Leadership is considered to be an important aspect for the growth of a company. as a matter of fact, the managements are always looking for a better leader who can deliver strategic advantage to the company and at the same time consolidate the future of the organisational business. Based on this it can be argued that it is important to evaluate the leadership quality of a corporate leader. There are a series of leadership styles that the leaders follow such as behavioural, transformational, charismatic and trait leadership. Therefore, the purpose of this report is to analyse the leadership problems. For a better discussion, the report chooses Ian Narev the former CEO of Commonwealth Bank of Australia and identify his leadership problems that caused enormous challenges to the operation of the organisation. The reason behind choosing Narev is because under his leadership the company had faced a series of issues like bank fraudulency, unethical business practice and mismanaging the employees. In addition to this, the report also incorporates a literature review to conceptualise various attributes of a leader. Moreover, the personal reflection section is also added up a different outlook in order to figure out personal opinion about the leadership qualities.
Less effective leadership
Being the CEO of CBA in 2009 there was no effective leadership quality that Narev had followed in his long tenure of 7years. According to Knaus (2017) it can be stated that Narev was more relied on the charismatic leadership style in order to show off his authoritarian power to the employees. At the time he was employed as the CEO of CBA in 2011 the company was suffering with huge financial crisis. In that dire situation, Narev was failed to deliver any permanent solution or strategic remedies that could help CBA. Therefore, it can be stated that the leadership of Ian Narev was not adequate enough to deal with the situation.
After Narev became the CEO of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the company had faced a series of ethical breaches such as fraudulency in 2014. Due to lack of maintenance and negligence more than 53,000 branches of CBA faced a money laundering case that alleged to be breached by drug syndicates. However, Narev did not take the responsibility and refuted the allegation by claiming based on unauthorised sources and a rumour (Hilton, 2017). In this context, it can be stated that this was a true act of unethical business practice where the customers and clients were kept in dark when they should be informed about the breaches. Ian Narev encouraged the employees to maintain secrecy of the account breach. As a result of that it became a practice among the employees to breach the code of conducts in a continuous way.
It can be argued that there were a series of uncooperative attitude of Ian Narev that created a huge gap between the management and the employee. In-transparency had become the daily phenomenon in the Commonwealth bank workplace that created a great deal of problem for the employees to operate effectively. As a matter of fact, the employees were not convinced with the management decisions. It caused a miscommunication between the higher authority and the low level employees (afr.com, 2017). Besides this, the charismatic attitude of Ian Narev failed to procure relaxation in the workplace environment of the company. Therefore, the possible opportunities of creativity and innovation was lack in course of the business operation of CBA.
According to Goncalves and Jamieson (2017) it can be argued that besides the fraudulent activities the Commonwealth Bank of Australia also failed implement any measures for the employees. In this context, the CBA authority imposed a series of financial constraints on the employees in order to deal with the compensation due to the financial fraudulency. Moreover, there was lack of benefits for the employees and as a result of that the employee turnover was escalated into a rapid pace during the tenure of Ian Narev. Henceforth, the employee satisfaction and motivation was reduced to a great extent and Narev was responsible for this problem.
Despite of having the Fair Work Ombudsmen framework it was alleged that the Commonwealth bank of Australia was continuously curtailed the benefits of its employees since Narev joined the organisation. It was more of an instance of exploitation that the organisation had carried out in order to maximise its profit. As a result of that continuous termination of employees was a common phenomenon in CBA. In this context, the bank was alleged to rip off more than 7000 employees in the financial year of 2017 (Butler & Johnston, 2014). Furthermore, the Commonwealth Bank was condemned to deal with the issue of underpayments that should not be tolerated by the Australian regulations. From that point of view, it can be stated that the leadership quality of Ian Narev is also proved to be failed in order to ensure the safety of the customers.
High expectation and unreal assumptions had delivered further problem for Ian Narev in order to deal with the operation and management of Commonwealth Bank of Australia. In fact, the heavy burden of the objectives set by the higher management caused serious problem for the employees to ventilate their innovative ideas that were supposed to be beneficial for the development of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Butler & Johnston, 2014). However, the authoritarian principles of Narev compelled the employees to stick to the objectives of the organisation more rigorously and it caused a failure in the operational expansion of the company.
On the basis of this, it is required to conduct a research on the basic features of the organisational managers in course of making a better environment for the organisation. In other words, the role of the managers is to guide the employees and the organisation to choose the right path of progress. Moreover, the decision making process is also identified as an important aspect on which the managers should keep their focus (Pinoset al.,2013). Based on this basic understanding regarding the role of the managers in a corporate organisation it requires further in-sights into their performances and at the same time it is also essential to figure out the strategic measures that have to be inculcated by the managers.
According to Braun et al., (2013) it can be stated that with the technological advancement the role of the business organisations has expanded incredibly. The global aspect of the organisations facilitated a better advantage for the companies to expand their market internationally. Therefore, the role of the leaders or the managers have to deal with the changing situation accordingly. In response to this, Wang and Hsieh (2013) showed that the activities of the employees became enormous that they had to pay more focus on their performances. Therefore, it requires motivation and satisfaction for the employees so that they can ventilate their unique ideas and creativity for the benefits of the companies. The managers in terms of leaders help them to develop trusts so that the issues of employee satisfaction can be resolved. In the other hand Zhu et al. (2013) argued that the leaders must have possessed strong values and integrity in order to motivate and influence the employees positively. Enduring the organisation is the most important aspect on which the leaders or the managers put their focus profoundly. In his research, Schaubroeck, Peng and Hannah (2013) showed that the positive influence of the leaders can bring prosperity for the companies. as a matter of fact, the positive influence on the employees fostered to maximise customer services and production quality that can achieve the objectives of the business organisation.
Vision is played a significant role in order to estimate major decision making by the managers. As the managers are played the role of a bridge between the company authority and the employees therefore it is highly pertinent for the managers to execute the plans effectively and rationally. In this regard, vision is identified the most important element to initiate some planning. In his research, Boyatzis et al., (2013) opined that the vision of the managers or the leaders contributed a lot in the course of developing a better planning and strategy framework. As a matter of fact, the future of the organisation is relied on the effective and adequate decision making by the managers. On the other hand, Foo (2013) advocated that besides introducing a better plan for the organisation it is also important for the managers to encourage the employees to perceive a vision so that it can provide more effectiveness in the business operations. in this context, it can be asserted that due to the intense competitiveness in the market it became an important aspect of the organisations to put more emphasis on innovation and creativity (Mitchell, 2013). Henceforth, the advance and farsighted vision of the managers would pave the way for the employees to generate more efficiency in the process.
Planning strategy is referred as an important aspect for the organisations in order to maintain its permanence in the high competitive market. Therefore, on behalf of the company the managers or the leaders are entitled to develop effective strategies that can facilitate advantages in the current business situation. Fusco, O’Riordan and Palmer (2015) argued that the vision and the understanding of the managers about the present scenario provided a strategic advantage for the manager to judge and analyse the situation at first. Based on this evaluation it became so easy for the managers to set the planning further.
On other hand, MacKie (2014) argued that execution of the proposed strategy is equivalently important as the planning of the strategy for the managers in order to facilitate strategic advantage. In this context, the managers has to pay different role such as putting vision and understanding at first. Before convincing the employees about the vision and planning of the companies it is imperative for the leaders to get acknowledged with every aspects of the planning (Nieminen, Biermeier-Hanson & Denison, 2013). After that it is also important for the leaders to share that understanding with the employees and encourage them to do the tasks accordingly. From that point of view it is pretty clear that planning the strategy is not the only concern for the managers in fact incorporating all he stakeholders into the process and convince them to accept it are also crucial for the managers to maintain.
Assistance for the employees is also considered to be an important aspect for the managers. According to Avolio and Yammarino (2013) it can be argued that coaching the employees and help them to build up a better team building and efforts are the fundamental aspects on which the leaders are relied upon. From that point of view the change management framework is highly relevant to discuss. In case of any change in the process of production it became the responsibility of the managers to inform the employees so that they can get a clear picture of what is going on and their benefits of interests (Latham, 2014). Moreover, the coaching practice is also essential for the managers to show their affection and attention towards the team. In this regard, the research of Tourish (2014) argued that the huge experience that the managers are comprised of will help them to guide the employees so that they can generate more effectiveness and efficiency in production and quality of services. As a matter of fact, a healthy relationship between the employees and the managers will also be set up that will guide to excellent performance (Fairhurst & Connaughton, 2014).
At first I can say that there is a sharp distinction between the managers and leadership. It can be stated that managers are a part of leadership process. Therefore, as a leader I have to evaluate the interests of my team members and also provide them the provision to ventilate their problems freely and openly. It identifies the role of openness as a key character for a leader that I try to maintain in course of my job. Besides this, problem solving is also a key characteristic of the leaders. From that point of view, my job is not only figure out the solutions of the problem but also profess a planning for the solution so that it can be effective enough to measure my understanding and ability to handle crisis situations. In this regard, depending on my personal perception and trusting my intuitions are also important factors to inculcate. The anticipation or the intuition of a dire situation is always facilitate a strategic advantage for the leaders to generate a pro-active attitude to resolve the issues. In this context, it can be stated that vision of a leader is always be dynamic and involving all the stakeholders so that their interests are also incorporated into the decision making process. Therefore, as a leader it will be my responsibility to formulate a measure to maintain transparency and trusts among the employees and my colleagues so that it can foster a better team understanding and maximise the profit for the organisation.
On the other hand, based on my understanding I can presume that it is important for the senior managers to encapsulate an idea of the workplace culture. I also believe that as a manager it is not the only duty to manage the team and encourage them to follow the objectives and vision of the organisation rather also imbibes the fact to inform the higher authority about the mentality of the employees and their expectations are also important in this regard. Moreover, it can also be stated that controlling self-emotions are also contributed to the process of building an effective leadership. From that point of view I can say that emotional intelligence has an important role to play in order to develop the personality of the leader. The resilient nature and always keen to solve problems can generate more trusts to the personality of a leader. Therefore, I always try to follow such process.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be asserted that the leadership quality is not an easy one and dynamic to follow. There are huge number of factors that are responsible to set up an effective leadership. Moreover, the leader must have vision and understanding to take decision effectively. It is resembled with his capability to judge the situation in that context. Addressing the problems of Ian Narev in formulating better workplace environment in CBA proved that incorporating the stakeholders in the decision making with a moderate aspiration can make a better leader. Moreover, the literature review facilitates an in-depth understanding regarding different attributes of the leadership quality. In addition to this, the reflective part also depicts the perception of the author regarding the leadership of a manager. Therefore, it can be concluded that this report rightly puts focus on different aspects of leadership and considered to be relevant enough.
Reference
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