Leadership Styles in Countdown Supermarket

Running head: LEADERSHIP MANAGEMENT
Task 1
Overview of Countdown
Countdown is one of the New Zealand full service supermarket chain along with the
subsidiary of Woolworths New Zealand. Countdown stores are larger than average
supermarkets in New Zealand and the company was founded in the year 1981 and the
respective chain expanded their presence in more than 180 stores as of the year 2018
(Countdown.com.nz, 2019). The number of employees who are employed in Countdown
Supermarket includes 18000+ and it falls under the retail industry which is profitable in
nature. The key people involved in the foundation of the company include Natalie Davis who
is the managing director of the company.
Overview of Nature and Cultural Context of Countdown
The nature of the Countdown Supermarket is retail business and the culture of New
Zealand as a whole is Western Culture which is influenced by the unique business
environment along with various waves of multi-ethnic migration which is termed as dynamic
environment. The cultural context of Countdown supermarket is such that there is
relationship of trust while working with partners through collaboration and fairness
(Countdown.com.nz, 2019).
Moreover, the Countdown Supermarket has hard working competitive culture and the
employees are helpful and friendly. Furthermore, the company is committed towards building
strong and long-term relationships with the suppliers through equitable and fair dealings. The
mission is to add quality to life to the customers and people and vision is to become one of
the most responsible retailers in the market.
Description of Individual Cultural Context

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LEADERSHIP MANAGEMENT
In accordance to the individual cultural context, ethnicity is the main factor which
helped me in working with diverse range of individuals during my internship phase. I have
various work experiences wherein in worked as an intern in different organizations and it
helped me in gaining knowledge on the appropriate leadership traits which will be
appropriate for managing the different tasks in an accurate manner.
I have pursued Mechanical Diploma for Bachelor of Arts from New Zealand and
Dr. Abdul Kalam is one of the role models I look up to as to understand the leadership traits
which will be beneficial in future in leading teams effectively. Dr. Abdul Kalam has been a
great inspiration for me as he was the most effective leaders who tried to understand the point
of view of individuals and supported their opinions. From his personality, I learned that
transparency and caring attitude are the most essential approaches which should be
maintained by me in order to achieve the organizational goals. As my main goal is to become
business man, therefore, I need to look for the innovative solutions to the different problems
with the innovative mindset. According to me, I feel that the organizational or team goals
play vital role in comparison to personal goals and it assisted me in gaining trust and faith of
the other team mates. In LG, my supervisors used to motivate the employees as they tried to
understand the basic needs which will be appropriate for improving the performance. With
the help of Maslow’s Hierarchy Theory, it can be identified that there are different general
needs of the employees which should be met by the supervisors as it will improve their
morale in performing the tasks. In my case, my personal goal is to become successful
business man in the future, therefore as a business person, I need to have proper leadership
skills along with taking different risks with competitive spirit as it will be beneficial in
improving the tasks which are performed by me and accomplishing them in a positive
manner. I feel when I will be working for my own company, I need to motivate the
employees as it will create high morale and there will be increase in productivity.

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LEADERSHIP MANAGEMENT
While I worked with LG Company, I preferred to use the democratic leadership style
as it helped me in managing activities and include opinions of the different team members to
make them feel their decisions are being considered. With the help of democratic style of
leadership, I would be able to manage in Countdown supermarket as it will provide me in
dealing with my team members appropriately and the involved engagement will improve my
morale and performance.
Discussion of Two Contrasting Styles of Leadership that can be used
1. Democratic Leadership Style
The democratic style of leadership is one of the most effective kinds of leadership
which will allow me in working with the different team mates along with creating the job
satisfaction among the employees as well. While working with Countdown supermarket, the
democratic style of leadership is the appropriate style that can be adopted by me as it will
help me in managing the decisions in a positive manner. As Countdown Supermarket follows
the multi-ethnic approach, therefore it can be analysed that democratic approach is the most
appropriate style which will create positive working environment. As per the democratic
style of leadership, it will be assisting me in designing innovative solutions along with
creating solutions to the different organizational problems and issues (Western, 2019). It is
known as the participative leadership approach wherein the group members take a
participative role and it will be helpful for improving the morale of the employees and gain
competitive advantage. Through the democratic leadership style, the decision-making
approach can be effective as it will be including the team members in the process and their
ideas will be taken into consideration as well (Tight, 2019).
Advantages of Democratic Leadership Style

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As a democratic leader, there will be option for delegating the responsibility among
the members which will be facilitating the participation of the members in the organization or
the team (Solaja&Ogunola, 2016). Moreover, the empowerment of the team members is the
other approach which can be built in the democratic leadership style as it is the incumbent on
the different leaders to empower the different members in the team as it will make the leaders
equipped in a proper manner to accomplish the different goals appropriately.
By becoming the democratic leader, it will be helpful for me in providing solutions to
complex problems as they are the excellent ones in solving issues. There is inclusion of
greater participation from the different team members which encourages and fosters
participation of employees in organization (Slemp et al., 2018). The democratic leaders foster
the participation of group members as to generate creative solutions along with greater
innovation which will be helpful in addressing different problems and serve the company in a
better manner.
Disadvantages of Democratic Leadership Style
On the other hand, there are different kinds of disadvantages of the democratic style
of leadership as there is lot of uncertainty in the process as the democratic leaders can
become indecisive in certain kind of situations in business such as during crisis and in such
situations, the democratic leaders do not work in the authoritarian style (Khan et al., 2015). In
addition, the democratic style of leadership is time consuming process as the process of
consultation takes time and when the company have issue or project which is required to be
completed on time, the democratic leaders cannot work to the required timescales which
affects the overall effectiveness of the working environment negatively.
Furthermore, there can be different situations wherein the situation can be regretful as
there can be situations wherein the most appropriate benefit of the company can become the