Organisational behavior - Essay Example

The organisation selected for this task in KnowHow, a strategic business unit of Dixons Retail Group. The paper is divided into five sections. Section one is this introduction. Section two begins with a company overview of the Dixons Retail Group that includes a description of the organisation’s human resource management. In the sub-section that follows, the paper introduces and describes the individual who has been identified as a leader within the selected organisation. Section three goes deeper into identifying the traits that make the selected individual a leader.

Two different techniques are used to do this. First the paper uses the traits that a modern serial entrepreneur, Penny Herscher, uses to identify leaders within her organisation. The second approach is based on the Goleman’s academically acclaimed emotional intelligence approach. Section four measures the effectiveness of the identified leader’s leadership style using contingency theories of leadership proposed by Fielder, Vroom and Yetton and Lorsch. Section five summarises key points and implications. 2.0.

Dixons Retail Group 2.1. Company overview Dixons Retail Group is among Europe’s top specialist electric retailer that that sells consumer electronics, personal computers, photographic equipment, domestic appliances and related services. As at end of 2011 the organisation had over 1,200 stores, in 28 countries in Europe and a workforce of 38,000 staff. Annual revenue for 2011 was UK ?8.15 billion. The group has a portfolio of several brands that are grouped under four geographic divisions: UK & Ireland, Nordics, other international and pure-play e-commerce (Dixons Retail, 2012a).

Dixons retail was founded in 1932, made public in 1962 and has grown to its current size largely through making strategic acquisitions. UK & Ireland has been the core market for Dixons Retail and it reflects this by offering the organisation’s most comprehensive end to end service offering in electric retailing and services in the UK. The brands managed by this division are: Currys, PC World, Black, DSGi Business, Dixons Travel, Partmaster and KnowHow (Dixons Retail, 2012a). In 2011, the Nordic division – with about a third of the number of stores operated by the UK & Ireland division – outdid the UK & Ireland division by ?34.3 million in earnings before interest and taxes.

There are four brands under the Nordics division: Lefdal, Gigantti, El Giganten and Elkjop brands. The international division consists of four brands: UniEuro and PC City in Italy, Kotsovolos in Greece, and Electro World in the Slovakia, Turkey and Czech Republic. Most of these brands also have dual sales channels that is, through physical stores and online. The segregated e-commerce division is focused on two brands PIXmania and dixons.co.uk. 2.2. Human resource management at Dixons Retail Human resource management (HRM) within an organisation is intricately involved with the type of leadership that gets nurtured and developed within that given organisation.

Human resource (HR) practices create an infrastructure that affects employees, customers, line managers, and investors. When HR practices align with