Leadership Style Evaluation for Automotive Industry: Aston Martin

This report evaluates leadership styles within the automotive industry, focusing on an Aston Martin case study. It begins with a comparison between the automotive and retail industries to justify the selection of the automotive sector for research. The introduction provides background information on the automotive industry's rapid technological advancements and the importance of effective leadership. The report aims to identify the best leadership style for the automotive industry, considering factors such as employee motivation, talent retention, and digital skills enhancement. The objectives include evaluating various leadership styles, determining key factors for leadership selection, and assessing the impacts of participative leadership, specifically in the context of Aston Martin. The literature review explores democratic, autocratic, transformational, and transactional leadership styles, emphasizing the suitability of democratic leadership for fostering creativity and innovation. It also examines factors influencing leadership style selection, such as interpersonal skills, teamwork, and company culture. The research methodology employs an interpretivism philosophy and an inductive approach, utilizing qualitative research methods and secondary data sources. The report includes a Gantt chart outlining the timelines and activities involved in the research process. The report concludes with references to relevant sources and academic publications.

Leadership
Table of Contents

Comparison between two industries to select industry for current project......................................1
Research topic: “To evaluate about best leadership style for The Automotive industry”. A case
study on Aston Martin.....................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Background and rationale of research....................................................................................2
Aim and Objectives................................................................................................................2
Research questions.................................................................................................................2
Literature Review.............................................................................................................................3
Research methodology.....................................................................................................................4
Timelines and activity flow chart....................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

Comparison between two industries to select industry for current project
Leadership forms a vital part of all industries and organisations as it lead to better
motivation and direction for employees to achieve set goals. As per the view point of Emma
Cullen, 2019, the most suitable and viable leadership style for automotive sector is that which
insures New leadership tactics and participative approach for a new generation of employees to
have better creativity and innovative power in them that is needed to have proper innovation and
betterment in automotive sector (Erenda and et. al., 2018). Further. The leadership style that are
adopted in an automotive sector mainly aims at tactics for retaining top digital talent along with
best measures that improve digital skills and knowledge of employees. Thus, it can be evaluated
democratic or participative leadership style is most viable and suitable for an automotive
industry.
Beside this, according to the view point of Neil Kokemuller, 2020, the most suitable
airship style for a retail industry is that which focuses on two main factors of this industry i.e.
task direction and people management. It has been evaluated that in retail industry the leadership
style must enhance the ability to quickly react and implement decisions related to customer
problems and operational dilemmas along with effective management of culture Risk and
consideration of People thus, the most viable leadership style for a retail industry is
Transformational leadership style where a leader works with teams in order to identify the
rapidly changing needs of customers for creating a vision to guide the change through inspiration
and executing the change with committed employees of retail industry (Loh and Yusof, 2018).
Base on above discussion regarding Automotive and retail industry, the one that is
selected for current research project is Automotive industry as it is the one that focuses more on
retaining top talent and enhancing digital skills and other competencies of employees. The
research proposal along with set aims and objectives are provided based on the evaluation of
leadership styles in Automotive sector.
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Research topic: “To evaluate about best leadership style for The Automotive
industry”. A case study on Aston Martin.
Introduction
Background and rationale of research
Automotive industry is categorised as the one that is growing and evolving with a rapid
speed due to regular innovation and advancement in technology. Thus, it become more vital and
important for a leaders and managers of an automotive organisation to adopt and implicate a
suitable leadership style to motivate, direct and retain its talented employees (Coşkun and
Akdere, 2017). Thus, the current investigation is lead on Aston martin that is a well known
British independent manufacturer of luxury sports cars and electric vehicle having its
headquarter in England, UK to evaluate about best leadership style for The Automotive industry.
Beside this, selection of current research topic and this investigation also facilitates improvement
in skills and competencies of researcher to meet personal and professional perspective.
Aim and Objectives
Aim
The aim of current research work conducted on Aston martin is, “To investigate about
the best and most suitable leadership style for The Automotive Industry.”
Objective
The main objectives set for current investigation on Aston martin and automotive
industry is stated as below:
 To evaluate about various leadership style in order to select best and most suitable
leadership style for an automotive industry.
 To determine the main factors that must be considered by leaders and mangers for
selecting a suitable and best leadership style for an automotive organisation.
 To identify possible positive and negative impacts lead by implication of participative or
democratic leadership style in Aston martin.
Research questions
The main questions and problem statement evaluated through current resrch work are as
follows:
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 What are the various leadership style available for an organisation in order to select best
and most suitable leadership style for an automotive industry?
 What are the main factors that must be considered by leaders and mangers for selecting a
suitable and best leadership style for an automotive organisation?
 What are the possible positive and negative impacts that are lead by implication of
participative or democratic leadership style in Aston martin
Literature Review
It is that section of a dissertation that consist evaluation and discussion of various secondary
sources and literature reviewed and surveyed for a current research work to provide a support
and based for objectives and topic of research.
To evaluate about various leadership style in order to select best and most suitable leadership
style for an automotive industry
As per the opinion of Bullock, C. L., 2019, the leadership style that could be adopted by
automotive industry consists of democratic, autocratic, transformational and transactional
leadership style. In Transformational leadership style leaders motivates its employees through
inspiration while in transactional style use of monetary rewards and punishment are made by
leaders. Out of these, Democratic is associated with type of leadership style in which all
employees take a participative role and involvement in the decision-making process where as in
autocratic style decision making power and control is totally in the hands of top authority (da
Costa Nogueira, Sousa and Moreira, 2018). Thus, democratic leadership style seems most
suitable for automotive industry as lead to enhancement in creativity and innovation level of
organisation through allowing participation and involvement of all employees.
To determine the main factors that must be considered by leaders and mangers for selecting a
suitable and best leadership style for an automotive organisation
According to the view point Lisa Mooney, 2018, the main factors that must be considered
by a leader and manger while selecting leadership style consist of having proper evaluation of
interpersonal and external connection skills, sharing information, teamwork ability, motivation
level of the employees along with the ability and need to make changes in the organization in
order to solve a problem and issue in a better way. Further, it can be evaluated that the main
factors that lead emphasis on selection of suitable leadership style for an automotive organisation
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consists of Belief System of employees along with Company Culture and diversity level prevails
in order to opt right method to motivate them (Coşkun and Akdere, 2017).
To identify possible positive and negative impacts lead by implication of participative or
democratic leadership style in Aston martin.
As per the opinion of Palmer, A. M., 2016, the positive impact of implication of
participative or democratic leadership style in Aston martin consists of better participation and
involvement of employees in decision making process that would lead to enhanced creativity and
innovation level of orgnisation. Furthers, implication of democratic leadership style also lead to
enhanced commitment and loyalty level in employees as they share a better bonding and relation
with orgnisation thus, helpful in retaining employees for a longer period (Loh and Yusof, 2018).
Further, the negative impacts lead by implication of participative or democratic leadership style
in Aston martin consist of slow decision making process as view point and participation of all
employees is needed thus, reduce the speed of decision making process that could be risky to
deal with a urgent issue of problem.
Research methodology
This part of dissertation mainly consist of information about the resrch methods and
philosophies that could be put in use by a researcher in order to conduct a better investigation in
research topic to accomplish desired objectives in a better manner. The research methods that
would be used for current investigation on Automotive industry and Aston martin are provided
below with proper justification.
Research Philosophy- The two most widely used Research Philosophy consists of
Positivism and Interpretivism philosophy out of which use of Interpretivism research philosophy
is more suitable for current investigation on Automotive industry as it lead to better
incorporation with human interest and there ideology and also support qualitative analysis to
obtain better results.
Research approach- This part of research methodology is also bifurcated into two main
parts that is deductive and inductive from which use of inductive research method is made for
current investigation on Aston martin as it lead to enhanced observation, description and
effective analysis of qualitative and theoretical research data (Erenda and et. al., 2018).
Research method- Qualitative and quantitative are most widely and commonly used
research method out of which use of qualitative research method has been opted for current
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investigation as it facilitates better ways for investigator to collect in-depth information in
theoretical forms thus, meet requirement of current investigation in better way.
Sources of data collection- There are two main sources of data collection i.e. primary and
secondary sources. Out of these primary is concerned with collection of first data directly from
respondents which is more complex and time consume. On the other hand secondary is
associated with evolution of past fact and records thus, it is data is only collected from secondary
source for current investigation in order to meet research objectives on time and in a more
effective manner (da Costa Nogueira, Sousa and Moreira, 2018).
Research strategy- The strategy for current research work is based in survey method where
an adequate number of secondary sources and evaluated and reviewed to meet set objectives in
an effective way.
Timelines and activity flow chart
Use of following Gantt Chart is made to clearly show and represent the flow of activities of
current investigation along with their respective timelines and duration.
ACTIVITES WEEK
1
WEEK
2
WEEK
3
WEEK
4
WEEK
5
WEEK
6
WEEK
7
WEEK
8
Submission
of research
proposal
Complete
background
information
for research
project
Collect
secondary
sources of
information
for research
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project
Complete research
methodology and
collect secondary
sources of
information
Complete
collecting
data for
study and
present the
result
Determining
Budget
Data
Interpretatio
n and
analysis
Evaluating
results and
findings
Complete
the report
and submit
the final
report
6

REFERENCES
Books and journal
Erenda, I. and et. al., 2018. The Leadership Competencies and Intuitive Decision-Making of Top
and Middle Level Managers in The Automotive Industry. In Governing Business Systems
(pp. 119-140). Springer, Cham.
Bullock, C. L., 2019. Driving new narratives: women-leader identities in the automotive
industry. Gender in Management: An International Journal.
Burton, S. L., 2017. Leadership Shifts: Perceptions and Consequences, In-Person, or Cyber. In
Encyclopedia of Strategic Leadership and Management (pp. 371-397). IGI Global.
Palmer, A. M., 2016. Leadership style and job satisfaction as predictors of employee innovation
in the automotive manufacturing industry (Doctoral dissertation, Northcentral
University).
Loh, K. L. and Yusof, S. M., 2018. Blue ocean leadership activities improve firm performance.
International Journal of Lean Six Sigma.
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Coşkun, A. and Akdere, M., 2017. Exploring leadership development in Turkey: Implications for
technology and innovation. In Leadership development in emerging market economies
(pp. 261-280). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
da Costa Nogueira, D. M., Sousa, P. S. and Moreira, M. R., 2018. The relationship between
leadership style and the success of Lean management implementation. Leadership &
Organization Development Journal.
Online:
Lisa Mooney. 2018. Factors Influencing Leadership Styles. [Online] Available Through:<
https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/factors-influencing-leadership-styles-9263.html>.
Neil Kokemuller. 2020. The Impact of a Leadership Style on a Retail Store. [Online] Available
Through:< https://smallbusiness.chron.com/impact-leadership-style-retail-store-
71921.html >.
Emma Cullen. 2019. 3 important automotive industry leadership trends in 2019. [Online]
Available Through:< https://www.mentimeter.com/blog/great-leadership/3-important-
automotive-industry-leadership-trends-in-2019>.
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