Leadership Theories and Vodafone's Competitiveness: A Research Report

This report investigates the influence of leadership on the competitiveness of Vodafone, a telecommunications company. It begins with an introduction outlining the aim of the research, which is to examine how leadership affects an organization's competitiveness. The report includes a literature review discussing the role of leadership in achieving organizational goals, the importance and contribution of leadership, and the selection and implementation of leadership theories. The research employs a primary methodology, using a questionnaire to gather data on employees' awareness of leadership and its impact on competitiveness. The findings highlight the significance of leadership in influencing employee behavior, building morale, and fostering a competitive advantage. Various leadership theories, such as trait, contingency, situational, and participative theories, are discussed in the context of Vodafone. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of effective leadership for long-term sustainability and success in a competitive market. The report is a comprehensive look into the topic and is a great resource for students on Desklib.

Foundation Project
Research Plan

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Aim: An examination into how leadership can influence the competitiveness of an organization.
..........................................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review ............................................................................................................................3
Research Methodology and Rationale.............................................................................................7
Ethical considerations......................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
.......................................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is the essence of a business which involves a process whereby direction,
guidance are provided to influence employees for the accomplishment of goals within prescribed
time. It is an ability which induces sub-ordinates to work with confidence and zeal. There are
steps which should be developed by leaders such as creation of vision and motivate personnels to
achieve them (Aldy and Pizer, 2015). Effective leadership should be exist in the organization as
it offers numerous benefits. The research has been drawn upon Vodafone which is based in
Newbury, United Kingdom providing telecommunications services in UK and other countries.
Aim: An examination into how leadership can influence the competitiveness of an
organization.
Research Question: Can leadership influence Vodafone's competitiveness in the market?
 Role of leadership in Vodafone for accomplishment of its goals.
 Importance and contribution of leadership in an organization.
 Selection and implementation of leadership theories in entities for competitiveness.
Literature Review
Role of leadership in Vodafone for accomplishment of goals
According to Betten, J. D., “leadership is a development of a clear and complete system
of expectations in order to identify evoke and use the strengths of all resources in the
organization the most important of which is people.” The author talks about presence of
leadership plays an important role in an organization in which resources are utilised, particularly,
manpower. A leader gives set of directions to achieve objectives within specified time. This
requires huge efforts and skills to apply leadership effectively. A leader plays a variety of roles
through the application of theories and styles of leadership. It can help in influencing employees
to make adjustments according to changes taking place externally. Further, it acts a medium
through which ideas and views are exchanged (Anning-Dorson, 2016). It has been observed that
a company, good and effective leadership has a huge role in accomplishing goals which
ultimately provide long term sustainability by surviving the competition. In other words, in order

to increase competitiveness of Vodafone, leadership should be there to motivate workforce to
perform with increased efforts. Further, there is a constant support and guidance provided under
leadership which lead personnels. In nutshell, roles can be summarised as making visions,
encouraging team work, prediction challenges, motivating, helping with creativity and
formulating strategies. As per the views of Prentice, W. C. H., “leadership is the
accomplishment of a goal through the direction of human assistants. A leader is one who
successfully marshals his human collaborators to achieve particular ends.” This definition has
clearly specified the vital role of leadership is towards achievement of goals of individual as well
organizational (Grint, Jones and Holt, 2016). A leader helps in co-ordinating separate efforts to
get combined results which will provided success to a company. Vodafone should have balanced
leadership so that it can outperform its rivals and create an example for entities operating in the
same industry. There should be regularity in the work of leaders to get maximum outcomes.
Building trust among employees so that organizational and leadership strategies can be executed
without any hurdle are also its roles. Along with this, the work done by employees should be
monitored continuously with an objective to evaluate difference in the results created by
individual with organization's standard. The variance so assessed should be treated by taking
corrective measures as it involves increased cost and time. It can be said that in absence of
leadership, there will be mismanagement between employees which will give rise to conflicts
disputes. This is another role which is played leaders. They try to minimise such disputes and
find a solution which will diminish effects of such events. Vodafone is one of the leading
companies and can attain the status of best entity through existence of leadership.
Accomplishment of objectives is the main aim of every organization irrespective of its size,
nature, areas served etc. There should be adequate financial as well as non-financial resources
and its optimum utilization is necessary. All of this is possible by effective leadership.
Importance and contribution of leadership in an organization
As per Michael S. Kearns, “leadership is a purposeful relationship, which occurs
episodically among participants, who use their individual skills in influence, to advocate
transforming change.” An organization is established to achieve its objectives and goals. For this
purpose, it procure different resources which will be utilised optimally to fulfil organizational
needs. One of the main resources, is manpower. They are essential for achieving goals and
without them, no work can be done (Gupta, S., and et. al., 2016). Leadership is important for

competitiveness as it has great power to influence the behaviour and attitudes of personnels
working in the organization. It provides motivation, guidance, build morale and co-ordinate
work. Furthermore, a leader initiates in communication of policies, create confidence an develop
healthy work environment. Vodafone is a leading company carrying its business in multiple
countries and employs diverse workforce. In such a situation, there are increased chances of
failure, which can cause financial distress and heavy expenditure and losses. This will take
number of years for it to recover the magnitude of such loss. Leadership has the power to remove
any such negative situations. It provide a base on which all other strategies are built which are
implemented in the business of an organization. It has huge impact on the business of an entity.
It contributes to business which can help in increasing competitiveness not only in
domestic market but also internationally. The need of leadership arise in all the companies
operating at small to large scale. There is no particular events or time in which it should be
present (Northouse, 2018). Further, employees feel motivated and develop their own way of
doing things in order to have desired outcomes which is in alignment with common goals.
Furthermore, degree of competition is ever increasing with new entrants setting up their business
in order to earn profits. This add more into the existing level of competition which makes it
difficult in carrying business. Hence, it is important to become competitive for long term
sustainability. One of the major contributions of leadership is that, employees become more
committed towards work in fulfilling the goals and other objectives. A good leadership helps top
management to focus on major issues which may have significant impact on its business and
brand image.
A good leader bring employees closer to each other by creating strong inter-personal
relationships. This encourage them to participate in all the activities and share their set of views
and ideas. Peace within organizational premises is required to have maximum out of minimum.
Also, many potential candidates get attracted when a company has good leadership. Workforce
get a sense of belongingness as leadership takes into consideration the thoughts of its
personnels . Vodafone can have effective leadership that fits its criteria which can help it
retaining it position and encourage it in near future. Along with this, employee turnover gets
reduced and strengthen market position. The outcomes achieved with these is reflected in
financial viability, image or reputation in the market and attractiveness (Tukker, A. and Tischner,
U. eds., 2017).

Selection and implementation of leadership theories for competitiveness in organization
Competitiveness is the ability of an enterprise to gain profitability in the market as
compared to its rivals. There are many factors which should be considered for earning target
amount of profits. One of these being, leadership which is a way for success. There are different
theories which can be adopted by Vodafone according to persisting situations. Right choice of it
can accelerate its growth and competitiveness. The theories of leadership that can be followed by
the leaders in Vodafone are as follows:
 Trait theory: The leaders following this theory pay attention on physiological factors
and on decisiveness, judgement and knowledge.
 Contingency theory: Under this, a number of different leadership styles are tried in
number of events to determine the one that fits the best for that particular time.
 Situational theory: A leader changes his style according to situations which may give
good results.
 Participative theory: In this, leaders help engaging team members in the decision-
making by giving them an opportunity to share their ideas and views.
There are more theories but these are some popular and most used theories which has
been included in this report. Each of such theory has its advantages and disadvantages which
should be assessed before the final selection. The decision maker should take right decision
about the leadership theory that will be followed. In case of application of wrong leadership
theory will only, it will be a wastage of time, efforts and money (Vargas, 2015).
There are some criteria which should be followed before for determining the best suited
theory. However, it is not compulsory to follow but can reduce the chances of choosing a wrong
theory which may not provide desired results. Hence, a set selection procedure should be
followed which takes into consideration all possible factors that might affect the business of
Vodafone.
These theories will provide results when implemented effectively. There is not a common
way for its implementation and each theory should be applied in its own manner. Vodafone can
have more than one leadership theories in order to manage the situations better. Every theory
uses approach that will provide maximum outcomes. Also, before actual application of any of the
above theories, a good understanding should be formed about personnels working in the

organization. Along with this, existing events going on in within the entity should also be
assessed (Western, 2019). Many people do not consider leadership important and have
perceptions about that employees are capable enough to guide themselves and do not require any
leader. On the other hand, there are big companies operating in this cut throat competition who
value leadership and believe that a company can have good management in order to become
competitive. Along with this, an employee performing well makes profits where other things
being constant. Leadership works a connection whereby, workforce feel emotionally connected
with the company which motivates them to work hard. Lastly, the report do not include criticism
of concept of leadership which might posses as a restriction for this project.
Research Methodology and Rationale
A research is conducted on the basis of informations which can be collected through two
forms of methods (Lawton and Páez, 2015). There are bifurcated into primary and secondary
which have been discussed below:
Primary method: In this way, first hand information is collected and used. These are
fresh data which has not been used before. It can include interviews, questionnaire, observations
etc. It is effective and useful.
Secondary method: This is used to gather information that has been used or interpreted
by authors, scholars etc. It is a lengthy, expensive and can take longer time to complete.
This research report, primary methods have been used to gather information which will
be the base for the whole project. Questionnaire is the method that has been picked to have
required data and complete it.
Questionnaire
Q1) Are you aware with the concept of leadership? Frequency
a) Yes 27
b) No 3
Interpretation: As per the above graph, it can be observed that leadership is an
unavoidable and required element of a business organization. It helps in creating a brand image
together with profits which makes the enterprise successful (Bhawsar and Chattopadhyay, 2015).
It encourages employees to work with increased efforts and provide desired results. According

the graph, 27 among 30 people knows the meaning of leadership as they belong to working class
category. They feel active and motivated by their leaders. On the contrary, 3 disagrees because
they have never went to an organization or worked.
Q2) Can leadership help an entity in being more competitive? Frequency
a) Yes 25
b) No 5
Interpretation: It is important for organizations to become more competitive for
surviving in the long run. Leadership skills are applied by leaders in order to retain employees
particularly, the best to reduce cost, time and efforts in finding and appointing new personnels.
As per the above graph, 25 are in favour, because they have an idea about the level of
competition exist in the market (Hanson, D., and et. al., 2016). This could be for many reasons,
increase in entry of new entrants, high demand and supply etc. On the other hand, 5 are not in
favour, as they believe that its hard to change the attitudes and beliefs of employees.
Q3) What could be the possible result of leadership in Vodafone? Frequency
a) Reduction in conflicts and disputes 21
b) Lower employee turnover 7
Interpretation: Leadership offers number of benefits which helps a business to grow
more in tough competition. These could range from motivating employees to participate in
organizational decision making, provide suggestions, etc. As per the above graph, 21 out of 30
participants says leadership helps in curbing conflicts by providing adequate and appropriate
guidance. Personnels have the feeling of belongingness which retain them in the organization for
a long time. On the other hand, 7 believe that employee turnover is reduced because of
motivation provided by leader. They have a perception that conflicts will be there with out
without leadership as thoughts of two people can not be similar (Storey, 2016).
The purpose of this report is to throw lights on contribution and relevance of leadership
to make a company more competitive.

Ethical considerations
Research ethics can be defined as norms which are applied at the time of conducting
research. They tell the difference between right and wrong, fair and unfair,justice and injustice.
Ethical considerations play very critical role in every research. These considerations assist in
determining the difference between the acceptable and unacceptable behaviours. Ethical
considerations are essential as it prevents against the fabrication of the data collected and
promotes knowledge base related to accomplishment of primary goal of research. While
conducting research the researcher must adhere and comply to ethical standards in order to gain
public support and believe on the research report. The researcher should not utilise the data
collected for this report while conducting some other research report. If the researcher want to
utilise the collected information for some other purpose than the consent must be taken from the
respondents. Their are various important principles for ethical considerations which are to be
followed by the researcher which are as follows:-
 The researcher should prioritise the dignity of research participants.
 Prior to the study full consent should be received from the participants.
 Protection of research participants must be ensured.
 Participants of research should not be subjected to any harm.
 Adequacy of Level of confidentiality should be properly ensured.
 Proper declarations must be made regarding affiliations and source of funding.
 The researcher should use proper communication channel with honesty and transparency.

REFERENCES
Books and journals:
Aldy, J.E. and Pizer, W.A., 2015. The competitiveness impacts of climate change mitigation
policies. Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. 2(4).
pp.565-595.
Anning-Dorson, T., 2016. Organisational culture and leadership as mediators of service
innovation and firm competitiveness: a study of an emerging economy. International
Journal of Innovation Management. 20(07). p.1650064.
Bhawsar, P. and Chattopadhyay, U., 2015. Competitiveness: review, reflections and
directions. Global Business Review. 16(4). pp.665-679.
Grint, K., Jones, O.S. and Holt, C., 2016. What is Leadership. The Routledge Companion to
Leadership, p.3.
Gupta, S., and et. al., 2016. Marketing innovation: A consequence of competitiveness. Journal of
Business Research. 69(12). pp.5671-5681.
Hanson, D., and et. al., 2016. Strategic management: Competitiveness and globalisation.
Cengage AU.
Lawton, A. and Páez, I., 2015. Developing a framework for ethical leadership. Journal of
Business Ethics. 130(3). pp.639-649.
Northouse, P.G., 2018. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Storey, J., 2016. Changing theories of leadership and leadership development. In Leadership in
Organizations (pp. 33-58). Routledge.
Tukker, A. and Tischner, U. eds., 2017. New business for old Europe: product-service
development, competitiveness and sustainability. Routledge.
Vargas, M.I.R., 2015. Determinant factors for small business to achieve innovation, high
performance and competitiveness: organizational learning and leadership
style. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences. 169 pp.43-52.
Western, S., 2019. Leadership: A critical text. SAGE Publications Limited.