Analysis of Leadership and Management Development Programs at Zara

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ORGANISATIONS: LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

Table of content
Difference between Concepts of leadership and management.....................................................3
Analysis of leadership theories......................................................................................................5
Analysis of management development programs.......................................................................10
References..................................................................................................................................15
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Literature Review Essay
The importance of contemporary business operations in terms of leadership management is
documented in different parts. In order to effectively manage employees, leaders and managers
have to work collaboratively. This will also help organisations to increase their productivity as
well as the brand image. In today’s high functional world leadership management plays a huge
role for the overall success of the organisation. Senior managers and leaders are nowadays
heavily involved in the various management programs to improve organisational skills and
knowledge. Thesis statement of this essay permits effective analysis of various management
development programs. It also analyses leadership theory to understand the basic needs of
leadership and management in an organisation. In order to analyse the leadership and
management, a fashion retail organisation has been chosen, named Zara. This organisation is
mainly focusing on developing various business models while focusing on the customers’ needs
and wants. Their business model includes various fashion designs, production of clothes and
other fashion commodities. In order to analyse leadership and management concepts, critical
analysis of various management programs will be developed through effective management.
Difference between Concepts of leadership and management
Leadership and management in an organisation are two highly important facets in the business of
Zara. Leadership represent every individual and maintain a balance among the people who are
involved in different tasks in workplace. Those people can be managers, employees and other
organisational stakeholders. According to Bush et al. (2019) Management represents the whole
organisation and managers make coordination among different economic resources of the
organisation. Leaders can be managers as they have to manage employees of the company to
maintain the productivity however managers cannot be leaders as they do not have the skill sets
to efficiently maintain employees and managers only keep focusing on the productivity not
employees need and wants. In addition to that, leaders of Zara have specific set of characteristics
traits that helps them to direct organisation rather than managing resources. This organisation has
annual revenue of about $18.9 billion (Zara, 2019).
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Leadership facts: Leadership style of Zara often shows itself in the owner of business and
executive officers of the organisation. Owners of Zara have seen themselves as leaders because
they start their business with clear aims and objectives. According to Behavioural Leadership
Theory owners of business are mainly responsible for managing all aspects of developing new
business venture in the market (Diamond and Spillane, 2016). This is sometimes regardless of
the adverse condition of the business markets. This is the reason why organisational leaders of
Zara are responsible of different negative business environment which is based on their
personality. There are various leadership traits such as boldness, competitiveness, self-assurance,
enthusiasm about new business markets and conscientiousness. This specific trait provides
effective business skills in order to complete tasks. This special leadership trait also helps other
employees to get inspiration for the job during the tough conditions. As stated by (McCaffery,
2018) Particular organisational traits of leaders and managers of Zara includes maturity,
employee orientation in team, intuitiveness, empathy and charm. This particular leadership trait
helps to relate closely with the structure of the business of Zara.
Leadership operations: Leaders and business owners of Zara are mainly involved in developing
a specific mission or objectives for the organisation. This statement of the organisation includes
knowledge, various methods and vast amount of information to work efficiently in the
workplace. Organisational leaderships of Zara recruit candidates to fulfil their objectives which
provide the organisation productivity. It has been noticed that leaders of Zara have a tendency to
give tasks that are basically not much important to those employees who are work at low levels
(Donate and de Pablo, 2015). This deputation of work helps leaders to keep focus in a single
point to achieve overall goal of this fashion retail organisation. Business of Zara has strong
leadership which helps organisation to develop a better understanding of organisational goals and
objectives. Main goal of this organization is to make profit from their business while there are
some other goals in order to efficiently operate in the business environment. Leaders of Zara not
only provide specific goals and objective but also set strategies to achieve those goals effectively
as well as efficiently.
Leaders help Zara to keep focus on the main aims and objectives of the organisation when it
starts to deviate from their goals. However, leadership sometimes can create various conflicts in
the business environment. Sometimes leaders are heavily focused on a single objective and
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therefore they missed other needs of the business. Managers and employees can be sometimes
overlooked or less important if leadership aims are put first in before managers and employees.
In addition to that, if leaders consistently criticise work of their employees then an environment
will generate which unfavourable for work (Castillo and Hallinger, 2018). This will have an
adverse effect on the productivity of the Zara. Strategic management is highly important for the
business of Zara as it sets various strategies to efficient execute the jobs within the time range.
An effective management style also provides a social license to the organisation for operating in
the particular region. Effective management is highly needed in present day business
management as organisation like Zara deals with various internal and external stakeholders.
In addition to that, Zara is a global business organisation where people from different cultural
and social background work collaboratively. Therefore, there is a high chance of cultural
conflicts in the workplace. As opined by Hallinger and Wang, (2015) in order to mitigate those
challenges effective management is needed. Nowadays consumers become more aware not only
about the products that are sold by Zara but also the way those products are sold in the market.
Therefore, managers have to monitor their business activities so that organisation can generate a
positive attitude among the consumers. Effective business strategies that are set by the
management of Zara provide an environment standpoint as well as ethical one. In addition to
that, management of Zara also involves introducing new business plans in this ever changing and
growing market so that the organisation can survive for long term.
Analysis of leadership theories
Leadership paradigms:
There are various leadership theories that can be used by the organisation in order to maintain a
quality working environment. One of them is Trait theory of personality, which mainly used to
discuss the psychology of a person. Generosity, short temperedness is all defines personality of a
person. This theory mainly used in organisational context to understand how an employee
behaves while an adverse situation arrives in the workplace. It also can define the stability of
characteristic of a person that helps the person to effectively take the decision to adapt the
situation. Behavioural leadership theory mainly focuses on the actual behaviour and action of a
leader (Edwards et al. 2015). According to this theory a strong leadership results as an effective
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role model in the organisation. According to this theory leaders mainly follow three skills that
are technical skills, human and conceptual skills. According to this approach, specific behaviour
of the manager of an organisation helps to develop an efficient leader who can help determine
objectives as well as motivate employee to give better performance at work.
On the other hand, contingency theory asserts the effectiveness of leaders as leadership styles
have an effect on the work performance of the employees. Contingency model states how leaders
are matching their leadership styles effectively in different working conditions (Schedlitzki et al.
2017). This model also states about the leaders situational favourableness of leaders which based
on three factors. Charismatic leadership theory mainly focused on persuasiveness of a leader in
the organisation. This kind of leaders also called transformational leaders as they have multiple
similarities. Charismatic leaders have engaging personality and commitment towards positive
change in the organisation. Whereas, transformational leadership approach is relatively new
leadership approach that mainly focused on leaders’ creation of valuable as well as bringing
positive change in the work environment (Hammad and Hallinger, 2017). Transformational
leaders try to transform their employees so that they can work in a same harmony to provide
better results in work.
In order to improve leadership skills, leaders of Zara mainly focused on the Transformational
Leadership Theory. Transformational leadership is a type where it is used by the leaders and
employees of Zara to achieve higher level of motivation levels and morality. This theory is
mainly used by the leaders of this organisation to develop a performance that can serve beyond
the expectation of higher authority of the Zara and develop a positive work environment.
Through using this leadership management theory leaders try to develop integrity and fairness in
the workplace by setting clear aims and objectives to execute jobs efficiently (Yeh and Chen,
2019). Additionally, leaders of Zara also set a high rate of expectation from their employee
which helps to generate more quality products for the organisation. Leaders of Zara also
encourage other members of their teams through motivation and compliments so that positivity
among the workers is well maintained.
Significance of leadership concepts:
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Support and recognition to employees help the leaders of Zara to encourage their employee to
work and finish the provided tasks at given time. In addition, leaders also try to understand the
emotion of every employee so that they can understand how much that individual employees can
deliver in the workplace. This helps them to understand the workforce and divide the work
among the team members efficiently (Mutale et al. 2017). Leaders of Zara also try to gets their
employees to look beyond their own interests. If employees put their interest on increasing the
productivity of the organisation rather than fulfilling their own goals then they can deliver
effective works to the organisations which leads to increase the profitability of Zara. Due to work
pressure sometimes, employees think that finishing a certain task is impossible in the provided
context. However, leaders of Zara try to inspire their employees to get the job done that looks
improbable to them through proper guidance and motivation.
In order to become a transformational leader, developing a vision that can inspire the employees
for future work is highly important. In addition to that, leaders also have to motivate staffs of
Zara to understand this leadership style and deliver this vision into their work so that a consistent
work environment can be maintained. Proper delivery of organisational goals also should be
maintaining the people of Zara in order to become a transformational leader. Leaders of Zara
also try to develop a stronger relationship with their employees that are solely based on trust
upon one another. As stated by Bird and Mendenhall, (2016) this will create a family like
bonding in the work environment and helps to maintain a positive work environment in Zara.
Leaders of Zara always need to develop an inspiring vision so those employees of the
organisation get a captivating reason to follow those leaders. Visions of leaders helps to develop
the purpose of the team of Zara as understanding the importance of job create an environment to
execute that job effectively as well as efficiently. Purpose of the organisation is partly developed
by the complete understanding of the organisational values and values of the employees that they
lead.
Leadership model of Zara:
Inspirational vision among the leaders generated through understanding the available resources
and capabilities of the employees of Zara. Additionally, intelligent analysis of the working
environment and choosing effective way to go forward also reflects the purpose of the
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organisation. Choosing an inspiring vision is a part of business strategy and in order to develop a
logical strategy lot of hard work as well as careful thought is needed that can be delivered
through transformational leadership. In order to develop an organisational vision, leaders of Zara
are using Mullins’ Seven Domain Model to efficiently analyse the business environment. After
that, leaders use tools like Lafley and Martin’s Five Step Strategy Model to create a strategy for
developing inspiring vision that are basically stated in the plan of business of Zara (Schedlitzki
et al. 2017). In order to develop a vision for the employees of Zara, leaders should go through
with aims and objectives of the organisation and find various channels through which employees
can contribute to the productivity of the organisation directly.
Leaders of Zara who follow transformational leadership theory can motivate their employees to
deliver their vision into the workforce. Through proper using of task objectives, leaders of Zara
focus on the value of employees and try to inspire them to get the job done with the given time
period. Transformational leaders also use business storytelling strategy as a part to inspire
employees (Edwards et al. 2015). This strategy helps employees to appreciate the vision of the
leaders that has a positive impact in the work. This will help to achieve preset goals for the
organisation and increase the productivity and better work culture inside Zara. Leaders of Zara
wants to link goals of the employees to the leadership vision which might leads to better
contribution in the workforce. Leaders of Zara always try to inspire their employee as they know
that without proper inspiration noticeable positive change would not happen in the workforce.
Therefore leaders are trying to understand various kinds way of way to motivate people like
encouraging, appreciating. This will leads to deliver quality work from the employees of Zara.
Transformational leaders also try to deliver their vision through the workforce as organisational
has no use of its own; it needs to be implemented in real life. In the past, leaders of Zara had
made the mistake to develop an efficient vision but not work hard to implement in the work
culture. Therefore, in order to manage vision of organisation to deliver properly, leaders of Zara
use transformational leader theory. According to Castillo and Hallinger, (2018) this helps to
merge project management with change management that is highly sensitive. This helps leaders
to implement the changes into the system with total support from the employees of Zara.
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Leaders of Zara need to communicate to employees carefully and communicate the roles and
responsibility of them in the workforce. Employees’ role and responsibilities should be
connected with the plans of the leaders of Zara so that the provided job is executed in the pre-
planned manner. Every employee needs to understand their responsibilities to achieve success at
workplace. Through using of transformational leadership theory, leaders of Zara set smart aims
for their employees and segregate it into various short-term objectives. This results to get the
overall job done within proper time and helps employees to keep motivated about the work as
they feel less pressure at workplace (Mutale et al. 2017). Leaders of Zara also use leadership
management through present objectives to make a connection between short term achievement
and long term goals of the organisation.
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Analysis of management development programs
There are various ways to develop leadership management of Zara. Development of proper
leadership skills helps to create a better job environment at the workplace. With some practice
any employee can develop proper leadership management skills to maintain effective work
culture. Some of the leadership management development skills be discussed here that are
mainly used by the leaders of Zara. One of the most important leadership skills is practicing
discipline at workplace. Leaders of Zara always try to follow discipline as it is an effective
strategy to inspire other employees to behave well in the workplace. Most probably employees of
judge their leader’s capability by amount of discipline they follow. Therefore, leaders need
implement discipline at workplace to help employees to finish the work within deadline, keep
appointment with clients and finish a meeting within time. In addition to that, leaders of Zara
also give control to their employees when the situation is applicable. According to Hallinger and
Wang, (2015) true leaders should learn to follow examples of effective leadership management
to develop leadership styles that is suitable for the work environment of Zara. In addition to that,
leaders of this fashion retail organisation should keep an open mind to give credits when they get
any leadership suggestion from a subordinate. This also helps to generate a positive work culture
around the work environment. Leaders needs also needs to value their team members as they are
people who directly involved in execution of a job.
Being a leader of Zara means they are also a part of the team and main job of leaders is to
provide motivation and inspiration to team members through proper encourage and guidance.
Employees sometimes needs a leader who listen to them and understand them, therefore
developing better relationship with employee leaders can get their job done through effective
management. As commented by McCaffery, (2018) another way to become a good leader in Zara
is to always keep learning. Zara is a fashion retail organisation and therefore, this organisation
always need to change their strategies and fashion products to meet customer needs and wants
and stay ahead in this ever-changing market. In order to stay with the market trends leaders
should make their mind sharp to develop fresh set of skills (Paliszkiewicz et al. 2015). This helps
them to face new challenges that can come in the way of organisational development.
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Empowering teammates is another good trait of a leader which should develop through using of
leadership skill. All of the employees can never be good at everything, therefore through
development of effective leadership management leaders of this company assign jobs to
efficiently which empowers the members of the teams. Another important leadership
management skill is to resolve workplace conflicts (Diamond and Spillane, 2016). Zara is a
global organisation and therefore people from different cultural and social background work here
collaboratively. Therefore, a huge cultural conflict can be normal in the workplace of Zara.
Instead of ignoring these interpersonal conflicts at workplace leaders of Zara try to resolve these
issues through privately talking to employees (Shin et al. 2015). Additionally, leaders can also
reshuffle their team members if those conflicts cannot be resolved and start to affect the
productivity of Zara.
Becoming a leader does not mean that individual always have to be in the spotlight. One of the
important attributes of a good leader is to listen to the employees. Therefore, leaders are
developing new leadership management skills through which they can share ideas and take
feedbacks from other employees and use those as a building block for improvement (Yeh and
Chen, 2019). Good leaders understand that communication is not always verbal transmission but
also understanding nonverbal cues like body language and maintaining eye contact with
employees while talking to them.
Benefits in leadership development program at Zara cover up total emotional, practical and
theoretical aspects for leadership management.
Productivity increment: Consistency in leadership program helps to increase productivity. In
terms of primary level, emotional understanding is really essential. Effectiveness of empowering
and emotional intelligence can be better evaluated through using empathy. Emotional skills of
managers are highly elaborated through leadership training programs.
People retaining: Most of the people does quit from their bosses, not the job. Hence it is kept in
mind that effective investment in training programs enhance to retain employees. Cost of
recruitment process is reduced by efficiency of leader management in the organisation.
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Nurturing future leaders: Implementation of necessary strategy should be built through
dominating personalities on the context of organization. Candidates are forwarded by future
leaders support execution. Quality enhancing can be developed with providing target-oriented
leadership training (Storey, 2016). Right quality in training can be implemented with pathway
determine for employees. Successive planning can be supported through the training for
selecting necessary career paths and it increase retention in the organisation, Zara.
Increment of employee engagement: Necessity in constructive feedback analysis helps to
determine each role of the employee in an organisation. Progress is examined and judged better
with successful strategies from the leaders. Motivations and skills are developed through
leadership training at Zara with effective employee engagement. Feedbacks are justified with
positive and high engaged employees.
Effective leadership styles: Based on discussed leadership styles, advantages and disadvantages
are rectified with effective training assistance in the organisation. Personal leadership style is
developed through positive and best responses from individual team members at Zara.
Developing better working conditions help to assist necessary leadership on the context of
leadership and management in the organisation.
Better decision making: Function in developing high level emotional intelligence is considered
upon different and individual perspective. High return on investment is executed with positive
consideration of leadership trainings.
Right kinds of mentorships: Better coaching and mentoring can be developed through future
focuses on the performances. Effectiveness in solving methods can be better performed with
proper job rotations. Employee experiences can be better with confidence boosting from the
senior management (Bavik et al. 2018). Loyalty in the company can be established with skill
setting outside the comfort zones. Proper mentoring can be judged through development of skills
from the younger employees, and less experienced workers at the fashion retail organisation,
Zara. Advices from the veterans are acknowledged through proper invitation in the hiring
process of the company.
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