Leadership Theories and Walmart: An Analytical Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of leadership, exploring various concepts and theories with Walmart as a primary case study. It begins with an introduction to leadership, defining its core elements and the role of a leader in guiding and directing a group towards achieving organizational goals. The report then delves into key leadership theories, including charismatic, ethical, visionary, strategic, and shared leadership, demonstrating how these concepts are applied within Walmart. It further discusses the importance of developing leadership skills, focusing on crucial aspects such as competence, courage, clarity, character, and coaching. The report highlights how Walmart utilizes these concepts to enhance its operations and achieve its objectives. Finally, the report reflects on the learning outcomes and provides a conclusion summarizing the key findings and implications of the analysis.

Perspectives on Leadership

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................
Assessment of leadership.............................................................................................................3
Introduction to Walmart...............................................................................................................4
Concepts of leadership.................................................................................................................5
Role of competence in Walmart..................................................................................................7
Courage in leaders of Walmart....................................................................................................8
Clarity in the leader of Walmart..................................................................................................9
Coaching in the leaders of Walmart..........................................................................................10
Character in the leaders of Walmart..........................................................................................11
REFLECTION....................................................................................................................................
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is the action being taken by an individual to lead a group of people. The person
generally encompasses the ability to have certain characteristics, such as, guidance, control,
direction, supervision etc. A leader also holds adequate amount of skills where roles and
responsibilities can be divided among the subordinates which ultimately helps in effective
achievement of the goal and objectives of the organization (Saeed and et.al., 2014). The present
report is related to conduction of literature review of various concepts of leadership. The key
theories that related to leadership will also be analysed, which includes, Charismatic leadership,
Ethical leadership, Visionary leadership, Strategic leadership and Shared leadership.
Development in leadership is related to opting for the strategies that can help in developing and
enhancing leadership skills being possessed by the leader. To perform this function, suitable
themes will be formulated so as to ensure that all the important aspects are covered in the report.
It will further discuss regarding key concepts of leadership, which includes, competence,
courage, clarity, character and coaching. It will help in understanding their importance of
incorporating certain set of skills so that ultimate objectives as a leader can be achieved. The
report, will reflect on the learning and betterment which the researcher has been able to learn by
comprehending various concepts of leadership.
Assessment of leadership
According to Bolman and Deal (2017), leadership is an art where a group of people are
motivated to act towards the achievement of a common goal. It contains essential elements that
can inspire others to perform the activities that can lead the individuals in a group towards
growth and stability. Effective leadership is based upon the ideas that can motivate others to
perform a particular task. A leader is considered to be an inspiration of a particular action. He /
she may possess the combination of leadership skills and effective personality which encourages
others to follow his /her directions. However, in comparison to this, as per the views of Fairhurst
and Connaughton (2014), when leadership is combined with business, the team work weld
towards business growth and generate better revenues. It is not solely related to profits and better
economic growth but is also have a strong relation with increment in company’s bottom lines. A
leader must have adequate quality that can divide roles and responsibilities of the people as per
their strengths of the individual so that each and every function can be performed in an effective
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manner. The role also involves communication, inspiration and supervision as a primary set of
skills to be possessed.
According to Hargreaves and Fink (2012), there are certain individuals who naturally
endowed with the leadership abilities in comparison to others. However, analyse four key
concepts related to developing leadership skills can also be learnt and then possessed. As per the
views of Daft (2014), leadership is the combination of personal traits possessed by the individual
and ability to act and think like a leader. It is an individual who has the ability to direct others to
perform and achieve good. However, as pert he views of Tourish (2014), leadership is the
combination of one third born and two third made. Although having certain inborn qualities are
also required in the individual, which includes, being assertive, empathic, extrovert and having
high degree of social intelligence which helps in dealing with the prevailing social situation and
understand the social processes. It helps in developing a good leader which can help ultimately
help in producing good results.
According to Antonakis and Day (2017), the common characteristics of a leader includes,
clear vision towards the objectives and the steps to be taken to achieve the common goal, sharing
goals with the other followers so that they can work upon it willingly. They are also responsible
of providing information, methods and knowledge in order to realize the mission. Moreover,
leaders also help in balancing and coordinating the conflicts for the interest of all members and
other stakeholders. The time of crisis is ascertained and act creatively in each different situation.
It assists in coaching and mentoring the followers in such a manner that the ultimate goals can be
achieved in a well-defined manner. However, in comparison to this, as per the views of
Stankevičiūtė, Grunda and Bartkus (2012), compassion and innovation are the other key
characteristics of leaders. They also inspire their followers so as to act in a certain manner and
engage in the activities that can lead to achievement of goals. The acts performed as a leader is
situation bound and no specific style of leadership is followed by the leaders. Hence, they mould
their acts in such a manner that appropriate style can be used to tackle the ongoing situation in
the organization.
Introduction to Walmart
According to Doh and Quigley (2014), Walmart is an American multinational retail
corporation which is involved in operating a chain of hypermarkets, grocery stores and discount
department stores. Walmart has approximately 11703 stores and clubs in approximately 28
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countries which are operating in 59 different names, inclusive of UK. Walmart is considered in a
retail industry giving employment to approximately 2.3 million employees. Walmart is
surrounded and guided by renowned leader which helps in achieving the objectives being framed
by it. The company have been able to move in a successful state due to its eminent and effective
leaders who infuse adequate amount of energy, methods and motivation in its subordinates. It is
important for any organization to possesses leadership skills that can ultimately help the entity to
reach to some new heights. There are various aspects of leadership which are clearly visible in
Walmart. These are: Charismatic leadership: The concept of leadership used by the leaders mentions the
charismatic characteristics of a leader. It includes, strong attraction from the side of
followers, enhances self-perception of the followers and articulative a compelling yet
feasible vision. These qualities are responsible for expansion and establishment of
Walmart. It helps in developing the confidence, ownership and consumer service
qualities that has strong association to Walmart across all stores (Hackman and Johnson,
2013). The company believes that an effective customer service can help in achieving
happy customers that ultimately results in growth of the organization. It can be analysed
that having this type of leaders in Walmart can help in solving out various types of issues
that generally generates in the business. Ethical leadership: It is another method that is used by leaders at Walmart where rights
of others and dignity are promoted and strong emphasis is placed on employees and
customer satisfaction. It has initiated consumer and employee engagement programs that
leads to superior performance. It also results in positive flow of ideas and reduce the
occurrence of positive publicity regarding any subject of the organization. Walmart have
opted for having certain leader that is related to ethically following all the important
aspect without compromising with the morale and values. Visionary leadership: It is another form of leadership which is particularly adopted by
Walmart. It is related to interpreting the current realities and shape in such a manner that
helps in building common vision for the objectives framed (Rothaermel, 2015). These
visions are framed in such a manner that it can help the organization to expand rapidly. It
helps in providing better life to the process on behalf of all the leaders of the
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organization. These are visionary models of Walmart which helps in gaining aims and
objectives of the business. Strategic leadership: It can be defined as the ability of anticipation, flexibility and
empower others who are working in the entity so that effective strategies can be framed
and bring strategic change wherever necessary. It helps in expansion of right kind of
instruments and roll back to the strategies which have not proved to be fruitful for the
enterprise. Since, the main aim of organization is to keep growing with a smooth
momentum. It is also helping the organization in opening new stores and increasing its
footprints in new areas. Strategic leaders are able to prepare strategies for Walmart which
are achievable and can prove to be fruitful for employer and employees both.
 Shared leadership: When various people are involved in jointly leading the organization,
in that case, it becomes important to strategize the acts so that redundancy can be
removed (Fang, Gurnani and Natarajan, 2017). It is not possible conduct a one man army
for a large sized organization like Walmart. In this case, shared leadership is applied and
roles and responsibilities are distributed among various leaders in the organization.
Concepts of leadership
According to Eddy (2012), there are certain concepts of leadership that can help the leaders
to have adequate amount of competency to perform their functions. As a leader to the followers
it is important for the individuals to channelize their energy in the arenas where they can excel
and perform their functions. It is important for the individuals to work in the areas of strengths so
that effective actions can be taken at appropriate places. The core concepts of leadership include
the following aspects: Mentoring: Mentoring is related to advice being given by the senior leader at every
stage. It helps in effective decision making. Experimental learning: Experimental learning is another important concept which helps
the individual to learn through experience. It is generally related to learning through
reflection on doing. Cognitive learning: It is generally concerned with problem solving techniques being
adopted by the individual. Moreover, it has direct relation to intelligence and conscious
thought.
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 Competence: It is important to use the competent factor while assessing and dividing
roles and responsibilities. The leader must have the ability to assess the competency of
the team and analyse that which employee must be used or delegated to perform a
particular function. In this area, the duty of a leader expands to assess to core competency
of the employees or the other individuals who are working with the leader in the
particular project. Courage: When role of leadership is defined, the leader may not possess all the qualities
and hence, require to extract the talent from the team. Hence, the leader must have the
courage to pull out best talent in specific areas from the pool of employees available with
the organization. Further, the motion and momentum of the plan is decided based upon
the strategy being prepared to attain a particular objective being formed. It takes adequate
amount of courage from the side of leader that can ultimately help in reaching to the
mission. Clarity: It is important to have clarity in the opinion, so that factors of uncertainty can be
reduced to the minimum. Clarity in the facts, figures, mission and goals can reduce this
aspect which can have greater impact on the output results of the organization. If the
leader is not able to lead the vision of the organization due to lack of clarity in the minds
of leader and then to the followers as well, in that case it becomes difficult to reach to the
overall mission being set by the entity. Coaching: Coaching is another important duty of a leader. At the time of crisis, a leader
must have the strength and ability that can resolve the issue that has emerged in the
business. Sometimes it is also the case where it becomes important for the leader to brush
up the current skill sets. It helps in development of growth in the manner various
situations are handled by the leaders. It also meaningfully designs the output in such a
manner that it not only leads to economic growth of the leader but it also results in
brushing up the skills of the individuals who may be involved in a particular project.
Coaching is another form of leadership development, where, the supervisor is trained in
such a manner that the individual is able to achieve the specific personal and professional
goal and objective in effective manner.
 Character: The character of the individual must be in the manner that it is worth
following by the followers. The character possessed by the leader helps in bringing
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people together with the other resources that are required to fulfil the mission, vision and
objectives of the organization. People do not judge the appearance of the leader but the
character. Since, it further inspires the followers as well, it is important that the role of
leaders must be strong, personal and possess appropriate morale values.
Role of competence in Walmart
According to Shadraconis (2013), there is a high amount of competition in retail sector of
UK and hence require adequate amount of efforts from the side of management and followers to
remain competitive in the market that can further enhance the output of the entity as well.
Availability of competitors in retail industry is high and appropriate efforts from the side of
leaders can help in creating an edge over others. The skills and behaviour possessed by the leader
differentiate them from the other leader belonging to other competitors in the market. By using
the concept of competence on Walmart, the management of organization can put adequate
amount of efforts in better identifying and developing next generation of the leaders. The
competency of the leaders in Walmart decides that whether it will be able to achieve its framed
mission and objectives or not. However, in comparison to this, as per the views of Karki and
et.al. (2017), the climate of competency in a leader keeps changing as per the market conditions.
The working environment of Walmart decides which leadership aspect must be touched so that
the ultimate goal can be achieved. On the other hand, the climate of the organization lies in the
hands of the leaders. The challenges evolving among the leaders state that whether the
requirements of the project will be fulfilled or not. In this scenario, competency of the individual
can be better judged. Moreover, it also ascertains that if the leader will be able to cope up with
the requirements or not. There can be various leader in Walmart who struggles in organizing
people. They resist in taking certain action which carries certain amount of uncertainty that
whether the requirements of project will be fulfilled or not. This situation ultimately questions
the ability of the individual and assess that if the duties and responsibilities being extended to the
leader will be ultimately fulfilled or not.
According to Caraway (2016), Walmart have the competency to provide multiple brands
under one roof at a comparatively low cost than its competitors. Walmart have been able to
develop competitive advantage over other competitors due to its core competencies in the work
performed by it. The leaders of the organization have been able to gather hard working, goal
oriented and efficient employees into the organization which is ultimately helping in achieving
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the organizational objectives. Leaders at Walmart have been able to develop the strategies that
can better handle the technology available to it and connect with the suppliers and partners in a
well defined manner. It helps in optimum utilization of the available resources so that sustainable
development concept can be applied on its processes. However, in comparison to this, as per the
views of Payne (2014), the leader also been able to implement Just in time inventory which can
help in reducing the cost of managing inventory in the warehouses. It reduces the overall cost of
the business ultimately leading to better profits and increased revenues. The leaders at Walmart
possess the quality to handle the requirement of conflict management so that any disputes that
are arising within or outside the environment of the business periphery can be effectively solved.
It also helps in ensuring that effective environment is given to the followers and they can
collectively work towards achieving the goals of the organization.
Adoption of mentoring by the leaders of Walmart
According to Gerow, Grover and Thatcher (2016) mentoring and coaching are the two
different terms which are used interchangeably at some place. Mentoring acts as a strategic tool
whose right application can help in retaining and attracting right kind of talent to the company. It
also plays a vital role in accelerating leadership development and increase the readiness of
employees to learn and enhance their skill set presently possessed by them. Mentoring is also
used by the top-level management to work upon the overall organizational culture and bridging
the generation and seniority gap between the working individuals. Employees are taught to be
more profound of their job and put their best to the allotted jobs (Gerow, Grover and Thatcher,
2016). They are able to take risk at higher note that can ultimately prove to be quite beneficial
for the organization. It is considered to be a bold move for the organization well-being. A leader
must possess this quality that helps the person to face danger, risk, pain etc. without any fear.
They don't shrink while facing any criticism. However, in comparison to this, as per the views of
Wood, (2015) various mentoring methods and programs adopted by leaders in organization
sometimes miss the mark where the core objective of conducting mentoring sessions may not
align to the overall results of the same. The research of Wood, (2015) has described the process
of mentoring as a method of transferring knowledge in a informal manner. Moreover, its direct
link has also been built by extending psychological support to the employees of the organization.
The perceived benefits through mentoring can helps the individual in focus over career, work
and professional development programme. The word mentoring is generally used in relation with
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transfer of wisdom who normally holds leadership position. Research states that it shows various
positive effects on the career of an individual. Mentoring is a common method used by various
entities to develop the skills of individual who are working as a leader and to mentor those who
are working as subordinates in the organization.
According to Marques (2017), mentoring is considered to be the key to great leadership.
They tend to develop bold yet reasonable judgement regarding the subject matter. In this case,
followers want that the leader make appropriate decision and interpret situation in a manner that
can suitably leads to achievement of internal as well as external goals. Moreover, leaders must
also mentor them regarding what type of decisions can be made by them in different situations.
However, in contrast to this, as per the views of McCarthy, Sammon and Murphy (2017), since,
success of the organization is uncertain, volatile and complex, appropriate actions from the side
of the leaders are required to handle multiple situations arising in the business. Engaging the
followers in some constructive manner where ultimate objectives can be achieved in the core
requirement of any business. In the similar manner, leaders have been chosen by the Walmart so
that ultimate objectives of the business can be achieved. They continuously mentor their
subordinates on the job so that best decisions can be made by them. A continuous improvement
in the skill set can help in building their strength in one or the other area. Leaders plays an
important role in rising above apathy, hatred and complacency so that the same can be
transferred to the followers. In this manner Walmart have been able to effectively use this as a
tool to develop a strong and effective workforce.
Adoption of experimental learning by the leaders of Walmart
According to Weaver (2017), experimental learning helps in bringing vision to the roles
and responsibilities being assigned to the leader. It is considered to be the key concept that is
related to leadership development as it helps in developing competencies in leaders through
experiments. Experimental learning is considered o be the process that helps and enhance
learning through various experiences and more specifically related to learning through the
reflection of doing or what has been attempted to be done in a particular situation. Clarke (2016),
specifies that adoption of this method helps in making a leader strong and concrete enough to
solve certain issues that may crop up in the organization at various levels. Researchers have
stated that leadership is learned through experience to a great extent and helps in better
implementation of strategies in the business environment.
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According to Weaver, (2017) a leader possessing experimental learning technique is able
to divide the roles and responsibilities in a such a manner so that the best talent can be brought
forward. It ultimately helps in giving the best shot in the task. Strategy of Walmart leaders is
quite clear where leaders keep innovating with the new strategy to the team members only if they
are clear to its objectives. It helps in making the probability of success high which ultimately
contribute towards economic growth of Walmart. Hence, it is ensured that the team is clear
regarding goals and objectives of the functions being set for a particular task. However, in
comparison to this, as per the views of Park (2016), when a disconnected idea is shared to the
team the leader tends to lose its followers. Leaders at Walmart tend to follow creative ideas by
doing experiments and learning through it so that the objective can be explained in the best
possible manner.
According to Frimann, Keller and Thomassen (2015), various leaders share similar
experiences that has helped in shaping their development phase in different manner. The
experiences can be related to early working practices adopted by them, short term or major line
assignments or any other kind of hardships that may be faced by them. The experience can also
be gathered through miscellaneous training programs that would have been adopted by them.
Their on the job experience, which can be positive or negative, that can be put by them to share
better experience and learning with the subordinates which can help in ultimately brushing up
their skills and enthusiasm of learning. The experiences, whether on the job or off the job, are
always developmental in nature. It helps in giving meaning to the work and purpose can be
discussed in an effective manner. the individual who discusses the same idea to its subordinates
so that it can further be brought into practice. Hence, leaders at Walmart are advised to learn
through their experiences and share the same with the subordinates. However, in contrast to this,
as per the views of Northouse (2015), there are various types of experiences gathered by the
individuals in spite of failing in a particular task in the end. The same is generally shared by the
leaders at Walmart generally. Since, learning is considered to be a complex process, some of the
learning sessions can be planned, but the other takes place sporadically. Hence in such cases,
Reichard (2016) has specified that facilitating leadership with experimental learning can help in
providing new and relevant insight to the leaders where they can work over key areas for overall
development that can ultimately be transferred to the subordinates.
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Coaching in the leaders of Walmart
According to Maddalena (2016), coaching techniques plays an important role in addressing
the followers that are working in the role of a follower. An important role is played by the leader
where it becomes important to opt for the tools and techniques that can help in extracting out the
best talent out of the employees. To perform this function, it becomes important to ascertain that
what are the strengths and weakness of the individual and how the same can be helpful in
achieving the goals and objectives of the project. Hence, the leader must have the quality of
guiding the coaching the individuals. However, in contrast to this, as per the views of Reid
(2014), coaching is an essential tool which acts as an important aspect to achieve the business
goals. The leaders must opt for developing their personal talents. Walmart faces issue in recruit
the individuals who are extremely talented in their functions. Hence, Walmart mainly recruit
freshers who may not possess adequate skill set but have the conscience to brush up their
existing knowledge and reach to that level. Hence, leaders with adequate quality can help in
developing their skills and make them talented enough to perform their job. It develops high
potential and are able to perform more successful job in comparison to the employees who may
not go through coaching. Hence, the leader must have the ability to coach his followers and bring
the best out of them.
According to Usman and et.al. (2017), development in the employees plays an important
role in the development of the organization. Working on the same aspect, Walmart have been
able to develop coaches and mentors so that they can rightly place their employees. The research
has indicated that more informal learning tends to bring out better output in comparison to the
one where formal training sessions are arranged for the employees. It helps in developing
knowledge for longer period of time and increase the pool of talent in Walmart. Hence, the
organization is able to deliver the best to its employees which ultimately results in higher profits
and increased market share. However, in comparison to this, as per the views of Hawkins and
Edwards (2015), coaching helps in making the employees competitive enough to perform their
tasks. It reduces the risk of defaults as the employees are exceled enough to conduct a task in
appropriate manner. It also makes their performance as cost and duration effective. Optimum
utilization of the resources is also initiated in Walmart due to the presence of appropriate kind of
talent. Hence, it helps in creating an environment for the employees that is best suited for them to
work. Significant amount of time and energy is put by the leaders in Walmart to achieve the
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