Stakeholder Theory and Leadership in Organizations

This assignment delves into the interplay between stakeholder theory and leadership within organizational contexts. It encourages a critical analysis of how different leadership styles can be applied to manage stakeholder expectations effectively. The assignment prompts students to examine real-world case studies, such as Air New Zealand's approach to ethical considerations, and evaluate the success of these organizations in implementing stakeholder-centric leadership principles.

Running head: LEADERSHIP STYLE AND APPROACH AND CONTRASTING THEORIES
LEADERSHIP STYLE AND APPROACH AND CONTRASTING THEORIES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1LEADERSHIP STYLE AND APPROACH AND CONTRASTING THEORIES
Essay 1
Leadership style is determined by the organizational environment and classification in
terms of organizational need acclaimed from them. There are several kinds of leaders and all of
those leaders have separate kind of characteristics as well to meet at goal, all through all leaders
are established for the developmental enhancement of the company as well as they are assigned
for the timely intervention of duties to employees (Chemers, 2014). These are the important
work for a leader to understand the situation and work in repose to that situation.
Several Leadership approaches are followed by the leaders. Those approaches are the
motivation and team building initiation that helps to grow the leadership standard and also bring
the new innovation in the organization to differentiate them alike from others. Approaches to
Trait Approach, Situational Approach, and Functional Approach are the important approach for
pursuing leadership thus the implementation of this approach is also important as well as relevant
(Van Wart, 2014). Trait approach is the most primitive approach that leaders should have in
characteristic. It is an amalgamation of a mental, physical and personal trait that only possessed
by the leader, not by the ineffective leaders (Van Wart, 2017). Some of the key features of trait
approach in leadership are adjustment, adaptability, creativity, and enthusiasm all these are an
important and relevant aspect of leadership that showcase the interpretation skill and
assertiveness in work to other employees and they would get motivated by the leader. New and
innovative theories implementation and their situational understanding is the key factor of
situational approach (D’Innocenzo, Mathieu & Kukenberger, 2016). This approach is quite
important for the changes scenario in the organization and executes their brain in any situation to
overcome the problem. Motivation and commitment are the two subplots that added with that
approach and strong and weak leadership differentiation has determined by the implement of

2LEADERSHIP STYLE AND APPROACH AND CONTRASTING THEORIES
approach. The functional approach is the most impactful approach of all as it does not believe in
theories rather it wants the level of involvement of leaders in terms of application, management,
and innovation.
There are certain Leadership theories for different situations and these theories are
implemented by leaders to mitigate the adverse situation in a constructive way. There are some
lead organizations leaders who have maintained a single theory for a good period of time and
they have the responsibility and authority to complete the theory in a suitable way (Jensen et al.
2014). Autocratic Leadership is one of the predominant theories of all time. Leaders who believe
in this theory make a decision and without consulting with their subordinates they try to
implement that in a quick time. This leadership has few supporters as the autocratic nation only
subdue this theory rest of the nation will not accept it anyway (Klenke, 2016). Examples of
Albert J Dunlap or Donald Trump are these kinds of leaders who believe in the autocratic theory
of leadership. On the other hand, Democratic Leadership involves all their subordinates and
communicates with their views and then implements an innovation in the organization. This is
the most appreciable and preferred theory by the leader as well as the employees as they also feel
that they are in the part of the discussion and express their thoughts in terms of evaluating the
theory (Notgrass, 2014).
Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern is the 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand and she came
from the Labour Party. The leader has social democratic and progressive approach. Both these
approaches are important for the national welfare and support the safety of Labour management.
Ardern has the modern and civilized view over same-sex marriage and supports those events by
heart and this shows the assimilation of social ethics for the equity in New Zealand (Esselment,
Lees-Marshment & Marland, 2014). Ardern has chosen some of the universities for campaigning

3LEADERSHIP STYLE AND APPROACH AND CONTRASTING THEORIES
as the innovative approach to engage the modern student and motivate them for the development
of the country is the only motive for this leader.
On the other hand, Donald Trump is the 45th president of United States and a different
form of leadership has overcome in that situation. Most of the decision was taken by the leader
are controversial as the leader has followed by some unconventional business practice
(McAdams, 2017). In this leader characteristic, some of the great business decisions are taken
and make smarter dealing approach in business as well as the nation. The leader has a good view
of a political, psychological and personal aspect of future so those decisions took by Trump are
define US future but the way of decision making is a bit controversial for some of the critics.
In an organization employee, satisfaction understating is the most important aspect for
the leader. In case strategic leadership leaders are implementing a particular strategy with the
suggestion of all the senior employees. Most of the leadership normally innovate something and
for that reason, accustom process for the employees have to judge them only (D’Innocenzo,
Mathieu & Kukenberger, 2016). Thus in the comparison of both these leaders, Democratic
leadership style and applying method of Laurell is important as this leader have qualities like
team leadership and transformational leadership process and that evaluate a good number rather
than Trump.

4LEADERSHIP STYLE AND APPROACH AND CONTRASTING THEORIES
Essay 2: Leadership models and styles-
This segment of the essay will cover two factors such as Stakeholder responsibility &
engagement and Ethics & ethical practice. The essay will try to show the chosen leadership
factors in the selected leader Christopher Luxon who is the CEO of Air New Zealand
(Airnewzealand.co.nz, 2017).
Stakeholder responsibility and engagement depends on a trust, which is built on brand
value and leadership style (Freeman & Moutchnik, 2013). Stakeholders are of varied kinds such
as the employees. This is indeed a challenge to retain employees in this globalization dominated
the world. Employees have varied options in the same industry. They have a tendency to scuffle
between the organizations. This is where leadership plays its role in making such employees
realized the importance of being into their selected firm (Carmeli, Gelbard & Reiter‐Palmon,
2013). This goes very true with the Air New Zealand Company. It is a flag carrier airline of the
country. The company is based in Auckland. The merger of Ansett in 2000 did prove wrong for
the company. The company has announced a huge loss of around $360 million in the last quarter
of September. This was indeed a shocking and an unexpected performance (Airliners.net, 2017).
The merger proved wrong for the company. They needed a leadership quality, which could
dislodge the created challenges. This was indeed the leadership quality that not only took out the
company from such drastic situation but it also helped to attain a big success. 15 years later since
the incident happened; the company has now transformed into one of the most successful
companies in New Zealand (Stuff, 2017).
The question arises that what actually helped the company overcome such a crisis. It was
indeed a leadership quality that has remained as per the reputation throughout these years. The

5LEADERSHIP STYLE AND APPROACH AND CONTRASTING THEORIES
recent CEO of the company is no any different. Now, the question arises about what leadership
quality has remained in practice in this company. The leadership quality in the chosen leader was
confined to two important characteristics such as stakeholder responsibility & engagement and
Ethics or ethical practice (Lawrence & Weber, 2014). The repairing could have never happened
had it not been supported by the employees. Employees in this company are engaging and
innovating as well. They love innovating with ideas. They do also understand their
responsibility, which is very rare with many reputed companies. Christopher Luxon was able to
change his philosophy towards more practical terms. Employees were made to feel as if they are
an important asset for the company. This was indeed a drastic change in strategy making that
resulted in finding the essential factors needed to dislodge the challenge. Christopher Luxon did
encourage its employees by presenting them the example of an ideal leader. This was a kind of
leadership that encouraged its employees for their best (Fairhurst & Connaughton, 2014).
Stakeholders are of varied kinds. Employees are one of the stakeholders. They are an
integral part of a firm. An organization needs such employees who are the hard workers.
Innovative ideas are expected from such employees (Mok, Shen & Yang, 2015). Nevertheless,
the Air New Zealand Company was blessed to have such employees who were highly
innovative. This is never easy to dislodge a challenge as such it faced in the form of loss in
revenues. Christopher Luxon has managed its employees effectively. The leader was able to keep
its employees engaged with their responsibilities. The stakeholder management theory dictates
the importance of managing the stakeholders. Employees being one of the stakeholders represent
themselves as a very vital value to the organization’s leaders. Nevertheless, there is a
requirement to satisfy them on various factors such as the basic salary packages, additional

6LEADERSHIP STYLE AND APPROACH AND CONTRASTING THEORIES
benefits etc. Christopher Luxon has unarguably maintained the same kind of treatment with its
employees (Hörisch, Freeman & Schaltegger, 2014).
Ethicality is the other factor that prevents a company from criticism. Ethicality is indeed
very important as it conveys the reputation that an organization carries. This helps in attracting
talented professionals. Nevertheless, Air New Zealand is blessed to have such employees who
are both skilled and innovative as well. Luxon has shown an ideal resilient against the
challenging situations and emerged out as a winner. Some of the instances can prove this right.
There have been instances of controversies related to the outsourcing maintenance and minor
policy for seating. However, the company has always roved its resilient against such challenging
situations (Scoop.co.nz, 2017). Luxon looks ideal to what the company has attained so far in
relation to the ethicalities. However, the leader has never shown any sign of nervousness against
such situations. It continued its fighting spirit, which is why the company was able to resurrect
from a loss that looked impossible before.
From the above example of leadership, this can be concluded that leadership quality is
indeed required in the top management team or in the middle management team as well. This is
required to run the company under the governing of utmost ethical practices. Moreover, this is
also important in getting talented professionals who can use their innovative skills to bring a
drastic change like the one that happened with Air New Zealand Company.

7LEADERSHIP STYLE AND APPROACH AND CONTRASTING THEORIES
Essay 3: Change Management Models-
The two identified leaders are Christopher Luxon and Rob Fyfe. Both the leaders have
the leadership quality in them, which has encouraged them to work hard in attaining the success
(Airnewzealand.co.nz, 2017).
There are different approaches, which could help in bringing a cultural change in the
workplace. The organization selected is Air New Zealand. The organization has witnessed two
most effective leaders ever since the loss that has happened to the company in the year 2000.
They both intended to change the culture at the workplace to bring in the effectiveness, which
was missing when the loss has happened to them. There are four approaches using which the
required cultural change can be implemented in the workplace. Those four approaches are
Structure & Process, Incentives, People and Changing & enforcing Controls. The selected
leaders from the Air New Zealand Company had picked "People" as their approaches towards
reshaping the culture at the workplace (Cummings & Worley, 2014). They had believed in hiring
fresh professionals because they wanted to use innovative strategies, which was not possible with
the existing employees. The decision had indeed turned well as they finally had compensated the
loss incurred in 2000. The question arises that what changes had then occurred after they
recruited the fresh people. The reason behind selecting the fresh professionals was to get a
committed and innovative input from them. Nevertheless, it paid off. The freshly recruited
professionals had found the two most effective leaders they had ever worked with. It was a good
coordination between the fresh professionals and the two leaders in their own era. This was
indeed a union of sheer leadership quality with the innovative & engaged employees. Hence,
such a consequence was certain to happen (Kim, Kumar & Kumar, 2012).

8LEADERSHIP STYLE AND APPROACH AND CONTRASTING THEORIES
Forcefield analysis is really helpful in bringing change in the workplace. This helps in
analyzing those factors, which are retarding the change process to happen. This is really
important as change process can never be successful without identifying the potential retarding
factor in the way of change process (Card, 2013). The analysis has helped in identifying that the
Air New Zealand Company had numerous issues when it faced such a huge loss in the year 2000.
One of such factors was the shortage of competent employees. This is when the leaders had felt
the importance of hiring some fresh professions who are both skilled and innovative as well. The
strategy really worked because it was its employees who actually helped in regaining the earned
reputation. The change can be brought through successive steps. The first step is to identify and
define the change. Then there is a need to align the identified change with the business goals.
The afterward step is to determine the consequences. After finalizing the change process, it is
then required to communicate the change process to the internal stakeholders and the
shareholders. The change will require effective training as well such as it happened in case of Air
New Zealand. After the training is over, implementation will take place. This will be followed by
monitoring of the progress, which is important to understand whether any further change is
required (Hornstein, 2015).
The three leadership styles that match with the change management process of Air New
Zealand are the authoritative leadership style, the affiliative leadership style, and the democratic
leadership style. Both the CEOs of the company were authoritative when they believed in the
freshly hired professionals and teamed with them to bring the much-needed change. They along
with the engaged professionals did the thing for the company. They were affiliate when they felt
the necessity of hiring fresh professionals to infuse skilled workforce. It actually paid off. The
hired professionals were skilled as well as innovative. They kept themselves engaged with the

9LEADERSHIP STYLE AND APPROACH AND CONTRASTING THEORIES
change management goals and objectives. Without their proper cooperation, the result had never
happened. Both the CEOs were democratic when they allowed their employees ample in place to
accommodate their own strategy making skills. Employees were given enough of freedom to
explore their innovativeness. Additionally, the trust that the leaders had shown in their fresh
talents has encouraged them to be engaged in the entire change management process. The loss
that has happened in the year 2000 could only be compensated when it experienced a
cooperating approach of both the CEOs and the freshly recruited professionals (Trivellas &
Drimoussis, 2013).
This can be concluded that change management in an organization needs a cooperative
effort of an ideal leadership style and the committed professionals. Both the leaders and the
skillful workforce identify the operational related issues and then they move collectively to
resolve the issue. The approach that they select needs an utter use of innovative strategies. In this
regard, using the approaches specially designed for change management in an organization
produces effective results. The fact can well be understood in the business transition of Air New
Zealand, which had experienced a huge loss in 2000. After a long time of 15 years, they have
been able to regain the lost status.

10LEADERSHIP STYLE AND APPROACH AND CONTRASTING THEORIES
References
Airliners.net. (2017). Ansett And Air NZ To Collapse - Why? Full Analysis - Airliners.net.
[online] Available at: http://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=105325 [Accessed
12 Nov. 2017].
Airnewzealand.co.nz. (2017). Air New Zealand: Book Flights NZ & International Online.
[online] Available at: https://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/ [Accessed 12 Nov. 2017].
Card, A. J. (2013). A new tool for hazard analysis and force-field analysis: The Lovebug
diagram. Clinical Risk, 19(4-5), 87-92.
Carmeli, A., Gelbard, R., & Reiter‐Palmon, R. (2013). Leadership, creative problem‐solving
capacity, and creative performance: The importance of knowledge sharing. Human
Resource Management, 52(1), 95-121.
Chemers, M. (2014). An integrative theory of leadership. Psychology Press.
Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2014). Organization development and change. Cengage
learning.
D’Innocenzo, L., Mathieu, J. E., & Kukenberger, M. R. (2016). A meta-analysis of different
forms of shared leadership–team performance relations. Journal of Management, 42(7),
1964-1991.
Esselment, A. L., Lees-Marshment, J., & Marland, A. (2014). The nature of political advising to
prime ministers in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. Commonwealth &
Comparative Politics, 52(3), 358-375.

11LEADERSHIP STYLE AND APPROACH AND CONTRASTING THEORIES
Fairhurst, G. T., & Connaughton, S. L. (2014). Leadership: A communicative
perspective. Leadership, 10(1), 7-35.
Freeman, E., & Moutchnik, A. (2013). Stakeholder management and CSR: questions and
answers. uwf UmweltWirtschaftsForum, 21(1-2), 5-9.
Hörisch, J., Freeman, R. E., & Schaltegger, S. (2014). Applying stakeholder theory in
sustainability management: Links, similarities, dissimilarities, and a conceptual
framework. Organization & Environment, 27(4), 328-346.
Hornstein, H. A. (2015). The integration of project management and organizational change
management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2),
291-298.
Jensen, K., Scott, R., Slocombe, L., Boyd, R., & Cowey, L. (2014). The management and
organisational challenges of more joined-up government: New Zealand’s Better Public
Services reforms.
Kim, D. Y., Kumar, V., & Kumar, U. (2012). Relationship between quality management
practices and innovation. Journal of operations management, 30(4), 295-315.
Klenke, K. (Ed.). (2016). Qualitative research in the study of leadership. Emerald Group
Publishing Limited.
Lawrence, A. T., & Weber, J. (2014). Business and society: Stakeholders, ethics, public policy.
Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
McAdams, D. P. (2017). The Appeal of the Primal Leader: Human Evolution and Donald J.
Trump. Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture, 1(2).

12LEADERSHIP STYLE AND APPROACH AND CONTRASTING THEORIES
Mok, K. Y., Shen, G. Q., & Yang, J. (2015). Stakeholder management studies in mega
construction projects: A review and future directions. International Journal of Project
Management, 33(2), 446-457.
Notgrass, D. (2014). The relationship between followers’ perceived quality of relationship and
preferred leadership style. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 35(7), 605-
621.
Scoop.co.nz. (2017). Air New Zealand Draws Praise On Ethics Issue | Scoop News. [online]
Available at: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0304/S00130.htm [Accessed 12 Nov.
2017].
Stuff. (2017). Smarts drive Air NZ success. [online] Available at:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/10519234/Smarts-drive-Air-NZ-success
[Accessed 12 Nov. 2017].
Trivellas, P., & Drimoussis, C. (2013). Investigating leadership styles, behavioural and
managerial competency profiles of successful project managers in Greece. Procedia-
Social and Behavioral Sciences, 73, 692-700.
Van Wart, M. (2014). Dynamics of leadership in public service: Theory and practice. Routledge.
Van Wart, M. (2017). Leadership in public organizations: An introduction. Taylor & Francis.