Leadership style assignment : Virgin group

LEADERSHIP

ABSTRACT

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Leadership style:..............................................................................................................................4
Functions of planning, organizing, commanding, staffing and controlling in leadership...............5
Most important and challenging part of leader...........................................................................5
Analysis which explains the chosen leader does aspire to be a leader............................................6
Company leader communicate and provide feedback....................................................................7
Steps leader take to prevent harassment.........................................................................................7
Conclusions.....................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Leadership with their ability of taking decisions guide the followers and other members in
organisation. Richard Branson a leader of Virgin Atlantic Airways made some sound decision in
achievement of goals. Richard Branson is British capitalist. He is the founder of Virgin group.
In this study a description of leadership style by placing emphasis on requested inputs from their
subordinates and peers. The primary role and responsibilities consider as most important part of
job . Describing leader's functions as a style to encourage innovation in the organisation. Leader
communicate with subordinates and provide them feedbacks. Preventive steps does leader take
to stop in workplace.
MAIN BODY
Leadership style:
Democratic leadership: In this leadership style in which each member of group take participative
role in the decision-making process of organization in achievement of goals. Richard Branson
believes that no one can get the success alone. So he involves their team members for making
more effective decisions for their organization. He allows employees to provide their judgements
and views for making them more engaged in improvement of quality of working. This style helps
the Virgin Atlantic Airlines in their difficult time to keep their employees engaged, productive
and motivated for growth of organization(Northouse, 2017)..
Leadership place emphasis on requesting inputs from subordinates and peers prior to making
decision.
Participative leadership style in decision-making by Richard Branson involves their subordinates
and peers to give their suggestions in relevant situation for implementation of decision-making
process. Towards the achievement of goals this can be a effective way for getting perform
efficient performance from all members of Virgin Atlantic Airlines. They get involve their
subordinates and peers in decision-making for better involvement of them organization goal.
Leadership style encourage innovation:
Richard Branson known in the world for his significant contributions in the economy and
innovations. Virgin group under Branson leadership considers only brands which transform such
a wide range of products and services. Which makes the brand of organization stronger than
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others. Branson with his multi coloured ideas for advertisement and innovative strategies. If
innovation is not encouraged then it does not help the organization in getting successful in
comparison to others. Organization who promote innovations can perform towards achievement
of goals. But sometimes innovative ideas not become successful which is difficult to implement
easily and acceptable by others.
Primary roles and responsibilities of leaders.
The role of good leader is to formulate the organizational plan in effective way and inspire others
in to make their contribution in achievement of goals. The primary role of leader is to create a
clear vision of for their organization to decide the aims and objectives of organization. Branson
works on the path of achievement of objectives which he decides for Virgin group(Lussierand
Achua,2015). His ability to act on opportunities for getting the Virgin group in widely different
area. In his leadership placing trust on others makes a difference in leadership style in
comparison to others(Northouse, 2017).
Functions of planning, organizing, commanding, staffing and controlling in
leadership.
Most important and challenging part of leader.
 Planning : It is the important part of leadership is to plan a task. This is the most
challenging part to prepare plan of action because this requires active participation of
entire organisation. Branson always make a plan which can be coordinated at different
levels. He makes planning by taking consideration of available resources and flexibility
of personnel by considering the success if plan.
 Organizing: A well-organized function implement effectively as compare to others.
Branson with sufficient capital and raw material implement the planning smoothly and it
builds a good working structure. The structure of Virgin group in division of functions
and tasks is become important.
 Commanding: Branson provide clear instructions and orders to their employees to
optimise return from them in respect of their activities. He motivates his team and
encourage employees to get the best performance from them(Robertson, 2016).
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 Staffing: Coordinating the large amount of employees and staff is such a challenging task
which leader has to perform. Branson in his leadership positively influence the behaviour
of their employee.
 Controlling : Time to time verify that everything is going according to the plan. Richard
Branson through regular check over the implementation of plan get report of success of
plan. He measure the report of actual performance to know the status of target
achievement. If he found something is going wrong then take preventive measure to
resolve it.
The important part of leader is that it is required at all level. At the time of execution of plan
leadership is important to explain the work effectively in accomplishment of goal. Richard
Branson wants to bring the people of Virgin group together for making a unite team of their
organization. So they can handle the situation of difficult time collectively. He follows the
effective leadership style to assist their employees in solving work issues and helping them to
focus on the positive aspects of their performance.
The most challenging aspects of leader is planning and controlling the organizational
goals and objectives. This is the challenging because if planning is made effectively the goals
can be achieved easily. Branson while planning for Virgin group adopt an effective planning
strategy for getting best results of their plan. He controls the working of planning for positive.
This helps positively in achievement of Virgin group goal(Komives, 2016.).
Analysis which explains the chosen leader does aspire to be a leader
In the Virgin Atlantic Airways the leader, Richard Branson adopt democratic leadership style
which collectively help the organization in achievement of objectives effectively. He is taking
the advise of all in support of his ideas. It will help the organization in better achievement of
objectives. Collectively doing always helps in better implementation of policies. His leadership
style inspire other leader to adopt this style to make their performance effective. Branson also
motivate the group of people of Virgin group to become more inspirational in their working.
Branson proud to himself on working with the team which share some core values towards his
contribution to the organisation(Wildavsky, 2017.). He recognise the values of his employees
and genuinely inspire their qualities. This has been made the Richard Branson an aspiring in for
others and Virgin group.
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Company leader communicate and provide feedback
Richard Branson remain in contact with its subordinates and time to time provide feedback to its
subordinates that work just below him in hierarchy. It is not possible for Richard to pass
feedback to all his employees and due to this reason, he sends feedback only to those that are
working under him. Through personal meeting feedback is communicated by Richard to its
subordinates. Richard is following democratic leadership style and under this communication
with subordinates and giving as well as receiving feedback from them is very important(Frohlich
and Oppenheimer, 2015). This is because more will be communication between Richard and his
subordinates more effectively team will be able to work which ultimately will help firm in
operating its business in proper manner. Passing of feedback is important part of democratic
leadership style because in this approach one can not individually take any decision even one
alone cannot make perception about any one. Hence, it can be said that communication and
feedback can be considered very important in this leadership style(Priest and Gass, 2017).
Steps leader take to prevent harassment
In past couple of years leaders of the firm take number of steps to stop employee’s harassment. It
was observed that previously few superiors harass their subordinates. Moreover, many females
complain that they are harassed by their male colleagues. In order to handle situation managers,
take strict steps which ensure that if anyone harassed at workplace then strong action will be
taken against those who are culprit. In this regard changes were made in corporate governance
system and it was strictly implemented at workplace. However, still sometimes cases of
harassment are observed at workplace and in order to deal with such kind of situations on time
action is taken like expel of employee from his job or not giving experience letter etc. Thus, it
can be said that firm is serious about employee harassment at workplace(Cashman, 2017.).
Conclusions
In this conclude that the Richard Branson in their leadership style adopt the best method of
leadership to inspire others. By functioning f planning, organizing, staffing ,coordination and
controlling the working of Virgin group through the leadership. This leadership style encourage
innovation in their working to make it effective. They collect feedbacks from subordinate for
inspirational working. He takes preventive measures to prevent harassment at their workplace.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cashman, K., 2017. Leadership from the inside out: Becoming a leader for life. Berrett-Koehler
Publishers.
Frohlich, N. and Oppenheimer, J.A., 2015. Political leadership and collective goods (Vol. 1298).
Princeton University Press.
Komives, S.R., 2016. Leadership for a better world: Understanding the social change model of
leadership development. John Wiley & Sons.
Lussier, R.N. and Achua, C.F., 2015. Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development.
Nelson Education.
Northouse, P.G., 2017. Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice. Sage Publications.
Priest, S. and Gass, M., 2017. Effective Leadership in Adventure Programming, 3E. Human
Kinetics.
Robertson, J., 2016. Coaching leadership: Building educational leadership capacity through
partnership. New Zealand Council for Educational Research. PO Box 3237, Wellington 6140
New Zealand.
Wildavsky, A., 2017. Leadership in a small town. Routledge.
Online
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2019. [Online]. Available through: <>
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