Leadership Sample Assignment

INTRODUCTION

The ability to guide and influence a group of people towards a particular vision is known as leadership. In every business, effective leadership and strong commitment helps the organizations to succeed. It is important to have good leaders who can lead the members of the organization towards the right direction. Every leader should be professional in their work and must possess ethics to motivate the teams of the organization to achieve the goals. Demonstration of good leadership skills can motivate the members to work as team. The learner has taken the case of three top business leaders of New Zealand. The top three business leaders are Rob Fyfe, Graeme Hart and Craig Norgate.      

Figure 1

(Source: leadershipnz, 2017)

Rob Fyfe- Former CEO of Air New Zealand  

Robert Ian Fyfe (Rob Fyfe) is the former CEO of Air New Zealand. He held the position from the year 2005 to 2012. He has been awarded from the University of Canterbury an honorary "Doctorate of Commerce". Rob brought a cultural change in Air NZ and recovered the position of the company by engaging the workforce fully. Rob Fyfe has a transformational leadership style. Those people who can work with their subordinates in order to recognize the needed change and inspire them to work towards bringing changes follow this type of leadership style. He has always encouraged the performance of the staffs, directed them towards the vision, and showed them the true passion behind working hard. His adversity has defined him as a successful leader (Cummings et al. 2010).    

Figure 2

(Source: Cummings et al. 2010)

Graeme Hart- Richest man in New Zealand

Graeme Richard Hart is the richest man in New Zealand who is the owner of Carter Holt Harvey, Burn Philp, Reynolds Packaging Group and Rank Group. Graeme Hart's leadership style is authoritative leadership style.

Figure 3

(Source: Hoel et al. 2010)

He has been successful in deciding about the organizational goal and directing each of the executives towards the goal. He has dictated the policies and has always effectively motivated all the employees to finish their assigned tasks. This has helped him create a loyal workforce. He has controlled the business function of all the companies since 1985 and has maintained the privacy of his business (Hoel et al. 2010).    

Figure 4

(Source: Schaltegger & Burritt, 2010)

Richard Chandler- Chairman of Clermont Group

Richard Fred Chandler is Clermont Group's chairperson, who likes to invest in different types of industries. He is known for purchasing struggling companies and then after rebuilding them successfully. Richard Chandler has an affiliative leadership style. He has been successful in promoting harmony and has built strong teams in his company. He focuses on making the future better by making social changes and investing globally (Kelsey, 2015). 

Figure 5

(Source: Kelsey, 2015)

Four factors that have majorly influenced the above-mentioned leaders

  • Company culture and ethical practices- The culture of the company has an impact on the leadership style of every leader of any organization. The leaders can motivate the people of the organization to associate with ethical practices. If the organization has strong culture and has well-trained employees, then the leaders can choose laissez faire leadership style. Otherwise, they have to inspire the workers and challenge them to think innovatively. This factor has influenced Rob Fyfe to focus on maintaining culture of the organization (Jogulu, 2010).   
  • Employee diversity and professionalism- The leaders must be open to diversity and should have the quality of developing a diverse workforce. This would influence the leaders to give people of different ages, culture, races and gender the opportunity to work. The leader has to work closely with this type of individuals so that they can assimilate and succeed. This has inspired Graeme Hart to put efforts in providing employees what they need to work hard and achieve the goals (Schaltegger & Burritt, 2010).   
  • Personality- The personality of the leaders is most important aspect that influences the leadership style. The style has to align with the behaviour of the leader so that they are conformable in following the protocols set by them. Each of the above-mentioned leader have chosen their leadership style according to their personality so that they can lead their organization in an effectual way.  
  • Social and Operational Environment- The social and the work environment influences the leadership style. The leaders have to understand the social and operating environment so that they can encourage their employees and work flexibly. Richard Chandler has understood the need of social change and has taken necessary steps to bring change to make the environment better (Collins, Roper & Lawrence, 2010).

Effect on performance and success

The above-mentioned factors have affected the performance level of all the three leaders namely Rob Fyfe, Graeme Hart and Richard Chandler. Like in case of Richard Chandler, it can be said that the social and operational environment has influenced his leadership style and has designed his success path in a different way. Not only has he been successful in building a strong team but he has also been promoting harmony after understanding the need of social change. He has the mission to solve the problem of the financial crisis. Therefore, has helped many companies to enter the market and operate. Richard Chandler aims at brining prosperity for the world's future. This proves that he has understood the importance of social responsibility. He has an investment group called Creative World Group that focuses on social investment, leadership and transformation (clermont, 2017). Likewise, different factors have an impact on the leaders that essentially affects their performance and success.     

CONCLUSION

In this assignment, the learner has mentioned about leadership styles and has explained it by specifying about three most reputed and renowned business leaders of New Zeeland. The learner has mentioned the factors that have influenced the leaders and their leadership style. These factors also affect the performance and success rate of the leaders. This has helped the learner to understand about the importance of leadership and leadership styles.  

REFERENCE LIST

Books

Kelsey, J. (2015). Reclaiming the future: New Zealand and the global economy. Bridget Williams Books.

Journals

Collins, E., Roper, J., & Lawrence, S. (2010). Sustainability practices: trends in New Zealand businesses. Business Strategy and the Environment19(8), 479-494.

Cummings, G. G., MacGregor, T., Davey, M., Lee, H., Wong, C. A., Lo, E., ... & Stafford, E. (2010). Leadership styles and outcome patterns for the nursing workforce and work environment: a systematic review. International journal of nursing studies47(3), 363-385.

Hoel, H., Glasø, L., Hetland, J., Cooper, C. L., & Einarsen, S. (2010). Leadership styles as predictors of self‐reported and observed workplace bullying. British Journal of Management21(2), 453-468.

Jogulu, U. D. (2010). Culturally-linked leadership styles. Leadership & Organization Development Journal31(8), 705-719.

Schaltegger, S., & Burritt, R. L. (2010). Sustainability accounting for companies: Catchphrase or decision support for business leaders?. Journal of World Business45(4), 375-384.

Websites

leadershipnz. (2017). Home. Leadership NZ. Retrieved 10 May 2017, from http://www.leadershipnz.co.nz/

clermont. (2017). Clermont GroupClermont.com. Retrieved 10 May 2017, from http://www.clermont.com/home