Leadership Approaches and Challenges in Vodafone Ireland

This essay discusses the leadership approaches and challenges in Vodafone Ireland, including the governance structure and control systems. It also recommends situational leadership as the best approach for the company.

Running Head: CHILD YOUTH FAMILY AND COMMUNITY STUDIES
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MA ARTS IN CHILD YOUTH FAMILY AND COMMUNITY STUDIES
12/17/2018

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The essay brings about the discussion on the concept of leadership approaches and challenges
relevant in the contemporary organisations. The leadership style in the organisations is also
linked to the aspect of policy, culture, and society at both national and international level.
Thus, there will be two parts in this assignment, where part one discusses about the
leadership style used in the organisation, and the role of leadership in influencing teams and
their work behaviour. For the purpose of this assignment Woolworths has been selected as
the company to assess the approach of leadership.
Part- 1
Vodafone Ireland is an organisation which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Vodafone
group is found to be the largest mobile phone operator in terms of the active subscribers.
Founded in the year 1984, the company is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland operating under
the brand name of Vodafone Smart. The company operates a full range of services which
consists of the voice SMS, MMS, and mobile data services using a 2G GSM 900/1800
network. Vodafone Ireland offers a number of varied services including a wide range of
contract, bill pay services, inclusive of mobile telephony and mobile broadband services to
their customers (Vodafone Group Services Limited, 2018).
Leadership is an important phenomenon in every organisation as it directs the employee’s
efforts towards the attainment of common organisational goals and objectives. Organisational
leadership involves all the relevant aspects and processes that leads to the development and
success of the organisation in the long-run. Thus, it has been a clear concept as leaders in an
organisation are vital in influencing their team members and their attitude and behaviour
towards work. Thus, it is important for the company to practice effective leadership style in
order to attain their goals and enhance organisational performance. There have been certain
differences in the leadership styles or approaches used in Vodafone, as the company focused
on building strategic leadership in their organisation to reach their targets and satisfy their
customers with their telecommunication services. In addition to this, there has been a
difference in the leadership styles used by managers in the organisation (Steinhouse, 2017).
To discuss the different traits of the managers in the company, it has been analysed that the
leaders characterised the traits of autocratic, bureaucratic, democratic, charismatic, and
several others. However, amongst all these there were few approaches which were
predominantly relevant to the company. These include transformational leadership,
democratic leadership, task oriented leadership.

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Transformational leadership in the organisation characterises the involvement of the leaders
or managers in making effective communication with organisational members. Thus, in
context to the company, Vodafone it can be stated that all the top and executive –level
managers are examples of the transformational leadership. The reason behind the manager’s
practising transformational leadership is that they performed the role of inspiring their
subordinates and other employees to work hard and enhance their productivity (Vodafone,
2018).
According to some of the managers it was found that democratic/participative leadership
style is advantageous in Vodafone as managers believed in the fact that the decisions taken in
the organisation affect larger number of people. Thus, to facilitate an effective decision-
making practice in the organisation, democratic leadership was the most appropriate style.
In addition to the above used leadership approaches in Vodafone, it has been considered
appropriate for the marketing department managers as they were more concerned about
meeting their sales and targets to be achieved. Task-oriented leadership in the company has
made significant contribution in acquiring a larger customer base of around 323 million
taking as the user base of the subsidiaries (Visser and Tolhurst, 2017).
From the above discussion it has been understood that leadership is an important
phenomenon in every organisation. Likewise, Vodafone Ireland needs to identify the issues
facing organisations and reduce their impact on the performance through implementing
suitable leadership approach. Leadership styles are important to every manager or leader in
an organisation towards motivating employees and their work-related behaviour. Motivation
acts as an important aspects or factor leading to organisational success in the dynamic and
competitive business environment. Team in an organisation refers to the group of people who
are willing to work together towards the attainment of common goals and objectives. iT has
been explored that various approach to leadership in an organisation such as democratic,
autocratic, transformational, transactional or situational are treated as the independent
variable, and employee performance or their positive attitude towards work is treated as
dependent variable (Micro focus, 2018).
For an instance, implementing democratic leadership in the company Vodafone would lead to
positive organisational outcomes, as it acts as the major factor to employee motivation.
Democratic leaders bring out the idea or philosophy which includes the equal participation of
employees along with their managers. They have an opportunity in the activities or the

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decision-making practices of the organisation. This leads to a positive impact on their attitude
towards the organisation as they show higher commitment towards attaining organisational
objectives. On the other hand, applying participative leadership in Vodafone like other such
businesses will yield higher acceptance from their employees working in the organisation.
Participative leadership engages employees in identifying all the goals and procedures
relevant to the organisation, which characterises leader as a facilitator rather giving order to
them. Thus, the function of leader as a facilitator is beneficial in driving employee motivation
and positive results (Campopiano and De Massis, 2015).
Vodafone faced some issue or problems in terms of their sales team and management which
made a huge impact on their employee’s attitude towards the organisation’s goal and
objectives. Vodafone put control on their operating costs in the telecommunication market to
maintain and enhance their leadership position in the market. There are other issues which the
company has been facing at the present time, as the telecom sector has been on the shaky
ground since the last two years, which has influenced companies like Vodafone to a major
extent due to a sharp drop in the tariff rates. The reason found behind this was the
introduction of Jio backed up the cash rich reliance, Vodafone has to make huge investments
in the content and monetization of the same (Elsaid and Mostafa, 2016).
According to the research on the challenges faced by the telecommunication leader
Vodafone, it has been found that there were issue related to the mobility of employees. High
profile issues stated that the company is under a high pressure to introduce new working
practices in their organisation which will enable workers or employees to work in the remote
areas, without making any loss in terms of productivity. These changes in the organisation led
to the emergence of the other issue such as compromising data security, control system in the
organisation. This ultimately had a major impact on the working of the team influencing the
functioning and performance of the overall organisation (Muirhead, Imran and Arshad,
2016).
To recommend the best leadership style in the organisation, Vodafone it has been found that
situational leadership would be best suited in the organisation. Situational leadership brings
about an intuitive approach in the organisation, and helps in acquiring a better understanding
of the team and the issues faced by the team members. As the telecom sector has been facing
certain problems in, to adapt to the new technological and cloud trends, and improve their
functions in the aspect of Communication technology. It is a wise decision to recommend to

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the company situational leadership approach as it is considered as the most effective
approach to achieve success in the dynamic and complex work environment. Thus, it will
enhance the morale of the team members to work together in a team spirit towards the
attainment of goals (Lunn and Lyons, 2018).
Discussing about the change management approach in Vodafone it has been analysed that
there are various type of change which are introduced in any organisation. Implementing
situational leadership will benefit the organisation, as it will help in motivating employees in
the organisation and reducing employee’s resistance to change. For introducing change in
Vodafone, the company can first make changes in only one department or unit of the
organisation, which will help employees to understand and adapt to the change. Thus, it will
benefit the managers or leaders to enhance employee’s morale to accept to the organisational
change and manage their work according to the new amendments in the company (Hajir et
al., 2015). As it is essential to implement change because it will also facilitate managers
control the technology infrastructure telecommunication system in the organisation which
helps in implementing and managing change efficiently within organisation. Thus,
implementing situational approach in Vodafone Ireland will help in sustaining change and
enhancing motivation amongst team members (Chege and Gakobu, 2017).
Part 2
The second part of the assignment encloses the assessment of the governance structure of the
company, Vodafone, control system and the methods used to ensure optimum measure and
quality of services. Thus, defining corporate governance of the company it can be stated that
it refers to the system by which companies are directed and controlled within the system. The
purpose of the governance structure to any company is to facilitate effective, entrepreneurial
management system which leads to the long-term growth and success of the organisation.
The responsibility of governance is hold to the hands of Board of Directors of the company as
they are in a strategic position to set aims or objectives of organisation, putting leadership
into practice, supervising management of the business, and responding to the shareholders on
their management. Thus, it has been clear that good governance is advantageous to any
organisation, as it has the fundamental influence on the improvement of transparency and
answerability within the system (Boesso et al., 2015).
Vodafone Ireland shows higher commitment towards maintaining a standardised corporate
governance structure, as it is vital to maintain the business integrity and hold the interests of

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the investors in the company. The company expects their directors, employees, shareholders,
and investors to act with honesty and integrity. They also aim to deliver their duties,
responsibilities and treat customers in a fair manner (Corte, Iavazzi and D’Andrea, 2015). To
define about the governance structure of the company, it has been found that BOD operates in
effective manner. The company’s board consists of 13 directors, amongst them 12 are served
throughout the year. The members of the board are held responsible for the overall conduct of
the group’s business and strategy formulation and implementation. The company’s Audit and
Risk committee consists of the four non-executive directors, and Chairman Nick land that
ensures effective governance in system over the performance of the group’s financial output.
He also ensures in controlling or monitoring the performance of the internal audit function
and external auditors, and the management of the business risks and compliance related
activities (McCall, 2014).
The company has their mobile networks in almost 26 countries which is inclusive of the joint
ventures and several other associates, and has been consistent in providing services in 17 of
these countries (Otoo, 2015). In addition to the chairman of the organisation Gerard
Kleisterlee, there were 3 executive director, and 9 non-executive directors. Thus, analysing
the above aspects, it is known that board of Vodafone Ireland, is responsible for the overall
conduct and performs all the obligations and has the accountability towards the group,
shareholders, investors and other members vital to the corporation. In addition, board of the
corporation keeps a formal schedule of the matters important for the decision-making in the
organisation. These aspects include group strategy, long-term plans; major capital projects;
acquisitions or divestments; annual budget and operating plan, group financial structure;
inclusive of tax and treasury, and system of control and risk management (Vodafone
Sustainable Business Report, 2016).
Internal control systems as defined in context to the accounting and auditing refers to the
process of assuring the effectiveness of an organisation in operational effectiveness,
efficiency, and reliable financial accounting and the compliance to the laws and regulations
(Speicher and Salot, 2016).
Discussing about the controls or control systems in Vodafone it can be stated that with the
company, Vodafone has been efficient in ensuring and maintaining control within the internal
systems of their business. In Vodafone, the board has the overall responsibility of the internal

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control which has been designed to manage the risks of failure to attain business objectives
(Kraus and Strömsten, 2016).
The company conducts their audit in accordance to the standards of Public company
accounting Oversight Board. Vodafone also maintains a disclosure controls and procedures
which have been designed to ensure that the information to be disclosed in reports must be
processed, summarised and reported within the required specific time according to the
Securities and Exchange Commission rules and forms. In addition to this, the information
accumulated must be effectively communicated to the management and the company’s Chief
Executive officer and Chief Financial officer.
Vodafone has been efficient in their management, governance structure, and ensures to
maintain and enhance the quality of the services provided to the customers around the world.
To describe about the practices and quality ensured by the company it is essential to discover
the methods used by the managers in the organisation. Vodafone’s board members have
implemented certain policies and one of them is Quality of customer experience policy, in
which the measures and procedures are place in a manner which leads to higher customer
satisfaction. Other policies include selling prices policy stating the initiatives of the board,
that CEO of every local company must establish a procedure to calculate the selling price of
the products. To calculate the prices of products they appoint a person within the organisation
to perform the work of calculations. Also, the CEO ensures that the quotations are
determined on the basis of some logics rather using some arbitrary methods, and the
quotation must be subjected to the process of internal check irrespective of the fact whether
it is relevant to the customer or not (Goel, 2019).
Product quality assurance is another policy introduced by Vodafone, i.e. pRoduct safety and
assurance policy designed to ensure that the products provided by the suppliers are safe for
use to the employees, and customers and others who use them. The policy makes sure that the
company complies with the rules and regulations regarding the safe design, installation, and
the product’s maintenance in the long-run.
Vodafone, being a mobile communication company, is bound to provide outstanding
products and services in their market, across all the countries where they practice, i.e. across
150 countries. Thus, the company builds trust, with their employees, customers and
shareholders, along with that considers making changes in the way they conduct their
business. Thus, analysing the aspects of strong governance structure and advanced mobile

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communications, and technology Vodafone performs best in their practices, and aims to
provide best services to their customers.
To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that Vodafone has been the most
efficient company in the telecommunication sector. The company has been providing
employment to approximately 71000 people around the world, and capture a larger market
share. Vodafone works best in terms of effective CSR as the above essay has mentioned
about the situational leadership, strong culture, and governance structure and has adopted best
practices to ensure quality products and services to their customers.

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