Leadership And Change Management For Situational Leadership

Background of the company

Discuss about the Leadership and Change Management for Situational Leadership.

The aim of the assignment is to discuss about the leadership qualities of the CEO of a company. In this response, the report initially briefs the background of the company and the type of the leadership model that best suits the company. The report highlights various leadership models for gap analysis. The gap analysis will inform of the leadership style that best suits the chosen CEO. Followed by the analysis, a leadership improvement plan is developed while describing the reasons for change. There are various barriers when a change is initiated. In this report the anticipated barriers to change is discussed. All the arguments and informations are supported with relevant literature in the report. Based on the overall discussion the conclusion on leadership and management is drawn lastly.  

In this report, the leadership of Alan Joyce is discussed. He is the CEO of the Qantas airways. It is the flag carrier of Australia and is the third oldest airline in the world. Qantas airways was founded in 1920. Qantas stands for “Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services”. The airline has its main hub at Sydney airport (Lucarelli, 2014).).

There are various leadership styles a leader of aviation industry should seek and apply for meeting organisational goals. According to McCleskey (2014), no one leadership style suits all occasions. Therefore, Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory, is appropriate for any business. As per this model, a leader can demonstrate telling behaviour (highly directive and less supportive), selling behaviour (highly directive and supportive behaviour), participating behaviour (low directive but highly supportive) or delegating behaviour (low directive and low supportive). Each of this style of situational leaders is determined by the psychological maturity of the followers, competence and motivation level.

The situational leadership theory also aligns with the contingency theory of leadership. According to this theory, the effectiveness of the leaders is contingent with the capacity to modulate the managerial behaviour and leadership traits referring to different situations or subordinates’ understanding (Miner, 2015). For instance, in the situation of cost cutting and low cost one can use the autocratic leadership style. An autocratic leader maintains tight control over the employees while taking their ideas and opinions. This leadership does give much room for individualism as leader supervises them closely but takes ultimate power (Northouse, 2015).

On the other hand, the transformational leaders can bring fresh ideas to the aviation industry. Such leaders are change agents as they exhibit comprehensive knowledge of business. Transformational leaders engage in two-way communication with the employees triggering their motivation and engagement. Similarly, if the employees are demotivated transactional leadership style can be used for empowerment and motivation. Motivated employees can only satisfy the customers in aviation industry (McCleskey, 2014).

Leader and gap analysis

In contrast to the above-mentioned concepts and theories of leadership, the behavioural theory emphasise that a leader needs a particular behaviour to satisfy the subordinates. However, this kind of approach may be effective only in one point of time (Miner, 2015).  The participative or the democratic leadership style requires the leaders to engage in two-way communication with the employees for decision making in an organisation. Participation approach helps people to add more value to company however; it may be inefficient due to incompetence in decision-making (Northouse, 2015).

According to Mc Gregor theory, there are two different styles of management, the authoritarian (theory X) and participative (theory Y). Theory X can be used when the team members lack motivation to work. It is a “hands-on” approach involving the micromanaging of people with tight control. The theory Y can be used when employees love to take challenges and ownership of work.  Unlike the theory X the theory Y, involves collaborative and true based relationship. The former mainly is based on the pessimistic attitude while the later is based on the optimistic and positive opinion (Arslan & Staub, 2013).  

 Considering the fact that aviation industry is controlled by political, economic, environmental, technological factors, it has a changing nature. The situational leadership is most appropriate for aviation industry.

Alan Joyce has relied on classic leadership qualities to drive the results. These include decisiveness, accountability, communication and teamwork. He has used the same leadership style for both Qantas and Jester. He has always set clear and specific goals and with his ambitious goals, he could trigger employment engagement and innovation. He is known to be a charismatic and energetic leader (Gollan, 2014).

 He aligns with the authoritarian leadership traits (theory X). The leadership philosophy that helped Joyce to sustain the changing nature of the aviation industry is “maintain flexibility and adapt to change” (Bourke, 2017). It led to personal development of the CEO as well as Qantas. Alan Joyce has strong communication skills that has emerged as he his believer of people.  He engaged in open and honest communication with his delegates. It is these skills that helped him bring several people to job. This aligns with the participatory approach of leadership (theory Y). He has high self-esteem and self believe that aids in facing adversity. It is this trait that makes Alan, attend the meetings, face media, the senate Committee hearing, instead of delegating these tasks to trusted lieutenant. It is due to his high personal and mental resilience, he could confront difficult issues. This made him dealt easily with the complex issues and made decisions inspite of external criticisms (Homsombat et al., 2014).   

Development of a Leadership Improvement Plan

According to Taylor (2016), Alan Joyce was adamant when he joined Qantas Airways. It was due to low staff engagement and morale. He had no choice but to wage like autocratic leaders. However, he was a winner despite disturbance caused to customers. However, he got high degree of humility. He could boost the staff morale in less time by his energetic and enthusiastic attitude. He was expressive while informing about company’s vision and came up with rationale and realistic attitude. This behaviour aligns with the transformational leadership.  

Considering the leadership traits and behaviour of Alan Joyce it can be concluded that, he mainly uses autocratic, participative, transformational and motivational theory of leadership.  It can be said that the CEO is acting as per situational theory.  Depending on the competence, and commitment of his followers he offered his support to them.  Therefore, other forms of leadership such as the behaviour or trait approach to leadership style or laissez faire style does not suit this industry, as these will be applicable only one time.

According to Taylor (2016), there are behavioural issues in Qantas that may be critical to its success. Aviation is an outcome driven business. Employees may also have some psychological needs. Further, aviation industry is under strong influence of government. Therefore, it is challenging the industry leader to manage the internal and external environment. This may create a power issues. Not all the employees in the Qantas are highly competent in their field or are capable of taking independent actions. Therefore, there is still a room for leadership  improvement for Qantas although Alan has been recognised as role model for many other leaders.

There is a need of all types of leadership styles implemented depending on the situation. Alan though applies situational leadership style does not focus on the transactional, authoritarian leadership style. Transactional leadership style is required for keeping the employees motivated. This leadership emphasise on giving contingency rewards for the employees. It can be physical and psychological. It may take place as an exception to the established procedure (Miner, 2015). According to Taylor (2016), in aviation industry, democratic leadership style may be effective as Alan is an inspiring leader. Alan needs fair mind for problem solving considering the Vision- Mission of Qantas. Alan Joyce should also focus more on the authoritarian leadership discussed above. Here Alan can tightly control the employee giving little room for two way dialogue. It can be used for followers without competence (McCleskey, 2014).

To initiate a change a leader can implement the Lewin model. This model involves three steps. In unfreezing stage, effective communication skills should be used to educate the employees about implementing certain change (say reducing labour cost due to increase in fuel price) and it purpose to motivate them to accept change. This stage must be followed by changing stage the employee may move towards change through continuous support and education. At this stage, the employees are aware of the benefits of change. This stage must be followed by refreezing stage where the leader must ensure that the change is not lost. This may be possible through certain reinforcement such as rewards (Shirey, 2013). 

During implementation of authoritarian leadership, employees may feel devalued and disrespected as there is no room for individualism. Pessimistic attitude of the employees such as not asking for right things, lack of self believe or inability to cope up with the power dynamics may create chaos. It is recommended that employee should be provided with leadership training to avoid these barriers (Burke, 2017).

Conclusion

In conclusion, this report has provided a clear insight of different leadership styles. However, considering the fact that aviation industry is controlled by political, economic, environmental, technological factors, it has a changing nature. The situational leadership is most appropriate for aviation industry. Alan Joyce was successful in implementing different leadership concepts depending on situation.  However, there is a difference between leadership and management behaviour. In order to successfully run a business one needs both skills.  A manager must have leadership quality to plan, organise, lead and control the organisation’s functions. However, leadership is spearhead for new direction that is followed by a group.

References

Arslan, A., & Staub, S. (2013). Theory X and theory Y type leadership behavior and its impact on organizational performance: Small business owners in the ?ishane Lighting and Chandelier District. Procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 75, 102-111.

Bourke, J. (2017). Getting Personal About Committing to Diversity. Catalyst.

Burke, W. W. (2017). Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.

Cameron, N. (2014). Flying high. CIO, (Spring 2014), 56.

Gollan, P. (2014). Flying kangaroo fights for life. Public Administration Today, (37), 20.

Homsombat, W., Lei, Z., & Fu, X. (2014). Competitive effects of the airlines-within-airlines strategy–Pricing and route entry patterns. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 63, 1-16.

Lucarelli, G. (2014). The corporate strategy of Qantas Airways. A case study.

McCleskey, J. A. (2014). Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), 117.

Miner, J. B. (2015). Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership. Routledge.

Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

Shirey, M. R. (2013). Lewin’s theory of planned change as a strategic resource. Journal of Nursing Administration, 43(2), 69-72.

Taylor, E. (2016). Silencing the critics: two years on from a record-busting net loss, Qantas chief Alan Joyce has overseen bumper results and says the rapid recovery owes as much to its turnaround programming as it does to plunging fuel prices. Airline Business.