Purple Mail: Working with and Leading People Report Analysis

This report analyzes leadership and management practices within Purple Mail, a UK-based courier company facing challenges. It begins by examining the recruitment and selection process, including the preparation of documentation for a new CEO, legal and ethical considerations, and the evaluat...Read More

WORKING WITH
AND LEADING
PEOPLE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK1 ............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Prepare documentation to select or recruit a new staff member...........................................1
1.2 Impact of legal, ethical considerations and regulatory to the recruitment or selection
process.........................................................................................................................................2
1.3 Selection process...................................................................................................................2
1.4 Evaluate own contribution to selection process....................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Attributes and skills needed for leadership...........................................................................4
2.2 Difference between management and leadership..................................................................4
2.3 Leadership styles for different situations..............................................................................5
2.4 Ways to motivate employees to accomplish objectives........................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
3.1 Assess the advantage of team working for an enterprise......................................................6
3.2 Demonstrate working in team as a member and leader towards goals.................................6
3.3 Effectiveness of the team in accomplishing the goals..........................................................6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................7
4.1 Factors involved in monitoring and planning the assessment of work performance............7
4.2 Plan or deliver the assessment of the development requirement of individuals...................7
4.3 Assess success of the assessment process.............................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Working with leading people means how employees are treated within the organisation
by manager and their co-workers. There is diversified work force in the company so that
employees can perform various task and activities to achieve set goals and objectives. To operate
all the organisational functions in systemic manner it is essential that appropriate leadership is
done so that available resource can be utilise in proper (Welch, 2014). Basically, working with
the leading people means the manner in which workers are lead and guide by management. This
project report will be discussed about the Purple mail company which is one of the largest
leading courier organisation in United kingdom. This enterprise is suffering from various issues
and problems related to the management. It face continuous downfall in the financial profit
because of failure in providing good quality services to their customers. In this report, various
required skills to be adopted in the managers has been discussed with recruitment process and
concept of leadership.
TASK1
1.1 Prepare documentation to select or recruit a new staff member
The purple mail company is facing lots of issues because of its ineffective management
system and worst leadership styles. This firm need various changes in the existing employees for
reducing the negative results and accomplish better result in certain period of time (Terkel,
2011). It is responsibility of manager to recruit high skilled employees for the organisation.
Therefore, recruitment process will be done for different posts but starting with the post of CEO.
Job Analysis
CEO is most top position in the company after the owner. He is the individual who is
accountable for all the practices that take place in Purple mail company. He make various
strategies and plans for covering the financial loss face by the firm.
Person Specification
Duties:
 He has responsibility to communicate with all the staff members who are associated
with enterprise and allot different duties to all the managers according to their skills
and knowledge.
 They need to provide raw material, assets and resources to all departments according to

their requirement so that they can perform given task in suitable manner.
 They should provide positive and healthy working environment and clearly tell about
goals and objectives of firm to all staff members so that they work according to it.
 Whatever strategies and plans they make should be realistic and related to the desired
set target.
Pay: £140000 which will be minimum salary with many more other advantages
Working hour: There should be suitable office timing for 9 hours that can be change
sometimes according to the meetings, proper working hour help employees to do work without
any pressure.
Expectations: He should have full knowledge regarding the problem faces by the company and
manager trust that the skilled employees will help to overcame with all the crisis.
Abilities: Leadership skills with various other require qualities such as effective
communication, motivational, hard working and many so.
Work experience: He should hold the position of CEO in past for any firm and has more than 10
years of experience.
1.2 Impact of legal, ethical considerations and regulatory to the recruitment or selection process
There are so many legal policies, laws, legislations and ethical frameworks that are
formed by government of any nation so that rights of workers and managers are protected
(Savikko and et. al., 2010). All these laws define the relationship of employees and employers
and how an enterprise could conduct its task and practices. It is very much important for all the
business organisation to follow these laws so that they could not face any kind of issues and legal
hurdles. Human resource department of the purple mail company should consider all the laws
and rules while making any strategies and plan, this will help in avoiding any further disputes.
Firm must follow all the laws related to health, equality and safety of employees and make sure
that there will no discrimination done by manager on the basis of colour, caste, gender and
religion at workplace.
 Employment law - It regulates the relationship between employers and employees. It
governs what employers can expect from employees, what employers can ask employees
to do, and employees’ rights at work. Employment legislations apply to absence from

work, sickness, Maternity Leave, and holidays. Employment law acts and employee
legislation in Britain protects the work force. UK recruitment legislation acts as a
safeguard against workplace discrimination from co-workers and employers. In other
works, it protects employees' rights in organisations as they work freely.
 Discrimination act – the act establishes a general framework for equal treatment in
employment and occupation, which forbids discrimination based on religion, belief,
disability, age and sexual orientation. It specifies that an employer is not allowed to pay
persons doing the same work or work of equal value differently due to their sex. If a job
qualification or evaluation is used to determine the pay, it must use the same criteria for
men and women and it has to be designed in such a way that it does not discriminate
between the two sexes.
 Health and safety act – The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 lays down wide-ranging
duties on employers. Employers must protect the 'health, safety and welfare' at work of
all their employees, as well as others on their premises, including temps, casual workers,
the self-employed, clients, visitors and the general public.
1.3 Selection process
The concept of recruitment and selection of the right employees is perform by Human
resource department of the firm which play major role in achieving goals and objectives of the
business organisation. It is duty of HR to hire right candidate who have good background and
easily handle difficult situation in The purple mail company (Rock, 2014). As a HR manger I
will be ensure that only high skilled and experienced person who are eligible for the post should
be selected. After inviting maximum number of CY all the resumes will be analysed and selected
documents will be shortlisted. Assessment of all resumes will be done on the basis of their past
experience and eligibility. Company set certain standard for department that if individual has
convinced talent and experience then only their CV will be selected. I will make sure that the
interviewers comes from different background for judge the skills, abilities and knowledge of
candidate on the basis of their past experience and check that does they have all those required
leadership qualities for transform the purple mail company. As, this firm face down falls in
performance because of lack of leadership and miss management, so I will make sure that
selected leader must have qualities to handle any difficult situation.

In the selection process, I am working a HR manager of the company who is liable for
hiring and selecting people as per their skills and knowledge. At the time of interview, I
shortlisted people for face to face discussion so as to as to recognise their IQ level and
knowledge. On the other hand, while selecting candidate people are I gave advise to management
tell people whether they are selected or not. If people are finalised then HR manager of the
company provides them an offer letter which involves all terms and conditions of the firm. I also
organise an induction programme for new joiners as they can interact with other people.
1.4 Evaluate own contribution to selection process
As a HR manger it is my responsibility to make effective design for the recruitment and
selection process for hiring high skilled employees for improving the performance of the Purple
mail company. Through this, staff members can be increased it is not only recruitment design but
to implement it in most suitable manner is also a responsible task which will require to be taken
serious. The human resource department need proper funds for the recruitment process so that
effective financial report has to be made that will be explaining all the details related to the task
and what capital will be needed for performing work in effective manner. This prepared report
will be submitted to the financial department who maintain all the records of inflow and outflow
of cash transactions in the purple mail company. It is must for me to select desired candidate for
the position for achieving best result as wrong recruitment can create lots of problems, troubles
and issues for company that brings it in losses (Rees and French, 2016). I will check hiring
process in effective way to see that there will no discrimination and inequality done on the basis
of caste, religion, gender and colour. In this step every one should be treated as equal and
provide same opportunities to all the candidates to show heir skills and abilities. The candidates
are selected through the process of screening the CV and then interview process will be
conducted for the selected candidates. In which I will also conduct an interaction process
between interviewers and individual to know existing skills and knowledge how could that help
in organisation for achieving high profitability. This will assist to understand each other by
knowing what they can do for the firm and what company wants from them.

TASK 2
2.1 Attributes and skills needed for leadership
In the Purple mail company, there are leaders who provide proper guidelines and
direction to all the employees so that they complete their task in most effective way. The
attributes or skills deals with various qualities which disable to apply the knowledge in any
practical way (Peterson, 2011). Leaders have several skills as well as attributes through which
they can easily deal people in different situation. There are some skills or attributes are define as
under:
Communication skills: It is one the most important skills of leaders through that they can
motivate employees to work together and more effective way to attain goals and objectives of the
company.
Team building skills: Leader must have the team building skills through which they can
encourage employees to work together for achieving best result and outcomes in less period of
time.
Problem solving skills: The leader is a person who must know how to deal with the
difficult situations and how to solve the problems at work place. Through this skill, leaders can
easily solve any problem of the staff members by providing them proper solution.
Decision making skills: Leader should have this skills through which they can make
effective decision for the growth and development of the firm.
2.2 Difference between management and leadership
Both management and the leadership are completely different from each other. In the
purple mail company, the leaders and managers play major role for achieving best result in
market place. The role of leaders is to guide employees to attain better result and manager allot
all the work between staff members according to their capabilities and skills. Mainly, leaders
focus on the employees and workers and the managers focus on the management system of the
organisation (Offstein, Morwick and Koskinen, 2010). Mangers make various plans and
strategies for accomplishing desired target and leaders provide right direction to all the workers
to do the task in most effective and appropriate manner. Mangers have large number of
employees who work for him and leaders have followers who follow him. Managers of the
organisation manage and control entire work activity whereas leaders develop the company by

taking help of innovative, creative and good idea. Mangers make goals and objectives of the
enterprise or the leaders create vision for the firm.
In the Purple mail company, the role of manager and leaders are very important. They
both do their job in very effective and clear way to gain more profitability in market place. Firm
can easily solve any problem regarding management and employees with the help of appropriate
leadership and effective managerial skills. Through this, productivity of company will be
enhanced and goals and objectives will be achieved in certain period of time.
Difference between leadership and management
Leadership Management
A leader knows where they stand, where they
want to go and tend to involve the team in
charting a future path and direction.
Managers build a strategic vision and break it
down into a roadmap for their team to follow.
A leader personally invests in tasks and
projects and demonstrates a high level of
passion for work.
A manager is the member of an organization
with the responsibility of carrying out the four
important functions of management: planning,
organizing, leading, and controlling.
Leaders have people who believe them and
walk by their side down the path the leader
sets. Leaders are usually inspirational—and
help their team understand their own roles in a
bigger context.
Managers are responsible for day-to-day
efforts while reviewing necessary resources
and anticipating needs to make changes along
the way.
2.3 Leadership styles for different situations
In the Purple mail company, leaders use various styles of leadership for different
situations which are explained as below:
Democratic leadership style: In this style, leaders take views and opinion during decision
making process. This will improve relationship between employees and mangers and also build
confidence level in the workers by involving them before making any decision (Moore and et.
al., 2013).

Autocratic style: In this, all the important strategies and plans made by the leaders
himself. This is not suitable approach as workers feel less importance in the organisation and get
demotivated due to which they give maximum efforts towards achieving goals.
Transactional style: In this both leaders and mangers, give reward and the punishments
to the workers on the basis of their performance. It is completely based on the outcomes that
comes through work of employees.
Leadership theories: -
Path goal theory - The Path-Goal model is a theory based on specifying a leader’s style
or behaviour that best fits the employee and work environment in order to achieve a goal. The
theory can best be thought of as a process in which leaders select specific behaviours that are
best suited to the employees’ needs and their working environment so that they may best guide
the employees through their path in the attainment of their daily work activities and goals.
Contingency model of leadership - The contingency theory moves beyond the
behavioural and traits approaches, and posits that no single psychological make-up or set of
personality traits can be meaningfully linked to effective leadership. Instead, the interaction
between an individual’s psychological profile, individual traits and the external conditions is
what creates effective leadership. Ultimately, the theory suggests that effective leadership is
contingent on factors independent of an individual leader. Contingency theories are that there is
no one leadership style and that the nature of those being led, the make-up of the leader and the
tasks facing a group are different. Each situation is unique and the ideal leader-led situation will
be unique.
2.4 Ways to motivate employees to accomplish objectives
There are two types of motivation: -
 Intrinsic – self generated factors (responsibility, freedom to act, scope to use and develop
skills and abilities, interesting and challenging work, opportunities for advancement) –
they have a deeper and longer-term effect
 Extrinsic – what is done for people to motivate them (rewards, promotion, punishment).
They have an immediate and powerful effect, but won’t necessarily last long.
Theories of Motivation
Hierarchy of Needs -
 Physiological – it includes hunger, thirst, shelter, sex and other bodily needs

 Safety it includes security and protection from physical and emotional harm
 Social it includes affection, belongingness acceptance, and friendship
 Esteem – it includes internal esteem factors such as self-respect, autonomy, and
achievement; and external esteem factors such as status, recognition, and attention Self-actualization – It involves he drive to become what one is capable of becoming;
includes growth, achieving one’s potential, and self-fulfilment
Theory X and Theory Y - Douglas McGregor proposed two distinct views of human
beings: one basically negative, labeled Theory X, and the other basically positive, labelled
Theory Y.
 Theory X – The assumption that employees dislike work, are lazy, dislike responsibility,
and must be coerced to perform. (Lower order needs dominate) Theory Y - The assumption that employees like work, are creative, seek responsibility,
and can exercise self-direction. (Higher order needs dominate)
McClelland's Theory of Needs
 The Need for Achievement: the drive to excel, achieve in relation to a set of standards,
strive to succeed.
 The Need for Power: The need to make others behave in a way that they would not have
behaved otherwise.
 The Need for Affiliation: The desire for friendly and close interpersonal relationships.
The HR manager of the Purple mail company uses various methods and ways for
motivating their employees towards work.
Better working environment: It is responsibility of manager to create positive and
healthy working condition for their all staff members so that they can do work freely. This will
enhance the performance of workers and motivate them to work in proper way (Mendenhall,
2012).
Problem solving: If there is any problem and issues occur in the organisation than,
manager should solve it immediately in effective way. The solution must be suitable for both
company as well as employees.
Performance appraisal: Manager should appraise the performance of employees who
perform in most better way to achieve best outcomes in the organisation. This will motivate and
encourage them to work more in effective way (Blanchard, 2010).

Treat equal to all employees: It is best way to motivate employees. HR manager should
treat all the staff members equally with doing any kind of discrimination at work place.
TASK 3
3.1 Assess the advantage of team working for an enterprise
Team working is best way of doing task in together for achieving best result in leass
period of time. Most of the companies use this concept of team working as there are lots of
benefits of it to the organisation and the employees. When task is allotted companies make plans
and strategies for completing task in certain period of time but it is difficult for individual person
to complete activities alone so the firm distribute that task among other workers. Than team is
formed by manager for completing the work in effective way (Lev, 2013). Team work increase
productivity as well as profitability of the company. Also, reduce work load and pressure on the
employees and problem can be solved in proper way as all members give their views and ideas
for achieving best result.
A team that works well together understands the strengths and weaknesses of each team
member. One of the benefits of strong teamwork in the workplace is that team leaders and
members become proficient at dividing up tasks so they are done by the most qualified people.
Without strong teamwork, it can be difficult for managers and executives to determine which
staff members can best accomplish job tasks. Work groups and teams develop systems that allow
them to complete tasks efficiently and quickly. When a task is handed to a well-trained and
efficient team, the team's work pace assures that the task will be completed quickly and
accurately. This allows the company to take on more work and generate more revenue without
having to add more staff.
A team can be worked with strong leadership, as a strong leader provides proper
guidance to subordinates. It results they can work according and perform in better manner
through which organisation can easily attain its goals and objectives. Team members are loyal,
cohesive and share interpersonal relations which supports to manage healthy and positive
working environment at workplace.
3.2 Demonstrate working in team as a member and leader towards goals
There are components for the team one is leader and second is member of the team. They
both have own roles that is specified by the firm or bound to perform with each other for

developing coordination between both of them. The company has set desired goals and
objectives according to which work is allotted with the team, it is duty of team member to
complete given work in specified period of time. Team leader is a person who manage all the
functions, take important decision regarding work and manage all team member as he is supreme
of the team. It is duty of leader to monitor and control entire working process of team for
achieving better result in minimum cost. There can be various conflicts and disputes arises at
work place between employees which can effect the performance and profitability of the
company. It is duty of leaders to solve all those conflicts on time so that employees can do their
work in proper way (Lepsinger, 2010)
3.3 Effectiveness of the team in accomplishing the goals
The success and growth of the company is totally depend upon the performance of the
team members. At the time of allotment of task team is assigned but team is formed when they
have required capabilities and abilities which can enhance profitability level of the purple mail
company. Before forming any team proper research can be done by managers to understand they
are beneficial to the organisation or not. Through this company can easily control problems and
find out loopholes for achieving better result. Manager select employees on the basis of their
capabilities and skills while forming team for any task and the person who has all qualities of
leadership become leader of the team (Hamson, 2012). This assessment and evaluation of team
help in achieving desired goals and objectives in certain period of in most effective manner.
In UPI's teams are not much effective due to ignorance of the leader or some other
factors. In this relation, leaders are required to acquire various performance management
techniques so as to analyse performance level of staff members and rendered them direction
accordingly. It helps Purple mail to improve the quality of work of employees by boosting their
performance.
TASK 4
4.1 Factors involved in monitoring and planning the assessment of work performance
Status of worker can be easily identify by the mangers by monitoring on the employees
performance on the daily basis. There are various factors that are involved in the assignment,
monitoring and planning of employees performance. For motivating worker to do more work,
performance appraisal system is best way through which the purple mail company can easily

attain its set goals and objectives in certain period of time. This will help to know about all the
employee's performance like who is performing best and who is giving low result (Goetsch and
Davis, 2014). Proper training and development program can be develop according to their
requirement of improvement by monitoring their work so that they can increase their skills. The
employee who perform best should get reward that will boost performer.
Performance management is the process of creating a work environment or setting in
which people are enabled to perform to the best of their abilities. Its a whole work system that
begins when a job is defined as needed. It ends when an employee leaves your organization.
Performance management gives the tools to instil the desired qualities among employees in order
to get the job done. All around employee development not only ensures the personal and
professional growth of your employees, but also the expansion and improvement of a business
organisation.
Methods of performance management -
 Performance Standards - Employee performance measurements can determine an
employee's compensation, employment status or opportunities for advancement.
Performance standards define what it takes for employees to meet or exceed the
company's performance expectations.
 Graphic Rating Scales - This method is used for measuring employee performance
requires preparation just like other methods; however, it can be completed relatively
quickly, which is a plus for supervisors who manage large departments or competing
assignments in an environment that leaves little time for workforce management duties.
 Management by Objectives - MBOs, are useful for measuring the performance of
employees in supervisory or managerial positions. The employee's performance is
measured by how many of her goals she accomplished within the designated time frame.
 Benchmarking – Its a measurements of quality of the company's policies, strategies,
standards etc. and their comparison with quality standards. The main objective of
benchmarking is to assess what and where improvements can be done.
4.2 Plan or deliver the assessment of the development requirement of individuals
The Purple mail company involve all the managers and employees while taking any
important decision regarding any change. All the employees must undergo training for enhancing
their existing skills and abilities so that they can work in more effective manner. They should set

goals for the future in which they set target for achieving any particular task in fixed period of
time. After than team is formed that will be evaluating the last performance with the actual. This
will help in making effective action plan for identify the employees work and provide them
proper training program according to the requirement (Fullan, 2014). This process assist to
guide the firm to work in most appropriate manner and record all the details related to their
performance. The profitability as well as productivity level of the firm will be increase by
assessment and monitoring on the employee's performance on the regular basis. Company can
know need of Induction and development for their employees with the help of action plan and
provide proper training for enhance their skills and abilities so that they can do work in most
systematic and effective manner. This will also provide proper guidelines to the organisation to
work in right direction to achieve more growth and development in large market place.
Need of personal and professional development plan: -
Aims/Objectives Target proficiency Current
proficiency
Needs for improvement
Communication
skills
10 5 Effective communication skills
will help individuals to interact
with others. It also supports
employees to share their ideas
and views with top management
and determines best solutions.
Leadership and
management
skills
10 5 Strong leadership and
management skills helps in
providing guidance to
employees which will also
improve the decision making
process of the firm.
Problem solving
skills
10 8 If employees have effective
problem solving skills then they
can easily determine all barriers
or obstacles which will arise

while working. It helps people
to find out appropriate solution
of work based problems.
Afterwards, managers are required to assess the overall plan by conducting surveys or
research. It helps to demonstrate whether employees performance is able to attain all goals and
objectives of the firm. Management can also generate results on the basis of learning curve as
well as Return on investments. Comparative analysis can be done for evaluating performance
level of employees at workplace.
4.3 Assess success of the assessment process
The Purple mail company can monitor its performance by taking help of assessment
program. This plan was a large success as it improve the working condition of the firm and
brought a new confidence due to which now they work in proper manner. The main motive of
the assessment program was to identify actual status of the enterprise that has been accomplish
through this. Now, they have all information regarding the employees who are performing well
and who are under performance and in which department they are behind. This will aware the
company about the factors that can effect the employees performance and easily identify the
need of training at work place (Bush and Middlewood, 2013).
Pros and cons of personal development plan: -
Pros
 Improve the performance of individuals to eventually improve the performance of the
organisation as a whole.
 It creates an opportunity for subordinates to express their views and opinions as well as
suggestions for improvement of performance and identification of obstacles. The
subordinate gets the opportunity to discuss personal and company goals ant together with
the manager fins a balance between them.
 Employee aspirations can be clarified and where possible incorporated into overall
planning of the employee's goals and outputs as well as his development plan.
Cons -
 Decreased Performance of individuals and department/organisation
 Degrading of Communication

 Lack of Management commitment
 Subjectivity and lack of rewards
CONCLUSION
From the above project report it has been concluded that the Purple mail company was
one of the largest firm in this sector but because of the miss management and lack of leadership
it face lot of problem and crisis. To overcome with this issue a new HR manager was hired to
recruit new employees who could utilise their knowledge, abilities and skills for the betterment
of the company. For improving performance of the firm regular assessment and monitoring on
employees work is must. A job role as well as person specification was created for hiring new
CEO for the organisation. Through which the profitability and performance level of the firm will
be improved in fixed period of time.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Welch, J., 2014.Jack: what I've learned leading a great company and great people. Hachette UK.
Terkel, S., 2011.Working: People talk about what they do all day and how they feel about what
they do. The New Press.
Savikko ant et. al., 2010. Psychosocial group rehabilitation for lonely older people: favourable
processes and mediating factors of the intervention leading to alleviated
loneliness.International journal of older people nursing.5(1).pp.16-24.
Rock, D., 2014.Quiet leadership. HarperCollins e-books.
Rees, G. and French, R. eds., 2016.Leading, managing and developing people. Kogan Page
Publishers.
Peterson, B., 2011.Cultural intelligence: A guide to working with people from other cultures.
Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
Offstein, E.H., Morwick, J.M. and Koskinen, L., 2010. Making telework work: leading people
and leveraging technology for competitive advantage.Strategic HR Review.9(2).pp.32-
37.
Moore and et. al., 2013. Communication skills training for healthcare professionals working with
people who have cancer.The Cochrane Library.
Mendenhall, M.E. ed., 2012.Global leadership: Research, practice, and development. Routledge.
Lev, A.I., 2013.Transgender emergence: Therapeutic guidelines for working with gender-variant
people and their families. Routledge.
Lepsinger, R., 2010.Virtual team success: A practical guide for working and leading from a
distance. John Wiley & Sons.
Hamson, N., 2012.After Atlantis: Working, managing, and leading in turbulent times. Routledge.
Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014.Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Fullan, M., 2014.Leading in a culture of change personal action guide and workbook. John
Wiley & Sons.
Bush, T. and Middlewood, D., 2013.Leading and managing people in education. Sage.
Blanchard, K.H., 2010.Leading at a higher level: Blanchard on leadership and creating high
performing organizations. FT Press.
Online
What is the Difference Between Management and Leadership?.[Online]. Available through:
<http://guides.wsj.com/management/developing-a-leadership-style/what-
is-the-difference-between-management-and-leadership/>.

18