Strategic Management and Leadership in Big Bear Limited

This report delves into the crucial relationship between leadership and strategic management, focusing on how different leadership styles influence organizational decision-making. It examines various leadership theories and strategic management strategies, with a specific case study on Big Bear Limited, a major UK food retail company. The report analyzes the impact of leadership styles such as Laissez-Faire, Autocratic, Participative, Transactional, and Transformational on strategic planning and execution. It also explores the application of cost leadership and democratic strategies for market leadership and customer satisfaction. The report emphasizes the importance of adapting leadership styles to specific situations and provides recommendations for future development, highlighting the interconnection of leadership and strategic management for organizational growth.

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP
STUDENT NAME:
STUDENT ID:
PROFESSOR NAME:
1

Executive Summary
The report focuses on the relationship between leadership and strategic management along
with impact of different styles of leadership and strategic management on organizational
decision. In the project, different types of leadership theories and strategies are discussed.
Current leadership strategic planning of Big Bear Limited is discussed and a report on the
development of the leadership styles is presented in the report. Cost leadership strategy,
democratic strategies are discussed in the light of Big Bear Limited. Importance of different
styles of leadership in different situation is presented in the report. Strategic management
needs to include leadership styles according to proper scenario, in this respect a future
recommendations has also been provided.
2

Table of Content
Section A....................................................................................................................................4
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Relationship between leadership and strategic management...............................................4
1.2 Impact of leadership styles on organization’s strategic decision.........................................5
1.3 Different leadership styles in different situation..................................................................6
Section B....................................................................................................................................7
Task 2 Impact of selected theories on leadership and management..........................................7
Task 3 Review of leadership and management for development..............................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
Reference List..........................................................................................................................10
3

Introduction
This assignment will put light on the relationship between strategic management and
leadership and their impact on development of an organization. Strategic management and
leadership play precious role in organizational development. This report is going to focus on
different strategic management theories and their implication on the development. Role of
leadership will also be discussed in this assignment. The relationship between leadership and
strategic management can become a key point to develop the future of an organization. Few
theories will be discussed that have impact on the organizational development. The problem
statement is to discuss the impact of leadership and strategic management on the
organizational development.
Overview of the company: Big Bear Limited is a food retail company of UK. They are one
of the largest food retailers of the United Kingdom. In order to develop their business they
have owned few other small companies. Sugar puffs, Fox’s Confectionery, Paynes Poppets
are the companies that they have owned. Big Bear got the recognition of Raisio group in
earlier 2011.
Section A
Task 1
1.1 Relationship between leadership and strategic management
Strategic management is done for extracting the best result from the resources, and capital of
the company. In strategic management, there is discussion on the marketing, manpower and
function of the company. The management need to design an appropriate strategy with the
available resources and capital of the organization. They need to find out some unique and
profitable strategies to develop the future of Big Bear Company.
Leadership is a part of strategic management. Leader’s job is to bring together all the group
members of the company for a effective implementation of the strategic plans. Leadership is
quality that skilled a person with the power of persuasion and communication. These qualities
help a leader to lead their team in a efficient way (Bolman and Deal, 2014, p.245).
Leadership and strategic management have interconnection within them. Leadership is a part
of the strategic management group. It does not prove that leaders can work independently.
However, they need to strictly follow the strategic planning that are done by the management
4

group. They have important role to play in the implementation of the strategic planning as
posses the quality of communication. With the communication skills they can connect with
other member of Big Bear company and helps to implement the planning. Leaders are
flexible with strategic management; they act according to the strategic management.
Relationship between leadership and strategic management are of planning and execution.
Management are planning for strategies and leader’s job is to help the management team to
execute it (Răducan and Răducan, 2014, p.810).
1.2 Impact of leadership styles on organization’s strategic decision
While making strategic decisions, leadership plays an important role. Leader’s job is to
communicate other team members and make them aware of the strategic decisions that are
made by the management group of Big Bear Limited. The strategies are done by the strategic
management group but the leaders are the executor of those plannings. Therefore, leadership
is a quality that enable a person with a communicating and negotiating skills. With this
qualities leaders can communicate with different cultural people and it need to be understand
by a leader that it is his duty to motivate the employees and increase their productivity.
Leaders have the quality to lead the team with positive spirit and in a productive way.
Therefore, in order to achieve the strategic plan of the Big Bear Limited they have to develop
various types of leadership styles to support the strategic planning of the company (Hallinger,
2013, p.140).
As example, in order to increase the saleability of their product, the retail firm need to plan
few strategies and campaign for the particular product. As one of the famous retail companies
in UK, Big Bear Limited have different branches throughout UK. they need to hire different
leaders or appoint different leaders for handling the promotional event of that product.
Therefore, they need to rely on different style of leadership to achieve their strategies and
planning to increase the saleability of one of their products. Application of leadership styles
are done according to location of the branch and its social culture. It is also vary in terms of
the available employees in particular branches. Employees are of different types, they can be
hard working, skilled, productive, manageable, and bias to the company. On the other hand,
they can be non- productive, poor skilled, and non-communicative. The leadership styles
should chosen in terms of the quality of workers. Poor skilled employees need skilled leader
to balance the productivity.
5

Therefore, there are many impacts of leadership on the strategic management that can
promotes the organizational workflow and help them to meet the management strategies.
1.3 Different leadership styles in different situation
There are different leadership styles that can influence the strategic management of Big Bear
Limited Company. Here five of the leadership styles are to be discussed to measure their
influence on strategic management. Laissez- Faire, Autocratic, Participative, Transactional,
and Transformational are those five styles of leadership (Fischer et al. 2016, p.170).
Laissez- Faire: This leadership style is not providing regular feedback and information to the
employees that work under supervision of this style of leadership. This leadership style fails
to improve the productivity of employees. Therefore, it is not worthy for Big Bear Limited to
depend on this leadership style as it can not be effective in execution of strategies planned by
the management.
Autocratic: This style of leadership allows the management to take decisions alone. They are
not bound to involve others and discuss before making a decision. In this leadership, style no
one has power to challenge the decision of leader. It can be beneficial for the employees that
want close supervision. If there are creative and skilled employees in Big Bear Limited then
this leadership can beneficial (Rast et al. 2013, p.640). On the other hand, if decision is made
without consulting with other members of organization the relationship between employees
and Big Bear Limited will be affected. This style of leadership can be used in a situation that
Big Bear Limited has no time to waste and need to take a quick decision.
Participative: Decisions are made through discussion with the employees in Participative
leadership. Though the final decision is done by the leader only. This style of leadership can
be highly beneficial to execute strategies.
Transactional: Transactional leadership offers the leader to receive a project and complete
it with his team members. He is providing rewards or punishments to the employees
according to the performance. In the case of Big Bear Limited this leadership style can
motivate the employees to work effectively.
Transformational: This depends on the communication skill of the leader with management
to meet the goal. The involvement of management is needed in this leadership.
6

Section B
Task 2 Impact of selected theories on leadership and management
Leadership and management theories are important to identify the sphere of problem,
planning the solutions and execution of the planning. In order to, make strategic management
different kinds of theories can be used as behavioural theories, functional theories, situational
theories and contingency theory, Etc. Similarly, different styles of leadership can be used in
terms of implementation of the strategies.
The changes of leadership styles depend on the feedback of employees and the revenue of the
company. If the employees are satisfied and revenue of the organization is also good, then
there is a point to stick to the current leadership strategy, with little changes for improvement.
Moreover, if the employee's feedback and company’s revenue both are reacted against the
leadership, then Big Bear Limited need to change the current leadership style of their
company (Luna, 2015, p.125).
Transformational leadership: This leadership is a charismatic leadership in which the
leader uses his personality and communication skills to connect with the employees to
achieve the strategies. Transformational leadership have a great impact on the
implementation of the strategies. If Big Bear Limited is following a differentiation strategy or
a cost leadership strategy then the capital turnover will be very high and the company cannot
afford that. In the same time if Big Bear Limited will follow transformational leadership then
the chances of turnover will be decreased (Buckman et al. 2015, p.87).
Transactional leadership: Transactional leadership is Followed by organizations in the hope
that if it is related with the self-interest of the employees than employees will perform better
to achieve the organizational goal. In this leadership, the employees are not allowed to do
anything but the leader’s direction. Leader is providing the direction of work and he is the
responsible person for completing the given task within the limitation of time.
A leader of Big Bear Limited can contribute to the organization by creating a good
organizational culture to promote the future of the company. The workers, the managers,
executors all are changeable in an organization but the culture of an organization lasts for
long. Therefore, leader can create a positive and clear strategy to promote the growth of the
particular organization, and to help the employees and co coordinators to understand the goal
and objectives better (Kark and Shamir, 2013, p.88).
7

For long term benefits Big Bear Limited should identify the appropriate leadership strategy
for their company. They need to set few rules and standard to get a better result through the
leadership strategy.
Task 3 Review of leadership and management for development
Requirement of the strategies: In order to lead the market the organization need to use few
strategies as cost leadership strategies and democratic strategies as well. These strategies will
help the organization to lead the market as well as focus on the customer satisfaction and
quality product. In addition, these strategies are helpful to develop the future of organizations.
Big Bear Limited is required to use both cost leadership and democratic leadership for
developing their future scope to do the best in their relevant market. Cost leadership strategy
offers the organization to maintain the cost of the product and provide the best service to
customers as well (Church, 2014, p.89). The higher authority of the company is believing in
providing the best services to the service users and maintain a good relationship with them. It
is helpful in retain the faithful and loyal customers and inviting the potential customers
towards the company's service. In democratic style of leadership, employees are getting the
opportunity to give their opinion and views that help Big Bear Limited to identify the internal
errors and plan to mitigate it (Goleman et al. 2013). If the internal management is strong of
an organization then the productivity will automatically increased. On the other hand, the cost
leadership strategy helps Big Bear Limited to improve their position in the market and
become one of the top companies of related market.
Task 4 Report on developing methods of leadership
There are countless challenges that a leader may have to face. In that concern, it is important
that a respective leader of Big Bear should understand the situation. This situation includes
both internal statuses of organisation as well as current market standard (Hawkins, 2014,
p.124). As it has been discussed earlier that in order to chase highly competitive market, cost
leadership prospect is followed. This leadership practice reflects management scenario, but if
the respective firm will change its strategy or business location, there will be a requirement of
different leadership. In case of merger or acquisition of other companies or branches, a
recommended leadership theory will be democratic. On the other hand, in order to maintain
food quality and workflow up to the mark, Big Bear may follow commercial leadership.
Practically, it is not possible always to maintain democratic leadership. In order to make
8

desired or proper direction, respective management should specify proper leadership theory.
In order to improve leadership quality, it is not only important that respective leaders should
be directed in the right way, but at the same time, it is also important to engage employees in
the same induction process. Without understanding the the prospects of commercial
leadership, Big Bear will not be able to undertake new strategies of leadership as well as a
successful strategic management.
Conclusion
Therefore, it is important that a respective firm should undertake proper leadership prospects
just according to situation and market needs. It is not possible always that a respective
leadership style may entertain all of the stakeholder groups including customers, but, the
same has a stronger impact on strategic management. If strategic management has not been
evaluated according to leadership needs there will be lesser options to gain organisational
success.
9

Reference List
Bolman, L. and Deal, T., 2014. Leadership and management. Christian Youth Work in Theory
and Practice: A Handbook, p.245.
Buckman, B., Crawford, E., LePine, J. and Zhang, Y., 2015. A meta-analytic investigation of
job engagement's role in the transformational leadership–job satisfaction–job performance
relationship. In Annual Meeting of the Southern Management Association, SMA 2015.
Church, A.H., 2014. What Do We Know About Developing Leadership Potential?. OD
PRACTITIONER, 46(3).
Fischer, M.D., Dopson, S., Fitzgerald, L., Bennett, C., Ferlie, E., Ledger, J. and McGivern,
G., 2016. Knowledge leadership: Mobilizing management research by becoming the
knowledge object. human relations, 69(7), pp.1563-1585.
Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R. and McKee, A., 2013. Primal leadership: Unleashing the power of
emotional intelligence. Harvard Business Press.
Hallinger, P., 2013. A conceptual framework for systematic reviews of research in
educational leadership and management. Journal of Educational Administration, 51(2),
pp.126-149.
Hawkins, P., 2014. Leadership team coaching: Developing collective transformational
leadership. Kogan Page Publishers.
Kark, R. and Shamir, B., 2013. The dual effect of transformational leadership: Priming
relational and collective selves and further effects on followers. In Transformational and
Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead 10th Anniversary Edition (pp. 77-101). Emerald
Group Publishing Limited.
Luna, D., 2015. The Relationship between Leadership Behavior and Leadership Styles in
Health and Human Services Emergency Management (Doctoral dissertation, OUR LADY OF
THE LAKE UNIVERSITY).
Răducan, R. and Răducan, R., 2014. Leadership and Management. Procedia-Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 149, pp.808-812.
10

Rast III, D.E., Hogg, M.A. and Giessner, S.R., 2013. Self-uncertainty and support for
autocratic leadership. Self and Identity, 12(6), pp.635-649.
11