Leadership and Management Report: BUMGT5970, Semester 1, 2019

This report delves into various aspects of leadership and management, addressing key questions from the course textbook. It begins by analyzing the leadership qualities of Steve Jobs, exploring how he acquired his capabilities, and then contrasts democratic and autocratic leadership styles, highlighting their impact on subordinate performance. The report further compares Fiedler's contingency model with the path-goal theory, discussing their similarities and differences, and expressing a preference for one. It then examines the crucial elements of emotional intelligence for effective leadership, emphasizing their importance. The power of storytelling as a communication tool is explored, along with its relationship to active listening. The stages of team development are described, and strategies for facilitating team progress through each stage are proposed. The report also discusses the importance of diversity of thought in modern organizations and whether it can exist within a homogeneous workforce. Finally, it differentiates between transformational and transactional leadership, as well as charismatic leadership, highlighting their distinct characteristics and applications. The report provides a comprehensive overview of leadership concepts, offering valuable insights into effective leadership practices.

Running head: LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Leadership and management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Question: 1
One of the best leaders in the recent time is Steve Jobs. This is due to the reason that he is
the key stakeholder in transforming the Apple in the leading technological company in the world.
In addition, he is also known for innovative ideas and forecasting abilities. Due to his accurate
forecasting abilities, Steve Jobs presumed the change being inevitable in the communication
technology, which lead to the birth of iphone. In the later stage, iphone changed the entire
scenario of communication and mobile devices worldwide. Thus, the characteristics that should
be there with an effective leader are present with Steve Jobs and this is the key reason behind
considering him as the best leader (Clarke, 2013). The working culture and the employee
management of Apple are also well known, which also denotes the human resource
considerations and employee orientation of Steve Jobs. Being one of the best leaders, Steve Jobs
considered each of the elements required in managing the business and thus he can also be
considered as a transformational leader.
Steve Jobs acquired his capability by his dedication and concentration towards achieving
objectives. He was determined about what he is going to do and have not got deviated or
distracted by any other external factors of trends. Moreover, his coordinating ability with other
stakeholders from the very first stage also helped in understanding the different views and
opinions, which further helped him in forecasting abilities. Thus, it can be concluded that
capabilities of Steve Jobs are gained and not god gifted.
Question: 2
Under the leadership of a democratic leader, performance of the subordinates is better
than the subordinates working under an autocratic leader. This is due to the reason that

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leadership style of the democratic leader will have the higher sets of participation of the lower
level employees and other subordinates. This is due to the reason that under the leadership of the
democratic leader, decision making process is being initiated on the basis of the feedback of all
the involved stakeholders (Giltinane, 2013). Thus, the subordinates are being more valued and
they are engaged enough in increasing their performance in the workplace. On the other hand,
under the leadership of the autocratic leader, the feedback and opinion of the subordinates are not
being considered with having their low level of involvement in the decision making process.
Thus, the issues and challenges of the employees are not getting communicated and solved,
which further reducing their performance. Moreover, it should also be noted that in the case of
democratic leadership, the working environment is more effective and knowledge management
process can be better managed due to the reason of higher participation of the employees. On the
other hand, in the case of autocratic leadership, knowledge management process will be limited
due to the lack of the participation of the subordinates (Saeed et al., 2014). Hence, extensive
intensity of the knowledge management is beneficial in enhancing the productivity and
performance of the employees.
Question: 3
Both the Fiedler’s contingency and path goal theory are the models of analyzing the
concept of leadership. However, there are few differences between the two models along with a
few similarities. The major difference is in the definition of the leadership. According to the
Fiedler’s contingency theory, effectiveness of leadership is dependent on the situations. It is also
stated in this theory that leaders will get created only when they will find the business situations
according to their type and attributes. This will increase the probability for them in getting
succeeded in the real world situations (Antonakis & House, 2014)). On the other hand, path goal

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theory states that one who will be able to follow the certain path or any contingent variable in
reaching a particular goal will have the higher probability of becoming a successful leader. Thus,
the key difference is one theory is focusing more on the business situation for becoming a
successful leader, while the other one is focusing more on the struggle being survived by the one
to become a successful leader.
On the other hand, the major similarity between the two theories is their core concept of
leadership. This is due to the reason that both the theories stated and concluded that leadership
skills are to be gained and not born (Dinh et al.,2014). Among the two theories discussed, path
goal theory is more effective compared to the contingency theory due to the reason that
particular route for the individual person is considered over the major focus for the external
factors stated in the contingency theory of leadership.
Question: 4
The four major elements of emotional intelligence, which are essential for the effective
leader, are motivation, empathy, social skills and self awareness. Motivation is considered due to
the reason that the more will be the motivation for the leaders, the more they will be able to
motivate and engage their subordinates. This is due to the reason that motivated leaders will be
able to create the positive environment in the workplace, which will be further beneficial for the
production and performances. Furthermore, empathy is also important for an effective leader due
to the reason that the leaders should be empathetic towards the challenges and issues being faced
by the subordinates (Batool, 2013). This will ensure the effective resolution of the workplace
issues along with the positive relationship between the different stakeholders, which will further
enhance the organizational productivity and performance. The next emotional intelligence

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element is the social skills. This refers to the extent to which the leaders are socializing with the
business situations and the internal stakeholders. This is also important because ability of
socialization of the leaders will help to create positive and effective relationship with the other
internal stakeholders. The level of coordination and cooperation between the leaders and the
subordinates will get increased and will ensure the positive return. The last element is the self
awareness, which states about the leaders should be considerable towards their personal feelings
and their organizational affairs should not get influenced by this. This will ensure the enhanced
practicality of the leaders in the workplace.
Question: 5
Storytelling is more effective and powerful mode of communication for a leader because
with the help of storytelling, communication will be more detailed and broad. This is due to the
reason that with the help of the storytelling process, leaders create a situation among the
subordinates, which further helps them to experience the vision of the later. The vision to be
communicated by the leaders should be applied well among the subordinates rather than just
advising them. In this case, storytelling will help the subordinates to have more practical idea
and understanding about the vision of the leaders. On the other hand, it should also be noted that
storytelling can also help in identifying the potential issues from the implementation of the new
process (Auvinen, Aaltio & Blomqvist, 2013). The advantages that can be gained from
storytelling are the proper understanding of the objectives to the particular change. Thus, the
involved stakeholders across all levels will have the clear idea about the advantages to be gained
from the implemented change. This will ensure the effectiveness of the leadership roles. Active
listening is related to storytelling due to the reason that without having the active listening, the
storytelling process will not be effective enough. If the vision being communicated by the

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leaders is not listening by the target audience, then the entire process will become ineffective.
Hence, it can be concluded with the help of the storytelling, communication between the internal
stakeholders will be more effective.
Question: 6
There are majorly four steps evident in the case of team development process. The first
step is forming that denotes the first stage of the process. This is due to the fact that in the initial
stage, employees are not having proper understanding about what to do in the team and how will
be the team members. In this stage, the core job of the leaders is to gain the contact and
connection between the team members. The more will be the gaining of connection between the
newly inducted team members, the more will be chance coordinated outcome in the long term.
The next stage is storming that denotes the time of emergence of conflict between the team
members. This is due to the reason that in this stage, the team member created basic rapport
among them and started to work. Thus, the chance of emergence of conflict due to the different
views of each of them will be high (Raes et al., 2015). This should also be noted that in this
stage, the team members are not having the closer connection and thus they are unlikely to adjust
with each other in terms of decision making process. In this case, the leader should be cautious
enough in considering the views of all the team members in order to prevent the issues. The last
step is performing that states the time when the team members actually starts to perform after
overcoming their differences. In this case, the leader should motivate and engage them in
enhancing their performance.
Question: 7

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Diversity of thought is important for the modern day organizations due to the reason that
the more will be the diversity of thought, the more will be the alternate options for the
organizations against the particular issues. This should be noted that contemporary organizations
are operating in global scenario and thus facing complex business factors. In this case, they are
having the requirement for diversity of thoughts, which will complement the complex business
situations. The available options will be more in this case.
However, it should also be noted that if all the employees are from the same race, age and
background, then also diversity of thought can be gained with lower probability. This is due to
the reason that each individual can have different thought process even if they are from the same
social group, which will ensure the diversity of thought. On the other hand, if the employees are
from the different social backgrounds, then the probability of gaining the diversity of thought
will be more (Aschehoug & Callaway, 2015). This is due to the reason that different social
backgrounds will instill different knowledge among the individuals. Thus, it can be concluded
that employees from the same race and social groups can have diversity of thought as well as by
the employees from different race and social groups. However, the probability rate will be
different. It will be more in the case of employees from different race and social groups and low
in the case of employees from same race and social groups.
Question: 8
There are number of differences between the transformational and transactional
leadership. One of the major differences is the core concept due to the reason that in the case of
transformational leadership, optimism and enthusiasm is being used in order to manage the
employees. On the other hand, in the case of transactional leadership, positive and negative

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elements such as reward and punishment are being used for employee management. Another
difference is the difference in focus, which states that transactional leadership is majorly
dependent on the effective planning of the management, while in the case of transformational
leadership, innovation is the key focus area (McCleskey, 2014).
Transformational leadership and charismatic leadership are also different by means of
way of managing the employees. In the case of transformational leadership, employees are being
guided and motivated in transforming the workplace and work process. On the other hand, in the
case of the charismatic leadership, the status quo and personality and branding of the individual
leader is being leveraged in influencing the employees. Thus, transformational leadership is more
democratic compared to the charismatic leadership. One of the major similarities between the
leadership styles is the positive motivation and influence. Both the leadership styles are using
positive elements in motivating the employees over the negative elements. In addition, both the
leadership styles are having huge influence on the employees. The major leadership activities of
both the styles are being done on the basis of influence.
Question: 9
It is important for any companies in having a noble purpose to become successful in the
long term. This is due to the reason that without the noble or ethical cause, the gained success
will be short lived and will be not be beneficial for the long term profitability. There are number
of real world examples are evident where it is seen that unethical cause leads to the reduction in
the business potentiality in the market. For example, Volkswagen marketed their faulty diesel
cars installed with cheating devices in the American market in order to hide the actual emission
data. Even though, they have gained good sales volume in the initial stage, but in the later stage

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they got detected and caused huge impacts on their business. After the detection of the scandal,
the share price and market goodwill of Volkswagen got drastically reduced along with the
pluming sales revenue and volume. This is denoting the fact that noble cause is important for the
business entities in gaining the long term business viability.
One of the companies in the recent time that met the each category of noble cause is
Tesla. This is due to the reason that Tesla discovered and leveraged on the practicality of the
electric mobility over the combustion based technologies. In addition, they gained excellence in
this sector as Tesla is considered as one of the leading players in the electric mobility sector.
Their cars are considered as the benchmarks. Tesla shared their technologies with others in order
to maximize the electric mobility solutions that denote their altruism. Tesla is meeting the
heroism status by acting as the frontrunner in developing the electric mobility.
Question: 10
In order to overcome the challenge of resistance due to the change implemented, I will
involve all my subordinates in the process. This is due to the reason that the highest probability
of emergence of resistance will be from the side of the employees. Thus, the involved employees
in the change process can be engaged and sharing their feedback and opinion, then they will be
satisfied and aware about the change process from the initial stage and will not resists. In
addition, I will also focus on the effective communication process due to the reason that the more
will be the effective communication process, the more will be the connection between the
employees and the leaders. This will ensure that potential areas for emergence of resistances can
be detected on the very first stage and can be mitigated. In becoming the role model in the
change process, I will lead by example and will be extensively involved in the process. This is

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due to the reason that if I can lead by example, then my subordinates will also be motivated
enough in following me and contributes in the change process. It can be concluded that
implementation of these strategies will help me as a leader in overcoming the chances and risks
of resistances from the side of different internal factors.

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Reference
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