Effect of Leadership Styles on Employee Performance: Tesco Study

This project explores the relationship between leadership styles and employee performance within the UK retail industry, focusing on Tesco. The research begins with an introduction outlining the background, aims, and objectives, including research questions and rationale for the study. A comprehe...Read More

(To determine the effect of leadership styles on
employee performance in the UK retail industry)
INTRODUCTION
Background information
Leadership refers to the capacity of a firm's management in order to set as well as
achieve challenging goals of the organisation, take decisive and fast action when required,
outperform the competition as well as inspire others in order to perform their task in a better
manner. Leadership styles is referring to the characteristic behaviours of leaders in order to
direct, motivate, guide as well as manage groups of people (Zhang, Cao and Wang, 2018).
The company need to identify the best leadership style which helps in improving their
employee’s performance. In the following research, the organisation is used Tesco, which is a
multinational retail organisation in the UK founded in 1919 by Jack Cohen. The following
research covers project aims and objectives, key academic sources as well as timeline
activities. Further the research will include literature review. In this research conclusion will
be covered along with the recommendations. Lastly a reflection will also be written in the
current research.
Research Aim
To determine the effect of leadership styles on employee performance in the context
of the UK retail industry. “A study on Tesco”.
Research Objectives
 To understand the concept of leadership in context with the UK retail industry.
 To identify the leadership style used in Tesco in order to manage and control
employees in the organisation.
 To analyse the effects of leadership style on the employees' performance of Tesco.
Research Questions
 What is the concept of leadership in the context of the retail industry?
 Which leadership style is used in Tesco for managing and controlling employees in
the organisation?
 How will the leadership style of Tesco effects employees' performance?

Rationale
The reason for doing this research on the topic effect of leadership styles over the
employee performance is based on the personal interest in this topic. Also leadership is one of
the most important area for business. This topic is selected based on the interest to gain
knowledge about how employee performance is related with the type of leadership an
organization have. Further this research topic is already researched by various researchers
making it easier to gather the reasonable amount of information on the topic.
Timeline
Activities 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Research topic
selection
Developing
research
objectives and
questions on
the basis of
topic
Drafting of
brief research
proposal
Analysis of
secondary
sources
Writing
literature
review
Conclusion
writing
Recommending
solutions
Consulting
with tutor
Making

modifications
Submission
Literature Review
According to the view of Wilde (2019), leaders of a company provide substantial
impact on the employees' performance. The responsibilities of leaders make it complex and
hard in order to drive the high quality performance in effective manner. Managers are
responsible for creating a positive atmosphere, team success as well as solving complex
problems in between the employees in better manner. This makes leaders to adopt many
types of leadership styles for stabilising the resources of the company. The company need to
also ensure that the leadership style choose by them should be in the favour of their
employees so, they perform their task in better manner. The autocratic, democratic and
participative are different types of leadership styles which helps Tesco in order to manage
and control their employees and performance in better manner. The management of Tesco
need to used participative leadership style as it very useful long term as well as provide
positive impact on the performance of employees. This leadership style create positive work
environment in which creativity is encouraged.
In the views of Zhang, Cao and Wang (2018) leadership is that ability of an individual
using which the individual can influence & guide the team member of a company. Leadership
is inclusive of making good decisions, creation and display of clarity in vision. It enables
individual that is leader in an organization to achieve the goals of the organization set as a
target to success and growth. A leader through effective leadership equips its team members
with required tools and knowledge that are essential elements for their success. Almost all
aspects of society have leaders, all the fields starting from business to politics have leaders.
There are certain set of characteristics that a leader possesses. These includes skills to face
failure, interpersonal communication skills, high level of self -confidence, critical and
creative thinking skills, skill to innovate, etc. In businesses these skills are present in
managerial executives.
According to Alqatawenh (2018) leadership is an art by which an individual motivates
another individual or group of individuals for making them work towards the achievement of
a common goal. In context of businesses leadership means the act of directing other by
following a strategy aiming at meeting the requirements of the company. Leadership is
something that refers to existence of essentials in a person that makes him prepared in
making others inspire. The term effective leadership is exercised on the basis of certain ideas
that can be both one’s own ideas or the ideas that are borrowed by some other persons. These
ideas are effectively communicated by the leader with the objective of engaging them in a
desired manner. A leader is a person that through the possessed leadership skills or qualities
makes other act in a way that serves the purpose of the making contribution to achieving the
goals of the company. Leadership make the leader capable of creating an impact by making
others to act in a way that is desirable to the organizational goals. In its alternate meaning
leadership also means management structure of an organization.
In the thoughts of Syakur and et.al. (2020) there are various styles of leadership. To
begin with the first style of leadership is known as autocratic or authoritarian leadership.
Leaders that follow this style of leadership takes all the decision of the business without
considering any kind of suggestions from the employees or seeking anyone’s approval. An
autocratic leader just takes the decision without looking forward for any kind of efforts from
their team members. The next type of leadership style is known as affiliative. In this style

leaders connects with their team members through making emotional bonds with them. The
people of the organization are considered more important than the profits that it earns from
the perspective of an affiliative leader. This style is beneficial as it eliminates the problems of
low employee morale, poor communication, bad working environments from an organization.
As per the studies of Budur and Poturak (2021) bureaucratic leadership is another
style of leadership. In this type, leader follows textbook content and work according to the
formal code in which a leader should act. The reason behind following such a pattern to
leadership is that leaders strongly dislike undertaking any kind of risk. This type of leaders
seeks inputs from their members, and remains biased towards following the older leadership
practices of the firm. this is style is mostly found in organizations where strict rules are must
to be followed. There remains no space for introduction of new ideas as the leaders are
resistant to implement changes as it can affect the good position of the organization. The
most accepted style of leadership is known as democratic or participative leadership.
Organizations where this type of leadership style is followed are the ones in which more
emphasis is led over the skills, talents, knowledge and diversity of the team members. Such
leaders work constantly towards making their team developed by asking them to give in their
input. Excellent listening qualities are possessed by such leaders, constant confidence
building of the team is present by collective efforts.
According to Mamula, Perić, and Vujić (2019) another type to leadership style is
known as laissez –faire or Delegative. The literal meaning of the word is let them do. This
type of leader trusts the team members and let them do what they are required to do. Team
members face minimal interference from their team leader. This type of leadership is seen
commonly in new start-ups where entrepreneurs have to be more focussed on overall strategy
of the company rather than routine tasks of the company so they entrust their employees with
completion of such tasks.
According to Bonsu and Twum-Danso (2018) there is close relationship between the
leadership style and the performance of the employees working within the organization. This
impact of leadership style over employee performance is visible in companies from each
sector irrespective of its industry. Grocery retail industry is also experiencing this kind of
relationship. It is a well -known fact that business leaders directly impact the employees’
performance of their company. It is thus the responsibility of such leaders to effectively drive
the efficient performances of such employees. Team success, creation of good environment
and getting the complex of complex problems solved is the responsibility of such business
leaders.
In the views of Kazim (2019) the different types of leadership have different impact
over the employees’ performance. The autocratic approach to leadership is useful in driving
the performance of employees to highest level for a short period of time. Researchers have
proved that in the conditions of business where there exist a large number of new employees
this type of leadership style is best suited for the purpose of ensuring that the business goals
are achieved and there is no major impact of having too much fresh talent in the organization.
The solutions of the most difficult problems are the best find out by the autocratic leaders.
Furthermore, in the thoughts of Karácsony (2020) the leadership style that is most
useful for driving both long and short term high potentials of employee performance is the
democratic approach to leadership style. This type of leaders not only brings benefits to high
employee performance but also gets their business organization benefitted from the boosted
level of employee morale. The next approach is the participative approach to leadership, have
been proven not that effective in the short run but is most advantageous when talking about
the long term success of the business entities. There is huge impact over the performance of
the employee in the long run. In addition to high level of performance of the employees this

type of approach also believed to create an environment of working that is most liked by the
employees and further aids to their higher productivity.
According to DO and et.al. (2020) the impact of leadership style over the employee
performance can be classified into three aspects that are namely, historical, conceptual &
theoretical perspectives. To begin with the historical perspective, the leadership has led to
rise of a new approach for the purpose of employee management and large organization
management. In this the different types of leadership are used based on the employees that
means the style is selected on the basis of analysis of the employees and the best matching
style should be adopted. Employee performance gets affected due to unavailability of proper
direction and strategic approach to the organizational objectives. The conceptual perspective
says that there are varied leadership styles like autocratic, participative and democratic that
are the independent factors affecting the dependent factor that is employee performance. The
conceptual perspective works upon establishing a relationship between these two variables.
To wind –up the last perspective is the theoretical perspective. In this the contingency model
theory for leadership is studied that establish the relation between employee performance and
leadership effectively. This effective relation is created by finding out a match between
abilities of a leader and the requirements of the situation. In a nutshell this approach or
perspective says that the performance of the employee is maximised with a leadership that
can stimulate the employee to do so.
Conclusion
In conclusive the main points that have been covered above in the research are
concept of leadership, different styles of leadership and the impact of such styles over the
performance of employees in organization. It is concluded that leadership is the capability
that lies with an individual in a group with which such individual is capable of influencing
others and making them work in a desired manner (Freihat, 2020). On the basis of report, it is
clear that the way in which the decision taking authority of a business organization takes
decision displays the kind of leadership such authority follows.
There are various styles of leadership which a leader can follow in order to take
decisions and such adopted style is linked with the performance of employees working in
organization. The leadership style that is followed by Tesco is democratic leadership
(Dastane, 2020). This leadership style helps the management of the company to solve the
complex of problems easily as large number of minds are involved in the process of thinking
for the solution of such problem. Further the company gets an environment in which
creativity is encouraged, the relationships of team members with the leader of Tesco is
enhanced with following this type of leadership. Also the honesty levels of the employees of
the company is high as they have good relations with their leader making them able to
communicate the true scenario with them. Job satisfaction of the employees working with the
company is high as they are heard by the company, also the employees are highly committed
to their work.
In addition to these advantages that there are certain disadvantages that the company
is facing currently as this style is followed by the company (Baig and et.al., 2021). These
negative impacts are creation of negative emotions amongst the team members because of
differences in opinions, experiences & perspectives. Also the leaders are more likely to fall in
a trap where they start relying completely on the team member suggestions to take decisions
and stop thinking with actual utilization of their capabilities. Further this approach possesses
an element of continuity to uncertainty as decisions are taken at faster pace. It is
recommended for the company not to completely rely on the democratic style of the
leadership and adapt to a combination of leadership styles. The two of the leadership style
that can be combined with the existing style of the company is the visionary style and
transformational style of leadership (Ibrahim and Daniel, 2019). Visionary approach is

recommended as it will enable the firm to build a culture that supports innovation. Innovative
culture is best suited for the solving of problems. Transformational style is recommended on
the basis of the benefit that it can entail to the business. The performance of employees gets
more improved than that from the democratic style as this supports continual improvement of
employees from the leader (Eliyana and Ma’arif, 2019). Leader pushes the team members on
constant basis that results in making such team members capable enough to self –improve
their work. Combination of leadership style is the best way to implement leadership and also
to boost the employee performance of maximum.
Personal Reflection
Personal reflection will be written by following a reflective writing model known as
Gibb’s reflective cycle. This cycle has six chronological an on -going stages. The first stage
is known as the descriptive stage. In this particular stage a description of what event has
happened is written (Gibbs' Reflective Cycle Helping People Learn From Experience, 2022).
The event that happened is conducting of a research by me. For which I selected a topic of
my interest so that the whole research will be interesting for be as I will be able to enhance by
knowledge in the topic of my interest. The topic for research that I selected is impact of
leadership styles. Leadership is that part of management which I find most interested and
always wanted to gather as much of information as I can. Then the next stage of the reflective
cycle is the feelings. My feelings when I started this research were full be excitement
curiosity to enhance my knowledge about the leadership concept that the impact it has in real
life situation of the company. With these feelings I also had some doubts in my mind
regarding whether I will be able to complete the research in the given time. My time
management skills were my great area of concern through -out the research on the topic.
Then comes the evaluation step in this the situations that were encountered during the entire
event are evaluated. During the research there was great difficulty that I faced in deciding the
sources of information that are reliable and can be regarded as trusted sources for my
research but with the effective guidance by my tutor and my skills of evaluation I was able to
counter this challenge and complete my research project. The fourth step of the reflective
cycle is the analysis step (Rolfe and Freshwater, 2020). Though I faced a lot of difficulty in
completing the research in specified duration of time but I was able to counter this hurdle too.
The fifth step is the conclusion step. To conclude with my research project there are certain
things that I learnt with the completion of this project. Firstly, I realised how important are
the time management skills in getting the things done at time. In this project one of the most
important thing that is learnt by me is the ability to categorise which sources of information
are reliable and what sources are categorised as the unreliable sources of information. Action
plan is the last step of the process of the Gibbs’ model for reflection. The areas on which I
can work upon in order to do the future research projects in a better and more efficient
manner are my time management skills. For this purpose, there are certain areas on which I
will focus these includes determination of priorities, avoidance of multitasking, any kind of
distractions, and organization skills (Chang, 2019). If I had to some research again in future, I
will be able to complete it with efficiency and on time.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Zhang, L., Cao, T. and Wang, Y., 2018. The mediation role of leadership styles in integrated
project collaboration: An emotional intelligence perspective. International Journal of
Project Management, 36(2), pp.317-330.
Alqatawenh, A. S., 2018. Transformational leadership style and its relationship with change
management. Verslas: teorija ir praktika. 19(1). pp.17-24.
Syakur, A. and et.al., 2020. Sustainability of communication, organizational culture,
cooperation, trust and leadership style for lecturer commitments in higher
education. Budapest International Research and Critics Institute (BIRCI-Journal):
Humanities and Social Sciences. 3(2). pp.1325-1335.
Budur, T. and Poturak, M., 2021. Transformational leadership and its impact on customer
satisfaction. Measuring mediating effects of organisational citizenship
behaviours. Middle East Journal of Management. 8(1). pp.67-91.
Mamula, T., Perić, N. and Vujić, N., 2019. The contribution of innovative leadership style as
an answer to global and business changes. Calitatea. 20(170). pp.9-14.
Bonsu, S. and Twum-Danso, E., 2018. Leadership style in the global economy: A focus on
cross-cultural and transformational leadership. Journal of Marketing and
Management. 9(2). pp.37-52.
Kazim, F. A., 2019. Digital transformation and leadership style: a multiple case study. The
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Karácsony, P., 2020. Analyzing the relationship between leadership style and corporate social
responsibility in Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises. Acta Polytechnica
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DO, D. T. and et.al., 2020. The influence of leadership style on accountants' commitment
with enterprise: An empirical study on Vietnamese FDI Firms. The Journal of Asian
Finance, Economics and Business. 7(3). pp.235-243.
Freihat, S., 2020. The role of transformational leadership in reengineering of marketing
strategies within organizations. Problems and Perspectives in Management. 18(4).
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Dastane, O., 2020. Impact of leadership styles on employee performance: A moderating role
of gender. Australian Journal of Business and Management Research. 5(12). pp.27-
52.
Baig, S. A. and et.al., 2021. Impact of leadership styles on employees’ performance with
moderating role of positive psychological capital. Total Quality Management &
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performance. International Journal of Business, Management and Social
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Eliyana, A. and Ma’arif, S., 2019. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment effect in
the transformational leadership towards employee performance. European Research
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Kalsoom, Z., Khan, M. A. and Zubair, D. S. S., 2018. Impact of transactional leadership and
transformational leadership on employee performance: A case of FMCG industry of
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Chang, B., 2019. Reflection in learning. Online Learning. 23(1). pp.95-110.

Rolfe, G. and Freshwater, D., 2020. Critical reflection in practice: generating knowledge for
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Online
Gibbs' Reflective Cycle Helping People Learn From Experience. 2022 [Online]. Available
through: <https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/reflective-cycle.htm>