Leadership: A Critical Perspective Report on Organizations

This report provides a critical perspective on leadership, exploring various leadership styles and their impact on organizational success. It analyzes leadership aspects such as vision creation, motivation, and team development, supported by interviews with leaders from Qantas Airways (Alan Joyce), Tourism Australia (John O'Sullivan), and Myers (Richard Umbers). The report examines the conceptualization of leadership in response to organizational issues, including financial losses, lack of team professionalism, and the need for strategic adaptation. It also discusses the application of models like Tuckman's stages of group development in fostering effective teams and addresses challenges faced by leaders in the tourism and airline industries, emphasizing the importance of transparent decision-making and proactive problem-solving. The report concludes with recommendations for effective leadership practices.

Running head: LEADERSHIP - A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE
Leadership - A Critical Perspective
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Leadership aspects...........................................................................................................................3
Interviews conducted to demonstrate roles played by leaders.........................................................4
Conceptualization of leadership according to the Organizational issues faced...............................6
Leadership practices and theories and impact on organizational success.......................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Leadership is an essential aspect that enables a person, who performs the role of a leader
and gets the work done by another person within the organisation. The leadership activities
managed by a leader within a business organisation include creating a vision of the future that
can help in guiding the employees in the right direction. Leaders also motivate and encourage
them by lifting their morale and enthusiasm to perform better according to the vision and mission
statement of the organisation. The leaders also manage the development of a team, enable
training sessions for improving their skills and knowledge and furthermore allow them to
accomplish the goals and objectives with ease and effectiveness (Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2012).
Leadership aspects
For creating a vision, the leaders within the business organizations focus on the strengths
and weaknesses of the company by utilizing the SWOT analysis, Porter’s five forces analysis,
PEST analysis, etc. It can help in analysing the present situation of the business and develop
strategies based on that for becoming successful in the future market place. The leaders also test
the vision by conducting appropriate market researches and assess the risks with the use of
Scenario analysis technique (Antonakis, 2017). Leadership is a proactive thing present in
individuals that can make an individual gain the ability to solve problems, focus on the future
and ensure that the workers of the organization are kept motivated to perform efficiently and
increase organizational production level. Leaders play the role of mentors who can motivate and
encourage the individuals for delivering the vision that has been set by the organization and
furthermore create link between two expectations. These expectations including the expectation
of hard work from the employees to deliver positive outcomes and expectation of results that can
make the workers obtain both monetary and non-monetary rewards and incentives are managed
by the leader too (Avolio & Yammarino, 2013). Within a work-related environment, the leaders
have the duties of delivering the vision by identifying the key performance indicators and make
sure that the employees are kept informed about these for successful fulfilment of organisational
needs and living up to the organisational standards as well. An effective leader also manages his
roles and responsibilities properly to develop a team, train it and make the team achieve the
vision with ease. According to the Tuckman’s model, the leaders manage the various approaches

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including the forming, storming, norming and performing to ensure that the team is developed
properly and training is provided to the team members (Beck & Cowan, 2014). The training and
developmental sessions would allow them to improve their skills and knowledge level and make
them perform to their potential to contribute largely to the company where they had been
working.
Interviews conducted to demonstrate roles played by leaders
Qantas Airways
One of the interviews that took place was the interview with Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas
Airways. The entire interview scenario was recorded by The Monday Interview, which showed
that Alan Joyce had been quite focused on individual goals and objectives and he had the
abilities and skills to perform aggressively with a vision in mind. The focus of Qantas Airways'
CEO was to generate the maximum level of profit and ensure that the airline's company does not
suffer from any loss in the future (Bolman & Deal, 2017). Alan Joyce has managed to run
Australia's largest flag carrier properly, and the interviews where he has been involved show that
he is quite soft-spoken, though has the ability to make the company sustain in the competitive
business environment. He has been registered in more than 80,000 media conferences and is one
of the billionaires in Australia (Briggs, Morrison & Coleman, 2012).
Due to his immense contribution to the Airlines company, "Flying Kangaroo" is one of
the most reputed brands and has even left behind Virgin Australia concerning revenue
generation. When the company faced a huge problem due to the high price of fuel and high
competition level, Alan Joyce, rather than criticising the business, faced the critics and provided
the media with relevant answers related to the l the causes of such problems. Soon, his leadership
skills and abilities marked the remarkable return of the company and Qantas generated a profit of
more than A$206m (Colombini & McBride, 2012). Alan Joyce has graduated from Dublin
Institute of technology and Trinity College Dublin by studying BA and MSc respectively.
According to him, the transformation program aimed to provide $2bn in cost cuts for managing
proper cooperation between the management and union leaders. The employees were provided
with good working conditions and this ensured better flexibility for transforming the company
from good to best to deliver the best. In spite of being a gay chief executive, he thinks that it is

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not an issue and with the ever-changing global environment nowadays, he believes on focusing
towards individual goals and objectives to become successful (Daft, 2014).
Tourism Australia
The Australian tourism is one of the leading sectors where the leaders have played a
major role in enhancing the organisational efficiency and keep the needs and preferences of the
customers fulfilled. Because of the effective leadership skills and abilities, the tourism sector in
Australia has managed to generate good amounts of revenue in business along with a huge
customer base. An interview was conducted with the Tourism Australia managing director John
O’ Sullivan to know the approaches and techniques followed by him as a leader to overcome
challenges and measure the rate of return on investment derived from the social media efforts
(DuBrin, 2015). The Managing Director of Tourism Australia has successfully managed to
maintain the best quality of food and wine to keep the customers satisfied and thereby ensures
that they look at the perception of Australia as a food and wine destination. When asked about
any other themes that Tourism Australia has managed to focus on after cuisine, John O’ Sullivan
stated that they had plans of setting up hotels and restaurants near the Australian coastline for a
series on the Great Barrier Reef as well. This would create a positive mindset among the
customers as they could enjoy food and wine while being connected to the outside environment
and experience a pleasant stay (Fransen, Weinberger & Kirschner, 2015). Tourism Australia has
been a leader in terms of social media strategy on the social networking websites. According to
the responses of John, it could be demonstrated that he had used the social media strategies to
attract more customers and make them know about the Australian tourism sector, furthermore
create a leadership position with ease and efficiency (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2013).
Myers
Richard Umbers was appointed as the new CEO of Myers in Australia to manage
approaches and act as an effective leader to appeal more customers. As a responsible leader,
Richard Umbers has reformed the emotional connection of the customers with the business for
ensuring that the retail store becomes successful in the future as well as appeal a large segment
of customers to draw in more profit and even make the company gain the competitive advantage
in business. According to him, customer engagement is essential, and this proves that he wants

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his workers to perform well to fulfill every needs and requirement of customers, as they are
considered as the most important stakeholders in the business (Hackman & Johnson, 2013). The
primary reason for replacing the existing CEO, i.e., Bernie Brookes, was to generate more profit
and enhance the sales. According to him, digital and online approaches are needed to be
managed, which is possible by making investments to enhance the brand awareness, attract new
customers as well as retain the existing ones. The new CEO of Myers, Australia, Richard
Umbers also made sure that a senior professional and committed team should be developed for
enhancing the effectiveness of the organisation and deliver positive outcomes in terms of
business efficiently (Hargreaves & Fink, 2012).
Conceptualization of leadership according to the Organizational issues faced
Just as it could be seen from the last interview with the CEO of Myers, the profit level
and sales decreased largely, because of which, a new leader was appointed. The new leader of
Myers, Richard Umbers decided to form a team consisting of skilled and knowledgeable workers
who could contribute to the organisational effectiveness with ease and effectiveness. The major
issue faced was the lack of professionalism and committed team members, due to which, they
failed to move in the right direction by following the vision of the organisation. It was necessary
to form an effective team, and it could be done by following the Bruce Tuckman’s team
formation model (Johnston & Marshall, 2016). The model consists of various stages including
the forming, storming, norming and performing. It shows that as the team develops various skills
and abilities, the performances not only increase, but also relationships are established along
with a change in styles of leadership to transform the company into something better and drive
the sales revenue and profit level too. For the CEO of Myer, Australia, Tuckman's stages of
group development would help to form a team and allow it to grow, face challenges, take risks,
handle issues, find solutions, plan the approaches and finally deliver the outcomes (Lussier &
Achua, 2015).
Qantas Airways faced a loss of $2.8 billion, according to the financial figures. The loss
showed that the company did not have a proper long-term strategy and viability along with lack
of investments made. The other issues are related to the ways or approaches by which Qantas
Airways has appealed to the history to manage the regulatory environment. Due to the huge pre-
tax loss of $646 million, there is need of making investments to deal with the higher share prices

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and maintain a stable financial condition too. There were also questions that arose on behalf of
the CEO of the company, who was criticised about decisions taken by the gay CEO. On the other
hand, Alan Joyce blamed the rising of fuel costs and made decisions to ensure that the company
recover from its loss easily (Nahavandi, 2016). Joyce not only survived the criticism and
handled the situation wisely, but also changed the foreign ownership restrictions. He brought a
huge turnaround by delivering good financial results and implement strategies for managing the
growth and development of business effectively. He focused towards the goals and objectives,
which helped in taking the airlines and unions, and slowly the shares increased to more than $4,
furthermore generating pre-tax earnings of $1.6 as well. The leader made transparent decisions to
ensure that the services provided by the airline's company were effective and could keep the
customers satisfied too (Northouse, 2015). Qantas Airways experienced lots f issues beyond the
management control, and to deal with the issue, Alan Joyce acted as a responsible leader and
made the workers understood the vision and mission of the organisation.
Tourism in Australia is a very strong labour intensive business market where many
opportunities are provided for employees. This sector is one of the fastest growing sectors that
have provided jobs, though the individuals should possess good knowledge, skills and expertise.
One of the major issues faced by the managing director John O' Sullivan was the lack of
employment opportunities provided to the people of Australia, especially the youth segments,
which not only deteriorated the effectiveness of the tourism sector but also created a negative
impact on the economic growth of the country (Raes et al., 2015). To deal with these kinds of
issues, John O’ Sullivan followed the democratic leadership style to ensure that all the responses
of people were gathered and then a fruitful decision could be made. He also discussed openly
these issues with the Government of Australia, because he was more focused on creating a good
condition and ensured better labour productivity within the tourism and hospitality industry. The
availability of skilled human resources is important for the success of a tourism development
program, and the major issues that have arisen include unstable employment scopes, low job
status, lesser wages paid to the employees and extended working hours (Reeves & Ventura,
2012). Due to this, there had been a high turnover of staff, thereby making it more difficult for
gaining success within the tourism and hospitality industry.

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Leadership practices and theories and impact on organizational success
The Tuckman’s team formation model consists of forming, storming, norming and
performing, which can help to create a positive impact on the success of the organisation.
Storming stage enables to make decisions and relationships are established between the team
members, which can even result in facing various challenges while working as a team. Here,
with the support and guidance of the leader, the members of the team would be able to gain
clarity in their roles and responsibilities and furthermore focus on individual goals and objectives
without being disturbed by emotional issues (Renz, 2016). Compromises are made for ensuring
progress in the next stages. The norming stage is considered as one of the most important stages
where agreements are made, and the consensus is formed between the team members and the
roles of team members become clear and conscious. The decisions that are smaller have been
delegated to the smaller teams, and strong bonding is formed, which allows for unity and
coordination to perform the tasks at a faster rate (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2016). Thus, the
contribution of the leader is huge, and it promotes effective working conditions as well as
manage the flow of processes within the organization with ease and effectiveness. The leader
follows the situational leadership style where participation of the team members is needed
because the leader mentors or coaches them (Spillane, 2012).
The last stage is performing, where the team become more aware of the strategies and
even understands the roles and responsibilities properly. The team follows a shared vision, and
because of the skills and knowledge acquired, the involvement of the leader is not required. The
members of the team make decisions by agreeing with the leader and team has achieved a high
level of autonomy. As this is the last stage of the team formation model, misunderstandings and
conflicts within the team are resolved, and the team will be able to work towards a common goal
or objective (Tannenbaum, Weschler & Massarik, 2013). The members of the team can even
request for the guidance of the leader through the interpersonal development within the
organisation. The leader also provided training programs to them so that their skills and
knowledge could be improved and they could perform to their potential for making useful
contributions to the organization.
One of the leadership theories has been the trait theory that shows that people are born
with inherited traits, and few traits are mainly suited for various kinds of leadership. The

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individuals who are capable of becoming good leaders have the right combination of traits,
which make them differentiable from others. The leaders who can create a positive impact on the
success of the organisation shall have good decision making skills, ability to work as a team and
guide the team members in the right direction, remain persistent, self-confident, energetic and
focused on the goals and objectives of the organization (Tourish, 2014). The leaders must have
the skills to adapt to certain situations and work in an ambitious manner for ensuring
achievements with ease and effectiveness. The leaders also must hold the trait of remaining self-
confident to assess the views and opinions of the employees properly and ensure that a proper
decision is made for the benefit of the company. The leaders must also be able to handle stressful
situations and be creative, diplomatic, organized, persuasive and socially skilled in managing the
workforce properly (van Es, 2012).
Just from the case studies illustrated in the above sections, it could be understood that
Richard Umbers, the CEO of Myers managed to form teams for enabling coordination and
teamwork and allow them to contribute to the organisation by considering the vision and mission
statement of the organisation. He followed the Tuckman's model of group development to form
an effective team that would be capable of handling problems, plan for necessary approaches and
find out the most relevant solutions to those problems. On the other hand, the loss faced by
Qantas Airways was a major issue, and it was dealt by Alan Joyce by making necessary
investments and even take support from the Government to manage the funding procedures and
ensure delivery of good quality services to people (Ward, 2016).
Conclusion
The topic included the various concepts of leadership and ways by which leaders could
act responsibly to overcome the issues experienced by the business organisations. The issues
experienced within the organizations included lack of employment opportunities, investments,
etc. and in order to deal with these specific plans are made to find solutions to the problems and
deliver the most positive outcomes efficiently. Transparent and open decisions were made to
overcome these issues and ensure proper control of management and administration within the
organisation as well.

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Recommendations
 Few suitable recommendations are made for assisting the leaders to fulfill their roles and
responsibilities properly. The major recommendations are:
 Leaders must focus on the various concepts of mentoring, teaching and coach the
employees to make them move in the right direction as well as obtain the relevant
knowledge required for accomplishing the work requirements with ease and effectiveness
 It is recommended for the leaders to make sure that the needs and requirements of the
worker are fulfilled, and they are kept motivated so that they can perform to their
potential
 For a leader, it is important to remain committed and clarify the leadership vision for
identifying the areas that will be needed to be improved.
 The leader is recommended to develop emotional intelligence for focusing on the direct
reports and collect feedbacks from the people informally for improving the areas that
lacked certain strengths.
 It is also recommended for the leader to become self-aware, self-confident and strategic
for getting the work done effectively by the employees as well as resolve the issues that
were faced earlier.

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