MAN7066 Leadership Development

PART 1

Identification of organizational issue at Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic is an international British airline which was founded in the year of 1984 by the founder of Richard Branson. The company headquarter is situated in Crawley, England. This is one of the best airlines which are established all over the world as they are also offering the best facilities to their customers(Jeon, et. al., 2017). It is considered as 7th largest airline in the United Kingdom. Virgin Atlantic follows a functional organizational structure that is best suitable as per their business operations and it is helpful in control and manages all the required functions of the airline. Airline is welcoming changes and alterations that are happening in the societies and always try to execute such in their organization. But there are various issues and problems which are faced by an organization at the time of offering their services to the passengers(Kantanen, et. al., 2015). Virgin Atlantic also faced different problems which motivate them to implement changes that help in maintaining their leadership and management. These are described as under:

Human Resource Management issues of Virgin Atlantic

The main issue of the Virgin Atlantic faces while they announce their new policy for their airline in which male passengers do not allows to sit beside any minor passengers who are not complementary anyone with them but on the other hand women can sit beside them. This situation shows the discrimination that was done based on gender and such issue was discussed in various nations(Hazy, et. al., 2015). Children’s parents have accepted this situation and take initiative. But this is not good based on morality and also it is illegal as women can also harm the child if they want. But focus on only male passengers is the wrong and unethical decision of the airline which can badly impact their business goodwill and image. Organizational male employees are depressed and not happy with their decisions and behavior(Parvin, 2019).

Ineffective Strategic Planning in Virgin Atlantic

It is analyzed that an organization needs to perform work on their marketing strategies as it was examined that Virgin Atlantic is not developing any tactics which help them in attracting potential customers towards their services and facilities(Renz, 2016). Due to ineffective strategies, the company is not capable for keep themselves aligning with the market success and match the current trends for future requirements. Some passengers complain about airline food which is provided in the flight. It is revealed that the airline does not offer free food services to its passengers(Frunză, 2017). They need to pay extra money for purchasing food. The customers do not accept the food charges because they are already paid a high amount for the tickets.
Therefore, certain issues of the Virgin Atlantic are discussed above and it could lead to change in their management and leadership functions correctly(Stringfellow, et. al., 2015).

PART 2

Leadership and Change Management

Leadership is an important ability that is required in every organization. If a company has good leaders and managers so they can properly perform their roles and functions and also manage employees in a better manner(Figueroa, et. al., 2019). In the Virgin Atlantic, management motivates staff members to develop skills and become a leader so they can easily think creative and come with new ideas which increase goodwill or growth of the company. With the assistance of leadership skill, a leader can easily resolve airline problems which arise and create issues.
Leadership refers to a collective set and process which concentrates on developing a relationship with others. There are different types of leadership styles such as democratic, autocratic, lazzies fiere and so more. The style which is used and adopted by Virgin Atlantic is derived from organizational culture(Fertig, et. al., 2016). Virgin Atlantic leaders are Sir Richard Branson applies a Transformational and Charismatic leadership style which helps in maintaining business operations and its functions effectively. Richard Branson does pay any attention to the hierarchy in the company and it works in an informal style(Thomas, et. al., 2019). Leadership and change management can understand better in the following ways:

Leadership style:
Different leadership styles are applied to the company. The major style can be implemented in the Virgin Atlantic that is described as under:

Autocratic leadership style: In this style, the leader takes all the important decisions for an organization and expects a team member to follow their rules and regulations in a better manner. It is a great style when members do not have the required time to develop decisions of their own(Ding, et. al., 2019). Also, when the team members require guidance in such type of style is motivated them. Besides this, such style reduces the innovative and creative skills of company employees.

Democratic leadership style: It is an effective style which is used by leaders’ when they have developed decision with the analyzing and understanding their team members’ perceptions regarding the issue of the company(Clark, 2017). In this, leaders participate all employees for evaluating their point of view.
Affiliative leadership style:It is that style in which managers are mainly focused on developing relationships with their team members so that they can easily maintain the whole business working environment(Azad, et. al., 2017). This is an effective style and it can be adopted when an airline needs to planning to develop a new group for company work. Apart from this, the style is not developing for the long term and it is usually used for short term plans.

Pacesetting leadership style: It is that style in which leaders and managers provided themselves as an example in front of team members so that they feel encouraged. They work hard and use their ability to complete the whole work(Wajdi, 2017).

The coaching style of leadership: It is the style that is adopted while an organization has made teams and formed them and now leaders require that team should get good guidance. In this, the coach takes entire decisions that are important for the company(Thomas, et. al., 2019). Such a style can be implemented for a developing team only and not a new team as they are under guidance.

Difference between Manager and Leader: According to the Wajdi, (2017) Leadership and management are having a certain difference between them and the major difference is that leadership is mainly focused on leading team members but management is concerned towards accountably managing the business operations and group conflicts that arise among members. Along with this, managers’ main role is to allocate their duties to their team members but leaders cannot delegate their duties to others. But they only require ensuring that it is accurate and effective administration for the condition or team focused(Stringfellow, et. al., 2015).

Leadership and Culture:
It can be analyzed with the help of Hofstede’s Theory of culture. Such a theory is applied to the company while they are work internationally and get associated with different types of culture in their journey(Renz, 2016). Thus, this theory was carried by Geert Hofstede that assists an organization in evaluating the various dimensions of culture properly. Such dimensions involve Power distance, uncertainty avoidance Index, Femininity Vs Masculinity, Short term Vs Long term orientation, Individualism Vs Collectivism, and Restraint Vs Indulgence. The dimensions help an organization in the understanding of how good culture should be managed in the community effectively.

PART 3

Analysis of Organizational change issues

There are different types of organizational problems that are going on in the Virgin Atlantic such as cultural issues, HRM issues, strategic issues and so more. Due to such problems, internal and external organization administration is affected majorly(Parvin, 2019). Various forms of leadership challenges occur due to such problem are described as follows:

Motivate others: This is the major leadership issue as leaders perform hard work to set an example in front of all their group members but if the leader is not capable of doing such things then this will become a challenge for the company(Kantanen, et. al., 2015). Virgin Atlantic is facing Human resource management issue that mainly impacts on their airline image among customers and their workers.

Enhancing effectiveness: If a company is not able to do work strategically and instead fails to develop effective decisions and not able to make corporate strategies so they lose their goodwill and profitability(Jeon, et. al., 2017). Virgin Atlantic also faces these situations in which HR management issues directly impact their decision-making process and moral abilities and they also face problems in developing strategic planning for further growth.

Formulating employees: Virgin Atlantic is an international airline so they require smart and skilled employees but this became complex when the current condition of the company stops employees’ development(Hazy, et. al., 2015). The main challenge which was faced by Virgin Atlantic when their male employees are insured in an organization and wrong practices was conducted such as extra pay charges for food services.
Virgin Atlantic has their company functions and operations to develop trust and support. The managers are working for getting a degree of freedom so that they can steps that are good for the organization and offers success(Frunză, 2017). The leaders also believe that it is essential to take care of people who are performing work for them as they are developing companies successful in any manner. Virgin Atlantic is considered one of the best airlines across the world because the company develops all types of efforts in forming a workplace that is an innovative and productive organization(Figueroa, et. al., 2019). Therefore, if any type of alteration will be announced within an organization for developing it better then it will leave a positive influence on the company stakeholders as if an organization will perform work along with issues. Therefore, the change will directly positively impact on stakeholders.
Along with this, issues that are present in the Virgin Atlantic have created problems for different parties which are related to the case of HRM issues, the interest and rights of male people were impacted as they were discriminated against them based on gender. This is wrong from ethics and morale(Fertig, et. al., 2016). Another issue is inappropriate strategic planning. In this, the rights of the stakeholders were affected as if an organization will not able to perform good work in a better manner so that this will directly affect the growth and success of the company and also suffer loss to stakeholders.
Virgin Atlantic leaders and managers also faced different forms of ethical problems within an organization due to the modifications arising but since the change was good and this is helpful for the company as well(Ding, et. al., 2019. In addition to this, ethical issues that are affected the change in company culture which is a good initiative but currently leaders need to train their members regarding new culture so they can easily accept it.

PART 4

Recommendation

Based on the above report, it can be recommended that leaders play an essential role in an organization and it is the main role of the leaders is to maintain changes that are conducted within the company. In Virgin Atlantic, there are various issues arises that are that carry out changes that directly impact business operations and thus leaders are existed and have a responsibility to ensure regarding the change procedure is executed in a better way(Azad, et. al., 2017). Virgin Atlantic leaders require to make sure that male people also have a good image and they do not feel insure in a company so that they need to listen to their issues and try to resolve such problems effectively. A leader also needs to ensure that the HR division does not repeat their mistakes and make appropriate decisions that are best suitable for an organization. For the other issue, leaders should focus on their team members and evaluate that they are working properly to develop strategies and tactics to deal with major challenges. They should focus on creativity and innovative ideas that help management to perform good functions and operations. Leaders also guide team members to do work and lead in the right direction which provides profitability(Clark, 2017). This is important for a leader is to concentrate on making good decisions that assist in achieving potential goals and targets of an organization.

References

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Clark, L., 2017. Implementing an institution-wide community-engaged learning program: The leadership and management challenge. In Learning Through Community Engagement (pp. 133-151). Springer, Singapore.

Ding, W., Choi, E. and Aoyama, A., 2019. Relational study of wise (phronetic) leadership, knowledge management capability, and innovation performance. Asia Pacific Management Review, 24(4), pp.310-317.

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Parvin, A., 2019. Leadership and management in quality assurance: insights from the context of Khulna University, Bangladesh. Higher Education, 77(4), pp.739-756.

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Stringfellow, T.D., Rohrer, R.M., Loewenthal, L., Gorrard-Smith, C., Sheriff, I.H., Armit, K., Lees, P.D. and Spurgeon, P.C., 2015. Defining the structure of undergraduate medical leadership and management teaching and assessment in the UK. Medical teacher, 37(8), pp.747-754.

Thomas, C., Trucks, E. and Kouns, H.B., 2019. Preparing early career librarians for leadership and management: A Feminist critique. the Library with the Lead Pipe.

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