Sir Richard Branson, Chairman in Virgin Group, Ltd - Case Study Example

? Sir Richard Branson, Chairman, Virgin Group, Ltd. Case Study Question Leadership Style Leadership style can be defined as the way of offering direction, motivating people and attaining set objectives. Management, in a broad scale, refers to performing activities in a correct manner and leadership, on the other hand, refers to acting as a guide towards accomplishing organizational activities. Leadership is comprehended as an art of motivating and guiding a group of people so that the goals of the organization can be achieved (University of Technology Sydney, 2011). One of the vital leadership skills is to make use of the appropriate leadership style for each unique context. One is to remember that it is difficult to make use of one particular leadership style for different types of contexts. However, the leader may demonstrate the best style or a combination of styles for each exclusive leadership context. From the case study, it has been apparent that Sir Richard Branson is one of the most influential, successful and enduring business leaders. Among numerous leadership styles such as autocratic leadership style, participative leadership style and laissez-faire style as well as in terms of authentic leadership model, expert power and referent power models, it can be analyzed that the leadership style demonstrated by Richard Branson is a laissez-faire leadership style. He has been successful in genuinely serving his employees and customers by means of his leadership. He has been interested in empowering the employees that he leads in order to make a vital difference. Richard Branson has natural leadership gifts and, thus, he makes use of his natural abilities. It has been apparent from the case study that Richard Branson always believed in building long-term relationships with people. Authentic leaders generally learn from their failures. Richard Branson has focused on preparing himself to have another attempt at any failed activity with the required knowledge that he gained from his previous failure. One of the well known facts regarding authentic leaders is that they draw encouragement from their own lives. Richard Branson seems to be inspired by his mother who taught him not to look back in regret but rather to move on to the next task. An authentic leader is someone who is not frightened to admit his mistakes and, therefore, makes efforts to overcome his limitations. By facing weaknesses and declining to compromise with them, Richard Branson tends to identify ways to beat the weaknesses, which helps him to become a strong leader. Richard Branson also seems to possess expert and referent power. He has been capable of influencing others’ behaviors owing to the recognized competencies, talents and knowledge. He is capable of influencing others because his employees respect, admire and like him as a person. Whenever Richard Branson experiences any kind of setbacks, he chooses to pick himself up and try again. His principles are based on the belief that entrepreneurs will only succeed if they have good people around them and they listen to the superior’s advice. Authentic leaders such as Richard Branson care for themselves as well as the people that they lead, and their compassion is genuine (Harvard Business School, 2012). Richard Branson practices self-discipline by incorporating balance into his personal and professional lives. While most of the executives focus upon serving their customers as well as stockholders, Richard Branson believes that the correct hierarchical system in any organization is to have ‘employee at the first position’, ‘customer next’ and ‘stockholders at the end’. It is because of the effectiveness of Richard Branson’s leadership style that Virgin Group Limited has been capable of becoming a multibillion-dollar worldwide conglomerate and one of the most recognized brands in the world. It has been identified that most of the US leaders tend to have participative leadership styles. Therefore, it can be stated that although Laissez-Faire leadership style tends to be useful for Virgin Group, it may not be effective in the US context (Taleghan, Salman, & Taatian, 2010). Question #2 Leadership Style to Be Followed It can be recommended that participative leadership style can be followed by Richard Branson. In such a leadership style Richard Branson will be capable of encouraging the team members to play a noteworthy role in the process of decision making. Richard Branson will further be capable of guiding the employees on what and how to perform. The employees will also be able to avail of the benefits of communicating their problems to the leaders and, thus, to obtain suggestions relating to them. It has been apparent that most of the US firms make use of participative leadership styles (Taleghan, Salman, & Taatian, 2010). One of the vital advantages of participative leadership is that it allows for the development of future leaders who will be capable of serving the organization. The reason behind this is that the leaders who prefer this style support involvement from all the members of the team. This leadership style permits leaders to express their creativity and show their ability and talents. It is because of these hidden talents that Richard Branson will be capable of assisting in the enhancement of work of the present team in the organization. He will also be capable of alerting the organization to identify those personnel who require additional training (Ogbonna & Harris, 2011). Question # 3 Developing and leading a global team is one of the most cumbersome tasks in any organization for any leader. To manage a team in space tourism, it is quite essential for Richard Branson to demonstrate effectual leadership skills. It is to be mentioned that Richard Branson would be facing great difficulties in convincingly presenting the vision of the organization to a multicultural and diverse workforce in a highly uncertain and unpredictable global business environment. The followers of Richard Branson will be required to execute the vision at numerous levels in the organization. It will be quite significant for Richard Branson to equip himself with the necessary skills and knowledge so that he can act and decide appropriately in a globally competitive environment. For an effective management of the cross-cultural team, he will be required to equip himself with the comprehensive technological knowledge and will also need a well-prepared set of relational and cross-cultural skills. In order to manage and lead the global team, it is vital for Richard Branson to be a strong team member and to be good at leading teams. Leaders often play a vital role in coordination teams, project teams and joint task teams. Richard Branson would be required to lead such teams at his own level and below. It is through proper understanding of the team members that the leader would be capable of attaining the goals of the organization. Richard Branson will be considered as effective if he is capable of embracing changes. Since the team members belong to numerous cultures, it is quite obvious that there are conflicting views among the members of the organization. Therefore, as a leader of the organization, it is quite important for Richard Branson to foster social cohesion. He is required to respect and acknowledge individual differences. He will be required to take notice of the differences among the members of the cross-cultural team, comprehend them and then apply adequate management methods. Richard Branson needs to create intercultural sensitivity and promote cultural understanding among all the team members so that they can avoid tensions that can have a negative impact upon the members of the team (Neill, 2008). In the context of a globalized world, it is a multicultural team that assists in the attainment of organizational goals. The main purpose of formation of a multicultural team is to enhance the organizational effectiveness in the global business environment. Training also has a major role to play in the development of a cross-cultural team for space tourism. It is through cross-cultural training that Richard Branson will be capable of reducing the level of ‘cultural shocks’ and, thus, will assist in reducing the time that is required to reach the required level of cultural proficiency. Through cross-cultural training, Richard Branson will be capable of teaching his expatriates how to narrow cultural differences in an effective manner. When a leader is capable of comprehending his or her work style, and its relation with the team members, he/she will be capable of making strategies that can narrow the gap between him and global team members (Hong, 2010). Question # 4 Richard Branson seems to be a leader possessing exemplary characteristics. He is quite enthusiastic regarding his work and about his role as a leader. He is a continuous source of inspiration and is a good motivator. Richard Branson is quite confident in what he does, and believes in the fact that employees are the key to success in the organization. Employees must be offered an opportunity to express their suppressed feelings so that conflicts do not occur in the organization and, therefore, do not hamper the organizational effectiveness. It has been apparent from the case study that Richard Branson is more concerned with recruiting employees who have strong communication and team work competencies that can align with the culture of Virgin Group. It is worthy mentioning that these qualities of Richard Branson can be effectively applied in the workplace or place of study to enhance the effectiveness of an organization or school. If an organization has the right kind of people, then the work can be accomplished in an appropriate manner and in a less possible time. Keeping employees in the top most position of the hierarchy can be described as one of the good qualities of Richard Branson which can be effectively applied by any organization. The logic behind placing employees at the top level of the hierarchy is that if the employees are happy, then they will be capable of serving the organization with a better quality of work and, hence, will be capable of satisfying the customers as well. If the business operates successfully, then the stockholders will also be rewarded accordingly. Active listening is another leadership quality of Richard Branson that can be inherited in an organization or in a school. The case study makes it apparent that when the leaders listen to the problems of the followers in an organization, in such circumstances the followers are capable of demonstrating their grievances effectively to the leaders. This leads to fewer conflicts in the organization (Brockhaus, 1980). Responding to the employees personally will help in fostering confidence among them that they are valued in the organization, and therefore, the goals of the origination can be attained in a short period of time. Taking risks is another good quality of Richard Branson that can be taken into consideration. Companies cannot succeed if they fail to take risks. Risk taking is significant for innovation. It can be considered as a skill as well as a personal attribute. Whenever an organization conducts any new activity, risk is inherently involved in it. However, the success of an organization is dependent upon the degree of risk the companies are capable of taking. Managing risk is also one of the qualities of a leader in any organization that can assist in a successful attainment of the goals of the organization (Rolfe, 2010). References Brockhaus, R. H. (1980). Risk taking propensity of entrepreneurs. Academy of Management Journal 23 (3), pp. 509-520. Hong, H. (2010). Bicultural competence and its impact on team effectiveness. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 10 (1), 93-120. Harvard Business School. (2012). Authentic Leader. Retrieved from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5664.html Neill, J. (2008). The expatriate venture: What role does cross cultural training play and what theories guide research in the field. Retrieved from http://www.uri.edu/research/lrc/research/papers/Neill_Expatriate.pdf Ogbonna, E., & Harris, L. C. (2011). Leadership style, organizational culture and performance: Empirical evidence from UK companies. The International Journal of Human Resource Management 11(4), pp. 766-788. Rolfe, N. (2010). Learning to take risks, learning to succeed. Retrieved from http://www.nesta.org.uk/library/documents/Learning_to_take_risks.pdf Taleghan, G. Salman, D., & Taatian, A. (2010). Survey of leadership styles in different cultures. Iranian Journal of Management Studies (IJMS) 3 (3), pp. 91-111. University of Technology Sydney. (2011). Leadership style. Retrieved from http://www.clg.uts.edu.au/pdfs/LGAQLeadershipStyle.pdf Read More