Leadership Styles and Challenges: Woolworths Group Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive assessment of the leadership practices within the Woolworths Group, an Australian retail giant. It begins with an overview of the company's activities, including its various segments and key personnel. The report then delves into the leadership styles employed, focusing on democratic and transformational approaches, while also acknowledging the absence of autocratic leadership. It highlights the strengths of the democratic style, such as increased employee engagement and improved decision-making, and the strengths of transformational leadership, like balancing short-term and long-term goals and building trust. The report also acknowledges the challenges faced, including slow decision-making in democratic settings, over-reliance on teams, and potential confusion from too many employee suggestions. The analysis includes recommendations for improvement, such as effective communication, employee motivation, positivity in the workplace, and encouraging creativity. Ultimately, the report aims to provide a detailed evaluation of Woolworths' leadership, offering insights into its effectiveness and areas for potential enhancement.

ASSESSMENT 2

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
General overview of the organisation’s Woolworths activities..................................................1
A general overview of the leadership practice within the selected organisation........................2
The strengths and weaknesses of the identified leadership practices.........................................4
Recommendations for the organisation.......................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
An assessment is systematically information gathering process. The organisation here
taken for assessment is Woolworths group. The company is an Australian retail company which
deals in Australia as well as New Zealand (Hammad & Hallinger, (2017). The Woolworth is
second largest Australian company. The assessment report will lay emphasis on general
overview of Woolworths group and activities undertake in the company. The assessment report
will also highlight the different leadership styles along with challenges face by the company
Woolworths. Also, the strengths and weaknesses of the leadership practice will be covered in this
assessment report. Some recommendations for the Woolworths will also be provided in order to
attain maximum organisational profitability by the company.
MAIN BODY
General overview of the organisation’s Woolworths activities
Woolworths group is a company which deals in interest of retail in all over New Zealand
and Australia. The company is the second largest company in retail in accordance with revenue
earned. The company has almost 205,000 employees in their stores of Woolworths (Hallinger,
(2018). Also, the company has their own trusted partners which are mainly manufacturers and
local farmers.
The key people behind successful activities of Woolworths are Gordon Cairns, the
chairman of Woolworths and Brad Banducci, the CEO of Woolworths. The company gains a
revenue of $ 55.670 billion in 2017 along with their net income in that year was $ 1.593 billion.
The company has various segments which includes New Zealand supermarkets,
Australian petrol and Food, BIGW, Endeavour drinks group, and Hotels. The new Zealand
supermarket is a segment which is engaged in products such as liquor, food for sale in New
Zealand. Australian petrol and food is engaged in products related to food and petroleum. Also,
BIGW is segment that is engaged in discount of general merchandise products. Endeavour drinks
is involved in products of liquor to all over customers of Australia. Hotels of Woolworths are
engaged to lay services of hospitality and leisure which includes alcohol, entertainment,
accommodation, food, and gaming in all over the country Australia.
The stores of Woolworths are very innovative and has updated a huge variety pf products
in their stores. Also, the provide print receipts to their customers on every purchase they made in
their stores. The company are attaining huge success due to their efficient management and
1

leadership skills. The employees working with Woolworths are very satisfied working with the
company. Also, they are attaining their individual goals along with organisational goals.
A general overview of the leadership practice within the selected organisation
There are different leadership styles which every organisations applies in their operations
to manage working and activities. Leadership style is way in which authority and power a leader
use to lead their followers.
Autocratic leadership style – In this style of leadership, a leader takes all decisions in the
organisation. Also, the leader execute decisions without consulting their sub ordinates. The
employees or the followers have no right to participate in decision making of the company.
There is no involvement of employees are there in process of decision making. Also, it has been
observed that the organisation follows this style of leadership is not able to gain interest of their
employees towards the company (Clarke, (2016). The employees work to attain salary and other
benefits only. They did not feel any belogingness with the company. Also, they only follow
orders of their leaders without analysing and argument on it. In autocratic style of leadership, the
single person with the highest authority in the company need to undertake all decisions of the
company. Therefore, this style of leadership does not follow in the company Woolworths.
Democratic leadership style – This style of leadership is focused on team leaders and the
decision making with the help of team members. This leaders of Woolworths encourages their
followers to contribute their suggestion as well as ideas towards decision making of the
company. This enables the interest of employees and self confidence is also developed in them.
The experience of employees valued by the company. This creates a good and friendly
environment of working. The employees working in Woolworths are experts and are capable
enough to contribute their suggestions with the company. Also, by the support of team members
company Woolworths are able to make decision making properly and efficiently.
The risk of decision making is made with involvement of entire group. Therefore, the risk
of making a wrong or inefficient decision is very low. Also, the group check the results on timely
basis which creates an effectiveness of democratic leadership style in Woolworths. The good
working environment is created by the engagement of employees in decision making of
management personnel for the Woolworths.
Transformational leadership style – The leaders of Woolworths also follow this style of
leadership. This style of leadership creates a friendly environment in the company. The decision
2

making is in clear set goals where the expectations of the company is high with that of their
subordinates. In Transformational leadership followers are motivated by leadership in the
company to contribute their valuable ideas and suggestions. The short term and long terms goals
are satisfied with this style of leadership.
There are many leadership styles company Woolworths group follows. The company
categorized the leadership according to task focus and people focus (Rao-Nicholson, Khan, &
Stokes (2016). The democratic style of leadership is people focus whereas transformational style
of leadership is people focus. Though the company does not follow the autocratic leadership
style because it involves less interest and engagement of employees towards the company.
Challenges face by the company Woolworths group.
 The decision making in democratic leadership style is very slow. The subordinates in
company Woolworths slow down decision making of the company.
 Also, there is an over dependence of team is found a challenge for the company
Woolworths (Khan, (2016). The democratic leadership style become overdependent on
groups which lays biasness while the decision making. This lead to shift the goal of
Woolworths towards the goal of individual goals.
 The transformational leadership build trust of employees in the company but it
mismanages the decision making work of leaders and managers.
 Too many suggestion from the employees often creates confusion and delays the work of
decision making among company.
 The Woolworths companies leaders face lack of development and support in the
company Woolworths. Therefore, this affects the companies profitability and
management of working.
 The leaders observes that the time management, strategic thinking, decision making, etc.
need to be developed with the time. This affects company by creating confusion and
inefficient decision making in Woolworths.
Leadership development activities:
In accordance with enhancing the operational level of performance on which determination
of effective technique would bring the positive outcomes in terms of growth and profitability.
There will be raise in the level of production as well in operational efforts by professionals as an
effective leadership technique would be adopted by Woolworth. However, business is entitled
3

with supporting and facilitating an effective leadership team which should be capable for
analysing the employee desires and bringing them the adequate satisfaction which has been
effective in motivating them. Moreover, there can be influences of various leadership
development activities which brings positive impacts on brining favourable work culture.
 Communication: There must be effective communication practices in the organisation
which would have positive impact on employees in relation with improving morale,
motivating as well as managing the workforce. Hierarchical ascertainment would be
effective for the organisation in accordance with mitigating the conflicts, management
relevant risks.
 Motivation: A true motivation must be required in organisation for motivating the
employees towards their duties it can be materialistic or career-oriented motivation. It
helps in inspiring and increasing the self- esteem of employees to make proper efforts and
attaining the target aims at the right time.
 Positivity: During the time of workload and having a stressful schedule there should be
requirement of bringing a positive environment at the workplace. It is a responsibility of
a leader in accordance with managing the work environment on a favourable instinct.
 Creativity: A leader is required to appreciate and motivate the employees on their
creative approaches made by them in operational work. Motivating employees on their
innovative efforts would be effective and adequate for the professionals in accordance
with increasing the quality of work as well as having an improved productive effort.
The strengths and weaknesses of the identified leadership practices
Strength of democratic leadership style in Woolworths group
The decisions are executed by the involvement of many employees of the Woolworths.
Thus, there are less chances of wrong decision making. The leaders make efficient decision
making with the help of their employees suggestions and innovative ides.
This style of leadership is creating a good working environment. The employees feel
belogingness with the company in which they are currently working (Evans & Sinclair, (2016).
The managers of Woolworths shares the responsibility of decision making with them give them
the feeling of engagement. This motivates them to work with dedication and create a healthy
working environment and increase job satisfaction among employees.
4

The performance of team also develops by following this style of leadership. The
employees performance improves by their engagement in decision making. The employees
involves themselves less in chaos and they spend more time in productive tasks. The engagement
of employees towards their tasks allotted to them and suggest their ideas to the organisation lead
to increase the decision making capability of the leaders. Hence, along with the performance of
the employees Company such as Woolworths performance also increases.
Weaknesses of democratic leadership style in Woolworths group
The decision making in such style of leadership is very slow. The slow decision making
in the company Woolworths because of involvement of many people in a single decision. Also,
the real problems in the company need time to tackle but involvement of multiple suggestion
affects working of Woolworths and delay in decision making of the company.
The over dependence of team members are usually found in this style of leadership. The
Woolworths is overly dependent on informal group which is formulated in the company. The
decision making is influenced by these group as they shift the decision in order to satisfy their
individual goals and they are not concerned about organisational goals of Woolworths.
The burden of collaboration is the greatest weakness of this leadership style followed in
the company Woolworths. The burden of leaders in the company is observed by collaboration
and the urgent need to shift the strategic vision is identified by this style of leadership. This
burden depletes the performance of the company Woolworths.
Strength of transformational leadership style in Woolworths group
The transformational leaders in Woolworths able to balance their need for long term
goals and short term goals. The perfect balance by the help of leadership style is the biggest
strength of the leadership in Woolworths (Damanik & Aldridge, (2017). The performance of the
company improves a lot by establishing goals need to be achieved by Woolworths.
Also, the employees working in the company Woolworths able to bring trust in the
company. The leaders and employees work together to attain effective working with decision
making according to increase companies profitability. This also builds a good relationship
between employees and superiors. Good relationship between the employees and superiors
affects a profitability and growth of the company Woolworths group.
The transformational leadership style lowers the turnover cost of the company
Woolworths which tend to affects performance as well as growth of the company. This
5

leadership style seek to satisfy organisational needs as they satisfy employees working in
Wordsworth which lead to decrease turnover cost.
Weaknesses of transformational leadership style in Woolworths group
The biggest weakness of transformational leadership style is that this leadership is very
ineffective in the beginning. The strong team building in the journey of leadership takes time.
The transformational leadership is not oriented towards detail. This style of leadership
not only inspires other as a role model but also motivates the employees to work by
implementation on day to day basis (Du Plessis, Wakelin & Nel, (2015).
The transformational leaders focuses to satisfy individual needs of workers working in
Woolworths. This divert them from the organisational goal of Woolworths. Also, the employees
are also focuses on their personal need and they are less concern about team and the company as
well. This behavior of employees lead to decline the organisation effectiveness and productivity.
Recommendations for the organisation
From the report it has been analysed that the firm is facing various issues related to
communication. There are various barriers to communication which are being faced by them. In
order to overcome this firm can have engaged in providing training to employees and workers in
enhancing their written and oral communication. Also they can motivate employees to engage in
open communication, so that leaders can analyse needs and demands of workers. This will also
enhance relationship between leaders and workers.
It can help leaders of organization to create employee loyalty and belonging. Leaders
have to make effective communication a priority and that takes discipline, consistency, clarity of
message, and a willingness to keep at it day after day. Also the issues which firm is facing in
leadership is that the leaders of the organization to do not have a clear vision and goals. So this
makes employees confused and unfocused. It hampers their quality of work and can also result in
frustration and anger. In order to overcome this issue leader needs to have clear, goals and
vision. They must be also firm in their actions.
Real leaders create a compelling vision for the future that ignites a fire under their team
and keeps them working hard and doing the right thing even when nobody’s looking. Also the
leaders of enterprise need to have a good execution. They must make sure that the right person is
being placed at the right place. This will also help the leaders of firm in improving work culture
6

and also organization peace will be establishing. This will attract efficient talent in the firm that
will help them in increasing the productivity and profitability. It can also help them in reducing
the operational cost and new employees can be attracted.
CONCLUSION
This assessment report was all about Woolworths group of Australia. The report was
begun with a representation of general overview of the company in which it was highlighted all
the activities and segment of market in which the company Woolworths operates. Also, the
company is dealing in market of Australia as well as in New Zealand. All the relevant data of
company regarding revenue, no. of employees was covered in this assessment report. Then
comes different style of leadership. In which democratic and transformational leadership was
analysed to be adopted by the company. The strength and weaknesses of the leadership style and
practice was also covered in this report. At last some recommendation regarding the company to
increase their profitability will be highlighted in this assessment report.
7

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Clarke, S. (2016). School leadership in turbulent times and the value of negative
capability. Professional Development in Education. 42(1). 5-18.
Damanik, E., & Aldridge, J. (2017). Transformational leadership and its impact on school
climate and teachers’ self-efficacy in Indonesian high schools. Journal of School
Leadership. 27(2). 269-296.
Du Plessis, M., Wakelin, Z., & Nel, P. (2015). The influence of emotional intelligence and trust
on servant leadership. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology. 41(1). 01-09.
Evans, M. M., & Sinclair, A. (2016). Navigating the territories of Indigenous leadership:
Exploring the experiences and practices of Australian Indigenous arts
leaders. Leadership. 12(4). 470-490.
Hallinger, P. (2018). Bringing context out of the shadows of leadership. Educational
Management Administration & Leadership. 46(1). 5-24.
Hammad, W., & Hallinger, P. (2017). A systematic review of conceptual models and methods
used in research on educational leadership and management in Arab societies. School
Leadership & Management. 37(5). 434-456.
Khan, S. (2016). Leadership in the digital age: A study on the effects of digitalisation on top
management leadership.
Rao-Nicholson, R., Khan, Z., & Stokes, P. (2016). Making great minds think alike: Emerging
market multinational firms’ leadership effects on targets’ employee psychological safety
after cross-border mergers and acquisitions. International Business Review. 25(1). 103-
113.
Online
Disadvantage of transformational leadership. 2019. [Online]. Available through.
<https://brandongaille.com/22-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-transformational-leadership/>.
8