Leadership Practices, Challenges, and Styles in Fonterra

This report explores the leadership practices, challenges, and styles in Fonterra, a New Zealand-based multinational company. It discusses the strengths and weaknesses of their leadership practices and suggests theories that can help resolve business issues. The report also provides recommendations for improvement.

Leadership Paper

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1. Overview of the organizational activities................................................................................3
2. Overview of the leadership practices, challenges and style in the selected organizations and
what development activities they implement for the improvement.............................................4
3. Analyse the strengths & weaknesses of leadership practices which identified in the
organizations................................................................................................................................6
4. Identify some theories which helps in resolving the issues in the business and give
recommendation for the improvement.........................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is the process of managing people as well as organizations in order to perform
various activities. It is also used to motivate others in order to achieve common goals &
objectives. Leadership required various skills and make an individual effective leaders which
force others to follow their directions (Bin Taher, Krotov and Silva, 2015). Different kind of
leaderships have different skills or competencies in order to perform task. This report based on
Fonterra which is New Zealand based multinational company which manufacture the dairy
products where they owned around 10500 farmers of New Zealand. Company founded in 2001
through merging two corporation such as New Zealand Dairy Group or Kiwi Cooperative
Dairies. This assessment based on various topics which enhance the knowledge of leadership
practices. Such as leadership style, challenges, development activities etc. Along with its
strengths or weaknesses which analyse by the leaders at the time of implementing leadership
practices. In addition, it includes the issues which influence the organizational performance and
give some recommendation for the improvement.
MAIN BODY
1. Overview of the organizational activities
Fonterra Co- operative Group of Limited which is generally known as Fonterra and it is
New Zealand based multinational organization which provide dairy products to the customers. It
induce the milk, butter, cheese, ice cream etc. It is manufacturing company which serve their
products to the worldwide network and around 21,400 employees employed under this brand
(Fonterra Company, 2019). Anchor, Anmum, Anlene, Mainland Cheese and Soprole all are the
subsidiary of Fonterra company. Company founded in 2001 and it will established by merging
two corporations such as Kiwi Cooperative Dairies or New Zealand Dairy Group. The name of
Fonterra was come from Latin which means spring for the land. In 2007, company won the two
awards such as Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority. Fonterra is one of the largest
producer of New Zealand which produce the biofuel and processing a waste from photoprotein
into bio-ethanol. They generate around 20 million Lt. of premium ethanol annually.
This fuel is beneficial for the environmental and it provide them positive aspect which
help the organization to get popularity in the market. It is inexhaustible, biodegradable and fossil
fuel which is produced after reducing the waste. It will further helps in cutting campaign

greenhouse gas emissions. After every 5 million litres of ethanol which used in biofuels they
save the around more than 7,000 tonnes of carbon which entered in the atmosphere of earth.
2. Overview of the leadership practices, challenges and style in the selected organizations and
what development activities they implement for the improvement
For the success in the organization management should make an leaders who able to
manage their operational activities as well as perform various role & responsibility (Coghlan and
Shani, 2015). Along with this they have to be responsible for their activities. Leaders also have
to motivate employees timely which increase their efficiency as well as effectiveness that further
maximise the overall revenue of the business.
In context of organizations, there are various leadership practices, challenges and style
which a leader has to perform in order to maximise the productivity as well as profitability.
Along with this, these need to identify the issues so they give appropriate solutions in order to
reduce the negative impact.
Overview of leadership practices:
According to Kouzes & Posner's research it was founded that leaders learn from the
diversity or difficulty situations. There are some practices which leaders has to perform such as
challenge the process through experimenting, taking risk and encourage others to perform
more than its potential (Leadership Practices, 2019). Inspire and share vision is another
practice of leadership which motivate people to perform without having fear of failure. Leaders
has to share vision with each members of the company so they can perform or achieve their goals
accordingly. Along with this, another leadership practices are enable others to act, encourage
them etc. In context of Fonterra, ledaers of teh company should follow these practices where
they experimenting new thing for the innovation, motivate or encourage other to push their
potential in order to maximise the productivity as well as overall performance of the company.
Leaders of Fonterra implement various practices as well as in order to success implementation of
these practices they need to execute HRM practices as well (Doppelt, 2017). Because leaders
should motive their employees, provide them necessary training which required to perform their
task or achieve business goals & objectives.
Leadership styles:
As per the James Scouller, who is leadership expert evaluated that leadership style is the
classification of individual behaviours which actual leaders perform in the organizations. There

are various leadership styles which followed by the leaders of the organization in order to
perform effectively or maximise the performance of business operations. It includes autocratic,
democratic, strategic, transformational, transactional leadership etc. By using various
leadership style, managers focus on some areas which required to transform, distribute,
charismatic and narcissistic. Along with this, it order to perform any of the style leaders should
have some specific traits to achieve business goals & objectives (Espedal, 2017). Leaders of
Fonterra company implemnet the democratic as well as trasformational leadership style which
help them to improve their operational performance through incraesing employees involvemnet
and motivate them take initiatives in the organizational issues. Every leaders should follow any
style of leadership such as managers of Fonterra company adopt democatic as well as
trasformational leadership style which enhnace the employees performance as well as
productivity.
Leadership challenges:
There are various challenges face by the organization at the time of implementing
effective leadership such as. At the time of getting success humanity will decreases which
dissatisfy the employees from their work. Leaders need to ensure that, success will achieved with
the help of members who perform in the organization. So leaders should maintain the
humbleness when the interact with others otherwise it negatively impact the business. Leaders
also face the difficulties at the time of executing plans into actions so managers of Fonterra need
to take necessary actions accordingly. Along with this, Fonterra's managers also face the issues at
the time of performing any group task because everyone is different from others. In addition
they have to make startaegies and have to be responsible for their actions as well as critise for
them. There are another challenges as well where employees performing was not so good which
reduce the organizational productivity or revenue.
Leadership development activities:
In context of Fonterra organization, there are challenges or issues face by the company so
they have to implement some leadership activities in order to improve individual performance
which further helps in achieving business goals & objectives (Iles, 2017). In leadership
envelopes activity, employees work in a group in order to translate the practice into execution.
Another activity is favourite managers where they identify the positive as well as negative
perspective of manager's behaviour. Leadership Pizza is also one of the important activity

where they ask individual to suggest that which skills find to be most important in leadership.
Explore values of individual as well as team members in the organizations. These activities
performed by the managers of Fonterra in order to improve team work, facilitate communication
or make good relation between employers & employees.
From the overall conclusion, leaders of Fonterra adopt various leadership style where
they face many challenges which implact the business. Along with that, they follow various
activities in order to develop leadership in the organization.
3. Analyse the strengths & weaknesses of leadership practices which identified in the
organizations
There are various practices which can be implemented by the leaders of Fonterra
company in order to enhance their leadership practices which maximise the production as well as
revenue of the company (Jacobs, Rouse and Parsons, 2014). Strengths & weaknesses of
leadership practices mentioned below:
Leadership practices Strengths Weaknesses
Change the process In this practice leaders try to find
the various opportunities which
help the business to get the
growth as well as success.
These kind of leaders have
experience in their field, taking
risk and learn from various
mistakes (Lopez and Wise,
2015).
By implementing change in the
business operations they get the
huge success and able to achieve
the business goals & objectives.
In order to find the opportunity,
they have to invest huge time for
the research and many practices
which take cost because single
attempt does not provide the huge
success.
Higher the risk involve the huge
financial risk which is also
important to analyse that company
able to bear such loss or not.
In order to get success, business
required lot of time as well as
efforts which required huge
investment that is costly for
business.
Inspiring & share the To make a proper vision will At the time sharing vision to the

vision provide the clear cut path to the
employees that how to perform
their next step to achieve success.
Leaders should have inspiring
personality which further help
the followers to perform
accordingly which maximise
their efficiency as well as
effectiveness.
By using this practice they share
s common vision which
maximise the individual
efficiency as well as
performance.
employees, they have to ensure
that leaders focus on every
member of team otherwise it
demotivate the other participant
which negatively affect the
performance as well (Mayer,
2015).
Lack of skills will impact their
performance or unable to achieve
desired goals & objectives for the
success of business.
4. Identify some theories which helps in resolving the issues in the business and give
recommendation for the improvement
In order to resolve the issues or challenges which face by the leaders at the time leading
organization and other activities. There are different types of leadership theories helps in
resolving operational issues. Some of them discussed below:
The Great Man Theory: It is based on the individual who born to done something or it
can good or bad. Traits of those people are responsible for each and every task which they
performance in order to achieve the business goals & objectives. According to this theory, all the
traits of leaders remain same for the whole life which impact their personal as well as
professional life. In context of Fonterra, they could follow this leadership theory and hire those
people in their organizations who already have some skills. It help the business to improve their
operational efficiency as well as effectiveness (NHS England, 2016). If leaders of Fonterra have
born skills then it will make them a effective leader who lead the team or make them effective
who perform as well as achieve every goals or provide the success as well.
Trait Theory: Under this theory, leaders have both traits which can be made or by birth.
It is the expansion of great man theory where they define the what make a great leaders. It

include various traits such as honestly, competent, forward looking, inspiring, courageous,
imaginative etc. These mention skills make a person great leader or increase their ability to
perform in the business or manage the human resources through trained them. All the qualities
and characteristic of leaders help the organization to get success or achieve higher growth in the
market. If in the Fonterra organization leaders have above mentioned skills then it helps in
resolving issues which impact the overall performance of the individual as well as organization
(Rodd, 2015). Leaders of Fonterra should be creative, honest, intelligent, inspiring etc. which
motivate staff members of the company to perform well or achieve desired goals.
Transformational Theory: It is one of the effective leadership style where leaders
encourage their followers, inspire them as well as motivate to generate the change which provide
the great success as well as shape the future of business. In this theory, leaders trust their
employees or give them authority to take decisions as per their thinking process or after
analysing the whole situations. Today's employees can be future leaders who change the way of
thinking and performing and make people transformational leaders. It is possible only after when
existing leaders of the company monitoring and provide effective training to the employees in
order to enhance their skills or make them able to achieve goals & objectives (NHS England,
2016). In context of Fonterra company, leaders can be a transformation leaders of the company
who give huge efforts to train their employees through giving chance to make decisions and
innovate for the change. They have to provide various training to the employees in order to
enhance their business skills or make them able to face the critical situations.
From the above mention discussion it has been evaluated that, Fonterra has to follow
transformational as well as trait theory which help the organization to effectively perform their
operational activities. It further helps in resolving the organizational issues such as reduction of
employees performance, difficulty at the time of executing plan into action, forget to humbleness
after getting success of appropriation from others (Salman and Broten, 2017). In order to resolve
these issues, HR department should focus on recruitment & selection process and hire suitable
candidate for the suitable role. After hiring a person they should provide the relevant training
through enhancing as well as improving some skills or traits. Or by using transformational
leadership they convert an individual in an effective leaders.

CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it has been concluded that leadership is very essential for the
organization which helps in improving overall performance of the business operations. Along
with this, it improve the productivity as well as preference of an individual which working in the
organizations. There are various practices which followed by the leaders in order to improve the
operational performances which affect the individual and their performance as well. In addition,
there are various theories which organization to adopt because help the business as well as
employees to perform their task. It include trait theory which ensure that what kind of trains
make an individual great leaders who able to perform their task as well as maximise their output.
Leaders should be attractive, honest, inspiring, and have various skills such as effective
communication, inter personal skill, creative thinking, problem solving etc. These skills help the
individual to perform or influence their followers which make them motivated to push their limit
or achieve the desired goals & objectives.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
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Iles, V., 2017. Leading and managing change. ABC of Clinical Leadership. 24(1). pp.49-87.
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Rodd, J., 2015. Leading Change in the Early Years. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
Salman, Y. and Broten, N., 2017. Leading Change. Macat Library.
Online
Fonterra Company. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.fonterra.com/nz/en.html>
Leadership Practices. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.managementcentre.co.uk/leadership-5-practices-of-effective-leaders/>