Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

CITY OF LONDON COLLEGE

DEVELOPING STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP SKILLS (EXTENDED DIPLOMA IN STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP) EDEXCEL QCF LEVEL 7: BTEC PROFESSIONAL

LECTURER: Dr Peter Mcgee STUDENT: SYED ZEESHAN AHMED BUKHARI STUDENT ID: 000105776 Unit Id: 01

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

Learning outcomes
1. Understand relationship strategic and leadership the between management 1.2 analyze the impact of management and leadership styles on strategic decisions 1.3 evaluate how leadership styles can be adapted to different situations 1.1

Assessment criteria
explain the link between strategic

management

and leadership

2. Be

able

to theory

apply and to

2.1

review the impact that selected theories of management and leadership have on organizational strategy

management leadership support direction

organizational 2.2 create a leadership strategy that supports organizational direction

3. Be

able

to

assess

3.1

Use

appropriate

methods

to

review

leadership requirements 3.2

current leadership requirement Plan for the development of future

situations requiring leadership

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

4. Be skills 4.2 Report on the usefulness of methods used to plan the development of leadership skills able to plan the 4.1 Plan the development of leadership skills for a specific requirement

development of leadership

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

Primark is a clothing retailer, started running a business in 1969 in Marry Street, Dublin. It is founded as Penneys in Dublin by Arthur Ryan who is Irish man, still chairs the business. In 1973, Primark came in to Ireland to begin treading in Great Britain. After that many stores were opened across Ireland such as in Derby, Bristol. Between years 1984-1994, 25 stores added in the UK and Ireland to bring up to 66 stores. Milestone year happened to Primark in 1995 with development of the UK business. As a result, 16 stores were opened mostly in London. Another important development occurred in 1999 with acquisition of 11 stores. At the end of 2002, Primark reached 115 stores. In 2005, 41 stores from Little wood by ABF plc which transferred into Primark. Following year 2006, Primark extended its business to abroad where took place in Madrid and Murcia in Spain. Several stores were opened followed years in 2007 and 2008 in Spain. After accessing Spain market, Primark decided to go Netherland, Portugal, German and Belgium to open new stores in 2008 and 2009. Nowadays, Primark operates a total of 215 stores with 38 in Ireland, 150 in UK, 19 in Spain, 3 in German, 2 in Portugal and 1 in Belgium. Primark is a subsidiary of Associated British Food (ABF) which is a diversified international food, ingredients and retail group with global sales and employees in 44 countries. However, Primarks offer to customers is one of the high quality merchandise, at value for money, backed by the Primark service promise. This target has been done by sourcing product efficiently, making clothes simple design, not spending heavily on advert, using local fabrics and trims, focusing on popular size and buying in volume. Moreover, Primarks business success comes from meeting customer needs and demands while expending to stores to find new markets. Primark targets young fashion conscious under 35s, offering high quality, fashion basics at value for money prices. Almost half of sales are in womens wear, a quarter mens wear and childrens wear with other items constituting the remaining sales. The important point here is that Primark works with manufacturers to meet customer demands. In competitive environment, it is said that very difficult to have a sustainable sales market. Having a tough market, as a retailer something has to be done different to continue business. Some strategies and action must be taken to management to achieve the organisation objectives which are the aim for future. As far as sustainable market concerned, Primark has been doing well in retail sector. It is a major UK retail group, employing more than 12,000 people. It is also known that Primark has many competitors who have same aim to attract a customer.

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

Introduction:
In current era, world like a global village to compete in current market companies must have long term planning and strategies which they will be implement through their management. Leadership and management skills and styles have been the most debateable topic in recent history. Top management are those who makes polices and strategies for the organization, in other words we can say they are making the companies strategies and polices. Other employees implement the polices and strategy according to the given set of standard instruction to achieve the desired goals of the organization. While making the polices and strategies leader always keep in mind the strategies for long term this things make them differentiae from other member of the organization. A lot of people have presented new research regarding leadership styles and skills. There are different books written on this said topic but everyone have a different theory and perspective about the styles and skills of leader ship. So for a good leader/manager it is important to show different styles for different situation and conditions. Strategic Management is also an important tool for any organization. When policies and strategy have been made and defining strategies for an organization the leader/manager must take different steps to make sure that the overall working of the organization is going according to the strategy. A good leader/manager should be able to manage with the future challenges of the organizations and must keep in mind the effect of certain strategies on organizations in long term.

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

Understand the management and leadership

Task 1:

relationship

between

strategic

Task 1.1: Explain the link between strategic management and leadership. To discuss the relation among the leader ship and strategic management we must have some knowledge and information what is the meaning of these two boarder terms. These two terms are interrelate with each other if we understand the concept of said terms its easy to explain the whole process in a good manner. Strategic Management: Strategy: Strategy is a long term plan basic purpose to make a strategy to achieve the objective of the organization. We can say that strategy is not about ideas only. Explaining a strategy means that you are actually defining a plan for achieving organization goals. When we explain the word of strategy we are actually working out a plan for the improvement of our organization. Strategy tells us to make sure that all our work and things we do every day are going to help us in the long term interests of the organization. (S. Arulraj,M. W. Waldron,and J. Vsanthakumar ch13). Strategic Management is the procedure of establishing and maintaining good strategies. Making and defining strategy is not enough, you will have to work out a plan for implementing that strategy in its correct way. Good strategic management is plays a vital role in approaching business opportunities and challenges.

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

Leadership: There are different styles of explaining leadership so it is not very easy to give a single definition that complete the task. Leadership has been recognized as the procedure by which individual and group performance is subjective towards organizational goals. Because when the goals and target of the organization achieved according to the strategy and plan then the actual leadership performance influence the whole organization to become more aggressive, more market share, more profit and competent Leadership is a procedure by which individuals are impressed so that they will be ready to contribute in the accomplishment of organizational or group goals. All these factors are belongings stress on one basic plan and that is motivation or Influence. So we can say that Leadership is the art of getting things done by motivation or influence of the leader on its followers whereas Management mainly depends on the analysis and ground realities. After all the discussion we came to an end that Leadership and Strategic management are interrelated with each other but there are some slight differences. In the case of strategic management we are trying our best to get some long term goals and the same is the case with leadership. We must have somebody with a broad idea; either its a leader or a manager In both cases. The main idea of all this discussion is wonderfully explained by the golden words of Field Marshal Slim that (quoted in Business Management Study Manual), Leadership is of the spirit, compounded of personality and vision: its practice is an art. Management is more a matter of accurate calculation, of statistics, methods, timetable and routine: its practice is a science.

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

Task 1.2: Analyse the impact of management and leadership styles on strategic decisions.
Leadership and Management Styles: In our daily life things are changing rapidly and we have to adopt ourselves to these changes. We cant say that we will stay in the same circumstances forever. With the passage of time everything has changed its just like the theory of Darwin survival of the fittest those who adopt the change they can survive otherwise its very difficult to survive We have to take action according the condition. Likewise there certain ups and fall in organizations as well. So the managers and leaders implement different styles for different circumstances. According to Whitcomb some famous and widely recognized styles are: Autocratic: In this style people are advised what job they need to do and how to do. They have not got any part in decision or making strategy. They made, a decision once should not be questioned. Democratic: In this style of power decisions are made on the views of as many people as possible that are involved. Passive:

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

In this style people are agreed some general directions on the responsibilities to be tackled and then left alone to achieve them in the way they think is best. Charismatic: In this style leader influences and motivates others because of his/her wonderful personality or character. As we have discussed earlier that these styles depend on certain situations and to be a good leader/manager you would have to adopt all of them. All these styles of management and leadership have definite influnce on strategic decisions. The organizations directed by Autocratic leader are basically Task Oriented. Jenkins and Hamman (2001), the advantage of such style is that the decisions are made quickly because people know where they stand. . As Barratt and Mottershead (2001) is of the opinion that in Autocratic leadership the Work-force is not encouraged to think for itself, and emphasis is more on quantity than quality.

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

Whereas the organizations led by Democratic leaders have showed good because they are both job oriented as well as Relationship oriented. Barratt and Mottershead (2002) the decision making process is time-consuming and that can be unsafe. The organizations guide by Passive style is Relationship oriented. Marcous (2008) is of the observation that this only occur when the manager is very full of activity or very lazy or has rely on his/her team and knows what they are capable of. Charismatic style of leadership is one of the very rare but can be very effective in the level to which they can motivate others to do things to support them.

Task 1.3: Evaluate how leadership styles can be adopted to different situations. Leadership styles are different with time to time or according to the situations. For example; In case during a war a commander has to make quick decisions or in the case of a natural disaster e.g. flood, earth quake, riots there is no time for suggestions from the people, so autocratic style will be perfect. The subject is that for quick and effective decision making must always go for the Autocratic style. Employees of Research and Development Organization are highly trained, skilled, informative and professional people so they can adopt their self according to the situation. Because employees know what they are doing and what are their goals and the situation that is the best candidate for Democratic style is a youth club planning for their summer camp. They will have to take suggestions from all the persons involved and then will make a decision. In this case the decision making process is slow but WHO CARES.

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

Task 2: Be able to apply management and leadership theory to support organisational direction.
Task 2.1: Review the impact that selected theories of management and leadership have on organisational strategy in your chosen organisation. Every single person on this earth is different. The difference may be in way of thinking, analyzing something, working or implementing something. Along the course of life humans made many theories about things around them, some of them were wrong and some proved successful. Everyone knows that human being have the skills to learn quickly of new things, innovations, and advancements and also learn from their mistakes. So humans learnt a lot from their mistakes and invent new theories. In this current task we are going to focus our attention on the different theories of leadership and management made during nineteen and twenty century. Theories of Management and Leadership: There are a lot of ways of doing something, some of them have been tried before and some are not. So a successful manager always learns from the past experiences and tries not to repeat the mistakes. The Twenty century has seen many theories of management applied to the organizations; some of them are described below. The Classical School: The organization is just like a machine, just feed the input and get the output. The role and position of every individual is defined. People are supposed to do things as mentioned by the higher level, human feelings are irrelevant. Bureaucracy: The main focus is on the performance and duties of the individuals. Every employee is assigned to duties according to the area of their expertise. And like Classical School theory, human feelings are irrelevant.

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

Systems Theory: This theory was developed in mid of nineteen century. The theory is based on the working of a classic system. It takes certain input (raw material, people) and transforms them through a process into output (organizational goals). Human Relation Theory: This theory was developed in 1930s. The main theme of this theory is the human relations. The Association of Business Executives in Organizational Behaviour mentioned that, to understand and improve an organization, you need to understand the people who work for it. . Contemporary Theories: These theories are based upon the idea of sticking to the key functions of the organization and puts emphasis on going towards excellence. Contingency Theories: This theory emphasizes that there is no single particular way of running an organization. Everything is dependent on the situations through which the organization is passing by.

Impact on Primark:
Primark is one of the leading organizations, with a vision of providing people everything they need, under one roof at affordable price. Now we see the impact of the selected theories of management on the strategy of Primark. The impact of Classical School theory on Primarks strategy is a bit disappointing

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

because Primark believes in excellence with the help of its employees. So the Classical Theory is surely going to inversely affect the strategy of Primark. The Bureaucratic Theorys impact is similar to the Classic School Theory. But this approach is providing a helping hand in organizing the overall working of the Primark. But only defining the duties of the employees and organizing them is not enough. The Primarks strategy is to run the organization in a disciplined manner, keeping in mind the feelings of its employees. The impact of Human Relation Theory on Primarks strategy is not good enough. It should be kept in mind that this theory alone is not enough to provide any progress in long term. But the good thing about it is that it takes into account the ideas of all the employees. The Contemporary and Contingency Theories have a good impact on Primarks strategy. Both these theories are leading Primark towards excellence. Changing the style according to the situation and sticking to the overall performance is surely good enough for Primarks progress in long term. Task 2.2: Create a leadership strategy that supports organisational direction in your chosen organization. In the case of Primark, we should create a leadership plan that is able to maintain a technical advantage of Primark, enhances the standards of the employees, reviews new theories for creating scope of rapid future success and finally selects, develops and retains senior colleagues who will help steering the Primark in the future.

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

Source: http://www.womenpr.com (Accessed on 19th October, 2011) We have seen the impact of different theories of management and leadership on the strategy of Primark. And we came to the conclusion that there is no single theory that can support Primarks strategy. Everything depends on the situation of that organization in a particular time frame. So in the case of Primark the best strategy that supports organizational direction is the Bureaucratic approach along with a flavour of Human Relation theory. The Bureaucratic approach will be helpful to Primark in achieving the organizational goals and keeping everything on track. It will also help Primark to maintain its day-to-day budgets in control and will make some serious profits for the organization. The Human relation approach will take into account the feelings and needs of the staff and the people attached with Primark. It will ensure that the workforce is enjoying its time working with Primark and take their work to perfection. This new combination will be very helpful in maintaining the discipline in the organization and will be very beneficial for the employees of Primark. So the working and the progress of Primark will be very smooth. The people will be aware of their position and duty in Primark and they will be free to work out a plan for performing their duties efficiently. Although this new leadership strategy seems a bit odd to many people but if it is implemented in its true spirit, it will be very helpful.

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

Task 3: Be able to assess leadership requirements.
Task 3.1: Use appropriate methods to review current leadership requirements.

There are different ways available for reviewing the leadership requirements. Some of them are listed below. 360 Feedback: According to Mullins (2005), The idea of 360 feedback involves an appraisal and feedback from different groups within the work situation peers and subordinates as well as bosses, and possibly internal and external customers. The main purpose of the 360 feedback is to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of an individual or an organization. It may include a self-assessment questionnaire. This feedback helps in overcoming the weaknesses and exploiting the strengths of the organization.

Source: http://recordtracker.net (Accessed on 19th October, 2011)

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

Management by Objective Another common approach in reviewing leadership and management styles is Management by Objectives commonly known as MBO. According to Mullins (2007, p. 247), Management by objective is a system of management which is aimed at relating the organizational goals to individual performances and development through the involvement of all levels of management. While Morris (1998), is of the view that the top manager should set an overall objective, and should convey it to the lower management for completion. Management by objective is potentially an attractive system. It provides an opportunity for staff to accept greater responsibility and to make a higher level of personal contribution. {Mullins (2007)}

Source: cycle2.gif

http://www.leapcomp.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/mbo-process-

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

(Accessed on 19th October, 2011)

Mc. Gregorys Theory X and Theory Y: The figure defines both the theories in detail. The bottom line is that Theory X is Task oriented and Theory Y is Relationship oriented.

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

http://www.google.co.uk/search? hl=en&q=http://leadershipchamps.wordpress.com&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1366&b ih=677&um=1&ie=UTF8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi#um=1&hl=en&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=mcgregor+x+and+ y&pbx=1&oq=mcgregor+x+and+y&aq=f&aqi=g3g-m1g-S1gmS1&aql=1&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=16652l20651l0l21256l16l11l0l0l0l0l1115l1808l2-3.71l4l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=6340bfdf6585dbe8&biw=1366&bih=677

Source: (Accessed on 19th October, 2010)

Task 3.2: Plan for the development of future situations requiring leadership.
A good leader is always ready for the any kind of challenge. He acts quickly and accurately according to the given situation. We can say that a good leader takes the right decision at the right time. I have listed a couple of future situations here that will require a firm leadership. Conflict Resolution: You cannot stop conflicts from occurring between individuals and organizations. Sometimes these conflicts are useful and sometimes they are not. When I say useful, it means that sometimes new ideas are created from these conflicts. Or these conflicts point to a deficiency or a week point in the management of the organization. So they are helpful in pinpointing the lapses. On the other hand sometime these conflicts leave a bad impression. Whatever the reason is, conflicts

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

should be resolved smoothly. So for the purpose of conflict resolution a leader should be there with a remedy. And it is then up to the leader to resolve that conflict in any way he likes; whether by choosing Autocratic style or by Democratic style. Merger and Acquisition: Another most significant situation for an organization is merger or acquisition. Its a actually very difficult decision. You have to be very precise in your calculations and should have a good close by of market movements. A leader with a dream and deep thinking is essential in this case. Either you are going for merger or going for acquisition, you should be able to foresee the state of your employees and organization in coming years. Recession: A couple of years ago there was no concept of recession on a large scale. But now many of the worlds most popular economies are facing difficult times. Now-a-days recession has become a worst nightmare for many people around the globe. And according to the economist it is the only chance for organizations to control their budget. So for recession there should be a strong leader with a clear cut policy. This is the worst case scenario and a true test of a leadership that how it overcomes recession. Adaptation for change in technology, taste and performance: Change is the fixed law of nature. And adjustment for change is very difficult for certain organizations and it may be due to many factors. One of the key factors is that many old employees dont welcome change because they are used to work in old fashion and any change in technology, taste and performance is a bit difficult for them. So a sincere leadership is required for any change to become successful in organization, a leadership that is able to remove the ambiguities from the minds of all employees about the nature of the change. Natural Disaster:

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

One of the most important factors that require a leadership is a natural disaster e.g. emergency, way, flood, riots etc. During the period of a natural disaster many employees and organizations are in a state of vagueness. They are unable to perform their duties well. Thats why a definite and devoted leadership is required, that is capable of overcoming the difficulties, and is capable enough to restore the confidence of the employees and organization.

Task4: Be able to plan the development of leadership skills.

Task 4.1: Plan the development of leadership skills for a specific requirement. There are certain skills that every leadership should possess. True leaders have these skills in their genes and others adopt them during the course of their life. But one thing is certain that these skills are present in all the great leaders of the world. The possession of these qualities is not enough; a good leader should be able to develop these skills and to be able to apply them in accordance with the requirement. A good leader possesses the right skills and uses them in the behaviour that best suits the current situation. The main skill of a leader is its influence. A good leader always uses its influence on its followers to obtain the best results. Inspiration can bring huge changes in organizations. So a good leader should always try to develop and enhance its influence by empowering its employees. So this skill can be developed by self -help by learning from mistakes. A good leader should have good communication skills. He should be able to communicate easily with his team members. Now-a-days the world is becoming a global village and to become a good leader, one has to be able to understand the feelings of others. So a leader should practice more and more to master this skill.

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

A good leader should always be adaptable to change. He should have a vision and he should try to introduce modern ways of getting things done. He should encourage his staff to use new technology and new techniques for their routine work. He should be confident and determined in his vision. So he should arrange seminars and workshops to convey his vision to his followers. A good leader should be unbiased; he should be able to manage diversity within an organization. He should be role model for all the employees from any origin. He should be punctual and honest. Its only through his own punctuality that he can maintain discipline in the organization. A good leader should be able to communicate the policy and regulations of the organization to every single employee. And that can only happen when he first exercises them himself before communicating to others. He should be able to expand the organization in all ways possible. He should be able to appoint new staff and train the old staff according to the new technology. He should arrange training courses and other developmental activities for his company. He should also use his powers to keep the organizations on track. And most importantly he should use his power of rewarding for winning the heart of his employees. He should be a good speaker so that in any situation he is able to explain the position of organization in an effective manner. A good leader should have good organization skills for sustain the integrity between various departments of the organization. Regulation should be the main thing for a leader and there should be alternate for it. Because it is the main factor that can change the fate of the organization. A good leader should be honest and well-wisher of its people. He should stick to his commitments and promises. A leader should be a good listener; it helps him in overcoming the weaknesses of the organization and sometimes gives him a chance to grab some new ideas as well. Task 4.2: Report on the usefulness of methods used to plan the development of leadership skills. There are certain methods that we can use to plan the development of leadership skills. One of the best methods is to call a meeting of the staff and ask about their ideas. The best method, however, is 360 feedback. It helps you in understanding

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

your exact position in organization. Another widely used method is to gather as much information as you can about the life of great leaders. It will help you in adopting their skills and their secrets of the trade. Another way of developing leadership skills is to get familiar with your followers. It will help you in understanding their feelings and their needs, which in turn will help you in managing their needs. So we used different plans for the development of leadership skills including; seminars, meetings, training courses, self-help, learning from mistakes and a lot others. All these methods are very useful to plan the development of leadership skills. Seminars and workshops are very helpful in understanding the point of view of other people. Training courses help in understanding and overcoming new challenges. These courses help organizations to implement effective ways of getting things done. They also help in creating a learning environment in an organization. Meetings should be arranged regularly; this will help a leader in developing his communication and coordination skills. Another very important method is exchange visits. These are very helpful in developing leadership skills. These visits may be between different sections of the same organization or between different organizations. These are very helpful in developing the leadership skill of managing diversity.

Conclusion:
This unit explained the link between strategic management and leadership. Leadership is the art of getting things done by influence; whereas management is the science of getting things done by the employees. Leaders are born and the leadership characters are in their genes; while organization is the game of statistics. Anyone can grow to be a good leader by adopting certain skills and techniques and applying them in their daily life. There are different styles of leadership. No single leadership style is best for every situation. These styles have definite impact on the working and progress of the organization. For a good leader all styles should be

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

adopted and applied according to the situation in hand. There are different theories about leadership like Classical School theory, Bureaucracy, Contingency and Contemporary theories etc. These all define characteristic styles of leadership in different conditions. In nutshell we came to the conclusion that for every situation there is a different style of leadership and management. And good leaders use these styles in a balanced way to fulfil their vision. There are different ways of enhancing the leadership skills for future requirements. And there should be a plan of developing these skills. The plan should cover all the current and future needs for leadership and is helpful in the overall progress of the organization. Secondly, everyone should try to become a leader, and should have a vision. It gives the direction and purpose to our lives.

References:
-PRIMARK UK (n.d) Company history [WWW] Primark UK available from: http://www.primark.co.uk/page.aspx? pointerid=eb44df4565934edca627dac6ec12145a -THE TIMES 100 (1995) Case study of Primark [WWW] The Times 100 available from: http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/case-study--providingconsumers-with-ethically-sourced-garments--158-412-1.php -Morden, T, 2007, Principle of Strategic Management, 3rd edn. -Warren, K,2008, Strategic Management Dynamic. -Hitt,M, Ireland, D & Hoskisson, R, 2007, Strategic Management(Competitiveness and Globalisation), 8th edn. -Harrison, J & John, K, 2008, Foundation in Strategic Management, 5th edn Business Management Study Manual, The Association of Business Executives. Essential Managers Manual, Heller, Hindle (2007), London: A Penguin Company Marcous, Surridge and Gillespie (2003), Business Studies for A Level, Third edition, Italy: Hodder Education.

Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills

Morris, M.J. (1999), The First Time Manager , 2 nd Edition, London: Clays Ltd, St Ives plc Mullins, L. (2005), Management and Organizational Behaviour, 7 Edition, Essex Pearson Education Ltd. The Association of Business Executives, Organizational Behaviour . Bibliography: 1. Greene, Stellman (2005), Applied Software Project Management, OReilly Inc. 2. Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn (2002), Organizational Behavior, 7 Edition, USA: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.