Dissertation

BSc (Hons) Business Management Top up
BMP6001 Dissertation
An investigation into the impact of leadership over
business performance of an organisation
A study on Argos Ltd.

Table of Contents
Abstract i
Acknowledgement ii
Glossary iii
List of tables 27
List of figures 29
List of appendices 35
Chapter 1: Introduction 1- 3
1.1 Background to research topic 1
1.2 Background to research organisation 1
1.3 Research rationale 2
1.4 Research questions 2
1.5 Research aims and objectives 3
Chapter 2: Literature review 3-7
2.1 Introduction of literature review 3
2.2 Main body with heading and sub-headings 4
2.3 Conclusion of literature review 7
Chapter 3: Methodology 7-9
3.1 Research process 7
3.2 Research approach 7
3.3 Research strategy 7

3.4 Research methodology 8
3.5 Research instruments/tools 8
3.6 Sampling 8
3.6 Ethical implications 9
Chapter 4: Findings (data presentation) 11
Chapter 5: Discussion (data interpretation) 22
Chapter 6: Conclusion, recommendations and implications for further
research 23
7.1 Conclusion 23
7.2 Recommendations 24
7.3 Implications for further research 24
References 25

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of conducting this research is to determine effect of the leadership on
the performance of Argos Ltd. Moreover the objective of developing this report is to know
the role of leadership in a company and it also provides information connected to the
importance of leadership in respective company. it is also developed for understanding effect
of leadership on the performance of staffs at the respective firm as well as it also include
impact of poor leadership on business performance of Argos Ltd.
Design/methodology/approach– The research methodology used by respective researcher is
primary and secondary. For primary questionnaire will be developed as well as in respect of
secondary information will gathered from existing article, book, newspaper and so on.
Findings – According to the finding of research it is determined that Argos Ltd need to adopt
effective leadership style according to their business operations as well as current situation
which they are facing. It is so because through it they able to improve their productivity and
performance.
Practical implications – Through respective research it is determined that leadership style
impact on the performance of a company so it is essential for company to adopt proper style
according to situation.
Originality/value – Respective research is initial academic study which is conducted at the
Argos Ltd in order to study their leadership style for conducting work. Moreover it is also
conducted to know impact, importance and effectiveness of leadership on respective
company.
Key word – The key word of the respective research project is Leadership.
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Acknowledgement
I would like to express my special thanks and gratitude to my parents and teacher to make me
competent and capable to do something valuable. I also want to thanks to my talented and experienced
supervisor that they give me their generous time as well as commitment for the completing of my
dissertation. I also want to gratitude him because he always provided his valuable time for helping me
out whenever I needed. I also want to thank him for quickly answered all my queries on email and
phone call, he always support me from the starting to ends of the dissertation project.
Furthermore, I would also like to gratitude all staffs of Argos ltd. who take out their precious
time for filling my research questionnaires because without their active participation I will not able to
conduct my research properly. In addition to this, at the last I want to thank my family members,
friends, relatives and senior at college for their cooperation, guidance and help during my research
project.
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Glossary
 Leadership – It is considered as method through which a leader will guide or lead another so
that they work properly at workplace.
 Mismanagement – It is considered as situation at which there is no proper work is conducted
at the workplace due to which goal is not attain.
 Discourage – It is determined as circumstances in which employees fell demotivated and do
not want to do work or any other think for company.
 Investigator – It is consider as person who conduct research for gathering information related
to topic.
 Legitimate information – It is considered as information or data which is authenticate and
reliable.
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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Background to research topic
Leadership introduces as an art of motivating and encouraging group of people towards attainment of
organisational goals and objectives. In addition, it is an effective process used by business executive
for directing, guiding and influencing the individual’s behaviour and work towards achievement of
common goals within a given situation. Therefore, leadership is the capability of a leader to induce
the subordinates or employees to work with zeal and confidence (Al Khajeh, 2018). In an organization
it is essential that a manager or leader need to have leadership skill because through that they help in
doing business practices as well as functions in appropriate way. This will also aid in developing and
maintain proper and positive working atmosphere which leads to achievement of predetermined goal
and goal effectively. There are numbers of leadership styles which a manager or leader adopt for
conducting business operations and functions properly and effective such as autocratic style,
authoritative style, coaching style, democratic style, affiliative style and many more. It is also
essential that manager as well as leader must select leadership style according to the condition that
company is currently facing. Argos Ltd is a selected British Catalogue retail organisation operating in
the UK and Ireland. Along with this, leadership within an organisation plays a fundamental role by
improving business performance at marketplace. There are several importance of leadership including
higher employee morale, increased productivity, better decision making, building of inclusive
working environment, creating confidence, providing guidance, increased motivation and many
others. These are considering main significance of leadership that have positive impact over
organisational performance of company. Apart from this, there is some negative effect of poor
leadership that have effects on business’s capability to retain workers and lower employee motivation,
productivity and moral (Ladkin, 2020). These effects are loss of motivation to work, poor scale
performance, lack of ownership, mismanaged resources, poor work structure and evaluating poor
leadership. These are considering major effects of leadership that impact on business performance of
Argos Ltd in negative manner. So it is essential for the respective company manager and leader to
conduct analysis and develop proper strategies and plans through which negative impact of poor
leadership can be minimize or revolved properly. This is essential because through that Argos Ltd
able to attain their desire goal as well as objectives in successful manner as well as it also aid in
retaining staffs for the long time duration. In addition to this by adopting effective leadership
respective company manager as well as leader able to attain several benefits such as they able to
ensure that all the employees are conducting their work in effective manner. Through this
performance of employees as well as company able to increase this also leads to enhancement in
company profit and market shares. Effective leadership also essential for the employees as through it
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they get proper guidance related to work which ensure that work will accomplish on time as well as in
best manner. Along with this, implementation of effective leadership also help in ensuring there in
process there is minimum wastage for which manger and leader conduct planning.
1.2 Background to research organisation
Argos Ltd is a chosen organisation for this dissertation proposal. It is British Catalogue retailer that
was founded by Richard Tompkins in 1972 (Argos Ltd , 2020). Company specialise in selling of
consumer goods through its physical stores and online. Home appliances, audio equipment ,
television, jewellery, bedding, toys, sporting goods etc. are consider consumer goods offered by
Argos Ltd to its customers. Argos have made lot of probabilities or chances to its leadership structure
ensuring the promotion of managing administrator John Walden to chief director of parent company
i.e. Home retail group. Respective company conduct their trading through physical store or shops and
online medium. There are nearby 833 retail shop and there are 29 million yearly customers who shop
at the customers. It is also considered as one of the famous as well as largest high street retailers at the
United Kingdom as well as it has also nested their franchise in the overseas nations such as China.
The official charity partner of respective company from 2015 to 2018 was Macmillan Cancer Support
as well as from 2018 the official charity partner is The Alzheimer’s Society. Respective company has
numbers of competitors such as N Brown Group Plc., Coldwater Creek Inc., Leon’s, Pick ‘n Pay,
Superdrug. (Bratton, 2020) LTD commodities, Bluestem Group and many more. In this organisation,
leadership plays an important and significant role by providing accurate guidance to the each
employee. As proper guidance from leader will be beneficial for employee as they work in effective
and systematic manner. This turn to support Argos Ltd in improvement of it’s business performance
and also in accomplishment of long term goals and objectives in lesser time period. In addition to this
it is essential for respective company management to adopt proper leadership style or strategies as that
will help in handling situation as well as issues in effective manner. For which respective company
manager and leader need to determine and analyse which leadership such as autocratic style,
authoritative style, coaching style, democratic style, affiliative style and many more is appropriate for
their business operations and functions. It is essential for them because that will help them in
developing effective decision as well as planning that may leads to enhancement in performance and
productivity which directly linked with increase in sales as well as profitability ratio. Along with this,
selection of best leadership style is beneficial for both company and employees because through it
company able to attain their pre determined goal as well as enhance their profitability. On the other
hand it is beneficial for employees because they able to get proper guidance which enhances their
working style as well as that also minimize errors.
1.3 Research rationale
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