Contemporary Management Issues: A Case Study of Shackleton Leadership

This case study examines contemporary management issues in 21st-century organizations, focusing on the application of Shackleton's leadership style to address crises and improve organizational performance. It begins by introducing the challenges faced by modern management, such as market conditions, technological advancements, and environmental changes, emphasizing the need for effective leadership. The report highlights Shackleton's leadership during his Antarctic exploration as a model for team management, motivation, and crisis resolution. The analysis then applies these principles to a contemporary business example, TESCO, a British multinational company, identifying its management challenges, including coordination issues, leadership gaps, and communication barriers. Recommendations are made for TESCO to adopt Shackleton's leadership style, emphasizing teamwork, employee involvement in decision-making, and continuous training to enhance productivity and profitability. The study concludes that Shackleton's leadership provides valuable lessons for modern organizations in navigating crises and fostering a positive and effective work environment.

Contemporary
Management Issues in
21st Century

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Recommendation.........................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
The management is an essential part of every organisation, with the help of management
only all the companies operations are done effectively. As much its importance, its become
difficult also. Nowadays, the management is facing several issues in the different-different areas
like, the market conditions, natural disaster, changes in the system and the law, technology etc.
these are the factors which highly affect the management of the organisation. The rapid changes
in the environment affect the available resources of the company, the preference is changing as
per the trend, sometime the laws and regulations put an impact on the management. To avoid all
these factors which affect the management, the organisation has to use some effective leadership
style(Evans, and Mason,2018).
In this report, contemporary businesses crisis in an organisation will get discuss, to
manage the organisation Shackleton leadership style will be use in the management process of
the company. The recommendation is given to the company for the better management process
which improves the performance of the company.
MAIN BODY
To run the organisation, it is very important to develop such kind of management process
which will take care the company from all the internal and external factors. Even the well
developed management process can't help out the company from all the difficulties. The
organisation has to follow some effective style of leadership which influence the employee's
positively and also help out the manager to deal with difficulties. According to the report,
Shackleton's leadership style is use in the organisation to lead a team members in such a way
that, gives them motivation and the courage to improve their performance. Shackleton was a
great leader and a very famous pioneer, who leads the team in such a way that they got able to
cross the Antarctica for the exploration. Shackleton's and his team becomes the first ones who
cross the Antarctica, the whole credit was goes to Shackleton because of the way leading the
team. It was not an easy task the people knew about the circumstances there, they aware about
the temperature even after that they were successfully explore the area(Heindel, and McIntyre,
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2018). It was done only because of the team management and the leadership. Shackleton and the
team was the first who explore that area of Antarctica with the best way of leading the team. This
activity become the lesson for the people to manage the team and the leadership style of the
Shackleton. The whole exploration is done with the great presence of mind and supporting each
other, they work like a team and always take care of the commitment of their leader. Shackleton
also knows the difficulties there but, the motivation which provides helps them to achieve their
target on time. Shackleton was a great leader who always believes in the team work and never
left the team in trouble. The team members were very energetic with the leadership style, they
never loose the hope and didn't afraid of the difficulties(Khan, and Ali, 2020). It would never
been easy for them if they didn't had effective methods and helpful tools, flexible policies to
completed their task. From this exploration by the Shackleton and the team they set an
benchmark for the world's organisation that, everything can be achievable if there is two way
communication in a team, employee's were satisfied with the leadership style which made them
energetic and their morale would always high to reached their final destination. Shackleton
always believed in the team work, and always interacted with their team members in order to
boost their confidence and make them strong. They believe in their success and they said that,
their goals were set, their visions were clear and they knew about the difficulties. Even that, they
didn't loose the hope and let down their leader. Shackleton did the best thing there which is the
learning lesson for the 21st century organisation to adapt in their companies. They work in a team
there, there was no communication gap, their leader always give priority to them and solve all
the internal problems with the help of other team members(Lee, 2018). They create an
environment there where they got excited to explore and always went with the clarity in their
minds regarding to achieve the desired goal on time.
However, there are various contemporary management issues in 21st century such as;
environmental changes, advancement in the technology, lack of team work, inadequate uses of
resources, communication gap in the team and much more which harms the companies
productivity and hit the profitability. To understand the contemporary management issues of 21st
century, the organisation is selected of the United Kingdom name as “TESCO”, it is the British
multinational company, established in 1919 in Hackney London, got the name in 1924 and it
headquarter is in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. The company deals with the groceries and
it is a general merchandise retailer of petrol, software provider, financial services provider,
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telecoms and the internet service provider. As, the company is covering many areas of the
services, they are the largest service provider in the United Kingdom. They have many crisis in
their management such as; difficult to coordinate with the staff, lacking in the leadership style,
communication gap which create the misinterpretation in the operation(Shams, and Solima,
2019). The big responsibilities come with the great difficulties, they expand their business in
different different sectors and areas in which they provide their services. The company like
TESCO, need a better working team and the methods to get profit from every areas. They were
lacking in their decision making process, all the decisions were taken by the manager and the
leader only without involving the employee's in the process. This would demotivate their
employee's and they are not aware about the situation correctly. They just follow the instructions
from their leaders but they didn't aware about the process and the goals, which divert them from
the path. The leader just assign the task without giving them an over view about the task, the
employee's were not aware about the new technology(SPARKS, 2018). In a company it is not
sufficient to have a advance technology, it will become helpful only when the company uses that
advance technology in its best capacity. The leader of the Tesco were not aware about the
problems of their employee's, they never understand their problems which hesitate them and let
their morale down. All these treatment put a bad impact on the operations of the company and
they got in loss after wasting their resources and time. The leader of Tesco have to understand
the situation of their employee's and they have to use the different leadership style to manage the
team members. The overall success of the company is depend on the effective operation done by
the employee's, if the employee's were not happy and satisfied with the management system and
were not comfortable with the leadership then, the company have to suffer and even the largest
company can become the lowest in the market.
Recommendation
It is very necessary for the Tesco to improve their leadership style and their management
structure in order to keep the operations of the company on track and to enhance their
productivity and profitability(Warner, and Zhu, 2018). As a recommendation, they have to use
the Shackleton style of leadership which they used in their difficult time. Like Shackleton gives
the freedom to their employee's to take participate in the decision making process and also allow
them to take their own decisions according to the situation. The company like Tesco have to
adopt the policies of the Shackleton in order to achieve their task on time. They can use the
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policy of team work and the leadership style which gives motivation to the employee's and gives
confidence in them to achieve the desired goals of the company. Like Shackleton uses many
tools to explore and to face the difficulties in the same way, Tesco company can use different
methods to face the challenges and by using the updated technology with the trained employee's
they can finished their operation of the company effectively and efficiently. They have to
provide the better training to the employee's which helps them to gain knowledge and increase
their capacity to think out of the box. In a critical situation of Antarctica, Shackleton always
interact with their employee's, the company leader can also use the same strategies and policies
to motivate the employee's like organise some programs for the training and to discuss the
functions of the company(Whitten, 2022). It will give motivation to the employee's to perform
the work with their best ability and achieve the target like Shackleton team did.
CONCLUSION
In the 21st century, the organisation's are facing many contemporary management issues which
harms the functioning of the company such as; poor leadership style, communication gap etc.
Shackleton leadership style set an inspiration to all the big or small organisation to manage the
team work. Its not only become the inspiration to the leaders, it is a lesson for the employee's to
get habitual and learn from the situation, always obeyed their leaders. With the use of Shackleton
leadership style Tesco can tech their leaders the effective style of leadership. The company can
improve their operational structure as well as the management structure by using the Shackleton
leadership style.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
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Evans, B. and Mason, R., 2018. The lean supply chain: managing the challenge at Tesco. Kogan
Page Publishers.
Heindel, G.A. and McIntyre, C.M., 2018. Contemporary challenges and novel strategies for
health-system formulary management. The Bulletin of the American Society of
Hospital Pharmacists, 75(8), pp.556-560.
Khan, M., Ali, S. and Ali, S., 2020. Transformative Constitutionalism: Contemporary Issues and
Challenges in India. Issue 3 Int'l JL Mgmt. & Human., 3, p.1411.
Lee, S.W., 2018. Contemporary issues and challenges of the Korean maritime
industry. Maritime business and economics, pp.84-96.
Shams, S.R. and Solima, L., 2019. Big data management: implications of dynamic capabilities
and data incubator. Management Decision.
SPARKS, L., 2018. Tesco’s chain management supply 07. Logistics and Retail Management:
Emerging Issues and New Challenges in the Retail Supply Chain, p.183.
Warner, M. and Zhu, Y., 2018. The challenges of managing ‘new generation’employees in
contemporary China: Setting the scene. Asia Pacific Business Review, 24(4), pp.429-
436.
Whitten, M., 2022. Planning past parks: overcoming restrictive green-space narratives in
contemporary compact cities. Town Planning Review, pp.1-27.
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