Management and Leadership in Action: An Analysis of eBay Inc.

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Management and Leadership in Action
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
Reference List..........................................................................................................................12
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Introduction
It is important for every organisation to embrace change in their business operation for
avoiding decrease in their performance quality and outdating themselves in the industry. The
role of effective leadership and successful management is very important for proper
flourishing of the organisation. The vision and mission of the organisation is set by the
leaders who are also responsible to communicate with the stakeholders according to the
culture and ethics of the organisation. In this study, the perspectives of leadership and key
theories of management will be discussed in context to the chosen organisation. The
effectiveness of the leadership and management in enhancing the organisational profitability
will be judged. The organisation chosen for this study is eBay Inc. it is a global e-commerce
organisation based in America. Pierre Omidyar founded it in the year 1995. The company
already has its business expansion on more than 30 countries (Ebay.co.uk. 2019).
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Discussion
1. Identify key theories and perspectives of leadership and management within a range
of contexts and diverse environments.
Leadership can be defined as the quality and ability of the leaders of an organisation to lead
the subordinate employees of the organisation in fulfilling the desired targets of the
organisation. For organisations like eBay Inc., it is important for a strong and effective
leadership within the organisation to meet all the customer demands. There are several types
of leadership theories followed by leaders all across the globe. Some of the theories are:
 Great Man Leadership Theory - It is one of the leadership theories, which specify
the concept of leaders possessing the traits within themselves by birth. According to
this theory, the leadership qualities are inherent and they are not manmade
(Rosenbach, 2018). The traits commonly found in the leader’s right from their birth
are intellectual, charismatic, excellent social and communicative skills.
 Contingency Leadership Theory – Famous researchers White and Hodgson
proposed this theory. The basic concept of this theory is that no particular style of
leadership is appropriate for all kinds of situations faced by the organisation. The
leaders should have a perfect balance of the context, behaviour and needs of the
organisation in their leadership style (Antonakis and Day, 2017). Along with the
appropriate qualities, the leaders should also evaluate the requirements of the aroused
situation and what should be done for his followers within the organisation. It can be
assumed that contingency theory of leadership is a combination all the essential
qualities and duties of a leader.
 Situational Leadership Theory – Situational theory has similarity with the
contingency leadership theory as it suggests that neither of the leadership style is
appropriate for every kind of situation faced by an organisation like eBay. The leaders
should change their leadership styles according to the situational demand. Before
taking a decision, the leaders should properly analyse the situation, demands of the
customers from the organisation, prevailing trends in the industry and suitability of
the employees towards the situation (Thompson and Glasø, 2015).
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Figure 1: Situational Leadership Theory
(Source: Bosse et al., 2017)
The leaders of eBay should properly analyse the capabilities and skills of the employees
required for fulfilling the necessary tasks to achieve the goals of the organisation. According
to it, the leaders should implement decisions keeping in mind the maturity level of the
employees working for the organisation.
3. Analyse and apply motivational and team working principles and theory to effective
styles of management and leadership.
The leadership styles and management styles followed by the leaders and managers of the
organisation should maintain their effectiveness by properly analysing and application of
motivational principles on their subordinate employees. In an organisation if the employees
are not loyal or satisfied under the leadership of their respective leaders then they would not
intent to work wholeheartedly for the benefit of the organisation. In order to ensure that the
employees are comfortable in working within the organisational environment, the leaders and
managers should make sure some of the techniques are maintained within the organisation.
The theories such Adam’s Equity theory and Maslow’s Hierarchy theory best explains the
motivational techniques (Ryan, 2016). For effective teamwork and motivating the employees,
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the leaders of eBay should follow some of the ways specified by the above mentioned
theories:
 The leaders should evaluate the technicality and skills of their employees and
remunerate them according to their quality
 The employees working for the organisation should be provided an ideal working
environment within the organisation
 The employees should be provided with opportunities to enhance their acquired skills
and develop them for their future benefits through organising various training
programs for them
 The team members should be motivated to foster collaboration within their work
 The work of the employees should be encouraged by the leaders as it would provide
additional confidence to them in improving their work
 Their success should be highly appreciated and recognised through rewards and
promotions
 At the initial stage, their failures should be handled carefully and not punished harshly
 It is the duty of the leaders, to clarify the targets of the organisation and make the
vision and mission clear to the employees
 The desired goals should be incorporated within the employees so that they get a clear
conception about the expectations of the organisation towards them
 The leaders should make the employees understand that the company’s fate is
completely reliable on their performance
 Any fault noticed within a particular employee, it should be rectified personally
through one to one conversation
 On the other hand, the employees should be praised publicly for their success as it
would boost up their confidence to another level
4. Analyse the extent to which effective management and leadership can contribute to
organisational effectiveness within its ethics and values framework.
For all round organisational development, the leaders should have ethical and value related
characteristics within them. The ethical leadership emulsifies the fact of incorporating proper
values within a leader. An ethical leader should have a strong and dominating character. The
leaders following the ethical framework strive the same target for all the employees and
embody the similar purpose, vision, mission, and values for their work. The characteristics of
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an ethical leader incorporates the fact that he visualises the values and purposes of the
organisation and lead the team accordingly to achieve the desired goals. The ethics that
should be evident within a leader requires honesty towards his job, he should be open to his
subordinate employees and lead his team in any kind of favourable and unfavourable
situations.
Ethical leaders should be efficient enough to focus on the vision of the organisation
maintaining the ethical framework within the organisation. He should evaluate the individual
strengths and weaknesses of the employees working under him and put aside his own
development and ambition for the benefit of the company. An ethical leader needs to
prioritise the success of the organisation through its all round development and keep aside his
personal success as that would help him to focus on the betterment of the products and
services offered by the organisation. According to the vision and after analysing the strengths
and limitations, the ethical leader has to create the value that should be possessed within
every employee of the organisation.
Along with ethical leadership, an organisation like eBay requires value-based leadership as
well within the organisation. A leader should draw the attention of the employees of the
organisation and of the customers through his values. Values are of great importance within
leaders and some of the characteristics related to value-based leadership are- respect for the
employees, courage of taking risks, ability of making a difference, authenticity of his roles
and many more.
5. Demonstrate and debate the effectiveness of leadership and management behaviours
on the impact of the organisation’s vision and mission.
EBay is a well renowned organisation that is famous for its worldwide business and customer
satisfaction. The organisation operates its business through its official website (Chaffey and
Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). The organisation allows their customer to buy and sell products
according to their needs from the website. They deal with a wide range of products and
services throughout the globe. The customers who want to buy products from their website
have free access to it but those who want to sell their products with the help of the
organisation’s website are charged an amount of money when it exceeds the limit of free
listing and at the time sale (Ridley-Duff and Bull, 2015). EBay is such an organisation that
belongs to the Internet Industry in the world of business.
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The vision and mission of the organisation is to provide a worldwide market platform that
also online to their customers which will enable them to access their website anywhere in the
world. Customers from any corner can access their website and buy or sell products
according to their requirements (Ebayinc.com. 2019). The organisation intends to provide
business opportunities to those who aspires a business career according to their own will. The
customers are free to choose their way of trade practice and whatever they want to opt for
their business purpose. The customers are benefited economically as they need not set up an
extra website for their business and the customer value of eBay’s official website is high.
The organisation maintains situational leadership within the organisation in recent times.
Earlier eBay used to follow, great man leadership theory. After certain tenure of business
operation, the management of the organisation felt the need of changing the style of
leadership with the increasing competition in the industry and as a result shifted its leadership
style to situational leadership (Ghasabeh et al., 2015). Along with the leadership style, the
leaders of the organisation understood the importance of incorporating the characteristics of
ethical and value-based leadership within their leadership style. As a result, the business
operation of the organisation has enhanced remarkably and helped the organisation to attain
one of the leading positions in the Internet industry.
6. Evaluate how managers and leaders can facilitate change using appropriate tools and
models.
In every organisation, a change should be initiated at regular interval of time. It is very much
evident that the change is visualised and incorporated by the leaders and managers of the
organisation into the business operation of the company. The change management deals with
the transitions and transformations inhibited in the process of managing the organisation. For
this change, an effective framework is very crucial. The framework will help to bring out a
systematic approach in the desired change. The type of change brought by the leaders can be
simple or complex and more or less, they are customer-focused for incurring profitability of
the organisation. There are several benefits of such a framework-
 It enhances the chances of success through such a change
 It motivates the employees and increases their productivity
 It lowers the chances of obstacle from employees
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One of the scientists, named Jeff Hiatt created such a framework known as ADKAR model.
The model deals with an approach that starts from the bottom and gradually rises up
(Hornstein, 2015). It caters to the employee needs first and ultimately results in
organisational change. The name itself signifies several stages of organisational change:
(A)- Awareness about the requirement of a change
(D)- Desire to bring in the change
(K)- Knowledge about how to bring in the change
(A)- Ability of the leaders to illustrate the behaviour and skills required for such a change
(R)- Reinforcement to maintain the change and make it long lasting
Figure 2: ADKAR model of change
(Source: Karambelkar and Bhattacharya, 2017)
For a successful organisational change, every step is necessary to be addressed and analysed
in details. Awareness is the first important step to bring in such a change as it is the stage
when the cause is found out that is needed to be rectified with a change. The basis of rest of
the stages is the awareness stage. Based on this stage, the desire is developed within the
employees of the organisation to participate in the change. The knowledge is achieved
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through training sessions and the ability is developed through practice. Reinforcement is the
last stage that that makes sure that the change lasts long. The leaders of eBay followed
ADKAR model while bringing in their organisational change.
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Conclusion
The complete study dealt with the need to bring in change within an organisation within a
stipulated time interval for increasing the performance and service quality of the organisation.
Several theories of leadership and perspectives of management have discussed in context
with varied environment. The principles of efficient teamwork and motivational techniques
have been illustrated in details. In consideration with the ethical and value-based framework,
the characteristic traits of the leaders have been analysed. The effectiveness of the
management and leadership behaviours has been demonstrated along with its impact on the
vision and mission of the organisation. Finally, several organisational change models and
appropriate tools have been discussed that would help the leaders to formulate such a change.
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Reference List
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Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2019. Digital marketing. Pearson UK.
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https://www.ebay.co.uk/v/allcategories [Accessed 10 Apr. 2019].
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https://www.ebayinc.com/our-company/who-we-are/ [Accessed 10 Apr. 2019].
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Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change
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Karambelkar, M. and Bhattacharya, S., 2017. Onboarding is a change: Applying change
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Ridley-Duff, R. and Bull, M., 2015. MissionFish and non-profit organizations. SAGE
Publications Ltd.
Rosenbach, W.E., 2018. Contemporary issues in leadership. Routledge.
Ryan, J.C., 2016. Old knowledge for new impacts: Equity theory and workforce
nationalization. Journal of Business Research, 69(5), pp.1587-1592.
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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