Leadership Styles, Motivation, and Discrimination in the Workplace

This report provides an overview of key concepts in business foundations, focusing on leadership styles, motivational theories, and workplace discrimination. It begins by defining various leadership styles, including autocratic, authoritative, pacesetting, and democratic approaches, and assesses their effectiveness in improving organizational performance. The report then delves into the significance of motivation in enhancing company productivity, exploring prominent theories like Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Herzberg's two-factor theory, with examples from companies such as Primark, Marks and Spencer, and Sainsbury's. Finally, the report identifies areas of discrimination in the workplace, including gender, age, and race, and suggests strategies for mitigating such issues, referencing examples from companies like Tesco and ASDA to illustrate anti-discrimination policies and practices.

Business Foundation
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Table of Contents
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Leadership styles and their effectiveness for improving performance........................................3
Effectiveness of motivation in improving productivity of companies........................................5
Areas of discrimination in a work place along with strategies for mitigating them....................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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MAIN BODY
Leadership styles and their effectiveness for improving performance
Leadership styles are the behaviours and characteristics of the leader which it utilizes
during the motivating, guiding, directing and managing its followers. With the help of proper
leadership leaders can inspire changes in the organization and increase the performance and
bring social change to the company. There are different types of leadership styles,
Autocratic Style:
Autocratic styles are the most dominant styles of leadership. Leaders in this style take all
the decisions in the organization. While practising this style of leadership, a leader may come out
as rude and dominant in nature but this style has its own advantages. In a situation of emergency
where a decision must be taken instantly an autocratic leader can be useful (Somprach, Tang and
Popoonsak, 2017).
Authoritative Style:
Authoritative leader sets the style of confidence among the followers creating
expectations amongst the followers. In this style leader get them engaged and excited about this
achievement. Leader takes the whole team together for achieving the targets and to find out the
results of the targets.
Pacesetting Style:
This style well describes the nature of the leader who always creates a rush among the
team members. Leaders set the goals very high and push their team members to rush through to
achieve these goals. Pacesetting style of leadership may be effective and get great results but it
can be very stressful to the employees (Purnomo, Supriyanto and Dami, 2021).
Democratic Style:
Democratic leaders share and take reviews of the employees about any topic which
affects the work responsibilities. This type of leaders allow their employees to express their
opinion on final decisions. This type of leadership style generates trustworthy employees and
promote team spirit and involvement of the employees. It has a room for creativity, growth and
development. This is the leadership style which is used by Primark (Gandolfi and Stone, 2018).
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Compared to pacesetting style which increases the stress of the employees democratic
style is very different. Democratic style is very different from the other styles as in this the
leaders provides its followers total freedom in their decision-making in such a way that it
benefits the company. Authoritative style's concept of one individual having all the power was
utilized previously in the current market it is not effective. Democratic style is preferred by
Primark because it allows the company to develop good relationship between the employees.
For a successful leadership in an organization following essentials elements are needed to
be followed,
Transparency :
By a transparent leader it means that helping others to embrace the change that has been
accomplished with the help of communication, informed debate and sharing of decision-making
(Martinuzzi, 2019).
Learning from failure :
For a leader it is important to utilize its experience while leading its team. During the
course of work failure often occurs. It is important for the leaders to learn from the failure and
try to avoid it next time.
Trust :
For a team it trusting each other is very important. The leader of the team is the most
responsible person for the team. Thus, the team should trust the leaders for the leadership to be
successful.
Confidence :
It is important for the leaders to be confident while making any decision. Lack of
confidence decrease the trust of the team members over the leaders.
There are different ways in which a leader can lead its team successfully. The leader can
give the team member freedom for taking their own decision and utilizing their talents at
maximum level. In order to make the team members work together the leader can guide them
which will increase productivity. It is also very important as a leader of a company to develop
new leaders among the team members. A leader should try to keep the work environment fun
and enjoyable.
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Effectiveness of motivation in improving productivity of companies
There are several factors that play a vital role in improving overall performance of
companies and motivation is one of them. It is believed that all employees within an organization
work for some reasons and such reasons can be known as motivation. When employers know
their needs or reasons of working with them and motivate them accordingly then they are more
likely to put efforts in accomplishing goals. There are some theories of motivation that have
some significant differences and help companies in improving productivity and performance.
Some well-known retailers and companies that make use of Maslow’s theories include: Primark,
Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury’s and others.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: as per this theory, human needs have been categorized in
pyramid manner in order to satisfy and understand needs of employees such as:
Physiological: This stage of theory covers all basic needs that all employees posses and
without these needs they cannot survive. Some biological needs that all employees or people
have: air, water, food and shelter. For functioning properly and getting work done, employers of
all retailers of the UK provide wage or basic salary to employees (al Habibi, 2019).
Safety: After satisfying basic needs, employees seek for safety at workplace as people
believe that first happiness is health. So, they prefer to work at place that is safe and effective.
People as per this stage of needs want to experience order and control in their lives. For that,
Primark and Marks and Spencer provide family insurance coverage, social stability, emotional
security and health security at workplace.
Belongingness: In this third level of needs, people seek for love and belongingness. At
the end they want someone who can understand them, listen to them. After satisfying main safety
and basic needs all people want to be loved as it makes them feel valued and help them out in
performing their functions with effectiveness? So, for satisfying such needs, employers provide
flexibility and also create healthy workplace environment where all employees can interact with
each other’s.
Self-esteem: It is at fourth level in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in which people want to
be recognized, appreciated and want to be respected by others (Tripathi, 2018). Dignity,
achievement and respect from others are some needs that improve morale and self-esteem of
employees and it can be satisfied by getting promotional and other opportunities.
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Self-actualization: It consists of the highest level of need such as: self fulfilment and personal
growth. It can be done by employees themselves by improving performance and self motivation.
So, on the basis of above discussed all needs it can be said that by satisfying all needs by
employers at workplace, they can improve performance of employees that can improve overall
productivity.
Herzberg’s 2 factors theory: As per this, employees can be motivated by identifying 2 types
of needs such as:
Hygiene factors: It includes all those factors that can dissatisfy employees and can
decrease motivation among them. For better results and retaining employees within organization,
employers need to provide job security, fringe benefits and status to employees. It does not lead
positive satisfaction for long run but their existence is vital otherwise it can dissatisfy. It also
includes: company policies, pay, supervision, relationship of employees with supervisors,
working conditions.
Motivational factors: It includes all those factors that are vital or known as factors for
satisfaction. It includes all those factors that lead positive satisfaction and are vital for motivating
and getting work done from employees. It includes: sense of achievement, growth opportunities,
responsibility and recognition (Alshmemri, Shahwan-Akl and Maude, 2017). So, by providing
all these opportunities, employers can retain skilled workforces within business for the long run
and can also make them able to improve performance and satisfy customers’ needs.
By identifying the type of needs of employees via interview and questionnaire, employers
can motivate them, improve their performance and can take competitive advantages.
Areas of discrimination in a work place along with strategies for mitigating them
Within companies and at workplace, employees are being discriminated on some basis. All
main bases of discrimination or areas where employees are being discriminated include: gender,
age and race. Race is one of the main type or area of discrimination. As per this type of
discrimination, the black people or black employees are being discriminated by the white people
or white employees. It is psychology and societies mentality about them (Jones and et.al., 2017).
As per the white people or employees, the black people or employees are not being treated in an
effective manner. They are not being provided promotional and other opportunities. There are
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some examples of companies where people were discriminated on the basis of gender, age and
race such as:
NHS is one of the well-known voluntary organizations that is being developed for
providing security and healthcare services to vulnerable people. The main aim of NHS is to
improve health of people. But years ago, 89 years old NHS secretary claimed that she was being
discriminated on the basis of age. She said that she stuck in her old secretarial ways. She did not
know modern ways of performing functions and when she said that she cannot make use of
modern computer and then only because of this, she was being discriminated and the basis of
discrimination was: age. After that it found that training having been inadequate as well as
incomplete (David., 2020. Notorious UK discrimination Cases). So, on the basis of this example
of well-known organization, it can be said that discrimination is one of the main problem that
can affect image of companies and can also affect performance of employees.
There are several other companies where employers were filed a case against
discrimination from employees only on the basis of gender, race and age. Gender discrimination
is one of the main basis where, female are being sexually harassed for getting promotional
opportunities. As compared to make employees, females’ employees do not get opportunities on
the basis of their performance. When employees are being discriminated then it lowers their
values and has negative impacts on them. They are less likely to support company in meeting
goals that affect performance.
Examples of companies for implementing anti-discrimination policies
Tesco plc a multinational retailer has taken certain measure for the reduction of
discrimination. It has some rules and regulations in the supermarket which allows its employees
to work freely without facing any discrimination of any kind. Tesco is a very big company
whose branches are situated many parts of the world (Basso and et.al., 2018). Therefore, in some
areas of the company it has seen some discrimination. Gender pay discrimination was seen in
Tesco in 2005. The company paid the female workers less compared to the male workers. The
company took quick actions and thus the everything was later sorted out with compensations to
the victims.
Sainsbury also a retailer company has the strategy of human rights embedded in its
system as an organization. These rights prohibited any individual in the company from making
discrimination. This helped the company as its strategy for sustainability. The approach of the
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company was to protect the people which makes them grow their products by providing safe
working condition (Filut and et.al., 2021). This allowed the company to decrease discrimination
of different kind in the company. Gender discrimination which was a big issue for the retailers
was very well dealt with by this company. The company also provided extra bonuses to the
employees which showed unity in the company.
ASDA a supermarket group announced an agreement with a union known as Unite for
tackling the migrant worker which worked in the meat and poultry factories. This agreement of
ASDA was to stop the practises of underpaying the migrant workers than the indigenous
employees (Lawrence, 2020). Apart from this it was also to eradicate the harassment and
bullying which these workers had to face in these industries. These practices where not so good
for the company as it reduced the sustainability of the company. Discrimination in the work
place meant that the work environment was not safe for all the employees. Such a work
environment usually tends to fail and has less productivity.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
al Habibi, B., 2019. HR practices of Marks & Spencer, Selfridges, Primark, and
Sainsbury’s (Doctoral dissertation, University of Science & Technology).
Alshmemri, M., Shahwan-Akl, L. and Maude, P., 2017. Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Life
Science Journal. 14(5). pp.12-16.
Basso, A., and et.al., 2018. Recent developments at the CMA: 2017–2018. Review of Industrial
Organization. 53(4). pp.615-635.
Filut, A., and et.al., 2021. “This happens all the time”: a Qualitative Study of General Internists’
Experiences with Discriminatory Patients. Journal of general internal medicine, pp.1-8.
Gandolfi, F. and Stone, S., 2018. Leadership, leadership styles, and servant leadership. Journal of
Management Research. 18(4). pp.261-269.
Jones, K.P. and et.al., 2017. Subtle discrimination in the workplace: A vicious cycle. Industrial
and Organizational Psychology. 10(1). pp.51-76.
Purnomo, E.N., Supriyanto, A. and Dami, Z.A., 2021. The effectiveness of principal leadership
styles in crisis management. Pedagogika, 2021, t. 141, nr. 1. p. 5-25.
Somprach, K., Tang, K.N. and Popoonsak, P., 2017. The relationship between school leadership
and professional learning communities in Thai basic education schools. Educational
research for policy and practice. 16(2). pp.157-175.
Tripathi, N., 2018. A valuation of Abraham Maslow's theory of self-actualization for the
enhancement of quality of life. Indian Journal of Health and wellbeing, 9(3), pp.499-504.
Online
Lawrence., F, 2020. Asda and Unite to tackle migrant discrimination..[Online] Available trough:
<https://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/mar/04/asda-unite-migrant-discrimination>
Martinuzzi., B, 2019.The 7 Most Common Leadership Styles (and How to Find Your Own).
[Online] Available trough: https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/business/trends-and-
insights/articles/the-7-most-common-leadership-styles-and-how-to-find-your-own/
David., M, 2020. Notorious UK discrimination Cases. [Online] Available trough: <
https://www.skillcast.com/blog/12-notorious-uk-discrimination-cases>
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