Leading Business Organisations

LEADING
BUSINESS
ORGANISTION

Table of Contents
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Fundamental Questions..........................................................................................................1
Key Aspects............................................................................................................................1
Leadership Theory..................................................................................................................1
Leadership Styles....................................................................................................................2
Understanding of Leadership Approaches.............................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................2
Organisation's Mission and Vision.........................................................................................2
Contribution towards Mission and Vision..............................................................................2
Contribution of Leaders..........................................................................................................2
Contribution of Stakeholders..................................................................................................3
Evaluation of Contributions...................................................................................................3
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................3
Leadership Strategy................................................................................................................3
Change Leadership.................................................................................................................3
Organisational Potential.........................................................................................................3
Business Context....................................................................................................................4
Broad Range of Leadership Strategies...................................................................................4
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................4
Motivation Theory..................................................................................................................4
Categories of Motivational Theories......................................................................................4
Contemporary Term for Employee Motivation......................................................................4
Appreciative Inquiry Technique.............................................................................................4
Critical Evaluation of Motivational Theories.........................................................................5
TASK 5............................................................................................................................................5
Potential Leadership Style......................................................................................................5
Key Strengths.........................................................................................................................5

Key Challenges.......................................................................................................................5
Personal Development............................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
PART 2............................................................................................................................................7
SERVANT LEADERSHIP..............................................................................................................7
Overview................................................................................................................................7
Examples of good practice.....................................................................................................7
Potential Difficulties and Challenges.....................................................................................7
CRITICAL EVALUATION OF KJ'S LEADERSHIP....................................................................8
Identification of Leadership Style..........................................................................................8
Positive Elements...................................................................................................................8
Negative Elements................................................................................................................10
Identification of Key Stakeholders of Starbucks..................................................................10
KJ'S PERSONAL BRAND...........................................................................................................11
RECOMMENDATIONS...............................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

PART 1
INTRODUCTION
Leadership refers to the act of guiding, motivating and encouraging individuals within a
company in context of achieving its set goals and business objectives. In addition to this, it is a
highly effective activity in which the organisation would be required in order to ensure that
appropriate motivation and clear pathways are formulated for individuals to work which would
be enhancing their competence (Doppelt, 2017). The report below is based on reflection on
leadership for aspiring leaders, that includes reasons as to why systematic understanding of
leadership theories and organisations beneficial for aspiring leaders, along with ability to
evaluate contribution of individuals, leaders, stakeholders in formulating vision of a company.
moreover, it also includes several leadership strategies, critical evaluation of motivational
theories and leadership style analysis.
TASK 1
Fundamental Questions
There are several questions which a leader is required to ask themselves. Some of these
questions are mentioned below:
 What exactly is required to be improvised to drive the company forward?
 How best can future be anticipated and the company could be prepared for the same?
Key Aspects
The key aspects in relation to leadership are mentioned below: Vision: This refers to the long term goal which a person sets for a company and
encourages the workforce to adhere to and achieve.
 Integrity: This aspect is associated with transparency, honest and trust which must be
reflected by a leader's actions (Antony, 2015).
Leadership Theory
Leadership Theory refers to the field of practice which emphasises upon determining how
best a leader could adhere to their duties and functions. Moreover, it reflects the activities and
procedures which successful leaders apply to excel within the workplace. Adhering to the
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principles within this theory helps in becoming effective leaders as per requirement of the
organisation.
Leadership Styles
There are several leadership styles that are required to be adopted by leaders in current
volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous business environment (Davies, 2016). Some of these
are stated below: Situational Leadership Style: Since the environment is uncertain, this style is necessary
to be adopted as it suggests acting according to the situations.
 Transformational Leadership Style: Complex and uncertain environment requires a
vision to be created to make the functions simpler for the workforce, which makes this
leadership style appropriate for VUCA.
Understanding of Leadership Approaches
It is essential that aspiring leaders appropriately understand range of leadership
approaches as different situations require a leader to be flexible and act accordingly, for which
leaders are required to understand and adapt a range of leadership approaches.
TASK 2
Organisation's Mission and Vision
Vision of an organisation is related to its future position, as to where the company see
itself in a foreseeable future. In context with the mission, it is prominently focused upon the
methods, techniques and processes that are essential for achieving the company's vision.
Contribution towards Mission and Vision
Individuals within an organisation play a prominent role in is vision and mission. For
example, they formulate plans as to how the set strategies could well be achieved. Moreover, all
the operations and functions towards the vision and mission of the company are performed by
the individuals of the company (Aljuwaiber, 2016).
Contribution of Leaders
Leaders formulate certain plans and strategies which forms a guiding pathway for the
organisation's employees towards the vision and mission of the company. Moreover, they
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motivate the workforce in relation to achieving a higher standard towards their performances
towards the company's mission and vision.
Contribution of Stakeholders
Stakeholders have an appropriate influence on the workings of the firm. They are
responsible towards formulating certain effective organisational policies, adherence to which is
necessary in relation to achieving the vision and mission of the company (Enquist, Johnson and
Rönnbäck, 2015).
Evaluation of Contributions
Leaders are the ones who are required to witness and evaluate contribution of each and
every individual within the organisation. It is crucial in context of a company's vision and
mission as leaders would be assessing the overall performance of the firm based on contributions
of these individuals, which are required to be evaluated and encourage to drive business
performance.
TASK 3
Leadership Strategy
A leadership strategy refers to the ones under which different tactics and procedures are
developed by a leader in context to appropriately and effectively lead the company towards
achieving a competitive advantage and sustainability within the market.
Change Leadership
Change leadership refers to the capabilities within a leader to enthuse and influence
individuals within a company to build an effective environment to accommodate change in the
structure or functioning of an organisation. This is achieved through development of vision,
advocacy and persuasion.
Organisational Potential
Organisational Potential means effectiveness of a firm in relation to achieving its
business objectives appropriately. Moreover, it is subjected towards the efficiency and capacity
of each of the company's resources towards gaining an advantage and sustainability in the
marketplace (Millar, Lockett and Mahon, 2016).
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Business Context
Business Context is an effective understanding and analysis of several factors which have
a strong influence on a company from distinct perspectives, which reflects its decision making
and determines its vision and strategies (Define the Business Context, 2019).
Broad Range of Leadership Strategies
A leader is required to appropriately and effectively enhance the scope of improvement
within a company within different scenarios which is natural as the business environment is
dynamic. Hence, understanding broad range of leadership strategies would help in enhancing the
scope of functioning of leaders throughout different business contexts.
TASK 4
Motivation Theory
A motivation theory refers to all the practices and procedures which are adopted by
individuals, as well as influences them to work towards achieving a specific outcome or
objective for a company.
Categories of Motivational Theories
There are two effective categories in relation to motivational theories. Both these aspects
are mentioned below: Intrinsic Theories: These are the ones which focus on the internal processes through
which the motivation has emerged from within a person and which satisfies
psychological needs of an individual/
 Extrinsic Theories: In these theories, outcome is being focused upon and external gains
are provided to individuals, such as power, money, etc.
Contemporary Term for Employee Motivation
Inspiration is a term for employee motivation which refers to all the aspects and factors
which inspires an individual to work at their fullest potential.
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Appreciative Inquiry Technique
Appreciative Inquiry Technique refers to an approach for change management which
emphasises upon determining the aspects that are working well and how to improve the
processes further. Attention of individuals play a very big role in this aspect as the company
would progress on the side at which the focus is upon.
Critical Evaluation of Motivational Theories
Critical Evaluation of range of motivational theory by the leaders in a particular
organisational context is related to the fact that there are different individuals working within a
company in different organisational contexts. Hence, for the particular context, such evaluation
would guide the leader in adopting and applying the best motivation theory.
TASK 5
Potential Leadership Style
My prominent leadership style is Democratic Leadership Style. Reason for this is because
I tend to work along with people well, by adhering to their personal requirements along with the
company's, in order to balance the whole situation. Moreover, I like to engage employees within
decision making of the firm to motivate them to stay engaged and hence, this leadership style is
quite apt for me.
Key Strengths
There are certain strengths within my leadership. These strengths are reflected below: Honesty: One of the prime strengths in my leadership is that I am very much honest with
my subordinates about everything in relation to the work within the company in order to
ensure their trust and gain their loyalty.
 Problem Solving: I tend to be very prompt about bringing up contributing solutions that
might help others in solving the problem. Moreover, I am quite creative which helps me
in adopting new approaches each time.
Key Challenges
There are several challenges which might hinder my leadership. These challenges are
mentioned below: Persuasion: I find it very complex to pursue individuals about my viewpoint, which
sometimes tend to make my leadership ineffective.
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 Conflict Management: There are times when I become biased in my decisions, which is
very challenging to take a firm and ethical stance in conflict management.
Personal Development
There are certain activities directed towards personal development that will be
undertaken by me to develop my leadership abilities, which are reflected below: Training: There are several training methods, such as simulations which would allow me
to practice my skills in mock scenarios, hence enhancing my abilities.
 Seminars: Attending seminars where past leaders talk about different situations and
guide others about how best to evolve as a leader could be very much effective for me in
the future (French and Rees, 2016).
CONCLUSION
Hence, it is concluded that leadership styles are very important to be adopted by
individuals in order to ensure enhancement within the organisational performance. Key aspects
and theories of leadership, along with contribution of leaders in achieving organisation's vision
and mission are required to be analysed to understand the concept and operations of leaders.
Moreover, leadership strategies and motivational theories helps in determining their working.
Lastly, self evaluation related to leadership helps in determining as to what professional
development is required by an individual to become a leader.
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PART 2
SERVANT LEADERSHIP
Overview
Servant Leadership refers to the philosophy where the leaders work appropriately to serve
the organisation rather then dictating the firm towards success. Furthermore, it is slightly
distinctive from the traditional leadership being followed in the companies, as focus of the
leaders are to thrive the organisation in an effective manner. It is an effective and beneficial
approach which allows the leaders and managers to appropriately enhance the working and
potential of the organisation to work towards the organisation in an effective manner.
Furthermore, servant leadership also contributes in development of a prominent working
environment that allows individuals and organisations to foster and grow due to effective
motivation and support (Wellin, 2016).
Examples of good practice
There are several organisations that are related to functioning in terms of Servant
leadership in an appropriate manner, which has led to major benefits to the structure and
functioning of the company. One prominent example in this context is associated with Marriott
International. The firm is one of the most renowned organisations in terms of customer service
and employee engagement. However, the foundations of the firm led by its entrepreneur Bill
Marriott has been very much inclined towards servant leadership. The firm works on the
principle of ”Spirit to Serve”, which led the organisation in formation of several business models
that provide maximum benefits to each and every stakeholder of the company (5 Companies
That Embrace Servant Leadership, 2019). For instance, the company has trained its employees in
context of ensuring high professionalism, along with effective customer treatment, which serves
the company's agenda, along with their own. Hence, the purpose of the operations and practices
within the company is associated with ensuring a win-win situation where organisational goals
are concerned as well as the perspectives of stakeholders.
Potential Difficulties and Challenges
However, there are several difficulties and challenges which the companies could
possibly face in relation to ensuring and implementing Servant Leadership within the
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organisation in the current volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment.
Therefore, some of these difficulties and challenges are discussed below:
 Motivation Issues:
One of the key challenges with respect to appropriately and effectively implement
Servant Leadership is associated with the lack of motivation. This is due to the fact that leaders
would be chipping in to assist individuals in working, which would actually narrow the scope of
their competence and effective working (Scallon and Sten, 2017). Moreover, this challenge is
further reflected on the fact that the leaders might not practice authoritative management that is
necessary to ensure probable growth within the organisation's workforce.
 Inward Implementation:
Another challenge in relation to servant leadership is associated with its implementation,
which could become very much immersed within introspection. Moreover, bottom line of the
firm could likely suffer due to encouragement been given to employees in context of focusing
upon their practices. For instance, leaders would be encouraging employees towards enhancing
their work in this relationship, but might ignore the outward factors of the business environment
which might actually serve as a problem (Moxen and Strachan, 2017).
CRITICAL EVALUATION OF KJ'S LEADERSHIP
Identification of Leadership Style
For an organisation like Starbucks, it is highly crucial that leadership of the company is
very much evaluated in order to undertake analysis in relation to highlight the positive and
negative aspects of the leadership within the organisation. Kevin Johnson within Starbucks has
been actively engaged in adopting servant leadership as per the case study. Furthermore, to this
extent, it is highly crucial that implementation of this leadership is appropriately and critically
evaluated in order to provide an account of the approaches followed by Kevin Johnson to make
Starbucks an effective organisation (Küpers, 2016).
Positive Elements
According to the case study and viewpoints of previous CEO Howard Schultz, Kevin
Johnson has been leading the company in a very well and constructive manner, reflecting upon
certain of his current practices associated with development of a prominent and calculative
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business model. Furthermore, there are several other positive elements that are analysed below
which are associated with the KJ's current leadership style:
 Focus upon Student Employees:
One of the most prominent functions associated with the leadership style of Kevin
Johnson is associated with the the employees within Starbucks who are still studying. As per the
case study, almost 70 percent of students within the organisation are either students or aspiring
students. Hence, in order to retain the workforce, the company under the leadership of Kevin
Johnson is very much concerned for these students. Moreover, one of the positive elements
associated with the leadership style of the CEO is that the firm provides full coverage to these
students to complete their education in an efficient manner. For this purpose, the organisation has
introduced Starbucks College Achievement Plan (SCAP), which is an effective method for the
firm to support the students throughout their education. Furthermore, a team of experts is readily
available for these employees as part of their considerations towards the workforce of the firm
(Jenkins and Williamson, 2015).
 Customer Centric Approach:
Another appropriate positive element in context of the leadership style of Kevin Johnson
is his customer centric approach. One prominent aspect related to servant leadership is that all
the stakeholders of the company are put forward and considered before the leader. Hence, the
implementation of this approach within the organisation is quite favourable in terms of fulfilling
the perspectives of customers. This is achieved through supporting the customers towards
making more effective and appropriate nutritional choices. For instance, the company has
reduced sugar, simplified the ingredients, along with diversifying choices to enhance the choices
associated with the organisation. This is essentially required in order to ensure that the health
needs of the customers are being fulfilled. Moreover, as part of the leadership style, it enhances
the scope of working for Kevin Johnson in perspectives of fulfilling perspectives of customers
(Greenwood, 2016).
 Diversification:
This positive element originated from a scandal, which was faced by the company when
employees at a branch got two men arrested on speculations whose cultural orientation was
different. Kevin Johnson after this incident came forward to ensure that diversity and social
inclusion become an active part of the company's culture. For this purpose, a training programme
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was introduced within the organisation, where almost 8,000 stores were closed by the CEO in
order to provide training to almost 175,000 employees in context of social inclusion and
diversity.
Negative Elements
However, there are certain negative elements that have been associated with the
leadership style of Kevin Johnson, which is analysed below:
 Employee Engagement:
One of the key negative elements associated with the leadership of Kevin Johnson is
employee engagement. This is because while the emphasis of the company is very much upon its
student employees, there is still scope left for the current employees of the organisation. For
instance, a very little job security is conveyed and communicated to the employees, which led to
several insecurities and poor performances. Hence, this area reflects the limitation of Kevin
Johnson in implementation of servant leadership in this area (Doppelt, 2017).
 Time:
Another negative aspect associated with the organisation is related to the fact that this
leadership takes a lot of time to be implemented. This is reflected by the case study where
previous targets of 20% earnings per share growth was reduced to 10% by the new model.
Hence, more time would be required to cover the aspects that would have been achieved earlier.
Identification of Key Stakeholders of Starbucks
One of the prominent elements of Starbucks are its stakeholders. These are the
individuals which are associated with the firm and have appropriate interests with its operations.
For Starbucks, there are several stakeholders that have different viewpoints on the leadership of
Kevin Johnson. Hence, these stakeholders are identified below: Business Analysts: One stakeholder group of the organisation is the business analysts,
which have interests in companies work and anticipate the success and failures of the
leader's actions. As per several analysts, Kevin Johnson's leadership is highly positive
and could lead to business success. Moreover, they believe that the leader is very much
methodological and effective in developing strategies, which would leading towards
success (Davies, 2016).
 Employees: As per this group, Kevin Johnson's leadership has several challenges which
could be viewed as inappropriate. For instance, one expectation of the leader from his
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employees is that they must perform appropriate and effective multitasking. This is
highly stressful for employees and ineffective to ensure productivity and hence, view the
leadership negatively.
KJ'S PERSONAL BRAND
It is highly essential to review Kevin Johnson's Leadership in context of appropriately
determine as to how and why the leader has established himself as a personal brand in the
international market. Hence, some of the factors which reflects the effectiveness of his leadership
style within his 2 year tenure in the company is reflected below:
 Transformation:
One of the key aspects reflected from the case study is that the leader works on
appropriately transforming the company and its business strategies for good. As an example, he
carefully determined several targets when it comes to business operations such that changing the
way Starbucks serves coffee to fulfil the nutrition requirements of the users. This is very much
effective in context of improving the dynamics of operations and introducing a culture that
would be healthier and customer centric.
 Calculative Approach:
Another aspect which contributes in Kevin Johnson becoming a personal brand is that all
the approaches by the firm are very much appropriate when it comes to taking risks and ensuring
effectiveness in further business strategies. This would result in enhancing the competence of the
company when it comes to enhancing the scope of growth and profitability, due to appropriate
business decisions taken by the leader (Antony, 2015).
RECOMMENDATIONS
In context with the above analysis, there are two prominent recommendations which are
required to be adhered to Kevin Johnson in order to overcome the weaker points in his leadership
within the company. Furthermore, these are also required to establish a positive culture and
environment within the company, which would be favourable for the firm's further growth and
prosperity. Hence, these recommendations are stated below: Personalised Employee Feedbacks: One of the major recommendations which Kevin
Johnson must adhere to is related to acquiring personalised employee feedbacks that
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would be subjected towards listening to the grievances and issues of the workforce that
the employees would be facing within the organisation, such as insecurities.
 Monitoring: Another aspect related with the leader in order to improvise his leadership
approach is to ensure consistent monitoring of the operations within the organisation. For
instance, the scandal would not have taken place if proper monitoring had been done on
the employees as to what aspects they are required to learn in an appropriate manner.
Hence, this would also serve in Kevin Johnson's leadership in an effective manner
(Aljuwaiber, 2016).
CONCLUSION
Hence, it is concluded from the report above that leading business organisations is one of
the key aspects and functions that must be adopted by a leader. Furthermore, analysis of the
scope and challenges associated with the servant leadership helps in determining aspects that
could serve as a barrier in terms of its implementation. Moreover, leadership styles of leaders,
along with its negative and positive elements serve as an effective insight onto the approaches
being followed by the leader and determination of the scope of success. Moreover, stakeholder
perspectives are required to be analysed to determine the groups which positively or negatively
influence the leadership style within the company. Lastly, recommendations are required to be
provided to leaders for them to appropriately enhance the scope of their leadership
implementation.
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REFERENCES
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Antony, J., 2015. Challenges in the deployment of LSS in the higher education sector:
viewpoints from leading academics and practitioners. International Journal of
Productivity and Performance Management. 64(6). pp.893-899.
Davies, P.W., 2016. Current issues in business ethics. Routledge.
Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Enquist, B., Johnson, M. and Rönnbäck, Å., 2015. The paradigm shift to Business Excellence
2.0. International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences. 7(2/3). pp.321-333.
French, R. and Rees, G. eds., 2016. Leading, managing and developing people. Kogan Page
Publishers.
Millar, C.C., Lockett, M. and Mahon, J.F., 2016. Guest editorial: Knowledge intensive
organisations: on the frontiers of knowledge management. Journal of knowledge
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Aljuwaiber, A., 2016. Communities of practice as an initiative for knowledge sharing in business
organisations: a literature review. Journal of Knowledge Management. 20(4). pp.731-
748.
Antony, J., 2015. Challenges in the deployment of LSS in the higher education sector:
viewpoints from leading academics and practitioners. International Journal of
Productivity and Performance Management. 64(6). pp.893-899.
Davies, P. W., 2016. Current issues in business ethics. Routledge.
Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Greenwood, J. ed., 2016. The effectiveness of EU business associations. Springer.
Jenkins, W. and Williamson, D., 2015. Strategic management and business analysis. Routledge.
Küpers, W., 2016. A handbook of practical wisdom: Leadership, organization and integral
business practice. Routledge.
Moxen, J. and Strachan, P., 2017. Managing green teams: environmental change in
organisations and networks. Routledge.
Wellin, M., 2016. Managing the psychological contract: Using the personal deal to increase
business performance. Routledge.
Millar, C. C., Chen, S. and Waller, L., 2017. Leadership, knowledge and people in knowledge-
intensive organisations: implications for HRM theory and practice.
Scallon, M. and Sten, M. J., 2017. Environmental Positioning for the Future: A Review of 36
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https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180201006534/en/Define-Business-
Context-Needed-Complete-Strategic-Initiatives
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5 Companies That Embrace Servant Leadership. 2019. [Online] Available Through:
<https://ideas.bkconnection.com/five-surprising-companies-that-embrace-servant-
leadership>
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