Case Study: John Lewis Partnership's Leadership Crisis

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ASSIGNMENT 2: LEADERSHIP: THEORY AND PRACTICE
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Practical case study development....................................................................................................4
Concept evaluation and application of ‘authentic’ leadership model in order to encourage other
for following a leader.......................................................................................................................5
Analysis about the importance of following responsible leadership during change along with
examples..........................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
Proper leadership style assists the organisation to manage their operation and it leaves positive
outcome on the business. Among various leadership styles, ‘authentic’ leadership is the most
effective one and the main aim of this style is to achieve organisational long-term goal for
holding organisational reputation in market. It was found out that John Lewis and Partnership
(JLP), organisation under retail industry, had faced around 99% of loss in first half of 2018 due
to lack of management and leadership style (johnlewispartnership.co.uk, 2019). By using the
personal experience as a manager of JLP, practical case study will be developed and changes will
be introduced according to the issue by following authentic leadership model. At the end,
analysis on the responsible leadership style along with various instances will also be
incorporated.
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Practical case study development
John Lewis is a reputed retail venture in UK and I had got the opportunity to work as a manager
in this company. However, during work, I had noticed that profit of venture was decreased day
by day and it raised a question mark in the mind of our present employees. From the report of
guardian, in 2018, they faced around 99% of loss in their business (theguardian.com, 2018). As a
manager, it shook my position and I tried to find out the reason of this huge loss. In this context,
I started to observe the work process of employees so that I could get a clue for this issue.
Moreover, the leaders of sale department also observed this issue and they communicated with
me about this factor. I provided a task to my leaders about the market research so that they also
could develop their knowledge related to the profit declination.
During observation, I had observed that few members are there who did not work passionately as
they did not have interest to do the work. Therefore, the service quality was decreased and
customers’ satisfaction rate was declined. Moreover, cooperation in work was not found in John
Lewis and performance level was not increased. It was also noticed that employees were not
able to express their problem to the leaders due to ineffective communication. After finding out
the basic issues, I conducted a meeting with leaders for discussion and solving the problems.
In the team meeting, I asked about their findings related to profit declination and I heard the
opinion of all leaders, which made them feel about their importance in the organisation. Most of
the employees raised their hand supporting the political issue. Considering their words, I tried to
highlight the internal issue also. I discussed with them about the findings and asked for the
further suggestion. They had suggested for shuffling team along with new strategies such as
providing training session and reward, developing products according to customers’
requirement and analysing the ability of partners for achieving fruitful outcome. Suggestion
for developing intranet was also incorporated so that leaders, managers and employees are able
to communicate with each other at any time. In addition to this, by negotiating with other
managers, I also recommended to research on the present competitors for understanding their
strategy for operating business.
However, as a manager, I also discussed with the employees and they expressed their grievance
on specific leaders due to few reasons such as unprofessional guidance, hectic work pressure,
ineffective communication and many others. I opened to them about our next decision of team
shuffling and evaluated aim of bringing innovation in our clothing related products and in food
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products by taking help from our partners such as Waitrose & Partners. Moreover, I assured that
systematic work schedule will be followed for maintaining organisational production. It is
monitored that above-mentioned strategies help the organisation to increase their profit in
running year along with earning customers’ satisfaction.
Concept evaluation and application of ‘authentic’ leadership model in order to encourage
other for following a leader
Evaluation about the concept of ‘authentic’ leadership model
 Value and purpose need to be clear to the leaders
 Leaders should be disciplined so that systematic atmosphere in workplace can be
followed
 Formal and informal both types of relationship need to be built between leaders and
employees
 Leaders should care about the issues and suggestion of the workers during work
(Yukl, 2017)
Figure 1: Authentic Leadership Model
(Source: Influenced by Northouse, 2016)
As per the viewpoint of Northouse (2016), in the model of authentic leadership, leaders should
have clear aim about their work so that they can complete it within its deadline. Many a times, it
is noticed that leaders are aware of the organisational aim, but, they are indifference towards it. It
decreases organisational position gradually. Authentic leaders are able to reduce this issue and it
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assists the employees feel motivated during work. They take responsibility to complete the work
by maintaining its quality. On the other hand, Bryman et al. (2011) also stated that not only the
disciplined nature is required in leaders, but also, effective communication skill needs to have the
leaders for solving internal issue such as operation and production related issue appropriately. It
is evident that effective communication process helps to build good relationship between leaders
and team members. Thus, team members are able to express their problem to the leaders and they
can provide effective suggestion for solving the issue and vice versa. For this reason, in the
company, employees should follow the instruction of a leader in order to hold their position in
market.
Another concept such as behaviour and relational transparency is highlighted in the authentic
leadership model, which assists to create positive emotion in the workers (Hughes et al., 2008).
As per the model, leaders need to have trust and hope on the workers so that they feel motivated
during work. According to Equality Act 2010, equal behaviour needs to be received by the
employees from their leaders, which increases their job satisfaction (gov.uk, 2010). It also
motivates the workers to provide extra effort for the welfare of the venture. Thus, it can be
deduced that by following model of ‘authentic’ leadership, organisation can open a designation
of leaders for each team, who are involved in the business operations and complete the work
properly.
For instance, in case of John Lewis and Partnership, it was found that organisation lost their
position in market and 99% of declination in their profit was also observed. By using concept of
‘authentic’ model, leaders guide the employees and they develop innovative and unique products
according the consumers’ demand, in return, fruitful outcome was received.
Application of ‘authentic’ leadership model
Communicating with team members personally and arranging team meeting once in a
week
In order to apply the model, the foremost aspect is to communicate with employees so that they
can reveal their work related issue properly. Many a times, it is found that, team members do not
agree with their teammates’ opinion and it creates conflict between them (Gold et al., 2015). In
order to solve this issue, they need to communicate with leaders and their instruction should be
followed. It helps the leaders and employees to operate business effectively and achieve positive
outcome. For example, in case of JLP, managers shuffled team and instructed to communicate
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with workers during their difficulties. It helped to remove altercations from the team and
production was improved. This evidence encourages others to follow a leader in their venture for
achieving optimistic result.
Following self-regulation for achieving organisational goals
Self-regulation highlights various aspects such as polite behaviour, having capability of
controlling one’s emotion and thoughts in order to achieve long-term goal and many others
(Grint, 2010). It helps the leaders to complete the work in a disciplined manner. Therefore, in a
team, when one member does not work properly, leader have the capability to make him/her
understand about the importance of effective working. For instance, as a manager in JLP, it was
found that employees did not work in a collaborative way and it reduced product quality
gradually. Leaders, after receiving instruction from me, became careful to their job role and it
helped to develop organisational position in market. In a company, employees should follow a
specific leader for conducting their job appropriately.
Optimisation towards work and providing proper guidance
According to Algahtani (2014), leaders need to be optimistic so that they can motivate workers.
Moreover, authentic leaders try to find out the issue of workers and provide training as per
requirement. Thus, job performance of workers is increased. For example in case of JLP, for
increasing their profit, leaders follow the above-mentioned strategy and it has developed their
9.2% of profit in the year of 2019 (johnlewispartnership.co.uk, 2019).
Figure 2: Profit of JLP in 2019
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(Source: johnlewispartnership.co.uk, 2019)
Analysis about the importance of following responsible leadership during change along
with examples
The importance of the following a responsible leadership during any sort of change in an
organization could be analyzed in five segments. These five segments would be the five
principles of responsible leadership.
 First, through the principle of respecting others, responsible leadership would benefit an
individual in the end. This would be associated with taking in high degree of input and
identifying potential innovating ideas by taking in the richness of the idea as well as the
experience of the provider.
 Second, through the principle of servicing others, responsible leadership would benefit
the organization as a whole. This would be because; serving others would project a
transformational leadership. This mechanism essentially would increase the motivation of
the employees, as most of the preferred needs of the employees would be met through the
organizational policies (Algahtani, 2014). For example, in the case of John Lewis,
serving others includes the phenomenon of taking the feedbacks of all the employees and
then altering the projected changes in the organization.
 Third, in the segment of showing justice, the responsible leadership would include the
aspect of the taking into multiple ethical frameworks and rights legislation of the UK.
This would include adherence to utilitarian ethical frameworks along with the Fair Work
Act of 2009, The Human Rights Act, the Employability Act of 1996 and others.
Adherence to the mentioned frameworks would enable an individual to manage the
change associated with an organization while reducing any obligations in professional or
in ethical dimension. For example, during the CNN in its London unit has been planning
to undergo major layoffs (Waterson, 2019). Any negative issues from the mentioned
event have been essentially reduced through the provision of compensatory benefit.
 Fourth, in the segment of the manifestation of honesty, responsible leadership would
increase the probability of reduction in the negative impacts of change in an organization.
This would be because, any leader that would include the aspect of responsible
leadership, would be able to increase the loyalty aspect of the employees. During rise in
inflations or operational costs, the majority of the organization would cut cost from all
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sectors including human resources. As a result, the development of honesty among the
employees in such changes would enable the employees to leave with a good relationship
with the organization. For example, Ford has been planning to cut 700 jobs in UK due to
poor growth rate and slow automobile market (Davies, 2019). Responsible leadership
would help the organization to reduce any potential dent in its market share, public image
and brand image.
 Last, in the segment of building community, responsible leadership would be able to
build an efficiency working community as well as customer community during
organization change. This would be through the mechanism of sharing of relevant
information within the employees as well as with the customers. In long end, this
responsible leadership segment would be able to boost sales figures for the organization
as marketing would be a part of the change management associated with responsible
leadership (Terence Mauri, 2017).
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Conclusion
In order to draw the end line of this paper, it can be stated that effective leadership style can
enhance organisational management system. In addition to this, authentic leaders are able to
achieve organisational goal by providing training to the employees. In Evaluation of authentic
model and its application is also negotiated throughout the study. Responsible leadership and its
importance is also discussed and analysed by using relevant examples. In case of John Lewis and
Partnership, their profit has been increased around 9.2% after introducing change by developing
innovative products in market. Thus, importance of effective leadership in venture is described in
the entire paper.
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Bibliography
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