Evaluating Steven Cain's Leadership Approach at Coles Supermarkets

The essay examines Steven Cain's leadership style at Coles, identifying it as democratic due to the consensus-based decision-making process. The adoption of self-checkout systems is presented as an example of this style, where customer feedback influenced the decision. While this approach fosters lower resistance and provides insights into customer expectations, the essay recommends a situational leadership style for greater adaptability in challenging business environments. This flexibility would allow for more effective decision-making during turbulent times, enhancing overall leadership effectiveness at Coles. Desklib offers a wealth of similar resources for students seeking academic support.

Running head: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Business administration
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1BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
From the current business operation of Coles, it is identified that Steven Cain is following
democratic type of leadership. This is due to the reason that in the recent time, it is identified that
of majority of the decisions of Steven Cain is being taken based on consensus. Consensus based
decision making process is denoting the democratic style of leadership in Coles. According to
the democratic style of leadership, the opinion of the leaders is not the only input to be
considered in the decision making process rather the feedbacks of the other internal stakeholders
also being considered. Thus, the decisions are being taken in democratic manner (Iqbal, Anwar
and haider 2015). In regards to this theory, it is identified that the recent business decisions of
Coles such as initiating the self checkout systems for the customers in their stores are based on
the democratic style of decision making. This is due to the reason that the feedback of the
customers regarding the service process is communicated to the upper level management via the
lower level employees. This helped in taking the decision of introducing the self checkout
system in theory stores. The major advantage or benefit that is gained by Coles from initiating
the democratic style of leadership is lower level of resistances from the side of the internal
stakeholders. There are no issues identified in initiating the self checkout system in their stores.
On the other hand, initiation of the democratic style of leadership is also helping Steven Cain in
having the idea about the expectation and requirement of the end customers (Terzi and Derin
2016).
However, it is recommended that a situational style of leadership will be more effective
considering the challenging business scenario of Coles. With the help of the situational style of
leadership, Steven Cain will be able to change his leadership approach based on the situations in
the earl world situations. This flexibility is important because the at the time of turbulent
business situation, democratic style of leadership will not be effective as it is time consuming in

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terms of the decision making process. This will further enhance the leadership effectiveness in
Coles.

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Reference
Iqbal, N., Anwar, S. and Haider, N., 2015. Effect of leadership style on employee
performance. Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, 5(5), pp.1-6.
Terzi, A.R. and Derin, R., 2016. Relation between Democratic Leadership and Organizational
Cynicism. Journal of Education and Learning, 5(3), pp.193-204.