Leadership Styles Report | Questions-Answers

Running head: LEADERSHIP STYLES
LEADERSHIP STYLES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The aim of the report is to analyse the various leadership styles that are used by aspirant
leaders in order to achieve the mission and vision of the organisations. This reports further
make an analysis of the Starbuck case in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the servant
leadership style on this organisation.

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Table of Contents
Part 1..........................................................................................................................................3
Question 1..................................................................................................................................3
Question 2..................................................................................................................................5
Question 3..................................................................................................................................6
Question 4..................................................................................................................................7
Question 5..................................................................................................................................8
Part 2........................................................................................................................................10
Introduction..........................................................................................................................10
Discussion............................................................................................................................10
Conclusion............................................................................................................................18
References................................................................................................................................19

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Part 1
Question 1.
Leadership is the quality or skill of an individual that influence the subordinate’s or
followers to achieve the aim of an organisation or group. There are different kind of
leadership theories and every leadership theory has different features and characteristics that
are applicable for different organisations or different type of people. It has been observed
from a recent research that the leadership is not only defined as a position but it is a process
that helps to build relationship among different people. By acquiring a systematic
u7nderstanding of the leadership theories it will be possible for the potential leaders to think
critically and create a communication system that will enable them to motivate others in
achieving the desired objective of the organisation (Dugan 2017).
The leadership theories will help the aspiring leaders to select their individual style of
leadership which best suited with his or her individual character and on that basis they can
encourage the followers to attain the target that is set for them. Leadership quality of every
individual cannot be the same the leadership theories can be supportive to the leaders to
follow a specific style that will make them more efficient to manage the followers so that
they does not get overburden with responsibilities and can do their duty effectively . The
leadership theory will help the aspiring leader not only to lead but also to guide the followers
how to perform and give their best to achieve success and fulfil organisational goals (Meuser
et al 2019).
a)
Leadership is a very difficult task as they have manage both the employer and the
employees, so in doing such difficult task the leaders have to ask questions to themselves to
evaluate their efficiency these two fundamental questions are

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“Am I doing the right thing for the right reason “?
Do I spend enough time with my team?
b)
Two main features of leadership
A leader should contain many skills and characteristic features in order to inspire the
followers and to make them efficient to perform the two important features of leadership are
stated below
 Transparency and
 Trust
c )
Leadership theory
The different leadership theories (style) are the following
 Great man theories
 Trait theories
 Contingency theories
 Situational theories
 Behavioural theories
 Participative theories
d)
The two leadership style that are applicable for volatile and complex environment it
will be essential to have these two kind of leadership style
 Purpose driven leadership style and

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 Shared leadership style
e )
Different leadership style can provide different ideas about managing an organisation
so in order to acquire more professional skills it will be essential to take a detail knowledge
about various kind of leadership styles (Ruben and Gigliotti 2017).
Question 2
In order to assess the quality of their leadership style and to measure the efficiency of
their work it is indispensable for the aspiring leaders to evaluate the involvement that they
made in generating and implementing the mission and vision of a business enterprise.
(Alabdulhadi Schyns and Staudigl 2017)
a)
Organisational mission and vision
A vision is aim that the company want to attain in the coming days on the contrary a
mission report is more focused on the current objectives of the organisation.
b)
Influence individuals make in implementing mission and vision
Individuals by working efficiently and as per the instruction of the leaders can
contribute in implementing the mission and vision of the companies.
c)
Contributions leaders make in implementing mission and vision
The leaders by setting the targets to the subordinates assist in achieving the objectives
of the organisation and give motivation so that they can execute their performance in an

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efficient way in the future also, in this way the leaders execute to fulfil the mission and vision
of any particular company (Berkovich 2016).
d)
Contribution of stakeholders
By actively participating in the affairs of the company and by following the guidelines
prescribed by the leaders can contribute in executing the mission and vision.
e)
To measure their efficiency the aspiring leaders should be able to evaluate their
contribution in executing the mission and vision of the organisations.
Question 3
Application of leadership strategies will help the business to achieve its long term
and short term goals and for that reason the aspiring leaders should apply a correct leadership
strategy which includes change management in the organisations.
a)
Leadership strategy
A leadership strategy is the ability of a person to take decisions that can help an
organisation to meet its long term and short term objectives.
b)
Change leadership
Change leadership is the capability of an individual through his own skills and
advocacy to influence others to actively adopt with the changing environment of the business
(Hoch et al 2018).

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c)
Organisational potential
The capacity of the establishment to produce and deliver high quality service or
products is known as organisational potential.
d)
Business context
A context where in a particular terminology is engaged is known as business context.
e )
The aspiring leaders should have knowledge about a broad range of leadership quality
as they have to implement these strategies whenever the circumstances of the complex and
volatile business environment changes (Day and Miscenko 2016).
Question 4
a)
Motivational theory
A motivational theory may be defined as the theory that drives an individual to
accomplish a goal or objective.
b)
Two categories of the motivational theory
The two classes of the motivational theories are the intrinsic motivation and the
extrinsic motivation theory (Tourish 2019).
c)

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Contemporary term of employee motivation
Another existing term of the employee motivation theory is the equity theory which is
made on the basis of the concept that how fairly a employee is treated in compared to another
employee.
d)
Appreciative inquiry technique
This is a change management technique that is used to identify what is working
properly and why it is working properly and then try to do that more (Yahaya and Ebrahim
2016).
e)
The ambitious leaders should assess a variety of motivational theories inside a precise
business context in order to motivate the employees so that the employees can fulfil aim of
the organisation.
Question 5
a)
I would like to lead by setting examples for others , I would like to lead from the
front and should try to protect my followers and will not put the entire burden on my team
members.
b)
My key strength will be my confidence to handle difficult situation and to
communicate in an effective manner so that all my team members have clear perception that
what I am expecting from them (Yu 2019).

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c)
My major challenges will be to coordinate every members and to set a common
objective for all of them.
d )
I think that I have to learn more about the other leadership strategies also so that I can
bring changes in my leadership style as per the changing circumstances and also motivate my
team to work as per the situation.

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Part 2
Introduction
Leadership quality is an essential skill that every individual should possess in order to
tackle the operational activities of any organisation and help the organisation to achieve its
objective. Different leaders have different leadership style which varies as per their
characteristics and knowledge. However an efficient leader will always try to follow some
basic elements that are provided by various leadership theories. Kevin Johnson who is the
president and chief executive officer of Starbucks is a obsessive leader who has devoted all
his enthusiasm to accomplish the goal of the organisation. It is for his leadership quality it is
possible for Starbucks to become one of the leading company in the world with having more
than 330000 partners and millions of customers in the entire world.
Discussion
Servant leadership style
Servant leadership is a type of leadership where the main objective of the leader is to
give full dedication to serve the company. This is exceptional from the contemporary style of
leadership, in this kind of leadership the servant leader share his power with the other
employees and give priority to the requirements of the staffs and help them to improve their
skills and serve for the betterment of the organisation. In this kind of leadership the leaders
used to take active participation in executing the task and does not solely depend on others.
This kind of leadership style has gained huge success and popularity as in this kind of
leadership style the leaders take active participation in implementing various strategies that
are framed by them. As the leader himself take active participation in executing any
responsibility this motivate the other employees to perform more actively and fulfil the

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objectives of the company more accurately. As this leadership style give emphasis in the
development of the employees and give priority to fulfil the interest of the employees the
employees also get more enthusiasm to achieve the mission and vision strategies of the
company (Anderson and Sun 2017). The founder of the servant leadership style, Greenleaf,
believes that servant leadership is a way of life and not a systemized technique that is
followed by a specific guideline.
Apart from Starbucks another popular department store that successfully implemented
the servant leadership style is Nordstrom. This company enjoys a huge client base due to their
excellent customer service which is possible due to the application of servant leadership style.
In this organisation highest priority is given to the sales and ground level staffs and the
executives and the directors are kept in the bottom position of the inverted pyramid.
This indicates that the management does not give instructions to the lower level stuffs
but they like to motivate them and work with collaboration with the sales and ground level
staffs. As the customers make direct interaction with the ground level staffs the organisation
make the strategy to keep the ground level staffs motivated so that they can work more
effectively and satisfy the requirements of the customers which will help the organisation to
generate more revenue and help in fulfilment of the financial objectives . As the founder of
the Nordstrom themselves used to work at the bottom level they have realised the fact that
giving more priority to the bottom level workers will enable them to reach the top position in
the market (Mendes, et al 2016).
In the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous business environment it is a
difficult task to implement the servant leadership style in every organisations specific major
tests of the servant leadership style are:
Works against contemporary authority

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One of the major challenge for the servant leadership style is that leaders does not get
the entire credit in case of servant leadership style. In this complex and uncertain business
environment no leader will like to give away all his credits to the subordinates so this become
a major challenge for the servant leadership style (Bäcklander 2019).
Makes employees less motivated
In case of servant leadership the leaders came forward to solve the problem of the
employees and this approach can make the employees less motivated to work effectively as
they become habituated with the fact that their problem will be solved by the leader and they
does not have to take any responsibility (Newman et al 2017).
Decrease the authority of the management
As the employees get all the priorities in this kind of leadership style the employees
become more reluctant to work as this kind of leadership the management does not have a
strong authority over the subordinates.
Does not suit every business
The business that are going through a change in its work culture should not implement
a servant leadership style as it does not bring stability in the process of work and for that
reason the mangers find it difficult to implement this kind of leadership style.
By analysing the case study of Starbucks it can be said that Kevin Johnson has
implemented the servant leadership style in this organisation. Since Kevin started his journey
with Starbucks he realised that increasing customer satisfaction will have to be the priority
for improving the performance of the organisation. He realised the fact that in Starbucks the
customers does not get good service and for that reason they get disappointed with the
services that they get and refused to come again in the outlets of Starbucks. Being a food

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beverage company it is essential to give priority to customer satisfaction and that is only
possible if the lower level employees get motivated and get all the support from the
management. Kevin give all the support to its ground staffs by providing all kind of facilities
that can keep them motivated and increase their efficiency (DeConinck Moss and Deconinck
2018).
The positive elements of Johnson’s leadership that is working well for him
At the initial stage Johnson realised that Starbucks has opened more stores than it is
required he claimed that opening one thousand upscale reserve stores will not bring financial
benefit to Starbucks s and it will only increase the operating costs and reduced the profit
earning capacity. This move turned out to be a measure taken by Johnson that improve the
financial condition of the company which is reflected by the 15 % increase in the stock price
of Starbucks (Newman et al 2019).
Ethical consideration
As a servant leader Johnson continuously try to solve the problems actively and try to
find what wrong is happening in the organisation that prevent its growth rate. While doing so
he found that the customers are not satisfied with the products of the company. In order to
solve that problem the management decided to introduce more healthy and nutritious drinks
that will satisfy the needs of the customers. To satisfy this commitment the organisation
decided to decrease the percentage of sugar in its beverages by 25% and 20% reduction of
sugar in its syrup items. As a servant leader Johnson remain transparent and ethical to its
customer which help the organisation to create strong relationship with its customers.
Another instance that indicates his effort of solving problems is identified from the
case of the racial percipience incident that occur on 23rd April 2018. In this case two black
men has been wrongly suspected by the stuffs of the company and accused them for

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trespassing which leads to the imprisonment of these two people. This issue become viral in
the internet and people started to protest and boycott Starbucks. Johnson quickly responded to
this issue and personally give a statement of apology that this kind of incident will never
happen again (Cummings et al 2018).
Johnson not only stop by stating an apology statement but also closed all the 8000
Starbucks stores in united states to conduct a racial bias education training to its staffs so that
they can know how to behave properly with the clients. Form this incident it can be realised
that Johnson does not believe in putting pressure on employees but himself take the sole
responsibility and try to solve problems in an efficient manner.
Negative impact of Johnson’s leadership style
The negative impact that can be observed from Starbucks is that he is not a forward
looking manager for that reason he started to close most of the branches of Starbucks in
different areas in the world this helps to reduce its operational expenses but at the same time
it create a negative impact on the international exposure of this company. in spite of trying to
find out the actual problem why these branches are not able to produce business for the
company he just stop the operation which indicates his negative attitude and not to take
challenge of making these units efficient to generate profit of the organisation , this proves
that he is not a dynamic and aggressive leader (Chan 2018).
Not taking disciplinary actions against the staffs who are responsible for the racial bias
case
Johnson does not give any statement what action he will take on the behaviour of the
employees for whom such incident of racial biasness occurs this can make them reluctant and
may encourage them to make such kind of behaviour again.
The key stakeholders of Starbucks are the customers, society and the employees

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Customers
The customers will take this leadership style in a positive way as this gives priority to
improve customer services and try to resolve the problems of the customers quickly. The
quick responses to the customer’s problem attract their interest and they will tend to visit
more in the outlets of Starbucks. All the initiatives taken by the manager are customer centric
which are dedicated to provide the best services and products to their clients.
Employees
Johnson has taken some excellent steps to keep the employees motivated some of the steps
are
Providing degree courses to their student employees
As most of the employees of the Starbucks is student so by providing them the scope
to complete their degree courses Starbucks management try to motivate them which is a great
initiative and result of the servant leadership style.
Giving recognition of partners to the staffs
In Starbucks the employees designated as employees as this term can motivate the
employees to work more effectively and more attached with the mission and vision of the
organisation.
Providing medical facilities
The employees are entitled to get % percent medical coverage if they work for 20
hours in a week.
Giving discount on food and beverage items

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Apart getting the free foods the employees are also entitled to buy goods at discounted
from Starbucks.
Learning career skills
The employees will also get to learn and develop many career development skills like
how to build relationship with customers, how to behave with the customers and how to work
as team.
Providing company stocks
Employees of all level are eligible to get the stocks of the company\ through the
annual stock grant programme of the organisation.
These are all the positive results of the servant leadership style.
Negative effects
While some employees found positivity in the moves of the management while some
group of employees found many limitation or negative impact of the servant leadership style.
Some of the employees found that the management is misleading the employees by providing
extra non cash benefits and remain silent about the monetary growth in their salary structure
(Gandolfi and Stone 2018).
The servant leadership style fail to motivate the employees only by providing non-
monetary benefits. Many employees feel that by giving non cash benefits and forcing them to
work for more hours the management is trying to exploit them.
Reason of robust personal brand as active international leader
Johnson is a very hard working and dedicated leader who is always ready to take the
responsibility from the ordinary employees of the organisation and try to motivate them to get

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attached with the mission and vision statement of the company. During the two years tenure
in Starbucks Johnson has been able to make both financial and non-financial improvement of
the organisation. The servant leadership style of Johnson turnout to be major success in
Starbucks which creates a brand value of Kevin Johnson and make him an operative
international leader.
He always keep himself realistic and he like to work in accordance to the situation
that is existing with the organisation. In his entire career being as a leader he try to find out
the actual problem that the organisation and give realistic solution to such problems which
make him so successful over this period.
In Starbucks within a very diminutive period of time which is only 2 years he has
been able to detect the real issue of the company and also he has been successful to provide
correct suggestion and recommendations apllyi8ng which the company has been able to
increase its stock price by 15%.
His skill of identifying financial problems can be easily reflected from the decision he
has taken to shut down the excessive and inoperative outlets of the organisation in various
parts of the world. Many critics may find that decision as a pessimistic one but it turned out
to be correct one and Starbucks has been able to increase its revenue margin once it started to
close down these branches. Johnson quickly realised that at the current circumstances the
organisation should give focus on improving the quality of its product and by doing so the
customer rate increases rapidly. This indicates that Johnson is very customer centric leader
and always give focus on satisfying the customers. The way he solved the issue of racial
biasness indicates his temperament and how effective he could be in managing the media
also.

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Johnson always give priority to its employees the various employee oriented skims
introduced by him reflects that he is also concerned about the wellbeing of the employees.
Finally as stated by Schultz, Johnson is a very effective servant leader who is
constantly dedicated to achieve the objective of Starbuck alongside the help of all the
stakeholders.
Recommendations
From the case study the two areas where Johnson has to make improvement is to
reopen all the international branches of Starbucks so that it can regain its global popularity
again and the recommendation is related with the pay scale of the employees. Currently the
employees are not happy with the kind of work pressure they have and the payment that they
are getting. In these two areas Johnson have to work very hard so that Starbucks can achieve
sustainable growth in the future (DeConinck Moss and Deconinck 2018).
Conclusion
From the analysis of the case study it can be resolved that Johnson by applying the
servant leadership style has been able to provide financial success to Starbucks. The servant
leadership style is a new approach of leadership that is gaining popularity in the corporate
world with the increasing complexity in the business surroundings, the servant leadership
style give a simplified solution to the global leaders so that they can help the organisations to
achieve sustainable growth in the future. The effectiveness of the servant leadership style can
be detected from the success of Kevin Johnson and Starbucks.

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