Leadership Qualities and Strategic Management Report: Unit 700

This report delves into the critical relationship between leadership and strategic management, using Walmart as a case study. It examines the distinctions between management and leadership, analyzing how managers can become effective leaders and vice versa. The report evaluates the balance required between strategic management and leadership, emphasizing the importance of leadership in setting vision and objectives. It also explores various leadership styles, including transformational, transactional, and situational leadership, and their respective impacts on organizational strategy. The analysis covers how leadership can foster empowerment, trust, and ethical stances within an organization. The report integrates theoretical models and frameworks to provide a comprehensive understanding of leadership's role in shaping and executing strategic direction, with a focus on how personal attributes, communication, and rewards influence leadership effectiveness. The report concludes with an evaluation of how different leadership styles affect the organizational strategy.

Business Management and Strategic Management

Business Management and Strategic Management 1
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Overview of company..................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Critical analyzes of the concept of managers as effective leaders.........................................4
Management versus leadership................................................................................................4
1.2 Critical analyses of the concept of leaders as effective managers.........................................5
Leaders as effective managers.................................................................................................5
1.3 Evaluation of the balance needed between the demands of strategic management and
leadership.....................................................................................................................................7
Strategic management and leadership.....................................................................................7
Maintaining a balance between leadership and strategic management...................................7
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................8
2.1 Leadership of the Wal-Mart influenced the strategic direction of the company...................9
Role of leadership....................................................................................................................9
The contribution of leaders in the organization.......................................................................9
Examples................................................................................................................................10
2.2 Analyses of the personal energy, self- belief and responsibility impact leadership styles
and their relative success...........................................................................................................12
Organisational citizen behaviour...........................................................................................12

Business Management and Strategic Management 2
2.3 Leadership can engender empowerment and trust and how ethical stance affects that and
the overall impact on organizational practice............................................................................13
Leadership can engender employee’s empowerment and trust.............................................13
Ethical stance affects that and the overall impact on organizational practice.......................13
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................14
3.1 Critical Evaluation transformational leadership and the impact on organizational strategy
...................................................................................................................................................14
3.2 Evaluating the transactional leadership and its impact on organization strategy................16
3.3 Situational leadership and the impact on organizational strategy.......................................17
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................19
References......................................................................................................................................20

Business Management and Strategic Management 3
Introduction
The aim of the report is to explore the link between the leadership and management of the
company at the strategic level. This report is based on the current case scenario in which a person
is undergoing leadership training within the organization with the hopes of ascending to a mid-
level managerial role within the company. The report includes the leadership and its different
styles that can affect the strategy of the selected organization. This is described with the support
of different theoretical models and frameworks related to the leadership and strategic
management. The organization that has been selected for this assignment is Walmart Company.
Overview of company
Walmart is an American multinational retail company that operates and manage the chain of the
hypermarkets, discount department stores, and numerous grocery stores in the market. The
company came into existence in the year 1962 by Sam Walton with the headquarters in
Bentonville, Arkansas (Walmart, 2018). The company is known as the world’s largest privately
owned firm as the company has stores at numerous places which show that it is a multinational
company. The strategy of the company is to implement the everyday low price so that they can
enhance the shopping experience of the customers. The company is currently operating its
business over 11,700 retail units under 65 banners in more than 28 countries (Walmart, 2018).
This shows the effective management of the company by the leaders of Walmart. Recently, the
company is one of the growing companies in the retail market. This growth can be said with the
evidence of rise in the sales of company’s product. According to report it was found that digital
sales of company jumped to 33% last quarter May 2018 (Meyersohn, 2018). The sales is
expected to increase more in the coming few years. The company walmart announced their

Business Management and Strategic Management 4
leadership team in which the field structured will aligned to three very successful operation
divisions which include Logistics, store operations and real estate for the three distinctive
geographic business units which include Wal-Mart west, north and south. The leaders include in
the team are Raul Vazque for the west side, Hank Mullany for north side and Rosalind Brewer
for south side. Talking about the relationship of with the owners; Mr. Sam always believed that
these associated are the reason behind the success of company (Walmart, 2018). The leadership
team of the company will focus on picking up the pack to fulfil the challenges faced by the
company.

Business Management and Strategic Management 5
Task 1
This task will evaluate or analyze the relationship between strategic management and leadership
from the context of the organization.
1.1 Critically analyse the concept of managers as effective leaders
Leadership is a set process in which the managers of company influence other employees to
support goals of a company. In other words, the leadership is the ability of company's
management in accomplishing goals by taking corrective decisions (Nanjundeswaraswamy and
Swamy, 2014). The managers of the Wal-Mart company make use of some theories of leadership
for managing the operations of the business. These theories support the managers to become the
effective leaders.
Management versus leadership
The management of the Walmart includes different functions that are performed with the help of
leadership for accomplishing the goals. The activities that Walmart managers perform include
budgeting, planning, organizing, problem solving and staffing. The major function of the
management is to bring consistency in the work that helps the company. On the other hand, the
main function of leadership is to bring the adaptive change by permitting the direction through
visioning, motivating and inspiring the people. This can be easily understood by the quote of
Peter Drucker, 2018 that is: -
“Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a
higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.”

Business Management and Strategic Management 6
The managers make use of theories that help them to become effective leaders within Wal-Mart
organization. The managers of a company make use of Transformational leadership style as this
is core leadership style for the Walmart Company. The transformational leadership style of
leadership shows a leaders works with teams to identify needed change, a vision to guide the
change and executing the change. Sam Walton contributed in implementing this style of
leadership in which is clear with the fact. The fact is that when Sam opened their first store in
1962 and he started to share the profits with their associates, treat their employees like partners,
energize colleagues, and listen to your associates/partners (McAfee, 2014). This shows that the
leader followed the transformational leadership style. In addition, the managers of company can
be transformation leaders but for that they need to understand the needs of employees. Along
with this, the manager role is more tactical than the role of leaders in the company.
This style shows that the managers of a company can lead the teamwork to determine the change
vision to guide the change through inspiration. The implementation of leadership styles shows
that managers of Walmart can work effectively being the leaders of the company. The major
difference between the management and leadership can be highlighted with a quote from Peter
Drucker, 2018 “Management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right things.”
1.2 Critically analyse the concept of leaders as effective managers
Leaders
A leader is a person or thing which makes use of the dominant position within an organization
over the employees for accomplishing the organization objectives. In the words of McGregor
Burns, the leader is the one who meets the needs of people (Burns, 2012). Quote: - “The ultimate

Business Management and Strategic Management 7
test of practical leadership is a realization of intended, real change that meets people's enduring
need.”
Leaders as effective managers
Leadership skills help the leaders to become the competent manager. There are many factors that
affect the leaders to become the effective manager of the Wal-Mart company. Some of the
factors are discussed below: -
Setting objective
Leaders of the company should always set the objective before proceeding with the work as this
is the only way through which they can achieve the set goals. Moreover, the leaders of the
company should encourage the employees for the work within the organization. Along with this,
the proper guidance should be provided to the employee which is a work that is done by an
effective leader for success.
Communication
The communication of the information within an organisation by leaders is not enough to
become the effective manager but the leaders should communicate with employees for
understanding their issues and problems which they are facing at their workplace (Goetsch and
Davis, 2014). The decision taken by the leaders can lead to a problem for employees and impacts
their working. At Wal-Mart, the leaders try to communicate effectively with employees so that
they can make the work possible by resolving their problems.
Example: - The major issues which are faced by the employees of Wal-Mart include mixing
work and personal communications, lack of factual communication, issues while completing the

Business Management and Strategic Management 8
work, lack of understanding the message communicated and many others which the leaders were
not able to understand. The Doug McMillon will become an effective manager when they
actually manage the issues. Doug McMillion is president and CEO of Wal-Mart Incs. As a CEO
of the company he leads to a string team that is contributing to deliver the mission of company
that is to save money and live a better life (Forbes, 2018). Though, leaders who are not able to
understand the issues are not effective managers. The managers understand employee’s point of
view while making decisions. The leaders of the walmart company always complement on
managers because the decision which are formed by the leaders are further communicated and
managed by the managers. Though, the above two answers reflect that there is every thin line
between the role of the managers and leaders of company.
Rewards and recognition
The leaders become an effective manager when they understand the work that is done by
employees within the organisation. Along with this, when the leader will give the reward and
recognition for the work that is done by employees within the organization then they will be able
to become an effective manager. This is considered as one of the strategies that are followed by
leaders. Though, the managers follow tactics in which they actually do the work. This is the
major element which makes the difference between leadership and management.
For example - Leaders worry how they can manage the employee's query and motivate them for
the work effectively done by them in Wal-Mart. This is found that the Wal-Mart Company
provide the employment to approx. 2.3 million associated across the world. Along with this,
about 75% of store management teams in Wal-Mart work on hourly basis and earn approx.
$50,000 and $170,000 on yearly basis (Walmart, 2018).

Business Management and Strategic Management 9
On the other side, the managers know about the skills and experience of employees according to
which they assign activities and motivate the employees by giving them rewards.
1.3 Critically evaluate the balance needed between the demands of strategic
management and leadership
Strategic management and leadership
Strategic management focuses on evaluating and monitoring the external factors that can lead to
the opportunity and threat for Wal-Mart Company. The successful leaders make use of theories
so that they can motivate their employees for strategic management. An effective leader always
ensures they bring positivity to the culture of the company. This is clear from the fact that Wal-
Mart culture is one of high performance and it shows what all values or services are offered to
customers (Walmart, 2018).
Maintaining a balance between leadership and strategic management
It is essential for Wal-Mart Company to maintain a balance between leadership and strategic
management. The company needs to consider few things that are essential for management of the
balance as it is very essential in the competitive world. This balance is done with the contribution
of leaders and managers as if they are not involved they won’t be able to conduct the operations
effectively. Leader performs the role in which they set the vision and objectives and manager
takes the responsibility to complete the objectives and vision. Managers believe that this balance
is possible with the help of healthy relationship, by motivating the employees towards work and
enhancing the productivity of work. The leader can form the positive relationship with
employees by generating employee awareness, accountability, and inspire (Bolman and Deal,
2017). If the company is not able to maintain the balance between both then organizational

Business Management and Strategic Management 10
principles and functioning of the employees will get damage. Though, this essential to
understand that the role of leaders and manager is important within the organisation as both
perform their duties effectively. The balance is possible when employees of the company agree
for same. If in case the employees deny for same then the balance will not take place within the
organization. There is need to make use of the skills for managing the balance between the both
which are discussed below for the Wal-Mart company.
Needs Leadership skills Management skills
Forming an agenda Forming the vision for the
future strategies to bring the
change.
Planning and budgeting within
the organization.
Human resource
management for
accomplishing goals
Communicating with the
people with the use of the
vertical and horizontal
integration.
Staffing the right person or
employees for the company
Executing the agenda Motivating for bringing the
change.
Controlling include the
management of work
Task 2
This section of the report includes evaluation of the leader’s contribution to Wal-Mart strategic
direction.

Business Management and Strategic Management 11
2.1 Critically evaluate the role of the leader in the creation of an organisation’s
vision, mission and values
Mission, vision, and values
The strategic directions are based on the mission, vision, and values of Wal-Mart Company.
1. The vision of the company to be the best retailer in mind and hearts of their customers
and employees.
2. The mission of the company is to save the money for living a better life.
3. The values of Wal-Mart are to offer effective services, respect the individual, act with
integrity, and strive for excellence.
Role of leadership
The leader of the Wal-Mart company ensures that they are clear about the set mission and vision
of the company. Though, the leaders need to put in the efforts to bring the changes because it is
not easy in a dynamic world (Northouse, 2014). Wal-Mart leaders take the actions so that they
can achieve a vision of the company. Moreover, the leaders of the company ensure that
employees are involved in strategic decisions. The involvement of employees in the decision of
the company helps the leaders to make the effective decision which contributes to the success
and achievement of vision. The mission which brought by the Sam Walton was to become the
best retailer in the hearts and minds of the employees and customers. This mission brought
change in the leadership due to which they adopted for the discounting strategy that he began to
adopt in the Ben Franklin stores (Michael, 2016).