Leadership and Management in the Workplace: Asda Stores Ltd Analysis

This report provides an analysis of leadership and management in the workplace, focusing on Asda Stores Ltd. It defines leaders and managers, presents their roles, and explains the hard versus soft skills required. Various leadership theories are analyzed with examples, and a critical reflection on the impact of leadership and management is provided. The importance of organizational culture and the role of leadership in shaping it are identified. Finally, the report compares leadership and management activities between Asda and Morrisons, highlighting the impact on decision-making. Desklib is a platform where students can find similar solved assignments and study resources.

The Leadership and Management
in the Workplace

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART-1 ...........................................................................................................................................3
Definition of leader and manager................................................................................................3
Presenting the role of leaders and managers...............................................................................3
Explaining the hard vs soft skills of leaders and managers.........................................................4
Analysis of various leadership theory, its impact with examples...............................................5
Critical reflection on impact of leadership and management......................................................6
Identifying the importance of culture and role of leadership.......................................................6
Comparison of leadership and management activities between two organisations.....................8
PART-2 (COVERED IN PPT)........................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Asda Stores Ltd. is headquartered in Leeds, England. It is supermarket chain of british
origin. The report will highlight the real meaning of leader and manager. The role of leaders and
managers within the organization will be identified through this report. Evaluation of hard and
soft skills of leaders and managers will be done by a comparison between the two. The report
analysis the different leadership theories along with the impact they have effectiveness and
decision-making process at Asda. Further the report will critically reflect the leadership and
management impact on the organization. The report will highlight the importance of good
organizational culture and the impact that leadership and management roles have on the culture
and performance of organization. Lastly, the leadership and management activities of Asda and
Morrisons will be compared in the report with the impact on decision-making.
PART-1
Definition of leader and manager
Leaders are the ones that leads particular team at given point of time and influences all
the team members to perform good and achieve certain goals. On the other hand manager is one
that is responsible for managing the whole organisation through proper planning, direction ,
control , coordination and control (Chan, Wang and Ybarra, 2021). Moreover, it can be said that
leader is more involved in the following the transformational process through developing the
vision . However, this is completely different in case of managers where they are more focused
on transactional process through properly delegating task and meeting certain objectives. Thus,
leaders in any organisation facilitates the decision and manager is one that mostly make
decisions.
Presenting the role of leaders and managers
For every organisation big or small both leaders and managers play a very important
roles in helping the firm achieve various goals and objectives. For the leaders and manager
below are some of the roles that are descried as follows:
For Leaders:
Motivator : Effective leaders are ones that motivates the group of people through clearly
identifying the needs of each individual so that overall group is able to perform well and achieve
certain targets for the firm (Heffernan, 2021).

Communicator: It is also the role of ASDA leader to properly establish communication
between all its team members so that certain queries or problems might be solved easily. Also, it
helps is establishing the best relationship through maintaining clarity in vision and mission
statement,
Navigator: Moreover, the effective leaders are ones that establishes certain goals for
the team that are linked with the organisational objective so that group might be able to work in
the right direction (Role of a Leader, 2022).
Mentor: It can be said that role of the leader is to provide right mentorship to assigned
group of people so that group is able to reach new height of success (Tran and et.al., 2022).
Also, providing right kind of mentorship means that the group is able to enhance certain skills
and knowledge after the accomplishment of certain task.
For managers:
Proper planning: It is duty of manager of any firm to establish proper mission
statement for overall firm so that employees are able to perform well in that area. Also,
managers create strategies to reach certain organisational objectives.
Organizing: It is another role of manager to organize various tasks through defining the
organizational structure so that resources might be allocated to employees and efficiency might
be achieved (Islam, Juraybi and Alraythi, 2021).
Controlling: Manager role is measure the performance of each individual employee to
identify if certain goals are achieved in timely manner or not. If not than corrective action might
be taken on time.
Explaining the hard vs soft skills of leaders and managers
Hard skills are the ones that are related with the specific technical knowledge in nay
particular field while the soft skills are ones that are related with personality traits such as
communication, leadership, time management etc. In context of ASDA leaders it can be said
that the hard skills that is required consist of computer skills to carry out certain task,
presentation skills to present some activities to the team and ensuring better understanding to
them through visualization (Fahlevi and et.al. , 2019). Moreover, Microsoft office skills such as
use of excel, word, spreadsheet etc. should be known to carry out all the activities in smooth
manner.

In context of the soft skills it can be said that effective leaders are the ones that have
good decision making skill so that they are able to find out what is best for the team. Also,
leaders need to have good teamwork skills so that they are able to manage the team in most
effective manner. Furthermore, the leader need to have conflict resolution techniques so that if
any kind of conflict exit within the group than it might be resolved quickly.
In context of ASDA manager it can be said that hard skills that are essential are
budgeting to set the funds in right place at right time. Also, the manager is required to have
human resource knowledge so that it is able to handle various employees in the organisation
effectively (Zhang and et.al., 2021). However, in soft skills it can be said that managers need to
have active listening and decision making skills to identify what is best for the team-members so
that effective decisions might be taken in the future. Also, manager need to have creativity
skills to bring new within the organisation for future growth and success. Furthermore, both
written and oral communication need to be good so that it might be able to interact with the
organisational employees in most effective manner.
Analysis of various leadership theory, its impact with examples
There are various leadership theories that are used within various organisations so that
the productivity might be increased in the appropriate manner. Also, some of the leadership
theories are described as follows:
Contingency theory: This theory states that leadership practices might be applicable
depending upon situations or circumstances. Also, it states that there is no particular way in
which the behaviour of the leader is defined and hence the leader need to examine each situation
and than decide the leadership style accordingly (Ali and et.al., 2020). Thus, through this theory
the leaders are able to the adopt the best style and decide whether the set decision would be
effective or not if taken. For example: ASDA follows the transformational style of leadership
but the same might not be applied in carrying out all the activities and the solving problems
within the firm. Thus, the firm need to analyse what will best fit according to the present
situation.
Transformational leadership theory: This theory focuses more on the relationship
between the leaders and the followers. Also, it states that those leaders that are more kind,
inspirational and charismatic tends to transform and perform the task into better. For example:
in ASDA transformational leadership has helped the firm to establish the brand image in the

market and carry out different tasks in the future. Furthermore, through effective leadership the
firm is been able to achieve certain challenging task in the most easiest manner.
Critical reflection on impact of leadership and management
Good leadership and management have various positive impact on the organization and its
employees
Positive Values Trickle Down: Positive leadership skills like honesty, integrity, etc. have
trickle down impact on work and encouragement of the employees.
Improved Morale: Morale within the employees of an organization is directly linked with
the efforts made by the management for avoidance of apathy and resentment feelings among its
employees (Mroz, Yoerger and Allen 2018). Through good management and leaders the feelings
of contentment and happiness propagates with the company.
Increased Trust: Through good leadership and management the feelings of trust and
belongingness fosters in the employees. These feelings are the building blocks of a strong
foundation for an organization.
Better Communication: Good leader and management ensures better communication
with the employees eliminating the chances for uneasy, tense, etc. feelings in the minds of the
employees.
Clarity in Company Objectives: Good leadership and management in an organization
creates transparency in the processes and clarity in the organizational objectives making
improvements in the overall performance.
Productivity: With participative leadership style and management outlook being followed
in an organization employees are engaged in finding out ways for accomplishing the strategic
goals of the organization. This leadership style recognizes the fact that problems are best
understood by the persons closely in link with it and facing difficulties. The recommendation
process regarding the solution improves and hence results in productivity gains for the company.
Identifying the importance of culture and role of leadership
Importance of organizational culture:

 Higher Quality and Safety: Effective organizational culture increases employee
engagement, more engaged employees always tends to bring work of quality ans
standards within the organization. Better balance between work and life: Encouragement to employees by company in
supporting healthy balance between work life and personal life. It enhances employee
loyalty and decreases absenteeism. Excellent customer service: When employees are valued they carry the value to the
customers too. Higher retention rates: Good organizational culture retains the employees with the
organization. Profitability Growth: Increased engagement levels increase productivity leading to
overall growth in profits.
Role of leadership and management on organizational culture and performance:
Leaders have large impact on the culture of the organization. Leaders set targets,
prioritize work based on the targets set, manage, direct, and delegate the work. Team members
get their sensory vision, purpose, guidance and inspiration from the leader (Fontes and et.al.,
2019). Below are the roles of leader and manager with respect to good organizational culture and
performance:
 Open communication platform provider: Leadership and management are responsible for
open communication methods within the organization that clear every kind of employee
grievance and improves the performance.
 Taking necessary action based on feedback: Essential actions for feedback are taken
based on the leadership style leads to a culture where no one goes unheard.
 Empowering Employees: A culture that empowers the employees creates.
 Ensuring workers accept failure and learn from them: Good leadership and management
ensures that workers do not get demotivated by the failures and learn from the failures
(Das and Haider, 2021). This leads to creation of a culture where employees are not
afraid of try something different that could benefit the organization.
 Recognize good work by employees: Recognizing and appreciating employees for their
good work creates a healthy organizational culture and motivates them. Motivation
increases their performance.

Comparison of leadership and management activities between two organisations
ASDA Morrisons
Relationship oriented and transformational
leadership style is followed by Adsa.
Opportunistic leadership style is followed by
Morrisons.
In transformational style of leadership the
leader identifies and changes the vision of the
team members through influencing or inspiring
them to match their self-interest to the overall
interest of the organization.
In opportunistic leadership style future
opportunities are identified and work upon for
the advantages.
Focus of management is to fulfil the customer
needs and being the best value retailer.
The management is focused to make and
provide food with pride.
Decision at Asda are taken according to the
goals and mission of the organization and
employees are transformed according the
decisions taken by the management (Jaaffar,
and Samy, 2021).
Decision at Morrisons are taken with focus on
capturing the opportunity at the earliest and
employees behaviours support the maximum
gains from the opportunities captured
(Barthélémy and et.al., 2020).
The approach to management followed at Asda
is direction and control.
The approach of management followed at
Morrisons is setting expectations.
The management directs the goals to be
followed and leadership style controls the
behaviour and thinking of employees to fulfil
the goals set up by the management.
The management set the expectations from the
opportunity planned to capture and employee
efforts are directed towards the achievement of
the exapectations.
PART-2 (COVERED IN PPT)
CONCLUSION
Based on this report the meaning and role of leaders and managers have been made clear.
The report has outlined the comparison between the hard and soft skills of leaders and managers.
The analysis of effectiveness of various leadership theories in the decision-making have been

highlighted. Critical reflection on the impact of leadership and management has been done. The
report has discussed the importance of culture and role of management and leadership on
organizational culture and performance. The report has compared the leadership style and
management activities and Asda and its competitor Morrisons.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
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executive functions. Academy of Management Perspectives. 35(1). pp.142-164.
Das, S. and Haider, S. A., 2021. A study on Employee Attitude at the workplace and its
relationship with Organizational outcome with special reference to the Iron and steel
industries. Elementary Education Online. 19(4). pp.1008-1008.
Fahlevi, M. and et.al. , 2019. Leadership styles of food truck businesses. Journal of Research in
Business, Economics and Management. 13(2). pp.2437-2442.
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Leadership. International Journal of Business and Technology Management. 3(2).
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Mroz, J. E., Yoerger, M. and Allen, J. A., 2018. Leadership in workplace meetings: The
intersection of leadership styles and follower gender. Journal of Leadership &
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Tran, H. N. and et.al., 2022. Workplace conditions created by principals for their teachers’
professional development in Vietnam. International Journal of Leadership in
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Zhang, J. and et.al., 2021. How does responsible leadership affect employees’ voluntary
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Online
Role of a Leader. 2022. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.managementstudyguide.com/role_of_a_leader.htm>.
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