Leadership Style Development Report: Sainsbury's Company Analysis

This report examines leadership styles, specifically focusing on democratic leadership, within the context of Sainsbury's. It begins by highlighting the significance of employee performance and engagement within the company, emphasizing their crucial role in driving business success. The report then delves into a self-assessment of the author's leadership style using the VARK test, identifying a democratic approach. The effectiveness of this style is assessed, along with an evaluation of its implications for Sainsbury's operations, including considerations for decision-making processes and organizational culture. The study further explores the impact of situational changes on leadership effectiveness and identifies factors influencing leadership behavior. Finally, an action plan is proposed to refine the author's leadership style, outlining its benefits and strategies for monitoring its implementation. The report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership dynamics within Sainsbury's, offering insights into employee engagement, organizational effectiveness, and the practical application of leadership principles.

DEVELOPING
YOUR
LEADERSHIP
STYLE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA............................................................................................................3
AC 1.1 Significance of employee performance and engagement in company............................3
AC 2.1 review of own leadership style with help of appropriate diagnostic..............................4
AC 2.2 Assessment of effectiveness of own leadership style......................................................4
AC 3.1 evaluation of implication of own leadership style with organisation..............................5
AC 3.2 Impact of
changes in the situation
on the effectiveness of style........................................................................................................5
AC 4.1 The factors which
impact leadership style.
......................................................................................................................................................6
AC 4.2 Factors that impact own leadership
behaviour.....................................................................................................................................7
AC 5.1 Action plan for
own
leadership
style
......................................................................................................................................................7
AC 5.2 Benefits of action plan.....................................................................................................8
AC 5.3 Monitoring action plan....................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Leadership styles is the way and a manner in which the employees of the company are
guided by using approach, implementing plans and motivating employees in the
company(Berraies and Bchini, 2019). Their are many leaderships style which can be followed by
the leaders of the company. Some of the styles are democratic, autocratic, strategic, bureaucratic,
etc. Sainsbury's is retailing company and second largest supermarket chain in United Kingdom.
The company was founded in year 1869. the headquarter of the company are situated in
Holborn,London, UK. The employees in the company are 186,900(2018). the revenue earned by
the company Euro 28.456 billion. In this report the discussion will be based on the employee
performance and engagement in organisation. Further the study will based on leadership style
with its effectiveness in the organisation. Study will discuss the impact of changes in the
organisation. The study will assess leadership behaviour in the company.
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
AC 1.1 Significance of employee performance and engagement in company.
Employee engagement refers to the relationship of employee with the organisation. As
the employee in the organisation are the valuable assets for the company. For Sainsbury's
company the employee are crucial part for the organisation to conduct the daily operating
activities in the organisation(Bolden, Gulati and Edwards, 2019). Employee engagement plays
key role for retaining its employee in the Sainsbury's company which further help the company
to retain the talented and skilled employee in the company.
Performance of employee directly impact the business of Sainsbury's company.
Employee performance manages the employee output and increases the productivity of the
company. Management of employee performance is significant for the company because it
enable the organisation to increases their revenue and meet the sales target with accomplishment
of objective of the company(Dapper, 2019).
Sainsbury's is recommended to to engage more employees in the company with the help
of using effective strategies to motivate the employees by giving rewards, incentives, bonus, etc.
which will help the company to retain employee and increases effective work practices. The
performance of the employee increases when they are motivated to work in the organisation and
it will help to increase the revenue and productivity of Sainsbury's company(Opeke and
Oyerinde, 2019).

AC 2.1 review of own leadership style with help of appropriate diagnostic
According to the VARK report I can explain my own leadership style with the help of
scores in my report(VARK TEST, 2019.).
VARK Visual Aural Read/Write Kinaesthetic
score 3 10 3 7
Visual explains understanding with pictures, flowcharts, graphs, etc. to understand
complex situation. As these helps the learners to comfortable with matrix and blueprints rather
they easily get distracted with discussions and debates. According to my score as visual learner
explains that I am weak in understanding pictures, flow charts, etc. which further make me to
distract by discussions and debates(Opeke and Oyerinde, 2019).
Aural explains the decision making rather then taking decision making on our own
perception which influence the employee in company to give their thoughts and idea in the
company. According to the VARK test the my score shows strong points which explains that I
involve others perceptions in decision making.
Read/Write explains that the learner prefers more to cross check on the written material,
e-mailing and writing summaries, etc. the learners is more capable in multitasking and complex
task in the his work(Taylor, Santiago and Hynes, 2019). According to my score I represent the
weak points in reading and writing and does not cross check on the facts. And not able to handle
the complex task and multitasking factor is not present.
Kinaesthetic explains that learner needs more practical approaches to learn efficiently the
practical exercises. The learners more prefers the learning with the help of experience rather then
prepared methods. The learners are comfortable with ambiguities. According to my VARK test
the I have scored average as Kinaesthetic learners.
From the VARK test it can be seen that the leadership style which I have is democratic
leadership style(Rehman and et.al., 2019).
AC 2.2 Assessment of effectiveness of own leadership style.
Democratic leadership style it can be also termed as participative leadership style. From
the VARK test it can be assessed the I follow democratic leadership styles. The style makes to
involve the employee of the organisation in decision making process. With this style the
employees are able to share their problems and grievance for the company which enable the
company to improve its overall performance.

The effectiveness of democratic leadership style is that it helps the leaders to make plans
for the improving the performance of the employees. Leaders motivate employees to make their
goals which establish them to achieve the organisational objective (Sharma and et.al., 2019).
Democratic leaders encourages employees to grow in their job position so that they are able to
get promotion easily. Democratic leaders are able to understand the problems easily and with the
help of employee it can able to solve the complex problem of the organisation. The style enable
the organisation to build the strong team within the company which further helps the employees
to build the strong confidence in the company. The leaders motivate the employee to present
their opinions on the decision making which enable them to present their creative idea in the
company. The style promotes equal rights for all the employee present in the company(Shubeck,
Kanters and Dimick, 2019).
AC 3.1 evaluation of implication of own leadership style with organisation.
With the help of democratic leadership style applied in Sainsbury's company makes the
smooth functioning of its business operations with the help of coordination within the
organisation. Sainsbury's company decentralises its authority which further motivate the
employee to improve the work culture in the organisation and make them responsible for their
work. Sainsbury's frames the informal work culture in the organisation which make the social
groups at the work place which increase the friendlies and employee are able to share their
creative idea. The productivity get improved in the organisation(Tang, 2019).
Democratic leadership style some times make creates difficulties in Sainsbury's
company while taking decision because it implicates the leaders to see the perception of different
employee and implement the best decision for the company. Sainsbury's employees had trade
unions which create difficulties for the company to operate its business activities smoothly.
The measure implications on the Sainsbury's is that it is dependent on the employee for
taking the decisions and take lots of time for coming to an appropriate decisions. Sainsbury's
faces problems related to supply chain for retailing its product to different stores and making
them enable to use best channel of distribution which is cost effective for the company(Taylor,
Santiago and Hynes, 2019).

AC 3.2 Impact of
changes in the situation
on the effectiveness of style
Democratic leadership style is not useful in some situation in Sainsbury's company when
it need to take decision at the time of crisis it need to take quick decision for the company. In the
situation of crises the company leader cannot see every ones perception and take decision
because it is time consuming process for the company(Challenges of democratic leadership
style, 2019.). As the company needs to take respond rapidly for the situation and suggest the
quick decision. Hence democratic leadership style not works at time of crises situation in the
company(Wathoni, 2019).
Some times in democratic leadership management the company does not works as
democratic leaders it only acts as the democratic leader as the employee of the company are not
being involved in the decision making process of the company which shows that the leaders
follows the autocratic style and decision taken by the company are without referring the
employee to give their opinion in the company.
Another situation in the company is that in democratic leadership style the informal
structure forms the social groups in the organisation where the employee of the company are free
to discuss the negative and positive aspects of the company which impacts on the employee to
discuss their salaries or benefits provided to some specific employees of the company which
creates the sense of inequality among the employees of the company(Berraies and Bchini, 2019).
AC 4.1 The factors which
impact leadership style.
Personality factor impacts the leadership style because individual behaviour are
different from other as in terms of leading the organisation which impact the different style in
leading the employee of the company. Behaviour of leaders impact the on the employee as the if
the nature of the leaders is good then the employee feel that they are able to convey their
problem with leaders without hesitation.
Organisation culture impacts the leadership style as the culture of the company should
be strong and able to motivate the employee. Which make the employee to work efficiently for
the organisation. The leaders provides well training employee which can further guide the other

untrained employee to get better result from the employees and further help for the growth of the
organisation(Bolden, Gulati and Edwards, 2019).
Communication factor impacts the leadership style when the leaders are well versed
with the employee background and able to accept the thoughts and views of the employees then
the employee feel free to communicate with the top authority of the organisation.
Confidence factor also influence the leadership style as the leaders build the confidence
according to their style of leading to the employee of the organisation which helps the
organisation to build strong team and make the better working environment for the employees.
Organisation resources also impacts the leadership style as the staff in the company,
technology advancement and other resources which influence the company to accomplish the
goal of the organisation(Opeke and Oyerinde, 2019).
AC 4.2 Factors that impact own leadership
behaviour.
According to my leadership style that is democratic leadership style the the factors that
affect the Sainsbury's company are personality of the leaders is good as the leaders is able to
connect with the employee easily and understand the problems of employee in Sainsbury's
company than the it impact the organisation to improve their productivity and increase their
creative skills in the Sainsbury's company.
In democratic leadership style the organisation work culture involves all the employee in
the decision making and employees are free to give their views on the working of the
Sainsbury's which impact to increases the better communication between the top authority and
the lowers authority in Sainsbury's(Rehman and et.al., 2019).
In democratic leadership style the company is able to produce the effectiveness with the
help of organisational resources used in the Sainsbury's company. The use of highly advance
technology makes the leaders to develop the skills to use the technology and train them which
further develop the human resource in the organisation. The impact on Sainsbury's is that it is
able to get success with help of skilled staff and used of highly advance technology in the
company.
Democratic leadership style impact to focus more on the sociological factor like
providing quality product and services to the Sainsbury's customers. Leaders design its product

and services according to the requirement of the population in the market place which tends to
fulfil the requirement of the customer needs(Shubeck, Kanters and Dimick, 2019).
AC 5.1 Action plan for
own
leadership
style
.
Developing the action plan for situational leadership because democratic leadership is
already present in the leader. The goal in the developing action plan is the leaders need to take
quick decision according to the situations that is faced by the company(Bolden, Gulati and
Edwards, 2019). Benefits of situational leadership is that it enable leaders to take quick decision
and in situational leadership when leaders are required to take help from employees for the
solving the problem leaders are free to take the any time or they can take decision on their own.
According to the current behaviour in democratic leadership style the decision making process is
time consuming. Future behaviour in action plan will be that the decision take are quicker and it
is action towards flexible approach which will helps to increase the maturity level in the
employees. The success factor in action plan will be that the organisation will improve its
decision making process and able increase its productivity and properly utilises its time without
wasting it in decision making process. Feedback in the action plan will be taken from employee
and managers or the leaders can do self assessment to improve his leadership style in the
organisation (Sharma and et.al., 2019).
AC 5.2 Benefits of action plan.
Action plan when implemented will benefit the Sainsbury's company to improve the
objective of the organisation and company will naturally get motivated and committed to
complete the work. With the help of action plan the company will walk on the quickest way to
achieve success. From action plan the company is able to get experience which give the
opportunity to the company for further growth of the company. With help of developing the
action plan it will benefit the leaders to see various options that are available to the leaders in the
company which help them to take the company towards the growth(Dapper, 2019).

AC 5.3 Monitoring action plan.
In monitoring plan helps to ensure the solutions as it enable the leaders to take corrective
measure for the improving the skill and the performance of the organisation in the company. By
comparing and evaluating the actual result with standard action plan the leaders are able to know
where they stand in the market for the growth of the organisation. Evaluation is done when the
action plan is implement and it provides the indication to the leaders for the problems that need
to be rectified(Berraies and Bchini, 2019).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that in Sainsbury's company employee
performance and their engagement in the company helps the company in smooth functioning of
its business operations and able the company to retain talented employee in the company. Further
the study discussed about reviewing own leadership style the diagnostic was done with the help
of VARK test in the report. Then the advantages of own leadership style has been discussed
which was democratic leadership style. The implication of democratic leadership style has been
discussed which makes the company to face difficulties that were decision making process was
time consuming, less effective communication channel was followed by Sainsbury's company.
Further in the report the impact of democratic leadership style had been discussed. Then the
action plan was developed by the company to improve and develop best leadership style which
was used situational leadership style rather then democratic leadership style. Last but not least
the action plan benefit discussed. Monitoring action plan explains about the variation that
reduces the growth of company and explains measures to overcome them.

REFERENCES
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Organizational Culture, and Employees' Productivity: A Case of Pakistan Banking
Industry. International Journal of Asian Business and Information Management
(IJABIM).10(1). pp.55-64.
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Tang, K.N., 2019. Leadership Styles and Organizational Effectiveness. In Leadership and
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Taylor, A., Santiago, F. and Hynes, R., 2019. Relationships among leadership, organizational
culture, and support for innovation. In Effective and Creative Leadership in Diverse
Workforces (pp. 11-42). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Wathoni, H., 2019. Consensus on an ideal leadership style in relation to school effectiveness.
Online
VARK TEST. 2019. [online]. Available through<http://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/?
p=results>.
Challenges of democratic leadership style. 2019. [online]. Available
through<https://www.brighthubpm.com/resource-management/75628-overcoming-the-
drawbacks-of-the-democratic-leadership-style/>.