Discuss about the Leadership Issues of WOW Sight and Sound.
The purpose of this report is to discuss issues regarding leadership at WOW sight and sound and provide recommendations for the business by looking at various leadership theories. This is because each organization needs to have a unique form of leadership that works for the company (Glanz, 2002). A leadership role is usually complete when the leader is able to deliver the company’s values with which they are supposed to represent. For a leader to be able to do this, then they are supposed to equip themselves with skills that can allow them to serve their company better.
According to Bennis & Thomas, (2006), effective leadership for the company entails being able to identify managerial skills that will enable the business achieve their strategic ambitions and also be able to manage personal leadership development and reach organizational goals. For WOW sight and sound, proper leadership is important to establishing a stronger team in good and bad economic times (Bennis & Thomas, 2006). The success of the organization will be pegged on the leadership types it exercises or one that it inherits. It is thus important for the company in this case study to determine the kind of leadership it chooses by looking at several organizational areas that company should have in mind while exercising leadership. One of the main areas for a company like WOW sight and sound would be the history and current experiences that the organization is currently facing (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). It is important that the management of the company assesses the characteristics and need of leadership with regard to politics, health, communication and business in general. Also according to Sandling (2015), leadership is about capability (Bozarth & Handfield, 2012). It is about knowing and understanding the company and having the vision through proper communication by also taking the right action when and where it is required. Leadership should be based in building trust among employees so that they can be able to win confidence of the company and their clients they attend.
There are several leadership styles that can be used by a company depending on the type of business. This report will show how good leadership will empower the organization especially in a situation where employees are included in decision making using several leadership theories. The report enables one to understand how communication and leadership goes hand in hand when it comes to the workplace and how different leadership styles are vital in achieving great participation of both the employer and employee in decision making (Bangalore, 2006). Other theories will also discuss how a particular leadership theory will hinder employees from growth in the company and also increasing markets for the organization products. The report will end by showing how WOW sight and sound can implement these theories in implementing growth for the company.
The fall down of WOW sight and sound which is a Queensland-retailer was brought down by poor retail conditions and consumers who were constantly frightened. It is actually reported that the fall down began two years back with its 15 stores and 500 employees back in 2010. Due to poor leadership the business was actually forced to enter in to receivership under the leadership of Ferrier hodgson partners James steward, Steward McCallum and Tim Michael by a secured creditor (Briggs, et al., 2016). Due to poor management leadership, the company sunk itself into debts especially when two of their directors entered in to a property sale that involved hundreds of millions of dollars in 2010 (Stafford, 2012). The co-founders Suds Sotiris and Sam Savvas also revealed that the company owned several other companies. All these properties were placed under receivership. The main problem of the company however, was highly blamed on the poor leadership of the cofounders who saw the company sinking into more and more debts (Kramar, et al., 2012). The purpose of this report is to show how the new management can empower employees in the organization at all levels of decision making so as to regain positive perception of the business and most importantly that of their employees.
The situation leadership theory was developed in 1969 by Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey (Glanz, 2002). This is a theory that can be applied well when dealing with contingencies. It looks that the effectiveness of a leader with regard to their traits and action behavior when faced with a situation in an organization. With regard to WOW situation leadership theory will look at the leadership ability to modify their actions and behavior to the level of their staff maturity. This can be done through several ways that entails directive behavior and supportive behavior. According to Hersey and Blanchard (Glanz, 2002), there are four different types of leadership behavior that one needs to concentrate on.
The first one is telling, where the leader will demonstrate high level of directive behavior where he gets to have the last work on everything regarding the company (Delbecq, et al., 2013). There is also the selling behavior where the leader, though being directive, will show high support for the staff. When it comes to participating behavior, the leaders will demonstrate low directive behavior and low levels of support while delegating is a situation where then leader will demonstrate low supportive and directive behavior (Hoegle & Muethel, 2016). With regard to WOW sight and sound, the overall purpose for situational leadership will be to enable each employee perform their task properly in relation to the current situation facing the company. It is important that the leaders does not allow the same practice or participation at work to continue without acknowledging the impact that this has on the business and he employees (Vecchio, et al., 2010). The function of the leader will be to determine the levels of employees’ role and levels of psychological maturity. After this is determine then they need to adjust their behavior in a way that will be most effective.
This theory by Chester Barnard (Northouse, 2015) shows that formal organizations are usually made of informal groups which slowly turn in to informal organization within the main organization. The values and beliefs that these informal groups will establish become the culture of the main organization, which will determine the formal acceptance of authority. With this regard, an organization like WOW need to be both efficient and effective (Sandling, 2015). This means that it should meet the goals of its organization in a timely manner. In the same manner, efficiency should look at the degree to which the organization goals can be accomplished (Stafford, 2012). Also workers will only accept the authority, when they only feel satisfied that their needs have been met.
According to acceptance theory, worker are the ones who determine the authority of the manager when they allow him to give orders and are able to comply with these orders. It is important that workers embrace the fact that the manager is the one who can give orders (Rath & Conchie, 2009). It is also important that customers see a sense of leadership in the organization through employee regard to top management. The chain of command should begin with the CEO, the general manager, department managers and then the staff. WOW retailer needs to ensure that this is followed to the letter in order to realize employee acceptance of leadership.
The participative leadership is where the leader looks in to his team for most of the company’s growth. The leader will consider employee input, ideas and observations instead of having the final word in all situations. However, this does not mean that the leader will not have the ultimate decision to make. It is only about enabling the leader to understand that the team also has skills and ideas that if incorporated well will benefit the company during the decision making process. When it comes to WOW retailer, leaders need to make sure that such a decision as buying shares of selling part of the company involves the entire team. They should ensure that they work closely with other members of the team, they focus on building of relationships and proper rapport among one another. On the other hand, this type of leadership can reveal autocratic style of leadership where the leader is more about focusing on current issues with which he may make a decision without involving the rest of the team’s input.
Conclusion
This report discussed leadership issues at WOW sight and sound my exploring the main leadership problem which way mainly based on poor decision making and management. With regard to managing the new organization thus, all leadership theories will be need at one point in the organization. It is the work of the leader to ensure that the right style of leadership is employed to drive the organization toward growth and realizing its vision and mission. It is however recommended that the company implements the participatory leadership so as to move itself from the current situation.
References
Bangalore, 2006. Rediscovering Indian Management. Indian Institute of Management.
Bennis, W. G. & Thomas, R. J., 2006. Leading for a Lifetime: How Defining Moments Shape Leaders of Today and Tomorrow. s.l.:Harvard Business Review Press; First Trade Paper Edition edition.
Bozarth, C. & Handfield, R., 2012. Introduction to operations and supply chain management. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall..
Briggs, D. M., Swailes, S. & Baker, S., 2016. The measurement of worker relations: the development of a three-component scale.. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 37(1), pp. 2-12.
Delbecq, A., House, R. J., Luque, M. S. d. & Nadia Quigley, N., 2013. Implicit Motives, Leadership, and Follower Outcomes: An Empirical Test of CEO’s.. Journal ofLeadership & Organizational Studies, 20(1), pp. 7-24.
Glanz, J., 2002. Finding Your Leadership Style: A Guide for Educators. s.l.:ASCD.
Hoegle, M. & Muethel, M., 2016. Enabling shared leadership in virtual project teams: A practitioners’ guide.. Project Management Journal, 47(1), pp. 7-12.
Kouzes, J. M. & Posner, B. Z., 2012. The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations. s.l.:Jossey-Bass; 5 edition.
Kramar, Syed, R. a. & J, 2012. Human Resource Management In A Global Context. London: Palgrave Macmillan (658.3KRA).
Northouse, P. G., 2015. Leadership: Theory and Practice, 7th Edition. s.l.:SAGE Publications, Inc; Seventh Edition edition.
Rath, T. & Conchie, B., 2009. Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow. s.l.:Gallup Press; 1st edition .
Sandling, J., 2015. Leading with Style: The Comprehensive Guide to Leadership Styles. s.l.:CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Stafford, P., 2012. How Queensland retailer WOW was brought down by a $20 million property debt. [Online]
Available at: https://www.smartcompany.com.au/finance/economy/24609-how-queensland-retailer-wow-was-brought-down-by-a-20-million-property-debt/
[Accessed 28 February 2012].
Vecchio, R. P., Justin, J. E. & Pearce, C. L., 2010. Empowering leadership: An examination of mediating mechanisms within a hierarchical structure.. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(3), pp. 530-542.
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