Analysis of Leadership in Organizations: Alibaba Group Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership within the Alibaba Group, examining team dynamics, customer service strategies, and conflict management systems. The report begins with an executive summary that introduces the company and highlights the nature of the problem, which is the slowing growth due to lack of proper customer support. It then delves into an activity that explores the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful teams within the organization. The report then details the team charter, outlining responsibilities, tasks, and outputs required for improving customer service. It also provides a conflict resolution system, covering training, neutral interventions, and supportive infrastructure. The report concludes with a discussion of the findings and recommendations for enhancing leadership and team effectiveness within Alibaba Group.

Running head: ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP IN ORGANIZATIONS
ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP IN ORGANIZATIONS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
2.Executive Summary....................................................................................................2
About the company....................................................................................................2
Nature of the problem................................................................................................2
Activity – understanding success of the team............................................................3
3.Team Charter...............................................................................................................6
Main responsibilities to complete the tasks...............................................................6
Tasks that are completed to fulfil the purpose...........................................................6
Outputs that need to be produced by the team...........................................................7
Team and individual responsibilities.........................................................................8
People who will manage each responsibility.............................................................9
Ways of handling structural accountability................................................................9
Ground rules for the work that is conducted by the team........................................10
Expectations and behaviours that are agreed upon..................................................10
Conflict Resolution/Management System....................................................................10
Introduction..............................................................................................................10
Addressing of Different Conflicts in Team or Workplace...........................................11
Component 1- Training............................................................................................13
Component Two: Neutral Third-Party Interventions...............................................15
Component Three: Supportive Infrastructure..........................................................15
Few Instances...............................................................................................................16
Conclusion....................................................................................................................17
References....................................................................................................................18

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2.Executive Summary
About the company
The organization that has been chosen for this analysis is the Alibaba Group. Alibaba
Group is a Chinese multinational organization that operates in the ecommerce retail sector.
The company was established in the year 1999 and provides business services like,
consumer-to-consumer, business-to-business and business-to-consumer. The services are
provided to consumers with the help of web portals and the electronic payment based service.
The group thereby owns wide range of businesses which operate in different sectors and the
has also received the position of one of the most admired organization by Fortune magazine
(Alibaba Group. 2018). The market value of the company had amounted to 231 US Dollars in
the year 2014. The Alibaba Group is also considered as one of the world’s most valuable
companies in the world. Alibaba currently has its operations in more than 200 countries of the
world. The online sales and profits of the company have been able to surpass the sales of the
US retailers like Amazon and Ebay in the year 2015. The organization has also expanded its
business operations in the media industry which had led to the increase in revenues by three
times. The report will be based on the analysis of the ways by which the teams in the
organization can be managed. The system of conflict management will also be analysed in
the report (Alibaba Group. 2018).
Nature of the problem
The problem that is to be addressed in the task is based on the ways by which the
growth of Alibaba Group has slowed down due to the lack of proper customer support. The
task that has been entrusted is based on the ways by which the various teams of the company
need to coordinate with each other for providing high levels of customer support. The support
that is required to be provided to the customers is an important part of the successful

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operations of an organization. The company thereby needs to train the teams in such a
manner which will enable them to provide appropriate services to the customers. The task of
addressing this issue has been entrusted upon me by the Alibaba Group (Levi, 2015).
Activity – understanding success of the team
The successful teams are those which are able to complete the tasks that are provided
to them and also maintain successful relations with the other members. The ways by which
the members promote the development of the other individuals within the team on personal
and the professional level are able to form a successful team. The members of the team also
need to be suitable for the teamwork and maintain good internal group based processes. The
members of the team thereby need to complete appropriate set of tasks which are based on
the benefits of the company. The teams which are successful in nature have good style of
leadership, the task characteristics are appropriate. The teams are used in the organizations in
an extensive manner for the purpose of completing various tasks (Kong & Ko, 2017).
The teams which do not have proper style of leadership are thereby not able to
achieve the goals and objectives that are provided to them. The members of unsuccessful
teams are thereby not able to cooperate with each other in an appropriate manner. The
unsuccessful teams are unable to complete the tasks that are provided to them by the
managers. The unsuccessful teams are therefore not able to provide major benefits to the
organization (Levi, 2015).
I have worked in a successful team within the Alibaba Group which was based on the
task that was provided to us related to the creation of a proper customer service mechanism.
The group was mainly provided the task to address the issues that were raised by the
customers based on their shopping from the website. The team was able to manage the
complaints that were raised by the customers and further provide them with the highest level

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of services. This has helped the company to maintain a loyal customer base. The team has
also been successful in providing the best possible solutions to the customers for the issues
that are being faced by them. The team was thereby able to achieve the objectives and goals
that were provided to them by the management of the company (Levi, 2015).
I have also worked in an unsuccessful team in Alibaba Group which was formed for
the purpose of generating customers for the company by forming proper promotional
strategies. The products and the services of the company were aimed to be promoted by the
members of the team so that they are able to attract the customers. The leader of the team was
however not quite efficient in nature and was not able to generate customers for the
organization. The coordination between the members was also not quite effective in nature
which has been the main reason behind the lack of revenues of the company.
The differences that have been observed by me between the successful and the
unsuccessful teams are, the successful teams have clear set of goals and objectives and on the
other hand the unsuccessful are not able to set clear objectives and goals. The members of the
successful teams are able to maintain good social relations and the members of the
unsuccessful teams are not capable of maintaining the social relationships. The leadership of
the successful teams is effective in nature and the leaders of unsuccessful teams are not
effective in the ways by which they interact with the members of the team (Wu, Rivas &
Chen, 2017). The characteristics that has been described by me for the successful and
unsuccessful teams are similar to those which have been detected by the other members of
my team. The four major characteristics of a successful team are as follows,
1. The directions and goals that are set by the teams which are required for
focussing on the efforts that are made by them and the evaluation of
performance.

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2. The leadership quality of successful teams needs to be good. The leaders are
the most important of teams. They are able to maintain the teams and the
members in a successful manner with the help of their management qualities.
3. The tasks that are provided to the teams are quite challenging in nature so that
the members are able to cooperate with each other to achieve the targets.
4. The leaders of the successful teams are able to provide support to the members
so that they are able to coordinate with each other. The interactions between
the members are also facilitated with the help of good leadership (Franck et
al., 2018).
The characteristics of the successful teams have proved that the leaders need to build
up teams with the help of their management qualities. The leaders need to select the right
type of people who are able to coordinate with each other in an effective manner. The level of
communication between the members need to be improved so that they are able to complete
the tasks that are provided to them. The members need to interact with each other so that they
are able to solve any issues that are being faced by the organization. The leadership qualities
are therefore most important for the proper operations of a team within an organization. The
members of the team thereby need to cooperate with each other in such a manner which can
help them to achieve the objectives and goals. The tasks can be completed by the team with
the help and support that is provided by the leaders (Archibald & Archibald, 2016).
The mission that has been set by the Alibaba Group is based on the ways by which the
future infrastructure of the ecommerce industry can be formed in an effective manner. The
vision statement of the company states that the customers can meet, work and live at the
Alibaba. The management also expects the company to last for more than 100 years. The
main mission of the company is to the to do business in all the areas in an easy way. The
company also aims to provide the technology based infrastructure and reach of markets to the

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merchants. The businesses are thereby comprised of cloud computing, core commerce,
entertainment and digital media. Alibaba Group also has financial relationships with an
organization named Ant Financial Services (Lacerenza et al., 2018).
3.Team Charter
Main responsibilities to complete the tasks
The task that has been entrusted upon us by Alibaba Group is to improve the customer
service based activities of the teams. The team that has been formed for fulfilling this purpose
consists of five different members. The members are responsible to complete the tasks that
are provided to them with the help of expertise that they have in their own fields. The
members of the team will belong to different departments like, the human resource
department, the customer service department and the marketing department. The
responsibilities that are provided to them are based on the ways by which they are able to
solve the issues that are raised by the customers. The human resource executives are
responsible for the maintaining the members of the team in an effective manner. The
customer service manager is responsible for communicating with the customers. The
marketing executive is responsible for developing processes which can help the company to
retain its loyal customers (Levi, 2015).
Tasks that are completed to fulfil the purpose
The daily tasks that are needed to be completed for fulfilling the purpose include,
listening to the issues that are faced by the customers in a careful way and then formulating
methods that can be used to address the issues. The mechanisms that are created for
communicating with the customers need to be monitored on a daily basis which can be
helpful for solving the issues. The customer service mechanisms need to be updated every
week so that the customers are able to get the solutions to their issues within a short period of

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time. The human resource executive can fulfil the purpose by maintaining the members of the
team (Parboteeah, Hoegl & Muethel, 2015). The human executive is thereby responsible for
managing the work process of the other team members. The customer service executive is
responsible for forwarding the complaints that are raised by the customers to the concerned
teams within the stipulated timed. This will help the team to solve the issues that are faced by
the customers related to services that are provided by Alibaba Group. The marketing
executives will further try to maintain the positive relationships with customers which can
help them to increase the sales of the company. The relationships that are maintained by the
company with the customers is an important factor that can help in the creation of a loyal
customer base (Bolden, 2016).
Outputs that need to be produced by the team
The outputs that need to be provided by the team includes the improvement of
services provided to the customers and the ways by which they are able to address the issues
that are faced by them. The team needs to increase the number of satisfied customers of the
company which will help in the improvement of the reputation of Alibaba Group. The other
outputs that are need to be provided by the team includes the improvement of services that
are provided to the customers. The after sales services thereby play an important role in
improving the reputation of an organization. The customers are able to trust the management
with the help of the after sales services that are provided to them. Alibaba Group is recently
facing issues based on the lack of proper growth in the industry. The major issues are faced
by the company related to the ways by which the complaints of customers are addressed
(Levi, 2015). The management of the company and customer service departments are unable
to address the issues that are faced by the customers which has further led to the loss of
customers. The major output which is expected from the team is thereby based on the ways
by which the complaints of the customers are addressed.

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Team and individual responsibilities
The responsibilities that need to be fulfilled by the team includes the ways by which
the complaints of the customers are addressed. The team needs to listen to the issues that are
faced by the customers regarding the services that are provided to them. The team is thereby
provided with the responsibility to increase the customer base of the company. The success of
the company is highly dependent on success of the teams. The teams thereby have the
responsibility to increase the profits and revenues of the company. The teams that are in
Alibaba are thereby responsible for preparing the mechanism of customer development so
that they can manage their complaints and issues in an effective manner (Levi, 2015). The
team thereby has the responsibility to increase the productivity of the organization as a
whole. The company can thereby be able to maintain its competitive position in the market
with the help of proper training. The success and effectiveness of a team depends on its
members or the individuals who are a part of the entire process. The members of the team are
thereby responsible for developing high levels of interaction and relationships between
themselves. This will further help the individuals to create a successful team. The leaders are
the most important part of the entire team building process. They are responsible to form a
team which is able to achieve the objectives that are set for them (Cheek, 1982). The major
responsibility of the members is to work together with the other members towards the goals
that are set for them. The task that has been provided to team is inspiring and challenging in
nature which can help in the interaction of the members to the highest levels. The individual
performance is thereby encouraged by the task that has been provided to the team in the
company. The progress of the team is based on the performances that are depicted by the
individual members. The responsibilities that are provided to the members based on the
departments to which they belong. The human resource executive has the responsibility to
forward the complaints that are placed by the customers. The customer service executive is

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responsible for the communicating with the customers so that they are able to create a proper
relationship with the customers. The marketing executive has the responsibility to increase
the customer base by providing proper services. The members of the team thereby play an
important in the ways by which the tasks are completed by the teams (Bolden, 2016).
People who will manage each responsibility
The first major responsibility is to forward the complaints that are made by the
customers to concerned teams. This responsibility is fulfilled by the member who is a part of
the human resource department. This will help the concerned department to address the issues
that are being faced by the customers. The second responsibility is based on the ways by
which the customers are provided with appropriate services. The member of this department
is responsible for maintaining a positive relationship with the customers. The team members
are thereby able to develop a customer base which is loyal in nature and will be with the
company for a longer time. The third major responsibility is to attract the customers by
promoting the products and the services. The marketing executive is responsible for
maintaining the relationship with the members with the help of the promotional activities.
This will be an advantage for the proper functioning of the organization (Parboteeah, Hoegl
& Muethel, 2015).
Ways of handling structural accountability
The structural accountability is important for the proper management of the tasks. The
member who belongs to the human resource department will report directly to the HR
manager. The member who is a part of the customer service department will report to the
customer relationship manager. The member who belongs to the marketing department will
report to the marketing manager. The leader is however responsible to review the tasks that
are completed by the members of the team. The leadership qualities that are depicted by the

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leader are important for deciding the ways by which the team is able to achieve the targets
that have been set by them (Parboteeah, Hoegl & Muethel, 2015).
Ground rules for the work that is conducted by the team
The most important rules that are considered for the work that is done by the teams is
based on the alignment of the goals of individuals with those of the teams. The teams thereby
need to work towards the larger goal or objectives of the company. This will be helpful for
the proper functioning of the teams as a whole. The success of the teams also needs to be
measured at regular intervals of time which can be helpful for improving the processes that
are used by them. The outcomes of the formation of teams is then measured by the company
which will be helpful for deciding the types of tasks that will be provided to them in the
future. In this case, the satisfaction levels of the customers will be measured to analyse the
effectiveness of the teams and the ways by which they operate (Levi, 2015).
Expectations and behaviours that are agreed upon
The members of the team are expected to have a clear understanding of the ways by
which the goals can be achieved. The members thereby need to coordinate with each other so
that they are able to achieve the larger goals of the company. The team that has been formed
in Alibaba needs to understand the importance of the satisfaction levels of the customers. The
members need to work in such a manner which will help the company to increase the
customer satisfaction which will in turn help in the achievement of organizational growth.
The members need to be aligned towards the similar goal and objectives so that they are able
to work within the team in an effective manner (Levi, 2015).

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Conflict Resolution/Management System
Introduction
The respective section deals with analysis of the tam conflict resolution system that
can be used in the respective organization named Alibaba. It can be noticed that there are
different kinds of conflicts raised in different teams while performing tasks and there are
opponent teams as well. It is essential for the organization to implement the integrated
conflict management system in an appropriate manner as to manage the issues in an effective
manner.
There are various individuals in the company or in the particular team who are being
challenged with various immense type of pressure on the different resources or time as there
are different unnecessary kind of pressure or conflicts wherein they will perform the various
kind of tasks. Furthermore, it can be seen and noticed that in Alibaba which is an e-commerce
business and there can be different issues related to the customer service provided to their
customers in the market. It has been noticed that Alibaba lost many precious and target
customers in the market.
Furthermore, it has been seen that in the e-commerce business, it can be seen and
noticed that there has been low morale of the employees and this caused major financial loss
for the company along with this increased the absenteeism and attrition rate of the employees
were high in nature. Furthermore, there are different pressures on the organization along with
the team as well. The main motive of the organization is to upgrade the different activities of
the customer service department in an effective manner.
The Alibaba Company needs to expand the scope of the services provided by them in
such a manner that will help them in resolving the conflicts and the upgradation of the
technology will help the company in addressing the conflicts appropriately as well. It has