Leadership Styles and Management Theories in Woolworths Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of leadership styles within Woolworths, an Australian supermarket chain. It begins with an introduction to the company, its operations, and the challenges faced by leaders in a dynamic environment. The methodology section outlines the qualitative research approach used, including a literature review and content analysis to examine the leadership styles adopted. The study reveals a prevalence of autocratic leadership, which is linked to management theories such as Theory X and Theory Y, as well as the system management theory. The report further explores the role of ethics and diversity within Woolworths, highlighting the importance of workforce diversity for enhancing productivity and competitiveness. Recommendations include employee assessments and the adoption of contingency and democratic leadership styles. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for adaptable leadership to address the issues and improve overall organizational effectiveness. The document is contributed by a student to be published on the website Desklib. Desklib is a platform which provides all the necessary AI based study tools for students.

RUNNING HEAD: MANAGEMENT 0
“LEADERSHIP STYLE”

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Introduction
Woolworths is an Australian chain of supermarkets and grocery stores, it was founded in
the year 1942, the company is in the retail industry (Jie & Gengatharen, 2019). The company is
specializing in selling groceries and other health, beauty products to the customers. The
estimation describes that in the current year company has 1,024 numbers of locations. In the
year, 2019 the revenue of the company was A$39.568 billion and has about 1,00,000 employees
which conduct various activities for increasing productivity of the organization. The present
report, will discuss the lack of leadership styles in diverse situations (Li & Krasny, 2019).
This organization is selected because there are various leaders which find challenging in
selecting the leadership style it is due to the reason that organization conducts their operations in
highly competitive and dynamic environment (Paul, Moktadir, & Paul, 2019). However, due to
facing various other activities such as managing the workforce diversity, motivating the
employees the leaders find difficulty in choosing the leadership styles which can support the
worker to accomplish the overall objective of the organization. The report discusses the
management theory and role as well as significance of ethics and diversity in Woolworths. The
discussion is also made on defining the recommendations which can support the company to
solve their issue.
Methodology
Leadership style is considered the method and procedure which leaders and supervisor
adopt to provide guidance and direction to the workers. In this leaders perform various activities
which include providing directions, executing the plans, motivating the people and conducting
various other activities (Jie & Gengatharen, 2019). There are various types of leadership styles
which leaders adopt such as autocratic leadership style, democratic leadership style, laissez-faire
style to conduct effective operations. However, it is estimated that in Woolworths there is lack of
using different leadership style it is because through which the motivation of the employees
reduces and also in the current year it also reduces the capability of the company to increase
profitability in the same ratio (Matthysen, Pelser, & Prinsloo, 2019).

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In this report, qualitative research approach is used it is because the findings will be
reveled through non-numeric data, the information collection is done through literature review
method that is by reviewing the existing articles this leads in getting the opinions and perceptions
of different authors. Therefore, for analyzing the data content analysis method is adopted that is
the critical analysis is done to understand the leadership styles adopted by Woolworths
supermarkets and also reveal data about the lack of management leadership styles.
The study revealed that in Woolworth’s supermarkets autocratic leadership styles is
adopted by the company. In this decisions are made by the management group and it is delegated
among the staff members to conduct various activities (Paul, Moktadir, & Paul, 2019).
Therefore, this result is increasing the decision making and this sometimes creates problems due
to less adopting styles of leaders in the company. The estimation also reveal that it lead in
increasing issues and problems that is the company used traditional management styles which
results in creating various other problems to the company, it also reduce the coordination in the
organization (Swid, 2019).
The objective of the study is also to understand the lack of leadership styles in
Woolworths, the estimation reveled that in company this problem arise due to not changing the
leadership style according to the situation (Sambell, et al., 2019). Therefore, in the current year
there is high demand of the innovative and creative leaders through which the employees also
feel motivated and at the same time it also increase the sales of the organization. This is the
problem which raised in Woolworths in the present year due to not deciding to use democratic
and transformational leadership style in the company.
Management theory
The lack of leadership styles in Woolworths increase various issues in the organization;
therefore the issue of the company is linked with the theory X and theory Y of management
theory (Banerjee & Case, 2019). In this theory the leaders of the organization make decisions
and delegates it among the staff members because the commitment and assumptions of the
company is that the workers are willing to adopt the skills and knowledge as well as can perform
various activities which is given by the leaders. The leadership style is autocratic which is used
in the company, therefore, this effects the company in both positive and negative manner because

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this leadership style can give rise to both theory X and theory Y among the team members in the
organization (Matthysen, Pelser, & Prinsloo, 2019).
It is revealed that according to the theory X the decision making is done in quicker
manner according to needs and requirements of the organization. This can leads in maintaining
discipline in Woolworths because of developing various punishment and other policies which
can force the employees to work in the particular situation. In this situation the employees of
Woolworths cannot work without incentive and other rewards policies (Brieger, Francoeur,
Welzel, & Ben-Amar, 2019). In Woolworths the theory Y is not accepted and adopted in the
conducting of the activities that is it does not include optimistic opinion and view of the
employees. Therefore, this leads in reducing the collaboration, relationship and trust in the
organization. Furthermore, Woolworths has less motivated employees because not leadership
style is adopted to provide guidance and take their opinions as well as estimated revealed that it
is only motivated with the rewards and recognition policies (Sewell, Mason, & Venter, 2017).
The issue of leadership style is give rise of other management theories which include
Autocratic leadership style; in Woolworths leaders use this to make decisions for various
departments (Matthysen, Pelser, & Prinsloo, 2019). In this only leaders have control over the
others and this theory is adopted which means it gives controlled authority, restrictions to the
other staff members of the organization. Therefore, due to similar leadership style the decisions
and opinions of the staff members can ignored by the leaders, this leads in reducing the
motivation of the employees in the organization.
The issue in Woolworths also gives rise to the theory that is system management theory,
in which the management high authority group involved in developing the plans and strategies
for the organization (Powell, 2016). The organization also uses this theory to maintain harmony
in the organization and to delegate various elements such as roles, activities and activities which
they have to particular period of time. The managers of the organization focus on evaluating and
investigating the structure as well as policies by comparing with other approaches so that best
management approach is examined and determined. Therefore, sometimes through this theory it
also increases to other problems which include difficulty in managing the diverse workforce in
the organization, reduce motivation and team work in the organization. This results in increasing

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the tasks and raises the difficulty in increasing the productivity and creativity of the organization
(Li & Krasny, 2019).
Role of ethics and diversity
Workforce and leadership diversity means the similarities as well as differentiation
between the employees of the organization; it is based on the culture, race, age, gender, physical
disabilities etc. It is estimated that workforce diversity is important for Woolworths it is because
this leads in increasing the reputation and status of the organization (Recker, Malsbender, &
Kohlborn, 2016). This also supports the company to increase productivity and profitability of the
organization. Therefore, it is the well-known company due to more team work and providing
opportunities for the organization. It is benefited the organization to gain competitive advantage
and to expand their business in the international environment (Sullivan & Gouldson, 2017).
The workforce diversity is the advantage for Woolworths it is because of increasing
productivity which is estimated that in the year 2019, the revenue of the company was A$ 39.568
billion. It is because of including more employees in the team and providing them training
regarding the culture so that each and every leaders and team members respect the diverse
culture (Sullivan & Gouldson, 2017). It also leads in enhancing creativity because more
employees and leaders involved in decision making which leads in providing different and
innovative ideas about the subject matter so that innovation and loyalty will be increased due to
providing efficient services.
The workforce diversity also supports the individual in providing competitive advantage
because various employees involved in providing feedback so that quality services will be
provided. This can supports Woolworths to solve various critical problems and issues so that
efficiency will be maintained in the organization (Levi, Probst, Crino, & Dunford, 2018).
Further, it provide competitive advantage by improving the capabilities and abilities of making
decisions regarding the subject matter because this leads in satisfying the needs and requirements
of the customers.
It provides various other benefits which includes better organizational environment so
that proper work is managed and competitive advantage is gained by Woolworths. However, still

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problems rise regarding the effective management of workforce diversity due to differences in
the culture and behavior of the organization (Byrne, Nah, & Xue, 2018). This influences the
company in negative manner because the profits of the organization do not increase in the similar
ratio and it adopt their operations in highly competitive environment.
To improve the workforce diversity in Woolworths, company can adopt the strategy and
policy of providing recognition to the employees (Matthysen, Pelser, & Prinsloo, 2019). It is
because through this more person will motivated and while giving the “Rewards and Recognition
Company” can develop the policy of maintaining fairness, this can results in maintaining equity.
Through this company can develop various standards in advance so that the performance of the
employees will be evaluated on the basis of advanced standard.
Furthermore, the other policy is increasing the interaction and communication among the
employees (Recker, Malsbender, & Kohlborn, 2016). This can support the organization to
manage corporation and coordination in the organization. It is because employees get more
understanding about each other and it gives rise to maintaining the better environment in the
organization. The above policies leads in increasing the capabilities and abilities of the
organization, this also results in managing other activities in the company through which the
performance of the employees increases.
Recommendations
To improve the workforce diversity in Woolworths, the company can adopt the strategy
of employee assessments. In this company can adopt the review and assessments in the
organization, therefore while taking the assessments the attitudes and behavior of the employees
is taken into consideration. This provide information regarding the delegation of the tasks in the
organization is done on which basis and also provide knowledge about various other factors
which includes criteria to promotion and framework of providing rewards and recognition (Paul,
Moktadir, & Paul, 2019). This can results in increasing employee performance and other solve
other diversity problems in the organization.
Further, to overcome the problem of adopting leadership styles to solve various issues,
the company can adopt contingency theory. This is the better management and leadership theory

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for Woolworths. It is because the estimation describes that company conducting their operation
in highly competitive environment and due to more diverse employees it becomes difficult to
manage the employees (Brieger, Francoeur, Welzel, & Ben-Amar, 2019). Furthermore, this
theory supports the organization and leaders to adopt leadership traits according to the needs and
requirement of the situation, through this various leadership styles is adopted by the leaders. This
also supports in using leadership quality according to the opinion and behavior of the employees
so that productivity of the organization will be maintained. Woolworths can also adopt the
democratic leadership style in the organization to solve the issue because of involving various
employees in the organization for decision making, this can increase motivation among them so
that productivity and efficiency of the organization will increased in the long run (Powell, 2016).
Conclusion
From the above, it is estimated that Woolworths is the well-known organization, which
provide efficient services of the customers so that competitive advantage can be gained by the
company. Through the investigation it is revealed that in company there is lack of adopting
leadership style because of using autocratic leadership style through which the company also
faces other problems. Furthermore, the company maintain workforce diversity through which it
adopt the opportunities and expand in international environment but still face issue due to
changes in the behavior and attitudes. However, to overcome to company can adopt employee
assessment strategy, contingency theory and can also use democratic leadership style.

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