Leadership and Essential Business Process

Question: Discuss about the Leadership and Essential Business Process. Answer: Introduction An appropriate leadership is necessary and essential to operate the entire business process of an organisation. According to Rego et al., (2012), a good leadership plays an important factor in order to make an organisation successfully run its business in the particular market and industry. Leadership is the main factor, which transforms the potentiality of an employee of an organisation into an ultimate reality. Leaders usually play the role of major human resources of an organisation as they develop both the products and the potentiality of the employees. However, the significance of the leadership quality of the management should not be overemphasised. As opined by Peterson et al., (2012), an appropriate leader motivates and influences the employees in order to bring their best performances that will help the company to gain its desired success in short period. In this report, the importance of the leadership of an organisation will be discussed in detailed manner. Context Trisha Marmalade McEwen of My Food Bag and Christopher Luxon of Air New Zealand are two potential leaders, who perform their assigned task in appropriate manner for the success of the organisation. Trisha plays the role of business advisor of My Food Bag, a famous online retailer of New Zealand and Christopher holds the position of Chief Executive Officer of Air New Zealand. Both of these leaders motivates and influence the staffs of the organisations in order to retain the existing position in the market of New Zealand. The operating philosophy of these leaders are completely different from the other, however, both incorporate effective and potential strategies for motivating the employees in order to get things done in short period. Trisha and Christopher believe in teamwork and a high level of performance from the subordinate employees. The higher management cannot generate a perfect and suitable attitude alone for developed performance of employees, therefore, more or less every organisation involve leaders to motivate the employees and accomplish their performance. According to Day Antonakis (2012), leadership has the capability to resolve any issues with roper communication and strategies; even it can often reduce and mitigate the managerial issues regarding business operations and leadership. Both My Food Bag and Air New Zealand is going through some changes as there is changes in the delivery system in My Food Bag and Air New Zealand changes the process of online ticket booking within the structure of the organisation and the offered products and the entire marketing process in order to attract the new customers. Transactional vs. Transformational Leadership The leaders of every organisation employ different kind of leadership styles in order to influence the associated staffs of the organisation (Castner et al., 2012). On the other hand, as opined by Schaubroeck et al., (2012), the transformational leadership involves efforts that go beyond the management of regular business strategies and operations in order to take the company into the next level of success with perfect job performance of the employees. Transactional leadership styles involve a proper maintenance of the normal flow of the business operation within the organisation. The leaders, who concentrate on this type of leadership style, use the disciplinary power and provide the incentives in order to motivate the employees for performing on best manner. The contrast and compare in between the transactional and transformational leadership involves generally, the transactional leaders provide rewards to the employees if they perform better in the workplace than before. Whereas t ransformational leadership style solely concentrates on the motivation, influence, collaboration with the employees, the basic process of team building for drastic changes within the organisation. Youssef Luthans (2012) have argued that, the transactional leaders have less interest to guide the employees in strategic manner and influence the employees; therefore, every business operation may run in smooth manner. Hogg et al., (2012) have mentioned that the main concern of the transformational leadership is to motivate the employees for meeting the established goal of the organisation. In this type of leadership styles, there also process of incentives to the employees ad it seriously pushes the employees to perform in higher level than the previous one. As My Food Bag is going though few changes within the organisational structure, therefore, Trisha follows the transactional leadership style to influence the staffs of the company (Myfoodbag.co.nz, 2016). Trisha motivates the employees of My Food Bag in order to collect the freshest products from various parts of New Zealand. The delivery system of My Food Bag has been completely changed to the doorstep delivery to the customers in order to reach the customers in short period. My Food Bag offers the inhabitants of New Zealand a door-to-door delivery system from Sunday to Monday. However, the higher authority of My Food Bag has incorporated new policy of texting the customers before delivering the products and if the customers are unavailable at home, the suppliers will wait for hem for some fixed time. Trisha, the business advisor has arranged meetings with the higher management of My Food Bag in order to finalise this process and discusses with the employees if they are suitable to pursue their duties. Even if some employees are not readily agreed with the management decision, Trisha provides relevant information of the desired goal of the company in order to attain the success in the retail industry of New Zealand. The newly transformed delivery process of My Food Bag have made easy for the customers to use the service of this particular company. Air New Zealand has recently changed the technical process of domestic and international online booking in order to provide its customers far better services than the previous one. The new online booking process includes the change of the destination even after booking the tickets (Airnewzealand.com.sg, 2016). Even the management has decided to change the success story of Air New Zealand with advanced sustainability such as complete transformation in the social, economical and environmental field. However, the higher authority of Air New Zealand has made a policy of paying the basic differences in the fare with the change fee if it is applicable for the selected location by the management. Even in certain cases, the customers are not required to pay the extra service charges for the changes in the location. Christopher Luxon strictly follows the transactional leadership style in order to guide the staffs of Air New Zealand in appropriate manner for achieving the success of the organisation and to maintain the usual flow of the business operation. Christopher addresses with the team member for completing small tasks properly in quick manner. As Air New Zealand has gone through drastic changes, therefore, Christopher announces the reward and performance appraisals policy for the employees in order to influence them to perform in better manner than the previous one. Christopher is only concerned with the normal flow of the business operations after employing the new changes withi n the company for betterment and the changes should not hamper the sales revenue. Spillane (2012) has stated that, transformational leadership styles are more effective that the transactional leadership style for running an organisation in smooth and tactical manner. Incremental vs. Radical change There are serious debates to decide the best changes within the organisation including the incremental and radical changes, radical changes of an organisation clearly involves creativity and innovation for further success of the organisation. On the other hand, incremental changes include gradual and smaller improvements within the organisation. Hargreaves Fink (2012) have mentioned that only the current situation of an organisation determines what type of change is required to mitigate the existing issues in the organisation. As opined by Iqbal et al., (2012), the incremental changes include optimisation, streamlining, cost reduction, reliability and reengineering and radical changes engages completely a new platform, techniques, methods, philosophy and strategies. On the other hand, radical changes can be considered as a risky and not sustainable compared to the incremental changes within the organisation. However, radical changes suggest for a drastic changes instead of increment al changes, which suggests sustainable changes. Both My Food Bag and Air New Zealand have mastered creativity and innovation in their specific industry and market and the leaders, Christopher and Trisha are potential enough according to their respective industries. The success of My Food Bag is closely tied up with various business models and other existing competitor companies duplicate the strategies and policies of My Food Bag. On the other hand, Air New Zealand changes its strategy in order to run its globally successful business. As there are only few changes, such as doorstep delivery and delivery only from Monday to Saturday except Sunday in the delivery process of My Food Bag, therefore, there are incremental improvements. However, in the case of Air New Zealand, there are changes in the entire process of online ticket booking process and the payment mode; therefore, radical improvements have taken place in this organisation. The implication of innovation, creativity, designing is more complex for Air New Zealand instead o f My Food Bag. Burke (2013) has stated that innovation from a planned design and method can develop in radical manner the entire stricture if the organisation even it possess the potentiality to transform the entire rule, regulation, procedures and policies that can improve the business operation of a company in a particular marketplace in order to retain its position in todays competitive business world. The management of Air New Zealand has to involve the technological experts and software developer to change the format of their online page of ticket booking. In previous process, there were no chances of changing the destination after booking the tickets. However, the higher authority of My Food bag only changes the process of delivery of products to the doorstep of customers. According to Rafferty et al., (2013), the radical changes are only possible for famous companies, which can afford lump sum money on the entire changes of the strategy, structure, process, policies and rules. Radical changes can be implemented for the software development and adoption of new and modern technologies for providing the consumers a proper experience. However, Burke (2013) has argued that there are various empirical evidences, which suggests that the implementation of radical changes are far better than the incremental changes if done proper manner. Overcoming barriers According to Hackman Johnson (2013), every business organisation encountered some potential challenges and barriers during a drastic transformation within the operation process of the organisation. As the success of Air New Zealand is closely associated with the success of the nation, therefore, Christopher has adopted effective strategies in order to overcome the potential barriers that may influence the success of the organisation. Air New Zealand faces a serious level competition from companies like American Airlines Group Inc, Virgin Australia Holdings Limited and Qantas Airways Limited in the airline industry of New Zealand. The first barrier Air New Zealand encounters is its poor customer service desk, which has been proved unable to provide relevant information to the passengers regarding their online ticket booking because of the changed process of online ticket booking. The second possible barrier suggests that sudden technical problems because of the changes in the online process booking, even because of technical faults, the customers fail to book flight tickets, which obviously directly impact upon the sales revenue of the company. The third possible barrier involves that the routes, which Air New Zealand offers are limited than its competitor companies. All these possible barriers Christopher will face during the changes in the online ticket booking process. Christopher has thoroughly made a market research in order to understand the current position of the competitor companies in the airline industry of New Zealand. Christopher has played a perfect role as a leader within the organisation and has engaged potential market researcher to analyse the possible threats of Air New Zealand. Social media marketing strategy is effective to deal with the existing barriers and to satisfy the specified changes withi the organisation. Even there are brand development strategies followed by Christopher for improving the brand with providing appropriate and standard quality services to the customers. Christopher has focused on brainstorming strategy in order to discuss with both the management and the co-workers for reducing the price of air tickets a bit in order to capture the market. In order to resolve the third possible barrier, Christopher solely concentrates on following the trend strategy and has discussed with the business experts in order to offer completely new flight routes according to the demand of the consumers. Although Air New Zealand is fuel-efficient airliner and always come up with completely new initiatives with the constant changes in the demand and criteria of the consumers, still all these above-mentioned strategies will play a significant role to solve the potential possible barriers of Air New Zealand. All these strategies will help the company to play a fundamental role to save the natural environment and increase the tourism proposition of New Zealand. Effecting Change Figure 1: Lewins three-step model (Source: Marion Gonzales, 2013) As opined by Mowday et al., (2013), the changes within the organisation always need not to be complex process; if it is done in tactical manner, then the organisational changes are not at all critical. Kurt Lewins change model involves three significant steps such as unfreezing, changing and refreezing. Lewins three-step change model reflects a practical and simple model of understanding the transformation process. This change model also includes a perfect perception of the requirement of changes within the organisation and it determines the behaviour and attitude of the associated employees of the organisation because of sudden changes within the organisation. As Air New Zealand goes through drastic changes because of its changed online ticket booking process, therefore Lewins three-step model is effectively applied in order to manage the drastic transformation within the organisation. During the Unfreeze step, Christopher ensures the existing employees of Air New Zealand for the sudden change. Even in this step, Christopher asks the employees for some appropriate solutions that may help the process of online ticket booking process of Air New Zealand. In this last stage, the employees are ready to accept the changes, in this process it unfreeze the employees with their decisions. In the Change step, Christopher takes help of the software developer and business executives in order to execute the online format of the ticket booking process. Christopher motivates the associated software developer during the entire process of change and if they face some problems regarding development of the online format and loose hope to fix it. In Refreeze step, Christopher ensures that this change will become permanent with the incorporation of effective strategies such as social media marketing and digital marketing in order to provide the consumers a perfect opportunity to avail the facilities during the online ticket booking process. Figure 2: Kotters 8 step change model (Source: Cummings Worley, 2014) According to Marion Gonzales (2013), Kotters eight-stage change model is perfect in order to identify the significant elements of an organisation for successful and perfect organisational changes. Kotters eight-stage change model involves several steps such as, establishing a perfect sense of urgency, build a strong coalition, vision, communicate that particular vision, empowering others, planning and creating short-term goals, consolidate the developments and institutionalise the changes. In the case of Air New Zealand, Christopher has articulated a strong business case and rationale for the sudden change in the first step, in the second step, Christopher assemble a potential team with perfect influence, motivation and power within the organisation in order to lead the basic effort of the change. In the third step, Christopher creates an appropriate and compelling vision of the future in order to guide the employees towards the basic direction of the organisational changes. The fourth step consists of every possible and potential strategy in order to communicate the vision; even this step involves completely new behaviours of the associated employees and the higher authority of the organisation for role model. In the fifth step, Christopher remove the possible obstacles, which prevent the changes to be implemented successfully and with effective change system and procedure structures the undermining vision and mission of the company (Cummings Worley, 2014). In the si xth stage, Christopher plans a visible and relevant quick and short-term goal and implements it. After that, Christopher discusses with the higher authority of Air New Zealand and announces appraisals and reward for those employees, who will be thoroughly involved with the change process of online flight ticket booking and refund of money. In the seventh step, Christopher use credibility in order to transform the changed policies and procedures, which fails to fir with the established mission and vision after the changes within the organisation. Christopher plays an important role with the HR department of Air New Zealand in order to recruit potential candidates, who have the potentiality to implement the established vision. In the last step of this model, Christopher articulates the basic connection in between the complete new process of working and the organisational success in continuous manner. Christopher motivates the employees of Air New Zealand in order to weave a new busine ss culture with the effective and appropriate help of leadership development. Christopher has played the role of potential leader of Air New Zealand as this individual successfully plans effective strategies to mitigate the obstacles during the implementation of the organisational changes. As all the eight stages are perfectly applied for the situation of Air New Zealand, therefore, Kotters eight-stage change model has been proved perfect for Air New Zealand. As opined by Tannenbaum et al., (2013), all of these eight stages are completed systemic manner and all these steps effectively lead to the successful organisational changes. Christopher performs the role of potential leader within Air New Zealand in appropriate manner as this individual helps the entire team of the company to see and understand the requirement of the changes in the online flight ticket booking process for the significance of speed and attracting more number of loyal consumers than before. Christopher has a full support from the higher management of Air New Zealand for is credibility and the appropriate skills, knowledge and talent in order to drive the changes. Christopher also creates success metrics, shared roadmaps to support the changes, and confirms the understanding and acceptance of the changes. It is an obvious fact, that during any kind of transformation an organisation encounters various barriers in the particular industry. Same things happen in the case o f Air New Zealand, when the management decides to change the online format of ticket booking process, Christopher has to go through the existing airliners of New Zealand in order to understand their business strategy to attract the consumers in this competitive business world (He Brown, 2013). Only with effective leadership quality, capability and style Christopher employs these strategies and motivate the employees to perform their assigned roles and responsibilities for achieving the desired goals of Air New Zealand. Conclusion Not every organisation in todays market can have that ultimate level of luxury to manage the constant changes in the market, industry and within the organisation without the potential help of a leader. In this business report, the effectiveness of Trisha and Christopher has been explained in detailed manner. Their activities during the organisational changes are excellent and all their mode of techniques and tactics truly reveals the necessity of leaders within the organisation during successful changes for better future in the market of New Zealand. These leaders adopt, implement and accept the changes and influence the employees to follow the organisational changes only for the future success of the organisations. 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