To begin with, I think I possess different leadership styles depending on different levels of problems, situations, and different personalities of colleagues. Leadership styles that suit me best are transformational leadership and participative leadership. Before going through the model or theory, I would like to evaluate my strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths and Weaknesses

From what I observe myself and what others say about me, one of my strengths is to communicate effectively. I think communication is to key because people cannot work and achieve the goals when lack of communication. I am a good listener and always display empathy. Moreover, according to my performance at the university, I am responsible for both individual and group assignments. I excel at time management as I can prioritize what tasks should be done first. During the academic period, there were lots of group work and the results turned out well and effective. I think establishing good and positive working relationships among team members is essential because when people feel good with each other, they will be happy working together and the outcomes will also be positive.

Personally, I am a dependent person so that sometimes I feel like I have high self-esteem. However, I tried to lower my self-esteem and listen more to others’ opinions. Moreover, lack of creativity is also another weakness of me. I think that sometimes, the ideas I came up with are not really new and fresh because when I look up on the Internet. Somebody has already thought about that. I try to generate new ideas as much as possible but lots of time that I failed. Therefore, I try to fix this by checking out other people’s ideas, reading, and watching as much as possible. Then, I will create my work from what I have been inspired.

I think the leadership theory that best represents myself is a democratic leader. To define the democratic leadership, it also known as leadership or shared leadership. This theory was introduced by Kurt Lewin when he worked with his co-workers Lippett and White for 1939 publication, Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created social climates (Tough Nickel Author, 2016). This type of leadership is the style where workers will have to be active and participative in the decision-making process. Benefits of this leadership style are such as high productivity, more ideas, and group members feeling engaged (Cherry, 2018). Furthermore, democratic leadership allows high flexibility, meaning that the leader is adaptable to how to do things in the better ways (Leadership Tool Box, 2018). As mentioned I am not quite a creative person, as a result, this style helps me fix my weakness because the new ideas also come from group members during the brainstorming. Whenever it comes to group projects, what I do is that I have been leading the group members, listening to their ideas and opinions, seeking the consensus to continue working on the projects.

The future career of my choice would definitely be a business owner. I think participative leadership will help me become a successful and effective leader for my business. In fact, this leadership style is applicable for almost every business sector since it enables opportunities to engage team members, encourage the creative and innovative environment, allows strong and positive working connections. All these are also keys to success for business (Miller, 2017). For the plans, when doing the business, I can apply this theory which is making my team members feel valued and comfortable to express the ideas and exchange the information. I would focus on the discussion and communication to make tasks more productive and focused on the company’s goals. In addition, as a participative leader, I will be ready to commit, meaning that my team members can make sure that I will do what I promise to my team. When it comes to disagreement among the team, I respect and listen to every opinion from my team as my company philosophy is employee-centered, not job-centered. I have a strong belief that happy employees will lead to effective and productive work.

All in all, I am confident that I can develop skills and leadership styles to be a better leader in the future. During my academic years, my team members have always been happy to work with me because they feel like I am an open-minded, not an egocentric person and gave them a chance to speak up their minds. As a democratic leader, I am also going to continue working by taking the importance of communication, teamwork, and exchanging ideas into my considerations.

 

References

Kendra, C. (2018) What Is Democratic Leadership? [online] available from<https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-democratic-leadership-2795315; [20 November 2018]

Leadership Tool Box. (2018) Leadership Styles: Democratic Leadership Style [online] available from<https://www.leadership-toolbox.com/democratic-leadership-style.html; [20 November 2018]

Olive, M. (2017) 8 Pros and Cons of the Democratic Leadership Style [online] available from<https://medium.com/democraticleadership/8-pros-and-cons-of-the-democratic-leadership-style-5b668f070c1b; [20 November 2018]

Psychologia Editor. (n.d.) Participative Leadership Theory and Decision-making Style [online] available from<https://psychologia.co/participative-leadership/; [20 November 2018]

Tough Nickel Author. (2016) The History of Leadership Studies and Evolution of Leadership Theories [online] available from<https://toughnickel.com/business/The-History-of-Leadership-Studies-and-Evolution-of-Leadership-Theories; [20 November 2018]

Start off with, Brexit is a term meaning the UK’s decision to leave the European Union. The decision came from a referendum where everyone can vote. A referendum took place on Thursday 23, June 2016 which over 30 million people in the voting age voted (Hunt & Wheeler, 2018). When the UK announced to leave the European Union, it is very tough for everyone to think how the future will become, who would be affected, and what would change after Brexit.

In spite of the fact that we all know changes are coming, we do not truly understand the impacts or consequences because changes probably come with uncertainties. It is no doubt that a number of UK’s businesses and organizations will have to deal with changes due to Brexit. As a result, the company has to think of these challenges and come up with change management techniques and strategies within the organization in order to make sure that those changes will be implemented thoroughly and smoothly.

The company of my choice goes to airline business which is EasyJet. I chose EasyJet because the airline is UK-based and it directly and negatively impacted by the Brexit result. When the leave vote was announced, it is necessary for the airline to think about European routes that followed the EU laws and regulations (Giles, 2016). According to Johan Lundgren, the CEO of EasyJet, he revealed to the European Parliament that in the immediate aftermath of Brexit, the airline has to cancel the flights between the UK and the European Union for months in order to facilitate the replacements for EU airline agreements, however, he believes that UK will be succeeded in securing an aviation deal with the EU (Bosotti, 2018). The airline’s share price has dropped by 20 percent after the Brexit vote. EU chiefs also have told UK based airlines to move their bases or sell off shares to European nationals in order to continue flying routes within Europe. According to the report, it suggested that about 84 percent of the airline’s capital shares are owned by EU nationals, but once UK shareholders are excluded, shares will be dropped by 49 percent. As a result, the airline needs to increase EU nationals shareholders (Boffey, 2017).

Figure 1: Impact of Brexit on airline share prices

The possible actions for EasyJet to overcome Brexit issues are, for example, the airline can implement changes by establishing the new travel hub. The airline should assess and determine the impacts of the changes on the organization’s structure and the passengers. It is necessary for the airline to understand situations and changes that might happen after Brexit. I think Lewin’s Change Management Model by Kert Lewin (1950) should be adopted to make improvements and to deal with the changes. For the first step, unfreeze process initially happens after the presence of Brexit vote and legal uncertainties whether the airline will be able to fly within Europe. The airline then faces the transition period where they have to do something with these changes. Because Brexit might not allow them to fly between the UK and the EU despite the fact that the Open Skies agreement has still been in process of discussions. However, according to BBC News, EasyJet planned to cope with Brexit by setting up a new airline business which is EasyJet Europe based in Vienna, Austria, in order to continue flying within Europe (BBC News, 2017). Because of the restructuring of the airline, the company will have to re-register of 110 aircraft under Austrian jurisdiction and it will cost at least 10 million euros (Topham & Sweney, 2017). Additionally, in this stage, it is very critical for the airline to have a proper and adequate leadership and reassurance from the leader. EasyJet’s CEO also mentioned that they will put the efforts into pushing the UK and EU to reach aviation agreement. However, having the new headquarter in Vienna will create new jobs in the region. Still, employees in the UK will continue working based in Luton (Patel-Carstairs, 2017). Finally, refreeze process is when the airline successfully implemented the changes. When the Brexit becomes effective, EasyJet should evaluate the effectiveness and measure their change management strategy from the number of market share, stakeholders, and customers’ satisfaction.

All in all, changes happen over time in this competitive world. EasyJet can be both positively and negatively by many factors like politics, economics, social, and etc. Therefore, being ready to change and having a backup plan would benefit the airline business as the airline faces uncertainties on the daily. To monitor situations and changes, to create solutions to deal with different levels of problems will also help the airline to easily make a change. I think the leader should also be flexible and adaptable to remain the competitiveness in the market in a post-Brexit.

 

References

Alex, H., Brian, W. (2018) Brexit: All you need to know about the UK leaving the EU [online] available from<https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-32810887; [12 November 2018]

Aurora, B. (2018) EasyJet CEO pours COLD WATER on scaremongering claims Brexit will stop UK flights [online] available from<https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/960500/Brexit-news-EasyJet-UK-EU-withdrawal-travel-flight-latest-EASA-pilot-licence-video; [12 November 2018]

BBC News. (2017) EasyJet picks Austrian base for post-Brexit plan [online] available from<https://www.bbc.com/news/business-40604375; [12 November 2018]

Daniel, B. (2017) UK-based airlines told to move to Europe after Brexit or lose major routes [online] available from<https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/22/uk-based-airlines-told-to-move-to-europe-after-brexit-or-lose-major-routes; [12 November 2018]

Gwyn, T., Mark, S. (2017) EasyJet to set up Austrian HQ to operate EU flights after Brexit [online] available from<https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/14/easyjet-austria-eu-flights-brexit; [12 November 2018]

Ian, G. (2016) Airline regulation – what you need to know with Brexit approaching? [online] available from<http://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/knowledge/publications/144673/airline-regulation-what-you-need-to-know-with-brexit-approaching; [12 November 2018]

Sunita, P. (2017) EasyJet creates new airline to continue flying in EU after Brexit [online] available from<https://news.sky.com/story/easyjet-launches-bid-to-fly-in-eu-after-brexit-10948116; [12 November 2018]

In today’s changing world, we cannot deny that one of the most important aspects of management is leadership. Every country has their own leaders and each leader possesses their own leadership styles. Moreover, leadership also can be adapted to the companies and organizations as the leaders will use them to achieve goals in the organizational settings.

There were many styles of leadership in traditional leadership theories such as transforming leadership, transactional leadership, and etc. These theories focus on relational and collaborative nature of leadership. According to James Macgregor Burns, he suggested that the differences between transformational and transactional leaders are that transformational ones will engage with employees, emphasize higher ideals and moral values, promote creativity and innovation to solve problems, while transactional ones will be responsive and exchange rewards for the work of employees (Odumeru and Ifeanyi, 2013). However, our world changes over time. The economy has changed from the traditional economy to knowledge-based ones.

“Leadership models of the last century have been products of top-down, bureaucratic paradigms. These models are eminently effective for an economy premised on physical production but are not well-suited for a more knowledge oriented economy” (Uhl-Bien et al., 2007: 298). Similarly, there are many criticisms against transformational leadership theory. According to Colonel Mark Homrig, the theory is a double-edged sword. It is sharp but can be immoral and unethical for a dishonest leader. For instance, Adolf Hitler was elected and came into power in the 1920s. At that time, Germany faced economic inflation and depression, however, Hitler successfully managed to pull the country out of its economic issue. Later, he brought one of the worst disasters to Europe as the followers were so into him and unconditionally followed his conquest (UK Essays, 2013).

To respond to the statement, I would say I partly agree with this statement. According to Novelli and Taylor (1993), they suggested that most of the leadership theories in the past were based on bureaucratic and hierarchic structures. These theories were effective as the organizational environments in the past were gradually evolving and stable (Marques, 2015). Nevertheless, in the present day, things change all the time, as a result, changes in leadership theories to adapt and become more effective in use are a necessity. However, in my opinion, people can use the traditional theories, especially transformation theory, as pathways to build a future leader.  

Nevertheless, there were also the arguments critiquing modern leadership theories such as Great Man Theories, Contingency Theories, Situational Theories, and etc. In modern leadership theories, they emphasized the quality that makes up a leader and a follower. In addition, most of these modern theories focus on leaders’ levels of skills and adaptability to the situations (Mabugat, 2015).

The example of the CEO of Apple Inc., Tim cook adapted transformational leadership style to lead the company. What he does is completely different from how Steve Jobs has led the company (Investopedia, 2018). Cook used his leadership style which made huge changes on the global IT security industry. Cook proved the public his leadership style is effective thanks to the success of Apple products such as iWatch, Apple Pay, and etc. He has been willing to face risks and take on the difficult battles. These practices made him as a leader become a role model and inspirations to his followers (Perry, 2016).

Discussing the feminine leadership, I think there are no limitations to leadership. Both feminine and masculine traits are good so that a mix of the two traits can make a good leader. According to the book “Feminine leadership or how to succeed in business without being one of the boys” written by Marilyn Loden (1985), it suggested that the combination of qualities of masculine and feminine leadership would benefit the business because feminine style can contribute a cooperative style while masculine one is competitive (Times Books, 1985).

Regarding the future of leadership theories, there sure will be changed as it has been so all these years. I think we cannot say which leadership theories are the best or the most correct approaches. There were many people criticized leadership theories are not well-adapted in today’s world, however, the future changes cannot be predicted precisely as well. In fact, different leadership styles possess their own strengths and weaknesses. However, I think the key skills for leaders that can be used all the time are to engage followers, to think critically, creatively, and innovatively, and to solve the problems by trying new things and ideas. Sometimes facing risks can bring along the success. Additionally, I am not saying we should stick with only one theory, but we can also adopt different styles or theories of leadership as a combination in order for a leader to solve the problems effectively.

 

References

Joan, M. (2015) The changed leadership landscape: what matters today”, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 34 Issue: 10, pp.1310-1322, https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-02-2015-0010; [10 November 2018]

Investopedia. (2018) What is Tim Cook’s Managerial Style? [online]available from<https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/032515/what-tim-cooks-managerial-style.asp; [10 November 2018]

Mitch, M. (2015) Modern Theories on Leadership- Just What Makes a Leader [online]available from<https://psych2go.net/modern-theories-on-leadership-just-what-makes-a-leader/; [10 November 2018]

Scott, P. (2016) Tim Cook, a Case Study on the Effects of Transformational Leadership on Privacy and IT Security [online]available from<https://www.sans.edu/media/Tim-Cook-Transformational-Leadership-Essay-Final.pdf; [10 November 2018]

Times Books. (1985) FEMININE LEADERSHIP, OR HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT BEING ONE OF THE BOYS [online]available from<https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/marilyn-loden/feminine-leadership-or-how-to-succeed-in-busine/; [10 November 2018]

Odumeru, J. A., Ifeanyi, G. O. (2013) Transformational vs. Transactional Leadership Theories: Evidence in Literature [online]available from<

http://www.irmbrjournal.com/papers/1371451049.pdf; [10 November 2018]

UK Essays. (2013) Criticisms And Arguments Against Transformational Leadership Management Essay [online]available from<https://www.ukessays.com/essays/management/criticisms-and-arguments-against-transformational-leadership-management-essay.php; [10 November 2018]

UK Essays. (2016) Contemporary Leadership Styles Impact On Organizational Success [online]available from<https://www.ukessays.com/essays/management/contemporary-leadership-styles-impact-on-organizational-success-management-essay.php; [10 November 2018]

 

Within organizations, they all have their organizational cultures. Cultures in the organization are different based on behaviors, visions, values, beliefs that add to the physical and social environment. Cultures in the organization can change in this competitive world, resulting from changes in management and leadership styles (Potter, 2015).

The crystal clear example goes to Campbell Soup Company. The company was established in 1869 by Abram Anderson and Joseph Campbell. Originally, the company was just only a canning and preserving the business. However, the company has expanded business and offers customers a wide range of products such as meals, beverages, snacks, foodservice, etc. (Campbells, 2018).

The reasons Campbell Soup Company was selected is due to their long history in the food industry and they have adapted and changed a lot in order to survive in the market.

Campbell Soup was originally under the control of the descendants of John T. Dorrance. In 2001, Douglas R. Conant became CEO. His organizational culture was to put lots of efforts into actualizing the mission and goals of the company. He focused on innovative strategies and tried to strengthen the business by working in cooperation with outside partnerships, improving the organizational excellence, diversity, and engagement, and increasing margins by enhancing price realization and total cost management (Pressays, 2017).

Later, Denise Morrison became a CEO in 2011. She created cultural changes by implementing a new innovation culture and changes in marketing. Morrison also aimed at accelerating the rate of innovation. As she saw the trends of healthy food products, then she planned to grow the brands by developing healthier food and beverage options to attract new young customers. Morrison stated that innovation was a key success to achieve the company’s goals (Marcus, 2014). Analysts suggested that having Morrison who is an insider joined Campbell might make the company miss the opportunity (Pressays, 2017).

Campbell Soup Company faced an economic slowdown in their soup sales due to their customers’ changes in behaviors. For example, they are now searching for more convenient meal options such as ready-to-eat meals and eating outside (Lauria, 2014).

Campbell has launched over 50 new products between 2012 and 2013 (Cerra, 2012). Nevertheless, the company faced with the problem that the profit decreased by 5 percent despite the revitalization of their product line. They developed the products and improved their products line depending on consumers’ soup consumption behavior, local tastes, and trends. For example, Both China and Russia are the countries where there is huge consumption of soup far more than in the U.S., however, in both countries, people usually eat soups that are homemade so that how the company adapted trends and local tastes can influence customers to make a purchase (Pressays, 2017).

According to FactSet, they revealed that Campbell’s long-term debt stood at $8.5 billion in April 2018 (Linnane, 2018). On May 18, 2018, the company announced the company’s earnings. They lost $393 million or of $1.31 per share, resulting CEO Denise Morrison to announce her retirement from the company. After that, the company changed their strategies to make the company move forward (Ladd, 2018).

Campbell has encountered a disconnect between the products the company usually offers and the products people need to buy. It is not surprising that presently, customers are more concerned about their health so that they are looking for healthier food products rather than processed food products (Lauria, 2014). However, by the time Morrison held CEO position at the company, she shifted organizational cultures. Instead of focusing on the initial and core mission of selling soup, Morrison attempted to be innovative by announcing a new strategic plan for fresh food and snacks (Ladd, 2018).

Because the former CEO reorganized the company into wrong business units and focused on wrong products and marketplaces, it made everything wrong from the beginning. Therefore, the organizational leadership that needs to do to enable cultural change for Campbell is that they should try to reorganize and eliminate business units that did not work for the company. They can also focus on becoming a leader in meals and proteins. For example, Campbell might improve the ingredients and offer customers choices for meals and proteins that good for their health and fitness.

Moreover, nowadays, people are living in the digital age. They can do things like shopping easily just a simple touch on smartphones’ screen. They prefer convenience. More customers brought meal kits and ready-to-eat meals.  As a result, Campbell should try to make ready-to-serve meals available both in stores and online channels for customers’ convenience. They can create a direct-to-customer model for all products they offer. They can also establish positive relationships with retail customers and put an effort into identifying more business opportunities with them. Last but not least, it is recommended to transform Campbell’s organizational culture by recruiting new CEO who is an outsider to lead the company because an outsider would dare to make a change on cultures to be more effective.

 

References

Allison, C. (2012) Campbell’s seeks to grow business with new products in fiscal year 2013 [online]available from <https://www.drugstorenews.com/news/campbells-seeks-grow-business-new-products-fiscal-year-2013/; [29 October 2018]

Bonnie, M. (2014) Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison Stirs The Pot To Create Cultural Change[online]available from <https://www.forbes.com/sites/bonniemarcus/2014/04/25/campbell-soup-ceo-denise-morrison-stirs-the-pot-to-create-cultural-change/#41aa322f170d; [29 October 2018]

Brittain, L. (2018) Campbell Soup At A Crossroads: What The Company Must Do Now[online]available from <https://www.forbes.com/sites/brittainladd/2018/08/06/campbell-soup-at-a-crossroads-what-the-company-must-do-now/#b517f10551df; [28 October 2018]

Campbells. (2018) About us[online]available from <https://www.campbellsoupcompany.com/about-campbell/; [29 October 2018]

Ciara, L. (2018) Is Campbell Soup making a bad decision to sell its fresh food business? [online]available from <https://www.marketwatch.com/story/is-campbell-soup-making-a-bad-decision-to-sell-its-fresh-food-business-2018-08-30; [29 October 2018]

David, P. (2015) The Key Importance of Culture in Organizational Change[online]available from <https://www.koganpage.com/article/the-key-importance-of-culture-in-organizational-change#; [29 October 2018]

Peter, L. (2014) Campbell Has A Soup Problem[online]available from <https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peterlauria/campbells-without-the-soup; [28 October 2018]

Pressays. (2017) CAMPBELL: IS THE SOUP STILL SIMMERING? [online]available from<https://www.universitycustomwriting.com/week-8-case-study/; [29 October 2018]