retail Management, 31(2), p.21. Bielby, W., 2005. “Applying social research on stereotyping and cognitive bias to employment discrimination litigation: The case of allegations of systematic gender bias at Wal-Mart”. Handbook of Employment Discrimination Research, 8(1), p.7. Ciulla, J., 2004. Ethics, the Heart of Leadership. London: Routledge. Daft, R., 2010. Management. London: sage. DeClerk, C., 2008. The Relationship Between Retail Store Manager Leadership Styles and Employee Generational Cohort, Performance, and Satisfaction. London: ProQuest. DuBrin, A., 2008. Essentials of Management. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Hall, A., 2005. “Executive leadership: best practices of organizational leadership”. Jouranl on International Business Ethics, 12(1), pp.11-13. Hegar, K., 2011. Modern Human Relations at work. London: Routledge. Kanungo, R., and Mendonca, M., 2006. Ethical Dimensions of Leadership. London: Sage. Malan, F., and Smit, B., 2001. Ethics and Leadership in Business and Politics. New York: Jutonline. Peterson, R., and Ferrell, O., 2005. Business Ethics. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Saolini, P., 2013. Retail Coaching. New York: Springer. Schyns, B., and Hansbrough, T., 2010. When Leadership Goes Wrong. London: ProQuest. Sperry, L., 2913. Effective Leadership Strategies. London: Kogan Page. Read More