Individual Business Research Proposal: Democratic Leadership at ASDA

This research proposal investigates the relationship between democratic leadership style and employee commitment and performance within the UK retail industry, specifically focusing on ASDA. The study aims to understand the concept of democratic leadership, assess its impact on employee commitment and performance, and recommend strategies for improvement. The proposal includes a literature review discussing the concept of democratic leadership, its impact on employee commitment and performance, and the methodology, which involves a survey research design using both primary and secondary data collection methods. The study's feasibility and ethical considerations are also addressed, with a focus on understanding how democratic leadership can influence employee behavior, commitment, and ultimately, organizational success within a competitive retail environment.

Individual business research
proposal

CONTENTS
TOPIC TITLE............................................................................................................................1
RESEARCH AIM AND OBJECTIVES....................................................................................1
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE......................................................................................1
INITIAL LITERATURE REVIEW...........................................................................................2
Concept of democratic style of leaders..................................................................................2
Impact of democratic leadership style on employee’s commitment......................................3
“Relationship between democratic leadership style and employee’s performance................4
METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................................5
Research design......................................................................................................................5
Data collection method...........................................................................................................5
Sampling.................................................................................................................................5
Data analysis...........................................................................................................................5
Ethical considerations.............................................................................................................6
Research limitations...............................................................................................................6
FEASIBILITY............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................7

TOPIC TITLE
The main topic of the current research work is “Relationship between democratic
leadership style and employee’s commitment and performance”.
RESEARCH AIM AND OBJECTIVES
Aim
The main aim of the current research work is “To evaluate the relationship between
democratic leadership style on employee performance and commitment within UK retail
industry – a study on ASDA”.
Objectives
In order to attain the specified aim some small objectives need to be framed and these
are being defined below:
 To understand the concept of democratic style of leaders
 To determine the impact of democratic leadership style on employee commitment
 To identify the influence of democratic leadership style on employee performance
 To recommend strategies for improving employee commitment and performance
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE
Talking in relation with the human resource, it is being regarded as the heart of the
firm as it has a crucial role to play in making improvement in the effectiveness as well as
efficiency of the organization. Thus, it can be attributed that the human resource can be
labelled as a driver of competitive advantage which can not be compared. It is quite obvious
that the success of the firm can be attained only by the commitment as well as performance of
the workers through emphasising on attaining the primary goal of the firm. In addition to this,
another crucial element for measuring the success of the firm is the leadership style of the
manager (Bass and Stogdill, 2017). Consequently, the style of leadership being adopted by
the manager is the most usual element that can impact the behaviour, commitment,
performance and attitude of the workers which might result into enhanced commitment and
performance of the organization. To that being uttered, it is the leaders and their style that
impacts the workers which might result into more contended and committed workers, which
in turn augments the productivity of the organization. In past several years, varied alteration
in the manners of leadership and their attitude have been witnessed, right from the moving
from autocratic to participative approach.
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In this present world of globalization, people now are becoming more expressive as
well as wise and thus, there is a requirement of a participative or democratic environment and
more inclusion in the decision making for better outcomes and success. There were different
studies being undertaken in relation with the role of leadership and its influence on the
performance of the organization and in what manners the commitment of the organization
can be a mediating factor in enhancing the performance of the firm (Yiing and Bin Ahmad,
2019). However, with the each passing year, there has been change in the human behaviour
and consequently, it is quite important to investigate how democratic leadership style is
related with employee commitment and performance. Considering this, the main aim of the
current research study is to evaluate the relationship between democratic leadership style on
employee performance and commitment within UK retail industry – a study on ASDA. It will
make an attempt to search out whether democratic leadership style act as a mediating factor
in improving employee commitment and performance or not. For this reason, this particular
study is considered very significant.
INITIAL LITERATURE REVIEW
Concept of democratic style of leaders
According to Yunarsih and et.al., (2020), leadership plays a vital role for the success
of business, every company’s leader needs to adopt effective leadership style to work
effectively. Democratic style of leaders is also known as participative leadership which helps
leaders to make important decision-making process. By using democratic style leaders of the
company can easily motivate their team members while making any important decisions.
basically, it is a collaborative approach which helps leaders to decide about the working
related things. By using this style of leadership, the leaders can ask for team members input
and collect feedback from them. Team member’s opinion plays a vital role because it helps
decision to be made effectively with the participation of each member. With the
implementation of democratic style, leaders can decide about their strategic initiatives,
upcoming projects and work on team change concept also. When the company like ASDA
use this leadership style, leaders can encourage them to participate in task discussion.
Miloloža, (2018) Identifies that, With the help of this style, everyone along with
leader is given the great opportunity to participate and share their point of view which can
foster the working environment. this process of style always focuses on group improvement,
equality and free flow of ideas. By using this style of leadership, leader can easily encourage
group members’ productivity. This can not only increase commitments of employees but also
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increase motivation level of people and make better contributions to achieve goals. The major
benefit of using this style is that team mates feel more engaged and valued in the process of
decision making, another important benefit is that it encourages people’s creativity which
foster teamwork among all. Leaders in big companies use participative leadership approach.
Not only this, by using democratic style of leadership the leaders can give opportunity to
team members to provide creative solutions to problems relating to business work (Al
Khajeh, 2018).
Impact of democratic leadership style on employee’s commitment
Democratic leadership style is one of the best styles which can be used by leaders,
with the help of this style the company’s leaders can easily encourage participation from
other team mates in the organisation. So, that they can make decision making process
successful. Yunarsih and et.al., (2020), Shared their point of view that by using this style
everyone at the workplace is encouraged to participate in tasks. The best thing about this style
is that it helps organisation led to involvement of employee satisfaction and increased
feelings of recognition. Therefore, it is said that this style encourages participations which
helps build strong relationship between employees and leaders which is good for
organisational performance. As we all know that team building is important and also feelings
of involvement is also essential with this. This can be achieved by using democratic
leadership style. ASDA leaders says that with the implementation of democratic leadership
style they have improve working because there are more view points to the table.
Drawing on a wide pool of knowledge, skills, and experience brings more input to the
decision-making process. This can be done by using democratic style which helps in
increasing performance of employees. When employees feel valued and participated, it can
foster their commitment level towards company and work effectively to achieve common
goals and objectives set by their leaders. When there is free flow of ideas, then it will lead to
decision being made that have been help to higher level of standards of scrutiny. Akparep,
Jengre and Mogre, (2019) Argues that democratic leadership style highlight team mates that
have good skills, knowledge and experience and those that do not. Which create negative
emotions among employees. In some cases, in the company, one team members is always
appreciated because of his consistent implementation of creative ideas. The other team
members feel like their opinions are not at all valued by leaders which stop them participating
in the decision-making process. This hinders their commitment and also their performance
which can create negative emotions.
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Kotamena, Senjaya and Prasetya, (2020) Commented that when leaders allow to bring
an idea to the table at workplace and it is heard, potentially accepted and implemented then
employee’s commitment levels increase. While on other hand, it is very hard time for
employee when they feel not involved in team decision while can impact the organisational
culture and also negatively affected healthy environment. For dealing with this situation
leader have to be very active and manage emotions by showing them empathy. However,
these negative emotions are managed, this style of leadership can often reduce productivity
instead of enhancing it which can impact commitment of employees. Hence, it is said that
when used correctly, this style can foster positive work cultures and also increase higher
levels of commitment this is how it is linked with employee’s commitment.
“Relationship between democratic leadership style and employee’s performance
According to Kotamena, Senjaya and Prasetya, (2020), employee performance is
totally depended on the ways leader treat them and style used by them at workplace. When
the leaders of the company encourage employee in every aspect such as giving them chance
to make decisions, encourage employee involvement, giving them chance to share ideas and
experience, then it can increase their performance. While on the other side, if leader does not
use effective leadership style and do partiality among employee it can create negative
emotions among people. This can hinder their productivity and performance both which is
not beneficial for the company’s success. plus, fostering feelings of involvement and
inclusion, team mates are made to feel more important. The leaders must understand their
needs and concerns raised by them, because of this they can feel more integrated and valued
into the company. Akparep, Jengre and Mogre, (2019) Says that as more minds are working
on a problem-solving case, the number of potential solutions increase while decision may be
reached instantly and quickly which can increase performance of employees. Under this
leadership style, solution can be achieved to get instant results. Under this style, discussion
becomes the norm while is good to build team relationships as there is an effective
communication with each other.
As per (), the democratic leadership style is sometimes defined as the participative
style actively involving workers in the decision-making process of the firm and also has the
final say, employees are being offered a voice in the crucial process of decision making. One
of the most effective leadership styles that is democratic leadership style helps in encouraging
collaboration within the workspace and offers the employees a strong voice. Further,
democratic leadership have a significant impact on the performance of the employees. as per
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(), when employees are valued by the firm, they employ their best efforts to attain the pre-
determined objectives. Additionally, they also sense a feeling of belongingness and thus, it
leads in higher level of employee performance and productivity. Other than this, the author
has further explained that leaders adopting the democratic leadership style most of the time
encourages and motivates enhanced level of cooperation between the team members. Such
leaders give invitation to the workers to have fruitful discussion about the factors that might
impact a specific decision. Due to this, employees have a better comprehension of the
reasoning behind the decision being taken by them.
METHODOLOGY
Research design
Research design are of varied kinds such as case study, survey, action research,
ethnography. In the present work, the researcher will be going to adopt survey research
design. it is a particular type of study in which the primary method of collecting information
is carried out through using survey (Denscombe, 2017). And this is the main reason for
selecting this in this study. Other than this, it is more appropriate than other research design
as it helps in attaining greater degree of understanding about the perspectives of individual
and group in respect with the concerned topic.
Data collection method
Primary and secondary are the two most crucial and popular methods of accumulating
data. In the present context, the researcher will adopt both primary and secondary data
collection methods. In regards with the primary data, it will be accumulated by conducting
survey of the participants being involved in the study. Further, it will be performed by using
questionnaire which will encompasses close ended questions. On contrary to this, secondary
data will be collected through discovering different secondary sources such as articles,
journals, books and online sources.
Sampling
The sample of the study will comprise 30 employees working in ASDA. Moreover,
they will be selected on the basis of simple random sampling method as it offers equal chance
to the participants of getting selected in the primary research work.
Data analysis
There are two important types of data analysis technique that is qualitative and
quantitative analysis method. Nevertheless, considering the aim and objectives of the study,
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the researcher will make use of qualitative analysis technique wherein thematic analysis tool
will be utilized for analysing the collected information (Graziano and Raulin, 2016). The
main reason behind selecting this method is that the current study does not involves any
quantifiable data.
Ethical considerations
There are many ethical considerations which will be considered in this study. Firstly,
the researcher will take the permission from all the respondents before initiation of the study.
Secondly, all the information will be collected from the reliable and authentic sources.
Thirdly, confidentiality of information of respondents will be maintained.
Research limitations
The main limitation of the current research study will be that it will be a time-
consuming process. Additionally, the results of the qualitative study can not be verified.
Further, it is a labour-intensive process and the current study will not be statistically
representative.
FEASIBILITY
To expand the attainability of the review, the specialist will utilize extensive variety
of exploration questions. This multitude of inquiries will be tended to by the subjective
examination in the current work. Furthermore, suitable exploration configuration will be
picked by the analyst and compelling reasoning will be presented for choosing the
methodologies and techniques. Diversity of the members will likewise be taken into account
while inspecting the members. Additionally, the investigator will likewise utilize thematic
examination tool in which all the discoveries will be elucidated exhaustively as well as
suitably. This multitude and characterized parts of plausibility review will be valuable in
distinguishing a mediation being embraced by the specialist for additional testing or the
thoughts and discoveries can be moulded to be relevant as well as supportable.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Akparep, J. Y., Jengre, E. and Mogre, A. A., 2019. The influence of leadership style on
organizational performance at TumaKavi Development Association, Tamale,
Northern Region of Ghana.
Al Khajeh, E. H., 2018. Impact of leadership styles on organizational performance. Journal of
Human Resources Management Research, 2018, pp.1-10.
Bass, B. and Stogdill, R., 2017. Bass & Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research
&Managerial Applications.
Denscombe, M., 2017. The good research guide for small-scale social research projects.
3rded. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press.
Graziano, A.M. and Raulin, M.L., 2016. Research Methods: A Process of Inquiry. 6thed.
Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Kotamena, F., Senjaya, P. and Prasetya, A.B., 2020. A Literature Review: Is
Transformational Leadership Elitist and Antidemocratic?. International Journal of
Social, Policy And Law. 1(1). pp.36-43.
Miloloža, I., 2018. Impact of leadership style to financial performance of enterprises.
Business Systems Research: International journal of the Society for Advancing
Innovation and Research in Economy. 9(1). pp.93-106.
Yiing, L.H. and Bin Ahmad, K.Z., 2019. The moderating effects of organizational culture on
the relationships between leadership behaviour and organizational commitment and
between organizational commitment and job satisfaction and performance.
Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 30(1). pp.53-86.
Yunarsih, N. and et.al., 2020. Develop Leadership Style Model for Nurse in Indonesian
Hospital. Systematic Reviews in Pharmacy. 11(8).
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