Importance of Leadership in Business

The provided report concludes that leadership is a crucial factor for long-term stability and growth in an organization. It highlights various leadership styles such as democratic, autocratic, and laissez-faire, and how they can manage working people to inspire employees and persuade them to work effectively. The assignment emphasizes the importance of analyzing individual needs and wants to link them to company goals, ultimately leading to fulfilling personal desires and meeting targets.

Context of Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
History and summary of business...............................................................................................1
Vision, leadership style, management practices and strategies of the organisation and their
implementation............................................................................................................................2
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................5
REFRENCES ..................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Management is significant part of every business organisation, it's main role is to
assemble people and resources in an appropriate manner for their optimum utilisation.
Leadership is one of the aspect of management which is used to lead employees in a direction in
order to achieve organisational goals. It ensures motivation of employees working in the business
entity. Management practice on the other hand is creating system for the purpose of improving
the efficiency in the business (Cheng, Yip and Yeung, 2012). These two term are often used in
the business context. The company which has been selected in the report is TESCO, a very well
known brand operating in retail sector. It was founded in the year 1919 by Jack Cohen, running
in various counties and it's main headquarters are in England UK. In the report topics which has
been covered are brief history of the chosen organisation also discussion about vision, leadership
style, management practice and strategies used within the organisational context.
Recommendations are made in the end with regards to improvement in the management
practices.
MAIN BODY
History and summary of business
TESCO is the largest retailer in the UK, it was founded by Jack Cohen a Jewish migrant
in 1919 with group of stalls. It mainly deals in the providing groceries and general goods. The
company has expanded over the years due to it's effective strategic planning. Customers were
given priority and wide range of products and services in different categories such as online
shopping, insurance, banking etc. are offered to satisfy their needs. By operating various
countries the company has successfully managed to achieve global status (Stieninger and
Nedbal, 2014). The main reason of TESCO's growth is that it delivers products and services at an
affordable prices to the consumers. Through the cheap pricing strategy large number customers
are attracted towards the company. Employees of TESCO are known for their hospitality,
training is given to them on how to effectively manage relationship with the customers.
Engaging themselves with online business has given further boost in the sales of the company
though major competitors like Sainsbury and Asda are providing more quality in low prices in
their products which is causing severe impact on the business.
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Vision, leadership style, management practices and strategies of the organisation and their
implementation
Vision can be called as an future imagination power that guides the individual to work
hard and reach that position. As we know that many entrepreneurs had vision to change the
world before they develop their idea into business. This is important in the organisational context
as it guides the leaders to make plans and follow directions so that objectives of the organisation
can be achieved. For reaching the future destination requires knowledge on the part of leaders
about the current position of business. TESCO's vision is to continuously improving the quality
of products and services with the integration of the employee's efforts to satisfy the needs of
customers in an optimal manner (Markides, 2013). The leaders have able to achieve their vision
by linking the KPI with the objectives. Performances of every division is continuously monitored
through collecting data. Profiles of customers was build and based on that comparisons were
made to identify the pattern of their shopping habits. This work is generally done by the research
and development sector, new ideas are being developed to cater the needs of the masses. For
example after determining the increasing demands of organic food in UK market TESCO begin
selling organic items in fruit, vegetables, meat, milk etc. It has led to the further increase in the
sales of organisation.
Leadership style is concerned with adopting certain form behaviour to direct the working
of employees in the organisation. Through this process people are brought together for the
achievement of common purpose. There are different sort of leadership style such as autocratic,
democratic, laissez- faire etc. As TESCO has adopted democratic style where employees have
equal say on various matters. The company ensures that each and every person in the
organisation are given equal amount of opportunity to put across their views and opinions before
the management take final call. Involvement of workers and taking their feedback and
suggestions is the main aspect of this sort of leadership style. This helps in developing a sense of
belongingness and commitment amongst the workforce which is vital for reducing the employee
turnover. Another advantage associated with this is related to initiatives from workers that leads
to the creation of unique ideas. According to the participative leadership theory human
motivation is the main element, therefore the organisation has to find new ways to increase the
participation from the workers as it helps in increasing their productivity. Different levels of
human's needs are determined with the help of Maslows's needs model. If the organisation is
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able to satisfy the wants and expectations of employees they will be more interested in
participating in the activities of organisation. Leaders inspire individual and after analysing the
true potential of workers right person is put on the right job. TESCO systematically divided the
duties of employees from logistics, finance, marketing to sales, they are aware of the roles and
responsibilities.
This style is completely different from the autocratic style which causes dissatisfaction in
the workforce as there is lack of encouragement and empowerment in teams. TESCO motivated
their workers by giving them comfortable working environment as a results it led to increased in
the job satisfaction level (Oldman and Tomkins, 2018). For example if the customers are
complaining about store timings then employees can ask the management to change the timings.
Even though the decision still lies in the hands of managers but suggestions are welcomed.
Strong leadership is when employees are willing to bring change and take responsibility for their
actions. Their commitment and loyalty is major factor that contributes towards the growth of the
business.
Management practice refers to the policies or the methods adopted by the business entity
for effectively managing the behaviour of employees (MALOŞ, 2012). As it is known leader is
the one who directs the efforts of team members in an appropriate direction. Different
approaches are used by the leaders with purpose of extracting the best out of the workforce
within the availability of resources. TESCO's leaders believes in engaging workers by integrating
their personal goals with the organisation's. If the employees are cleared about their roles and
responsibilities, this causes smoothness in the operations of business. They will be driven to
perform in single direction. Management pays attention to the recruitment and training process
where the competencies of candidates are explored and developed. Cultural cohesiveness is
another practice adopted by the organisation. It is associated with all the employees share same
values irrespective of their ethnicities, religion, colour etc. Conflicts in the workforce is avoided
due to this, strong bond between the managers and employees leads to bridging the gap. Also
workers feel comfortable to share their problems with the superiors. Leaders ensures that
workers have mutual respect and understanding with each other and collectively take part in the
performing business. They have manage to build a friendly and cooperative culture in the
companies, it is significant element of managing team. This aspect is based on the human
relation theory which states the importance of employees relationship with the management.
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After the industrial revolution more emphasis was given on improving the productivity of
workers. Quality was given priority over quantity. TESCO gives due attention on how each
individual performance and recognised their efforts by building an attractive reward system. The
company's productivity increased with enhancement in the relationship of superiors and
subordinates. Changes are made by the management from time to time to improve the culture of
organisation (Lopez and Ensari, 2014).
Strategies are the techniques used by the managers in order to deal with the future
uncertainties and also enhancing the performance of organisation. Even in this also there are
different types of strategies such as marketing, HR, etc. Under it's pricing strategy TESCO
provided goods and services at much cheaper prices, they have able to achieve this due their
strong bargaining power with the suppliers. They purchased large quantum of item from
suppliers at much lower price. Various other strategies such as adapting itself with the changing
technology. With the expansion of online business the company developed website and provided
goods to customers at their door step. Effective distribution channel and improved delivery
system has led to the growth of the business (McGrath and O'Toole, 2012). For example setting
targets like achieving the 20% profits required companies to follow strict HR strategies which
involves figuring out the tasks needed to be performed and simplifying them so that confusion
can be avoided. The company marketing strategy emphasised in understanding the nature of
market. Linking the performance of employees with the organisation's targets. With increased
competition in the market TESCO gain competitive advantage by hiring diverse group of talent,
this ensures creativity as people from different origin have their own cultures and views. In the
induction programme employees are made aware about the core beliefs along with the structure
of the organisation. Under their further expansion strategy in the foreign markets like japan and
china amendments were made in the leadership style and management strategies. As a result
emphasis was given on total quality management that focuses on improving the quality of goods
and services. As TESCO faced backlash in the past for the poor quality of products, this made
company to fully focus on strategically achieving excellence. Now the main aim of the
management is to continuously expand the business by exploring different sector.
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Suggestions for improving the leadership style and management practice
Even though TESCO is considered as one of the largest retailer in the world, there are
areas where improvement is required. Few recommendations and suggestions regarding
leadership style, management practices and strategies are as follows
 The company should continue using democratic style of leadership where employees are
given opportunity to express their views. Suggestions from workers will ensure the
sustainability in the market. Their direct interaction with the customers helps in
determining the issues that are affecting the sales of the company. Through their feedback
more can be done in improving the operations of business (Ruggieri and Abbate, 2013).
 It also suggested that TESCO tighten the HR policies with regards to the rewards and
compensation system of the company as there were claims regarding the unequal pay.
This is useful in avoiding the future conflicts between the management and workforce.
Also improvement in the working hours can increase the productivity of workforce.
 For increasing the profitability of business it is recommended to improve the quality of
products provided by them. US giants like Walmart is giving tough competition to the
TESCO hence it should focus on marketing mix strategy like differentiating in the stores
based on the nature of their business.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that leadership is an important factor that
ensures long term stability and growth of the organisation. Various forms of leadership styles
such as democratic, autocratic, laissez- faire have ways to mange working people. This helps in
inspiring employees and persuading them to work effectively. For this leaders have to fully
analyse the needs and wants of individual and then interlinked them to the goals of company. In
pursuit of fulfilling their personal desires targets can be met. The use of management practice is
concerned with developing effective policies for the purpose of managing the employee's
behaviour as a result efficiency and profitability of business is increased.
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REFRENCES
Books and Journal
Cheng, T. C. E., Yip, F. K. and Yeung, A. C. L., 2012. Supply risk management via guanxi in
the Chinese business context: The buyer's perspective. International Journal of
Production Economics. 139(1). pp.3-13.
Lopez, E. S. and Ensari, N., 2014. The effects of leadership style, organizational outcome, and
gender on attributional bias toward leaders. Journal of Leadership Studies. 8(2). pp.19-
37.
MALOŞ, R., 2012. THE MOST IMPORTANT LEADERSHIP THEORIES. Annals of Eftimie
Murgu University Resita, Fascicle II, Economic Studies.
Markides, C. C., 2013. Business model innovation: what can the ambidexterity literature teach
us?. Academy of Management Perspectives. 27(4). pp.313-323.
McGrath, H. and O'Toole, T., 2012. Critical issues in research design in action research in an
SME development context. European Journal of Training and Development. 36(5).
pp.508-526.
Oldman, A. and Tomkins, C., 2018. Cost management and its interplay with business strategy
and context. Routledge.
Ruggieri, S. and Abbate, C. S., 2013. Leadership style, self-sacrifice, and team
identification. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal. 41(7).
pp.1171-1178.
Stieninger, M. and Nedbal, D., 2014. Characteristics of cloud computing in the business context:
A systematic literature review. Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management. 15(1).
pp.59-68.
Yeh, H. H. H. and Roca, E., 2012. Macroeconomic conditions and capital structure over the
business cycle: Further evidence in the context of Taiwan. Emerging markets finance
and trade. 48(sup3). pp.141-156.
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