A Reflective Essay on Leadership and Management Theory and Practice

This essay provides a reflection on leadership and management, focusing on the concepts, theories, and styles of leadership. It discusses various leadership theories such as the Great Man theory, Trait theory, Situational theory, Behavioral theory, and Transformational theory. Different leadership styl...Read More

Leadership and
management, theory
and practice
1

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Reflection.........................................................................................................................................3
Concept of Leadership.................................................................................................................3
Leaderships theories....................................................................................................................4
Leadership style...........................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................8
Books and journals......................................................................................................................8
Appendix........................................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
Leadership is referring to the ability which an individual to influence and guide the other
members of the organisation towards the achievement of organisational goals and objectives.
Leadership helps the organisation in improving performance of employees working in a team
and develops their strength as well. As it is to be performed by leader of an organisation. There
are various leaderships styles and theories which helps the organisation and employees in
increasing their efficiency and productivity as well (Abbas, Ekowati, and Suhariadi, 2021). The
organisation selected in this report is Sainsbury as this the largest retailing chain of supermarket
in UK. It was founded in the year 1869 by john James. This report covers the reflection on their
experience of leadership and suggestion of the areas of development. It includes Action plan also
at last.
Reflection
As in a leadership role, I have experienced a leadership ability in the organisation. As
leaderships is the ability of influencing an individual towards the achievement of organisation
goals and objectives. I was in a leadership role of Sainsbury organisational, there I have
experienced various leaderships styles and theories used in the organisation to enhance
employees and motivates them. Below is the discussion about what I studies and experienced.
Concept of Leadership
Leaderships can be said that the ability of influencing the group or an individual towards the
achievement of organisational goals and objectives. Leadership is involving various activities in
them like decisions making process, creating and developing the vision, then a leader should
have to establish goals and provide basic knowledge and understanding to the employees
working in a team (Robert, and Vandenberghe, 2021). Leaderships helps the organisation is
attainment of their goals and objectives. Then it helps in enhancing employee’s performance and
their productivity as well. As when I am in a leaderships role, I have to perform various
organisation task effectively and encourage team members towards the achievement of
organisational goals and objectives. Being in a leaderships role, I have to think critical, have self-
confidence, having strong communication and management skills. Then I have to take risk and
make decisions according to the needs and demands of the employees working in my team.
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Leaderships theories
There are various leadership theories which are used in the organisation as this emphasize
the traits and behaviours that an employee could adopt to boost their leadership abilities. Some of
the leadership theories are:
Great man theory: According to this theory, leaders are having leadership traits from
their birth such as confidence, communication, charisma and other social skills etc. this theory
suggested that leaders are not made, they are born (McKee, and Bruce, 2021). This leadership
theory explains that the term called “Great man” was being adopted by at the time of leaderships
when situation arise. As this is only reserve for males which is particularly a military leadership.
Trait theory: This is the next leaderships theory which is mots similar to great man
theory. As this theory is used for the predict effective leadership. Mostly, the recognised features
are compared with the possible leaders in order to determine their like hood of leading
effectively. According to this theory, the trait theory identifies those people who are having
different characteristics of leader (Scheifele, Ehrke, and Steffens, 2021). These can be seen
through various attributes that is height, weight, education, and intelligence, judgement and
decisiveness etc.,
Situational theory: a situational leadership theory is based on the fact that the best leaders
is the one who is available for any si6tuation comes in front of him and also adapt each and
every situation occurred within a team. They could respond to the situation through
commanding, participating, persuading, coaching, delegating and making decision as well. Also,
this leaderships theory is referring to the flexibility.
Behavioural theory: this theory is focusing on environment of the persons which is not
natural abilities forming her or his in the leader. There is one of the key concepts of this theory is
conditioning (Samad, Muchiri, and Shahid, 2021). Conditioning is relating with the
environmental response behaviour that a person should be responding according to the that
condition only.
The transformational theory: it is also called as relationship theory as it determines the
effective relationship within team members and leader. This transformational leadership
motivate and encourage employees and team members in order to enhance their productivity and
potential. In this leadership theory, leaders hold their team in effective manner and they hold
themselves at the same standards what they are expecting with others.
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From the above theories, in my case I have taken experienced of behavioural theory, as in
Sainsbury, there is a use of behavioural theory because they think that the leaders are the one
who is contributing in every behaviour of the business environment. As it is depending on the
condition, what is being faced by leaders. As being experienced in the leader’s role, I have to
work according to behavioural theory which helps me in being alert at every situation that comes
in the organisation. I have to act according to that situation within a team and team members.
Also, there is have experienced on transformational theory because in this I could have to
maintain effective relationship with my teammates and also encourage them towards attainment
of goals and objectives. As by using this behavioural theory, I have learned various things and
also gain more knowledge about leaderships. Further, this will help me in enhancing my skills
for my near future.
Leadership style
There are various leaderships styles that have been emerged by leader’s sin order to engage
with their team members (Gocen, and Sen, 2021). Very organisation is using different
leaderships styles according to their planning. Some of the leaderships styles are discussed
below:
Authoritarian leadership style: this is the first leadership theory which is allowing a
leader to set the goals and defines all the outcomes. In this a one person is becoming a successful
in every situation and he should have to take all the decisions., there is not any involvement of
other people. This style is used when all the team members needs clear advices. The major
advantages of this leaderships style is that mistakes in the plan implementation will get reduced,
and tie could be spending on crucial decision should be reduced.
Participative Leadership: this is the another leaderships style which is also called as
democratic theory. As it is involving all the employees of team members in decision making
process. As in this style, the team members find motivated, engaged and included in the
organisation. In this style, leaders gain various innovative ideas and innovation related to their
organisation. However, if there is a disagreement between members, then this may lead to take
time in decision making process.
Delegative leadership: this leadership style is also known as "laissez-faire leadership”.
As this focus on delegate an innovation to the team members (Supratman, Entang, and Tukiran,
2021). This leaderships style can be regarded as the successful strategy if all the team component
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is becoming competent. And taking responsibility of working well and engaging in the individual
work. But on the other hand, the disagreement between members will split the group. The major
advantages of this style is experienced employee could take advantages of this experience. Then
in this innovation and creativity is highly valued.
Transactional leadership: transactional leadership can be between its leaders and his
followers. In this leaders are providing rewards, appreciation and punishments to get the work
done by their employees. In this style leaders are setting the clear goals and ensures their team
members that they should be rewarding for their compliance (Nowak, and Nowosielski, 2021).
This is also known as “give and take”. As in this style, the leader is establishing some of the
routines and process in the activities rather than doing transformational changes in the
organisation.
Transformational Leadership: in this style of leadership, the leaders is inspiring the
followers with his set vision and try to encourage his team members sin order to achieve them. In
this leader is serving as a role model (Iqbal and Ahmad, 2021). The major advantage of this is
that it places high value on the organisation vision and mission. Then it is placing high value of
relationships.
From the above it can be reflected that there are various leadership styles coming in the
market and used in the organisation according to their preferences. According to my experience,
Sainsbury is using participative leadership style in order to enhance the employees working in a
team. I have also focused on this style. As this helps me in involving with all team members and
knowing their behaviour as well. This leadership style helps me in increasing motivation of
employees and involving them in decision making process of the company. It also enhances
employee’s creativity and further, I have also enhanced my knowledge and skills like
communication skills and decision making skills (Kinder, Six, and Memon, 2021). By using this
leadership theory, productivity of employees and organisation both gets increased and further
employee’s motivation also increases and they work more effectively towards the achievement
of goals and objectives at workplace. Moreover, this will help me in enhancing my skills and
knowledge which will helps me in my near future.
Conclusion
From the above it can be concluded that leadership is now a days most important for every
organisation. Then from the above discussion, I have reflected my experience of leadership role.
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Then I have mentioned various leaderships styles in which I have take use of one. Then there are
various theories of leaderships in which I have experienced one. This helps me in gaining my
knowledge and experience. Further, I have experienced my work in an above report.
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References
Books and journals
Abbas, A., Ekowati, D. and Suhariadi, F., 2021. Individual psychological distance: a leadership
task to assess and cope with invisible change. Journal of Management Development.
Robert, V. and Vandenberghe, C., 2021. Laissez-faire leadership and affective commitment: The
roles of leader-member exchange and subordinate relational self-concept. Journal of
Business and Psychology, 36(4), pp.533-551.
McKee, K. and Bruce, J., 2021. ANY MOVEMENT OF THE NEEDLE: The Oaks Leadership
Scholars Represent Themselves as Learners, Allies, Advocates, and
Activists. Journal of Leadership Education, 20(2).
Samad, A., Muchiri, M. and Shahid, S., 2021. Investigating leadership and employee well-being
in higher education. Personnel Review.
Scheifele, C., Ehrke, F., Viladot, M.A., Van Laar, C. and Steffens, M.C., 2021. Testing the basic
socio‐structural assumptions of social identity theory in the gender context: Evidence
from correlational studies on women's leadership. European Journal of Social
Psychology, 51(1), pp.e1-e16.
Gocen, A. and Sen, S., 2021. A validation of servant leadership scale on multinational
sample. Psychological Reports, 124(2), pp.752-770.
Supratman, O.V., Entang, M. and Tukiran, M., 2021. The relationship of charismatic leadership,
employee personality, and employee performance: Evidence from PT. Karya Abadi
Luhur. International Journal of Social and Management Studies, 2(2), pp.17-41.
Nowak, W. and Nowosielski, M., 2021. Leadership struggles and challenges for diaspora policies:
a case study of the Polish institutional system. Innovation: The European Journal of
Social Science Research, 34(1), pp.93-110.
Kinder, T., Stenvall, J., Six, F. and Memon, A., 2021. Relational leadership in collaborative
governance ecosystems. Public Management Review, pp.1-28.
Iqbal, Q. and Ahmad, N.H., 2021. Sustainable development: The colors of sustainable leadership
in learning organization. Sustainable Development, 29(1), pp.108-119.
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Lombardi, S., e Cunha, M.P. and Giustiniano, L., 2021. Improvising resilience: The unfolding of
resilient leadership in COVID-19 times. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 95, p.102904.
Hansbrough, T.K., Lord, R.G., Schyns, B., Foti, R.J., Liden, R.C. and Acton, B.P., 2021. Do you
remember? Rater memory systems and leadership measurement. The Leadership
Quarterly, 32(2), p.101455.
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Appendix
Leadership development plan
My leadership
development
objectives
Leaderships
activities to achieve
my objectives
Where leadership
objectives could be
achieved
Target date
Improving
communication skills
I will observe my
leader in Sainsbury
organisation that how
they react to every
situation and do they
communicate better
with the other
members of a team.
Firstly, for developing
and improving my
communication skills,
I have to speak
confidently in front of
other people. I also
need to adapt some of
the leaderships
abilities in order to
achieve this
objectives.
At the workplace About 8-10 weeks
Improving problem
solving skills
Firstly, observing how
a leader is using this
leadership ability.
Then I will see how a
leader is reacting to
the situation occurred
within a team and
At the workplace
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how they develop
ideas fluently. I need
to make decision
regarding the welfare
of employee so that I
could even listen to
them and satisfy their
needs as well.
Stress management I will make control on
my anger and even
observe leader how
they manage their
stress while managing
their workload. I need
to focus on my time
management skills
first of all. Because if
I will manage my
work on time then my
stress gets reduced.
At the workplace
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