Lessons from Shackleton's Leadership Style for Contemporary Business Organizations

MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents.
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
LO2 Shackleton's leadership style and lessons learned in context of contemporary business
organisations in a crisis................................................................................................................3
LO4 Critically analyse the organisational situation by drawing on schools of leadership with
recommendations to improve performance.................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Management refers to the conducting, supervising or directing of something in an
organisation whether it is a business or a NPO or a government body. In other words it is the art
of administrating the business resources and leadership is one of the essential element of the
management (Gyawali, Ramakrishna and Dhamoon, 2019). The case study will discuss the
important lessons from Shackleton's leadership style which could help in a crisis in context of
contemporary business organisation. The project will further critically analyse an organisational
situation by drawing the schools of leadership. In the end, the report will make recommendations
for improving performance.
LO2 Shackleton's leadership style and lessons learned in context of contemporary business
organisations in a crisis.
According to Sir Raymond Priestley, “For scientific discovery give me Scott, for speed
and efficiency of travel give me Amundsen; but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get
down on your knees and pray for Shackleton (Gutmann, 2018).” The 1914 Antarctic expedition
was an opportunity to examine the entrepreneurship and leadership skills. Ernest Shackleton was
a British Merchant Marine planning to trek over Antarctic continent. The case study would
describe the story of crisis, triumph and survival when his vessel became trapped in the ice and
he has shifted his responsibilty to ensure the safety of the all 28 expedition members rather than
completing the historic mission. The story was about the leader Shackleton's effort to maintain
the member's commitment, morale, loyalty in the difficult trials for almost two years
(Dowdeswell and et.al., 2020). He was not ready to accept the death and to face the tough
situation he created a strong team with a system approach. The elements of Shackleton's
leadership are:
 Optimism: The main characteristic of his leadership style was to be positive in any
situation. He always believed in his team and in mission. The decisions made by him
inspire his team members. The vision was very clear to survive and he was an enthusiast.
During the expedition he promote recreational activities like fun antics, games, singing
and other meriment.
 Clear and shared purpose: The another element of his leadership was having an
transparent objective. Everyone who had joined him to Antarctic clearly understood the