Debenhams Company - Leadership Styles at Workplace - Case Study Example

Leadership Styles at Workplace Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction Even though the concept of leadership has been in existence for many centuries, it is not amazing to find that even in the contemporary society still many people are talking and writing about it. Perhaps this is because of the emerging practices and concepts that have necessitated the need to change the leadership styles in order to accommodate the new demands at workforce. The concept of leadership is actually very popular and this has been attributed to a number of reasons which include the people and groups as well as associations involved. This is because more than ever before various changes are taking place (DuBrin A 2010). Leading under normal circumstances is a human activity and is always guided by certain objectives that a group or an association. In the current society, there are those individuals that think they are experts in leadership while they are not. This is because of the underlying issues and assumptions the have that do not hold. Leadership is very wide and elaborate and can address a number of areas (Yukl 2006). The objective of this article therefore is to a critical of the concept of leadership with regard to function, organizational culture, gender composition and cultural diversity in relation to Debenhams Company. Further, the article will discuss on the perceived leadership style of the leader of learning in this workplace and the appropriate leadership style and those factors that either support or hinder leadership of learning at workplace. Debenhams Company Function An organization can be defined based on its activities or functions. Organizations are therefore categorized based on individual business. There are those organizations that are only specialized in services while others are specialized in products or combination of both. It’s expected that by engaging in a certain activity or function, the organization will be able to add value to the investors. Company value can be attributed to the benefits it gets from its activities. Debenhams is a large retail business that stocks and distributes various products and services in and outside Europe. The company has got over 108 stores both in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Currently, Debenhams remain the most preferred retail store in the United Kingdom. However, the as far international business is all about; Debenhams is yet to expand to reach its competitors. The company’s core function is to avail all household products for the customers’ convenience. The products stocked and distributed by Debenhams include women outfit, menswear, the lingerie, all children’s wear, electrical goods including fridges, home theatres and televisions and houseware. The company services include wedding where they assist in maintaining the wedding gift list by using the company website and also have wedding gifts delivered to the customers (Debenhams 2010). Organizational culture An organizational culture is a very important aspect of any business. This is because it defines in broader terms the values and behaviors that are held by individuals and that contribute to a distinct social and psychological place of an organization. An organizational culture is founded on the company’s past and present assumptions, encounters and philosophy as well as values that hold the company together. An organizational culture is characterized by its self-image, its inner undertakings and interactions with the external world and its future expectations (DuBrin 2010). Further, organizational culture can be described in terms of shared attitudes, beliefs and customs as well as the implied contracts both written and unwritten. All these has to be demonstrated in the way in which the organizational leadership which has the mandate and the authority to provide the direction of the business. It’s important therefore that leadership is in the forefront in deciding how the company does its business, manages its employees and customers as well as the greater community (Northouse 2007). In the actual working environment, it’s expected that autonomy and employee freedom will allow creativity and development of new ideas whereas employee commitment is promote teamwork towards common objectives. However, all this is possible given a proper leadership hierarch that allows for free flow of information. Organizational culture can be either weak or strong depending on how it helps the business enhance its productivity and performance. This is because organizational is important in providing the guideline on company operations, customer care and provision of safe and quality products which are not harmful both to the user and the environment (Report 2007). Debenhams as one of the most successful retailers in the United Kingdom, the intention has been to make a positive impact to the people not only to the company employees but also the customers, the community and the industry in which it operates in. working and developing with everybody, has been a very important culture for Debenhams Company. As a company, Debenhams’ core culture has been to deliver high quality products to the environment while ensuring that the environment is sustained. As the company continues to work on its growth, it seeks under its capacity to work on ways to improve on the lives of those it gets connected with (Parks 2005). The culture of Debenhams has been to be on the forefront in ensuring reality and tangible actions. As part of the company’s leadership, every departmental store starting from the Head Office have to work on those programmes which are energy efficient and that have to adhere to establishing efficient methods of recycling fuel as well as engage in community development charity programmes. To achieve this goal, the company’s culture has been to engage in the process of packing and distributing different products using those materials that easily decompose and that do not have much effect ecological environment. Good governance and leadership has been on the core of the company. This has been intentionally encouraged by Debenhams leadership to make sure that every operation goes as planned. Currently over 70% of the company’s retail stores do have more than 50% of its energy come from those resources that are renewable. Further, 100% of the company’ bags are recyclable. In addition, the Debenhams has been encouraging its employees to work on developing new ways which allow for easy creativity and innovation (Report 2007). This is done purposely to allow for individual ideas in the development the company strategies. Innovation and creativity at Debenhams has been as a result of the culture of freedom and independency among the company employees. Given this analysis therefore, it’s very easy to say good leadership should always be participative and inclusive to allow for easy learning and development of new ideas (Northouse 2007). Gender diversity In any organization employee acquisition and leadership is a very important aspect. This is because it is through company employees that objectives will be achieved. This explains the importance of ensuring good management of diversity at workplace. At workplace, employee diversity is a very sensitive matter. According to (Dumas and Sankowsky 1998), it’s very critical that leadership addresses the issue of diversity in order in order to ensure equity and just at workplace. Workforce diversity can be described in terms of skills, race, gender, qualification or experience. However, in the contemporary management society, gender balance at workplace has become one of the major issues for leadership to address. According the International Labor Organization report of 2011, over 67% of global workforce comes from the male gender despite existence of great talent and experience among women. However, Debenhams recognizes the importance of gender balance and equal opportunity in its workforce. Currently at Debenhams, gender preference rates stands at about 50% (Report 2007). This follows the company’s affirmative action to ensuring that equal opportunities are presented both for men and women. This move by the company leadership has enabled to ensure high level of gender balance as possible (Northouse 2007). Cultural diversity Cultural diversity at workplace is addressed in terms of the existence of different behaviors, beliefs and values. It is expected that at workplace there are various stakeholders who come from different social backgrounds which affect their behaviors, values, attitudes and behaviors. At the management and leadership level, it is important that people from different cultural backgrounds do exist and the major role remains on how to address the interests of various groups (Stelter 2002). Debenhams, being a company that deals in a wide range of products and services, existence of cultural diversity is very eminent. This is because different people with different capabilities are required to perform various operations given the technicalities involved. In addressing the issue of cultural diversity, Debenhams Company for example has been on the forefront of working towards availing different products and services for all its customers irrespective of their physical status (Report 2007). This has been well established in the company being the first in employing a physically disabled person on a wheel chair on its advert. This since 2009 has enabled the company to get much recognition as one of the companies that take into account the existence of different cultures in one contextual environment. Further, the company has been seen to working on stocking different products services which are fit for the young, the aged, the disabled and all sizes. Finally, Debenhams leadership has been one of the companies in the United Kingdom that has been pushing for fair work-life balance at workplace (Debenhams 2010). Perceived leadership style of the leader of learning in this workplace While leadership has been given much recognition and acceptance in many organizations, the main challenge for many organizations has been on the best leadership style that can be applied in any given situation. According to (Henein and Morissette 2007), even though there are different leadership styles, there has been no single style that has been recognized and accepted world over. Perhaps this is because various situations present different organizational challenges which demand for particular recipes of leadership to manage. In the contemporary society, any leadership that is recognized to allow the company leadership to embrace leadership for learning is the most preferred. Leadership of learning at workplace can be described as the process through which the company leadership involves the rest of the employee workforce. The approach of leadership of learning in an organization is important in allowing individuals to share their ideas and skills for the others to learn. Leadership for learning therefore at workplace is known to create a work environment under which employees are allowed to learn and develop new skills and competencies for their areas of specialization. Leadership of learning is encouraged in organizations where the leadership intends to influence the capabilities of individuals in performing different duties. This is especially important in learning from the leaders. This particular approach to learning is especially preferred in situations where individuals are held responsible and have to live and uphold the company values (Kouzes and Posner 2002). The leadership in this case is to provide the guideline and the framework on how young talents especially from the workforce are encouraged. This is especially important in helping individuals make good leaders in future. Effective leadership towards learning at workplace has a role to play in making sure that there is proper planning, setting of goals and objectives including staff that has different responsibilities at the top of the priorities. Further, leadership of learning can be demonstrated through establishment of different avenues for promoting and enhancing innovation by individuals (Stelter 2002). At workplace many leadership are being practiced today. The commonly practiced leadership styles include autocratic, bureaucratic, laissez-faire and democratic. These leadership styles are preferred by different leaders. Leadership for many years has undergone long revolution with the management experts that no old leadership style that is fully bad or no new leadership style is completely good. This is after leadership has moved from classical to participative. Therefore it’s arguable that every leadership style is important at particular workplace context. Autocratic leadership is always considered a classical approach. The leadership in this case enjoys as much power and authority in decision making as possible. In this case the manager need not consult with his employees in many of the decisions (Parks 2005). This leadership is characterized by obeying orders without any explanation. Bureaucratic leadership on the other hand, is characterized by adhering strictly to the company rules and procedures. This leadership is also referred as ‘book leadership.’ This leadership is more of a police officer than a leader. On the other hand, Laissez-faire leadership is also referred to as “hands off” style. This leadership is characterized by the fact that the manager or rather the leader gives little or no direction to its employees. The employees always have the freedom to choose on how to behave and work. The employees in this case are given the power and authority to set their goals, make their decisions and try to solve problems on their own. Finally, in the leadership there is democratic leadership. In this leadership style, every employee is involved and allowed to participate in making important decisions. In this case, the leader has the responsibility of informing his employees on what is happening and how their lives are likely to be affected. In democratic leadership, the manager is the coach is expected to act when act after gathering as much information from the employees. At Debenhams, democratic leadership is the perceived leadership. This is because it creates room for sharing ideas and support in problem solving (Kouzes and Posner 2002). Most appropriate leadership style at workplace Given the situation at Debenhams, democratic leadership for many years has been the most preferred. This is because many of the employees have a lot of information about the market and the customer they serve and therefore no doubt that every manager in the company will have to rely on the available information to make important decisions. Further, this leadership style is commendable in a situation where the management is interested in helping its employees learn how to make important decisions and perhaps prepare them for new roles as managers in the future. Leadership of learning is possible especially in those situations where the employees fully participate in the process of making decision through sharing of ideas. This becomes very critical when the employees learn from their seniors on what they do and how they go about managing different situations at workplace context (Parks 2005). However, important to note is that this leadership has those factors that support it and those that hinder its operations. The factors that support the democratic leadership style at Debenhams include the need the need by the management to have its workforce always informed, sharing in decision making and problem-solving tasks, creating opportunities for the employees to enhance their sense of individual growth and realization of job satisfaction and the existence of numerous, large and complex problems that need a lot of input to solve. The other supportive factors for democratic leadership include teambuilding and attending to problems that affect employees or groups of staff at workplace. The factors that are not conducive for this leadership style include lack of enough time to involve everybody, when it’s economical for the manager to make the decision alone and when the business cannot afford to commit mistakes. The other factors include when the manager feel threatened with this kind of leadership and when employee safety is of great concern. For instance, it may not be appropriate to involve the employees are practically aware of the process managing a certain process. Take the case of safety testing of various products in the stores, this could only be done by expertise and individuals who do not have a technical-know how should be involved according to Stelter (2002). Conclusion Leadership is a very important concept in the world of management. This is because it provides an overview of what is expected of a leader and perhaps the reason as to why one should adopt a certain leadership style. However, what has come of essence in the current workplace globally is the existence of leadership of learning. Leadership of learning is considered important in many workplaces since it allows employees to share and learn new ideas which are not only important in performing their current duties but also in preparation for more challenging roles in the future. There are several leadership styles that can be practiced at workplace but the commonly found include autocratic, bureaucratic, Laissez-faire and democratic. However, even though all these leadership styles are preferable at certain workplace contexts, democratic is more preferred in promoting leadership of learning at workplace. This is because it always allows for involvement and participation of employees in decision-making and problem solving. References Debenhams 2010, Debenhams for Diversity, viewed 13th June 2012 from, http://anybody.squarespace.com/anybody_vent/2010/3/1/debenhams-for-diversity.html DuBrin, A 2010, Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills (6th Edn), Mason, OH: South Western Cengage Learning. Dumas C & Sankowsky D 1998, “Understanding the charismatic leader-follower relationship: Promises and perils;” Journal of Leadership Studies, Vol. 5, pp12-28. 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