Leadership Types and Skills in Vodafone's Case Study

VODAFONE’S CASE STUDY 1
Leadership types and skills
Name
Institution of affiliation
Date

VODAFONE’S CASE STUDY 2
Question 1
Every organization requires a leader who has good leadership qualities and has a rich
knowledge of the leadership skills needed in the well running of the organization. Good
leadership skills not only make the running of the organization to be an easy task but also makes
the company or organization achieve its target of hitting the highest profit targets. Is there
specific leadership style suitable for Detlef Schultz? To answer this question, it is important to
consider many aspects. Firstly, it is important to note that leading an organization is not an easy
task and, in fact, not everyone has the necessary skills to be a good leader. A person can be born
with the predisposition to lead but if he does not put it into practice or strive to improve his
leadership skills, this innate capacity cannot be exploited and, therefore, it would be as if he did
not have it (Goleman, 2017). Consequently, before answering the question, is there a suitable
leadership style for Detlef Schultz?, we are going to inquire about the concept of leader.
Contrary to a manager, a leader is the person who is able to influence and support others so that,
with commitment and involvement, they can direct their efforts in favor of fulfilling the
objectives of the organization. Some of the characteristics of a good leader are: commitment,
initiative, empathy, charisma, effort, long-term vision, honesty and self-confidence (Avolio &
Avolio, 2011). Depending on their personality and interests, a leader will decide to adopt an
innovative leadership style or another. Some of the leadership styles that can be adopted are the
following: transactional, transformational, authoritarian, democratic, consultative and laissez-
faire. Answering the initial question, there is no ideal leadership style; each of them has its
advantages and disadvantages. Depending on the employees and the person in charge of leading
the group or team , a certain style of leadership it will be more appropriate than another (In
Mughal & In Kamal, 2018). For example, in the case that a team consists of people who like to

VODAFONE’S CASE STUDY 3
take initiatives and prefer not to be controlled by their superior, it is possible that the style of
leadership that best suits this case is the Laissez-faire.
For our case, Detlef Schultz would have needed to adopt a transformational type of
leadership in revolutionizing Vodafone’s global supply chain function. This is because the
transformational type of leadership is the best type of leadership that would have made the
transformation of supply chains of the company an easy task (Adeniyi,2007). The first strength
of this type of leadership that would suit Schultz is that it is visionary, charismatic as well as
motivating. Vodafone, at this time, needed that charismatic and visionary type of procurement
leader in order to reach out to the fast and rapidly growing global market.
Transformational leadership also has an influence on the attitudes as well as assumptions
of the members on an organization( Adeniyi,2007). Since this type of leadership centers on the
welfare of the workers, they tend to develop the feeling that they are an integral part of the
organization. This will make them give the best out of their selves. For the case of Vodafone,
Schultz would have applied this leadership type to influence workers in different branches of the
organization to develop that positive attitude towards work. This would have been the best way
to carry out his procurement management plans.
Transformational type of leadership fosters innovations and intellectual growth amongst
the workers. Bradberry, & Greaves(2012) are of the opinion that this leadership style gives the
workers and other stakeholders the opportunity to work on their own and come up with
innovative ways of solving problems and performing various tasks. It is this kind of leadership
that would best suit Schultz. This is simply because Vodafone is a technology related company
that needs a lot of inventions and innovations as well as the use of personal wit in solving