Richard Branson's Leadership and Management Philosophy: A Case Study

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Case Study: Richard Branson’s Leadership and
Management Philosophy
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Executive Summary
The report had been exemplified through the instances of the leadership style that is
signified by Richard Branson, in accordance to the situational context. The report had
objectified to assess the impact of performance on the virtues of the employee and it
also shown how it resulted in the affluences in their optimal productivity. The
recommendations on the lines of adhering to the practices of post-modern organisation
had been proposed to the ventures of Virgin Group Plc in order to accommodate the
changes in the business environment and international economies.
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary......................................................................................................... 2
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 4
Main body.........................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 10
Recommendations......................................................................................................... 11
Reference List................................................................................................................ 12
Appendix........................................................................................................................ 13
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Introduction
The Virgin Group Plc has been one of the exemplary cases of British international
entrepreneurship ventures that have been founded by Richard Branson in the year of
1970. Richard Branson is an English business tycoon, philanthropist, investor and
author (Higgs and Dulewicz, 2014). The charismatic leader has been knighted at
Buckingham palace for his roles in the entrepreneurship. In this report, the leadership
and management style has been implied to the overall alleviation of the business
performances at Virgin Group Plc.
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Main body
1. Discuss some of the behaviours and personality traits you observe in Richard
Branson supporting your argument with behavioural and trait theories.
The charismatic leader in the form of Richard Branson has been one of the influential
figures in the subjects of successful entrepreneurship and the traits are described below
in accordance to Big Five Personality Trait Theory:
Inquisitive
The persona of Richard Branson has always been exploring the different facets of
business ventures that he could delve. This includes exemplary contemplation on the
lines of understanding the airline and mobile industry, thus exacting on generating
higher revenues. This could be correlated to the facets of openness to experience of the
Big Five Personality Trait Theory. The openness to experience is described by the
extent of intellectual curiosity and creativity in the perspectives of certain situations
(Leutner et al., 2016). The curious minds of Richard Branson were one of the main
drivers behind the development of the product line of Virgin Voyages. Hence, it
describes how the personality traits overlap with Big Five Personality Trait Theory.
(Refer to appendix)
Assertive
The aspects of instantiating on the profitable yet austere ventures in the airline industry
had to come in terms with many sceptic opinions. This did not deter the assertive
attributes of his personality as he disregarded most of the comments with the figure of
speech on the lines of lighter notes. Richard Branson transcended on the selling of the
Virgin Records and has been one of the assertive decisions he has ever taken. This
encompasses the domains of Neuroticism of the Big Five Personality Trait Theory
(Huang et al., 2014). This features describes the extent of emotional stability
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demonstrated by an individual while holding up to the decisions and has been
exemplified through the impulse control of the decisions on selling the profitable
ventures of Virgin Records in order to finance the expensive litigation case against the
British Airways.
Innovative
The individuality of the Richard Branson has been delving in innovating the business
lines with the services of the Virgin Voyages. The Virgin Voyages has been
incorporated with the creativity of exotic food cuisines and has instantiated on the
innovative features of “Rock Star Suites” that would boasts 20 restaurants. This will be
for the first time that the cruise line would be asserted with such efficacies catering to
the ship buffet. This relates to the ventures of the openness to experience of Big Five
Personality Trait Theory and translates on the exposures of the inventive minds that is
associated with the ideas of Rock Star Suites.
Commitment
Richard Branson has been observed with the inclinations of staying put with the
decisions, regarding the personal and professional inclinations irrespective of the
adversities that come up on the way. This has been one of the significant drivers behind
the decisions of saving the Virgin Airlines at the expense of the Virgin Music Records.
This was because of the fact that the number of the employees associated with Virgin
Airlines was huge and the livelihood of many was dependent on it. Hence, he was
committed to save the Virgin Airlines and transcended on the subjects of the
conscientiousness in the Big Five Personality Trait Theory. Conscientiousness reflects
on the virtues of acting dutifully and ascends on the prospects of achieving an aim. The
facets of the personality of Richard Branson, as he was tending to be organised and
dependable highlight this (Parks-Leduc et al., 2016).
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2. Discuss how Richard Branson's leadership style impact
the performance and motivation of his employees at Virgin. Support your answer
with the relevant theories
The ideologies of Richard Branson have been one of the highly followed ideals in the
international scene to alleviate the respective business. The leadership style that has
been reflected by Richard Branson has been demonstrated below in context to the
leadership style
The Situational leadership
The aspect of the leadership virtues that is demonstrated in the lines of adversity while it
was hit the adversity of litigation case against the British Airways. The attributes of the
charismatic leader has been inclined to the alleviations of the employees in the advents
of decreased motivation as the employees were scared of the fact that they might lose
their job. This was due to the probability of the Virgin Airways losing out to British
Airways, resulting on unemployment. The idiosyncrasies of the leadership attributes in
Richard Branson took a turn for providing a suitable reaction to the needs of the
followers. This inclines to the implementation of the features on the context of
Situational Leadership. He believed in staying true to the cause of the employees and
conducted regular conferences where he could assert on the means of his vocational
prowess to address the improper advents of his employees by preaching the virtues of
perseverance. This helped the employees to shrug off the cloud of uncertainties and
imply on the means of alleviating the employee morale (Thompson and Glasø, 2014).
The insertion of the Situational leadership in the leadership styles of Richard Branson
could also be aligned to the situational context of selling the highly profitable Virgin
Records. The decision was instantiated in order to come up with the appropriate
response to the changing situations, which is an implicative virtues of Situational
Leadership. The response, in this case has been the putting off the profitable incursions
of the Virgin Record in order to generate substantial amount of finance in the situations
of vying the legal conflicts with the British Airways as well providing the employee with
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monetary assistance. It has enhanced the performances of winning the legal stand off
and helping the employee to transcend on optimal productivity even in such troubled
times.
The Transformational Leadership
The acts of the transformational leadership have been asserted based on identifying the
probable candidates who could adorn the responsibilities of the crucial designations
(McCleskey, 2014). The personality of the Richard Branson has been highlighting in the
facets of the Transformational Leadership with the initiations of the Virgin Group Plc.
The aspect of the character that draws him as one of the best transformation leader is
his maintenance of the employee relations. He has been observed with the
backgrounds of treating his employees with the equality and respect. This has helped
the employee to sustain a positive organisational culture and has developed a feeling of
belongingness within the employees to the objectives of the organisation. This the
driving factor behind the motivational accusations of employee to strive for bettering
their performance and increase productivity.
There have been prevalent scenarios where Richard Branson has been observed with
the efficacies of organising session where he would receive personal opinions and
feedbacks of the employees on the pretext of improving the business operations. This in
turn would lead to the increased employee engagement in the domains of exploring the
plausible reasons to come up with inventive business solutions and use them in their
respective job responsibilities to alleviate their performance.
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3. In a fast changing environment and a globalised economy, should Richard
Branson consider a more post-modern organisation? Justify your answer
The organisation has been undertaking the events of mitigating the risks in the waves of
internationalised economy. The most influential factors in the particular department
resembles on the facets of economic recession. The orthodox framework of
organisational structure has to be modified in order to accommodate the changes in the
field of fluctuations in currency valuations (Hatch, 2016). The company of Virgin Group
Ltd has to be asserted on the means of developing customer led diffusion to cater to the
fast changing environment of the consumer inclinations. The post-modern organisation
props up the beneficiaries of developing the poly centres with the self-controlled
teams who will be dedicated to the operations of consumer profiling while entering a
new international market and then fold up once the market penetration has been
conducted.
The organisational structure of the Virgin Group Ltd is still based on the hierarchical
structure and has to transcend on the efficacies of Meshwork matrix. The globalised
economy has been observant to the major influences of the activities of gaining
knowledge as a means of platform that would provide the business with a proficient
competitive edge. The preconceived notions of competitions in the form of resources
and economies of scale are under decline as a definitive measure to generate higher
riches of profit.
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Conclusion
Through the report, it has been assessed that the influential leader of Virgin Group Ltd,
Richard Branson has been proactively delving in the lines of modifying the leadership
style. The report has also been observed to discuss the manner in which the situational
leadership has addressed the issues that cropped due to the scenarios of legal
conjectures. It has also been analysed that the alignements, which could be drawn to
the characters and attributes of Richard Branson, overlaps with the Big Five Personality
Traits theory.
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Recommendations
Richard Branson should consider on the lines of paying attention to the instantiation of
the postmodern organisations with the features of managing information through the
means of instigating the Intellectual Property Rights. This will benefit the organisation to
secure the sensitive data and mitigate the prevalent occurrences of data breach and
‘phising’.
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Reference List
Ewen, R. and Ewen, R.B., 2014. An introduction to theories of personality. Psychology
Press.
Hatch, M.J., 2018. Organization theory: Modern, symbolic, and postmodern
perspectives. Oxford university press.
Higgs, M. and Dulewicz, V., 2016. Developments in leadership thinking. In Leading with
Emotional Intelligence (pp. 75-103). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Huang, J.L., Ryan, A.M., Zabel, K.L. and Palmer, A., 2014. Personality and adaptive
performance at work: A meta-analytic investigation. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 99(1), p.162.
Leutner, F., Ahmetoglu, G., Akhtar, R. and Chamorro-Premuzic, T., 2014. The
relationship between the entrepreneurial personality and the Big Five personality
traits. Personality and individual differences, 63, pp.58-63.
McCleskey, J.A., 2014. Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and
leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), p.117.
Parks-Leduc, L., Feldman, G. and Bardi, A., 2015. Personality traits and personal
values: A meta-analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 19(1), pp.3-29.
Payne, M. and Askeland, G.A., 2016. Globalization and international social work:
Postmodern change and challenge. Routledge.
Thompson, G. and Glasø, L., 2015. Situational leadership theory: a test from three
perspectives. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 36(5), pp.527-544.
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