Impact of Leadership on Company Performance During Financial Crisis: A Case Study of Sawgrass Mills, Florida

BUSN20016 RESEARCH IN BUSINESS, T2, 2017
ASSESSMENT 3
Project Title: Impact of leadership on the company during
the financial crisis: A case study of Sawgrass Mills, Florida
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Table of Contents
1.0. Introduction.....................................................................................................................3
2.0. Problem Statement..........................................................................................................3
3.0. Aim and objectives/research questions...............................................................................4
4.0. Justification and potential output of the research................................................................4
5.0. Conceptual framework and hypothesis development.........................................................5
5.1 Role of leadership............................................................................................................5
5.2. Impact of leadership decisions........................................................................................5
5.3 Crisis Leadership..............................................................................................................6
5.4 Hypothesis Development.................................................................................................7
6.0. Methodology.......................................................................................................................8
6.1. Research Approach and sources of data..........................................................................8
6.2. Proposed data collection and analysis techniques...........................................................8
6.3 Organisation of the study.................................................................................................8
6.4. Budget, Project Activities and Gantt chart......................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................12
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1.0. Introduction
A style of leadership is being considered as the style of leader for giving direction, motivating
people and making implementation of plans. It is the result of the personality, experience and
the philosophy of the leader that makes an organisation successful. Leadership is there in
both practical skills and research area surrounding the individual’s or organisation’s ability to
guide or lead whole association, teams or individuals. It is very necessary for an organisation
to have a leader if it wants to make success and profit in an appropriate manner (Bello, 2012).
Employees must have the development of effective leadership skills in order to lead the team
and project success. The topic of this project is in regards to the ‘Influence of leadership on
the organisation at the time of financial crisis- a case study of Sawgrass Mills, Florida'.
In the growing world of competition, there are many companies who are facing a financial
crisis and due to this reason they are not able to make sufficient growth and profit and this
makes an impact on securing customer loyalty and satisfaction. At the time of the financial
crisis, management practices and leadership gets discredited (Hart & Spero, 2013). This had
made the development of the new thinking regarding leadership and organisation in the
financial services and in overall business. For this report, the chosen company is Sawgrass
Mills; it is a shopping mall being operated by the group of Simon Property in Florida. The
impact of the financial crisis makes an overall impact on the company and also on the
economy of the nation.
This report will get started from the introduction and will be carried forward by the research
objectives, problem declaration, explanation of the proposal and the predictable results under
the section 2 and 3. In section 4, the conceptual framework, as well as the hypothesis of the
research, will be there in addition to the section 5 of methodology. In section 6, an
association of the study, Budget and Gantt chart will be prepared for the purpose of carrying
out proposal.
2.0. Problem Statement
Leadership is considered as the actions which are presented by the leaders to have instant
changes in the outcomes, attitude and behaviours of persons. It is one the main thing that
supports an organisation to face various challenges in smoothly. Although there are various
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researches that take place on the aspects of the leadership, only limited research is there on
the impact of the leadership at the time of financial crisis faced by the company (Timberlake,
2013). Therefore, the main plan of this project is to find out how leadership makes an impact
or what the role of it is when a financial crisis has been faced by the company like Sawgrass
Mills. The analysis will also be there in regards to the concept of crisis leadership and its role
at the time of the economic crisis that takes place in a business.
3.0. Aim and objectives/research questions
Aim: The prime motive of this report is to have an analysis in regards to the impact of the
leadership on the company at the time of the situation of financial crisis in Sawgrass Mills,
Florida. The proper analysis will be done in this report and attempt will be made to answer
the below-given questions.
Research Questions:
RQ1: What is the significance of leadership in a company?
RQ2: What is the impact of leadership on the organisation at the time of financial crisis?
RQ3: What is the role of crisis leadership at the time of financial crisis?
4.0. Justification and potential output of the research
By making an analysis of the various critiques, it can be seen that the focus of the authors is
on the effectiveness of the leadership in regards with problem-solving, satisfaction of
customers, innovation, effectiveness and success. The very limited analysis was there in
relation with the influence of leadership at the time of financial impact. A study was done by
Goleman, et. al., 2013, focuses on the analysis of the financial crises with the perspective of
leadership but not exactly on analysing the role of the leadership at the time when the
company is facing financial issues. Therefore, a gap is there in the literature in regards to the
influence of the leadership during issues related to finance. The present study focuses on this
topic only and is considered as the major rationale behind the study.
Answers of all the developed research questions that are defined in the proposal will be given
on the basis of analysis, findings and collection of data. All such outputs of the research will
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