Changes and Leadership at Hillsborough Castle and Gardens

This report discusses the changes brought to Hillsborough Castle and Gardens since 2015, including the leadership style of Laura McCorry. It also explores the relationship between leadership and change, using the case study as an example.

Hillsborough Castle

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Q1.Changes brought in to Hillsborough Castle and Gardens since 2015..............................3
Q2. Evaluation of Laura McCorry’s leadership at Hillsborough Castle and Gardens...........5
Q3. Understanding of leadership and change, and using the information in the case study. .7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

Introduction
Hillsborough Castle is an official government living arrangement in Northern Ireland (Yang,
2016). It is the habitation of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and the official home in
Northern Ireland of Queen Elizabeth II and different individuals from the British illustrious
family when they visit the nation, just as a visitor house for noticeable universal guests. From
1924 until the post's nullification in 1973, it was the official habitation of the Governor of
Northern Ireland. Since April 2014, it has been overseen by Historic Royal Palaces, and is
available to the general population on certain dates. This report is going to be enclosed with
different changes got to Hillsborough Castle and Gardens since 2015. Also, Laura McCorry’s
leadership at Hillsborough Castle and Gardens. Lastly, leadership and change, and using the
information in the case study will also be taken into consideration.
Main Body
Q1.Changes brought in to Hillsborough Castle and Gardens since 2015
If it is talked about Hillsborough Castle and Gardens since 2015, then Historic Royal Palaces,
brought ample number of changes like it has arranged a Car Park, Lower Visitor Facilities,
Walled Garden, Clore Learning Centre and Upper Visitor Facilities as well with the help of
£20m which is considered to be the huge amount as charity to transform the castle (Sagnak,
2016).
Leadership theory and approach
The leadership theory which was followed from 2015 to bring changes was authoritative
leadership style. It is said because, company which take over Hillsborough Castle and Gardens
i.e. Historic Royal Palaces has started to think more of earning profits from the public through
making it as a public place. The reason that came in front of choosing this leadership style by the
company was the interest of public towards history which was directly linked with the
Hillsborough castle and gardens. if it is talk about the authoritative style which was followed by
the company which directly se is the mark of confident leader that specifically States the
different ways and also set number of expectations which are linking team with the number of
goals and objectives to reach to an all new level of competitive advantage. Basically, this
leadership theory which was followed by the company has led organisation to reach to new
levels and brought ample number of changes that has already been discussed above like car park,

lower visitor facilities, clore learning centre and many more other elements as well (Svendsen
and Joensson, 2016). But, it has also made some difficulties as well for the team members to deal
with different situations as they were allowed to change their way of working but they were not
allowed to take decisions by their own which brought many issues while going through the tasks
and to achieve common goals that are directly linking to make the Hillsborough Castle and
Gardens as one of the crucial place for citizens and tourists to visit.
Benefits of Authoritative leadership style:
New Car Park: Utilising authoritative leadership style, company became able to build a
whole new car park facility for the visitors which was also supporting the environment. it has
been analysed that there was no parking space available for the visitors to park their cars and
visit Hillsborough Castle and Gardens. With the help of a good amount of 20 million pounds of
investment which was done by government and charity has raised this benefit for their own. This
has helped in tuning different interests about blockage in the town like new vehicle leave, limit
with respect to 474 vehicles and mentors, access from and departure to the A1 double
carriageway, 5500 local’s trees and 7200 bushes planted to make it a green vehicle car parking
area.
Lower Visitor Facilities – Café: Another benefit that came in front was lower visitor
facilities of utilising this leadership style named as authoritative leadership. Basically, it has
helped in developing an effective and efficient cafe for more than 230 seat which stays open
from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. for the normal visitors. Away with this, it has been analysed that it
was considered to be the area which was resolved by the company through making facilities for
the customers and the visitors to pay through electronic. Another benefit that came in front was
that authoritative leadership style where decision was taken by head of the department of the
company was to deliver or serve visitors with catering which is provided by yellow door
(Komives and Wagner, 2016).
Lower Visitor Facilities – Retail: With the help of Authoritative leadership style
followed by Historic Royal Palaces, it was found that it became able to deliver retail facility as
well to the visitors where they started offering a number of mix of Northern Irish, Irish and
British crafts where most of the products were in relation to glass, linen, ceramics, jewellery and
so on.
Kurt Lewin's Change Model

Basically, this model consists of three different steps and these are unfreezing, changing
and refreezing. Company that is historic royal palaces utilised Kurt lewin's change model to
bring changes within the Hillsborough Castle and Gardens, all of the three different stages are
presented underneath:
Unfreezing: this is the phase where, a change is about to broaden because annual number
of people naturally resist to bring in a change when it comes to attain a goal and this is where it
is much required to create an awareness of how the status quo of the current level of
acceptability is available in front of the workers so that appropriate change can easily be brought
in. Therefore, managers of historic royal palaces is delivered information to staff members that a
number of changes will be in order to enhance the performance level of the company and to
deliver a good competitiveness in the market (Tang, 2019).
Changing: This is considered to be the second phase where the real change is specifically
being brought and as awareness is already been spread among workers are the individuals that
are linked with the project. In the same way, company which is historical royal palaces brought a
number of changes with the help of 20 million pounds as a charity which was provided as an
investment to to bring alterations that are positive in nature within Hillsborough Castle and
Gardens.
Refreezing: This is considered to be the last stage where stabilizing, solid defying
enforcing elements are being indulge after when a change has been brought in a project. It is
must for historical royal palaces to specifically ensure that people do not revert back to their old
ways of thinking or conducting old activities only as this will not bring any sort of change.
Q2. Evaluation of Laura McCorry’s leadership at Hillsborough Castle and Gardens
Laura McCorry was appointed as the head of Hillsborough Castle and Gardens in
November 2018 by acquiring the historic Royal Palace. Laura started her career as a director
corporate development and then switches to director product development and now becoming the
head as she has the privilege to work in the variety of unique and challenging position (Babalola,
Stouten and Euwema, 2016). In relation with this, portfolio of tourism customers consider the
local authorities that are market focused commercially driven and has high quality tourism
experience. According to Laura, the best part of her job is the passionate and supportive team
and worst depicts the huge emotional investment which she does not have. According to Laura’s
working criteria, democratic leadership style is used which is termed as participating leadership

that leads to encourage the employees and the members of team to take participate and
responsibilities of the decision making procedure.
This leadership style is useful in motivating and encouraging the employees that leads to
increase their performance and productivity. In this leadership style, the ideas are offered in free
manner without any judgement and objective is to take the advantage of diversity of team instead
of relying on an individual to decide what is best for the company (Aas, 2017). In terms of
Hillsborough Castle and Gardens, this procedure put emphasis on group equality that leads to
motivate the free flow of ideas and information and leader also support their employees as a
mentor throughout the whole procedure. It is considered as the most effective leadership style as
it leads to increase the level of productivity contribution from the group and boost the morale of
employees. In relation with Hillsborough Castle and Gardens, democratic leadership style is
considered as the most effective and efficient by many ways that are discussed as underneath:
 By considering resolving issues this leadership style leads to empower leaders to work
with their team in order to create and develop healthy communication that leads to
acknowledge the problems that are faced by employees. Due to this, employees are
allowed to work on the most possible solution by using their own education and skills
that leads to encourage Innovation and creativity among employees to address the critical
issues in easier way (Holmes, 2017).
 Democratic style leads to encourage creativity and uniqueness among employees that
leads to develop higher level of productivity and prominent vision inputs because each
team associate is encouraged by using their strengths which is beneficial for whole team.
It also leads to encourage other opportunities to think beyond their limit rather than
depending on the traditional methods to complete their task and resolving issues. It also
leads to allow employees to develop proper plan that is useful to become capable enough
to evaluate their own performance.
 By considering the prominent changes the use of other leadership style would not bind
employees and leads to destroy each other’s relations. According to this leadership style,
employees tend to become closer and supportive which strengthens their relationships in
order to perform a specific task. In relation with this, team members are mutually
connected to each other concerning their ideas suggestions and feedback. Therefore, in
Hillsborough Castle and Gardens this leadership style leads to encourage voluntary

collaboration and allows every individual to share their own opinion and solutions
(Halkias and et. al., 2017).
 Democratic leadership style leads to improve job satisfaction among employees because
they think that they are important and valuable for the company. Due to the involvement
in managerial activities and decision making process the motivation level of employees
gets enhanced and because of this they leads to perform in most synchronized way which
automatically leads to develop productivity of company and also develop stronger vision
for the upcoming situations and future (Bolman and Deal, 2017).
Q3. Understanding of leadership and change, and using the information in the case study
Based on the information above, it can easily be said that board of directors of the
company and heads would required to take into consideration of Laissez Faire Style. The reason
km in front was it help leaders in allowing group members to make their own decisions but, it
may also lead them to deal with number of possible pitfalls as well. With the help of Laissez
Faire Style, Laura McCorry would deliver complete freedom to all the followers so that they can
take their own decisions in regards to come up with a common goal with ample number of
benefits in a specified time frame (Schell, 2019). By all accounts, Laissez Faire Style may seem
to confide in individuals to realize what to do, however taken to the outrageous, a uninvolved
pioneer may wind up showing up standoffish. While it's valuable to give individuals chances to
spread their wings, with an absolute absence of course, individuals may accidentally float off
course—away from the basic objectives of the association. So, it can be said that group members
of Laura McCorry in near future will become able to solve their own problems in a short period
of time because of the reason that they already know their answers of resolving a situation that
they have gone through in the past or in the current and in the near future as well. Another
benefit of this type of leadership style is that it will help Laura McCorry, in handling the power
to different followers but still she will be provided with ample number of responsibilities and
regards to all the decisions are the actions taken by them.
The other side, if it is talked about the change theory then it is continuous improvement
change approach is specifically required by both the company that is Historic royal palaces and
Laura McCorry to apply as it will deliver ample number of benefits to go through the current
trends and upcoming trends which may bring various risks towards the business that is going to
be done by the company (Ward, 2017). Consideration of continuous improvement will help

company in enhancing is productivity, improving the quality that has already been given by them
to visitors at the time of visiting Hillsborough Castle and Gardens and also it will help them in
delivering the satisfied experience through offering them appropriate information in relation to
history of the castle and many other areas as well of the gardens. Also, it has been analysed that
consideration of this approach will help McCorry in lowering the cost of different expenditures,
it will also release the time taking process is like selling the tickets through online website, and it
will also improve the employee satisfaction and the moral towards companies benefits that they
have given to them as it will directly reach to the benefit level of increasing the satisfaction of
customers and visitors (Sales, Moliner and Francisco Amat, 2017).
Conclusion
With the help of above mentioned report, it is being concluded that democratic leadership
style followed by McCorry led Hillsborough Castle and Gardens to enhance the overall
performance level and raised the number of public visitors towards history of United Kingdom,
which is directly linked with famous characters from the year it was made. Also, retail office
offering a blend of Northern Irish, including this Irish and British artworks (earthenware
production, glass, material, adornments) just as a portion of HRP selective China ranges as well.

References
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