Business Report: Leadership and Management Styles at Cobalt Consulting

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BUSINESS REPORT ON
APPROACHES OF
LEADERSHIP AND
MANAGEMENT IN A
GLOBAL CONTEXT
COBALT CONSULTING HOLDING LIMITED
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................3
QUESTIONS...............................................................................................................................4
1. DESCRIBING THE FUNCTIONAL AREAS OF COBALT CONSULTING HOLDINGS LIMITED
AND ITS HIERARCHY OF MANAGEMENT..............................................................................4
2. WHY IS COMMUNICATION CENTRAL TO LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT, PROVIDE
EXAMPLES OF EFFECTIVE INTERDEPARTMENTAL COMMUNICATION WITHIN THE
ORGANISATION.................................................................................................................... 6
3. WHAT ARE THE CURRENT DRIVERS OF GLOBALIZATION, HOW DRIVERS OF
GLOBALIZATION IMPACT BUSINESSES..................................................................................8
4. COMPARE AND CONTRAST TWO STYLES OF LEADERSHIP OR MANAGEMENT, WHICH
STYLE IS MOST SUITABLE FOR MODERN GLOBAL ORGANISATION AND WHY....................10
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 12
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................... 13
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INTRODUCTION
This business report is based on leadership and management at an international level. The
main aim is to study the leadership and management approaches for cobalt consulting
holdings limited. Cobalt Company has its operations in 14 offices in Europe, UK, Asia and
New Zealand. In this report, the functional areas and hierarchy management of Cobalt will
be assessed. The reason for communication central is for leadership and management, the
examples for interdependent communication in the internal environment of the
organization will be discussed. The company commencing its business is affected by some
global factors or drivers because every business works within a restricted and controlled
environment which impacts its functioning. There are different approaches or styles of
leadership and management suitable in the modern global environment these will be
evaluated in this report.
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QUESTIONS
1. DESCRIBING THE FUNCTIONAL AREAS OF COBALT CONSULTING
HOLDINGS LIMITED AND ITS HIERARCHY OF MANAGEMENT
It is the leading company that provides recruitment to the construction companies,
property, financial service company, accounting sector and engineering companies which
were incorporated in 2001. These sectors are bifurcated according to as-
Property, construction and engineering-
Property- In the real estate sector cobalt is having long experience in global real estate
recruitment since 2001 the aim of cobalt is to provide the right combination of required
skills and experience that is required to fulfil the companies’ objectives. This sector includes
providing services to property consultancies, property and development companies, fund
managers and housing association companies at a global level.
Construction- The construction sector involves contract based recruitments and permanent
basis in the main skill categories of project management, cost management/ quantity
serving, construction management, contract management in the civil sector, public and
private, consultancy organizations.
Engineering- Cobalt is in partnership with the multi-dispensary companies and professional
service consultancies to raise the talent and give them opportunities to grow with these big
companies. This sector includes civil engineering, building support engineering, and power
generation engineering, environmental planning engineering and traffic and support
consultancies. That also includes architectural designing town planning etc.
Financial service and accounting- Cobalt is having a good experience in the job profiles like
investment banking, asset management, corporate baking and private equity at the global
level. The main sectors for the financial sector are the UK, Europe and Asia. The project basis
recruitment for decision making in project finance, restructuring and global energy
management
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Interim solutions- cobalt provide support services to the small and entrepreneurial-based
companies that require interim advice with their expertise in leadership and management
that are most suitable and tailor based effective solutions.
Hierarchy of cobalt consulting holdings limited- There are 200 employees in cobalt and
these employees are present in 14 offices in various different countries of the world. As the
company is engaged in different types of field like real estate, finance etc. this means the
segregation is according to the field and also according to the department, there are
different departments of finance, human resource, IT etc. most of the workforce is recruiter
based i.e. most of the employees are recruiters and they work in coordination with other
recruiters in the office and across the boundaries also. The most important job is of a
recruiter who connects the job seeker and the job provider.
Figure 1- Organisational Structure of Cobalt
The organizational structure of cobalt is hierarchical and at cobalt the formal organizational
structure with CEO Mr James Wakefield who is also the co-founder of the company. In the
board of directors, there are 9 boards of directors in the company. These boards of directors
are head of different regions. The recruiters involve the main workforce also there are
different field related people also for different departments of HR, Finance etc.
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2. WHY IS COMMUNICATION CENTRAL TO LEADERSHIP AND
MANAGEMENT, PROVIDE EXAMPLES OF EFFECTIVE
INTERDEPARTMENTAL COMMUNICATION WITHIN THE
ORGANISATION
Leaders need to be first skilled communicators in order to become a successful leader, the
main aim of a leader and a manager is to motivate the employees or the team to work
effectively at the organization which can only be done when proper communication is done
with the employees.
Communication is a two-way process that can be in verbal and written format and at a
corporate level both the verbal and written communication is necessary. The manager at
the organization has the authority and the responsibility to manage and organize the human
resource capital in order to achieve the organizational goals, this organizational goal may be
profit maximization, revenue creation, customer/ client satisfaction etc. through
communication only the human capital of the company can be influenced to perform better
for the company (De Vries et al., 2010).
Advantages of communication for leadership and management –
1. Motivation- The most important advantage of communication is that through good
communication the employees or the team members are influenced to work better
with higher effectiveness and productivity. Communication helps the manager to
execute the strategies on time. At Cobalt, there are many employees that are self-
motivated but some need an external push from the leaders to perform better the
proper communication helps the employees to gain self-confidence to perform the
tasks (De Vries et al., 2010).
2. Employees’ commitment to the organization- Through proper communication by the
leader and manager the employees feel connected to the organization; they feel a
sense of commitment to the company. If the employees are committed to the
organization the chances for leaving the organization reduces and thus the employee
turnover ratio also decreases. At Cobalt, all employees are committed to the
company (De Vries et al., 2010).
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3. Fewer errors and problems- through proper communication the employees feel free
to ask their superiors about their problems and the leader/manager through his
experience solves the problems, this reduces the risk of blunders, errors and short
mistakes (De Vries et al., 2010).
4. Innovation and creativity- Through proper communication the manager invites the
team of employees to give their suggestion, innovative ideas to solve the problems
and creativity in establishing new strategies for the organization. This gives leaders
and managers new ideas and increase the competitive edge of the company and also
increases the confidence of employees, the employee’s gets recognition creates a
higher level of job satisfaction (De Vries et al., 2010).
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3. WHAT ARE THE CURRENT DRIVERS OF GLOBALIZATION, HOW DRIVERS
OF GLOBALIZATION IMPACT BUSINESSES
The business works in an environment and is surely affected by the changes in the
environment. As cobalt is a multinational company that has its operations in Asia, UK,
Europe and New Zealand with different economies of the world so these country laws affect
the operations of cobalt to a greater extent. A driver means the factor that contributes to
change. There are various current drivers of globalization but the main factors are
technological advancement, international trade, political factors, high competition, increase
in consumer demand and the international investment (Meyfroidt et al., 2013).
Political drivers – This factor is the most powerful factor that affects the operations of any
business in the economy. BREXIT is a political move which was agreed by 51% population of
the UK but the effects of this political move will result in huge losses to the companies which
have their international presence. Cobalt is a multinational consulting company that
operates in whole Europe and UK but the impact will be large because the company's
workforce is large and distributed worldwide and the imposition of various laws will restrict
the functioning in a negative sense. Every country has different laws and hence the changes
in legislation for one country will affect the revenues of the whole company (Meyfroidt et
al., 2013).
High competition- There is a number of competitors of cobalt in different fields. The major
competitors of cobalt are Adecco; Randstad etc. there are very large and big competitors for
cobalt due to globalization and every organization works very hard to gain a competitive
edge over the other competitors. As there is limited scope in the domestic country the
companies like cobalt expand in different countries but the company has to face the new
country’s established competitors. Like cobalt is in Asia and in the Asian market there are
different competitors that have their monopoly in the country and to compete with those
companies is very difficult (Meyfroidt et al., 2013).
Increase in demand- The consumers in different countries have different employment
opportunities and have a different level of the skilled population with different level of
demands for employment. There may be high demand in a country and there may be
saturation in the host country so to fulfil the demand outside the company has increased its
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boundaries but due to variations in the country’s dynamics the operations and the revenues
changes and is highly affected by this factor of globalization (Meyfroidt et al., 2013).
Advancement in technology- The changing environment, especially the fast innovative
technology, is the most challenging drivers of globalization. For a country some technology
is advanced and for another country the same technology is outdated this happens when a
country is fully developed and some country is underdeveloped. Cobalt has to deal with the
difference in technologies of different countries (Meyfroidt et al., 2013).
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4. COMPARE AND CONTRAST TWO STYLES OF LEADERSHIP OR
MANAGEMENT, WHICH STYLE IS MOST SUITABLE FOR MODERN GLOBAL
ORGANISATION AND WHY
There are different leadership styles that are used by all the companies around the world
but majorly there are two leadership styles that are autocratic leadership and participative
leadership style.
Autocratic leadership style- This style of leadership is also known as Authoritarian leadership
that don’t involve their subordinates and team members, they give clear advice that what is
the result they want and how it is to be done, when the work is to be done and the main
thing what is to be done by the team members for achieving the goal. The main focus of this
leadership style is to command the team and control the followers. The negative aspect of
this leadership is that this leadership style is less creative as the suggestions and creative
ideas from the followers, this style is very controlling and in this type of leadership enables
leaders to make decisions independently, this type of leadership is required where there is a
need to make quick decisions and the need for experience and expertise (Parker and Welch,
2013).
Figure 2 - Autocratic leadership style
Source- LS, (2019)
Democratic leadership style – This leadership style is also called participative leadership
style, in this style, the team members or the followers are involved in decision making, the
leaders offer the guidance to the team and also invite the team to give some input on the
topic. This style initiates high innovation and creativity levels in the team and this makes the
employees induce their self-confidence and thus they are motivated to work with more
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efficiency and are committed to their organization. The work here is less productive than the
autocratic style but the work will be of the highest quality (Parker and Welch, 2013).
Figure 3- Democratic leadership style
Source- LS, (2019)
The most suitable leadership style for cobalt is participative or democratic leadership style
as the cobalt needs the participation of employees and the efficiency of employees can only
be increased if they impose this participative leadership style. The most effective leadership
style is democratic leadership style and as cobalt requires high-quality talented people for
their most precious clients so the quality is what matters the most and so the democratic
leadership style is best for cobalt. Autocratic leadership is dictator leadership that doesn’t
initiate innovation which is not in the case of democratic style.
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CONCLUSION
The abovementioned business report can be summarized in the fact that leadership and
management services are a necessity of every organization and to implement the leadership
and management approaches the company can achieve its objectives and earn success.
Cobalt consulting holdings ltd Company has the expertise in providing recruitments to their
clients worldwide and this company plays a good example for leadership. In this report, the
current drivers of the globalization like technology advancement, political instability and
more are discussed. Communication is the key for managers and leaders as it enhances the
motivation of employees to increase their efficiency and develop creative and innovative
ideas to achieve the organizational objectives of cobalt.
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