The essay brings about the discussion on the concept of leadership approaches and challenges relevant in the contemporary organisations. The leadership style in the organisations is also linked to the aspect of policy, culture, and society at both national and international level. Thus, there will be two parts in this assignment, where part one discusses about the leadership style used in the organisation, and the role of leadership in influencing teams and their work behaviour. For the purpose of this assignment Woolworths has been selected as the company to assess the approach of leadership.
Vodafone Ireland is an organisation which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Vodafone group is found to be the largest mobile phone operator in terms of the active subscribers. Founded in the year 1984, the company is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland operating under the brand name of Vodafone Smart. The company operates a full range of services which consists of the voice SMS, MMS, and mobile data services using a 2G GSM 900/1800 network. Vodafone Ireland offers a number of varied services including a wide range of contract, bill pay services, inclusive of mobile telephony and mobile broadband services to their customers (Vodafone Group Services Limited, 2018).
Leadership is an important phenomenon in every organisation as it directs the employee’s efforts towards the attainment of common organisational goals and objectives. Organisational leadership involves all the relevant aspects and processes that leads to the development and success of the organisation in the long-run. Thus, it has been a clear concept as leaders in an organisation are vital in influencing their team members and their attitude and behaviour towards work. Thus, it is important for the company to practice effective leadership style in order to attain their goals and enhance organisational performance. There have been certain differences in the leadership styles or approaches used in Vodafone, as the company focused on building strategic leadership in their organisation to reach their targets and satisfy their customers with their telecommunication services. In addition to this, there has been a difference in the leadership styles used by managers in the organisation (Steinhouse, 2017).
To discuss the different traits of the managers in the company, it has been analysed that the leaders characterised the traits of autocratic, bureaucratic, democratic, charismatic, and several others. However, amongst all these there were few approaches which were predominantly relevant to the company. These include transformational leadership, democratic leadership, task oriented leadership.
Transformational leadership in the organisation characterises the involvement of the leaders or managers in making effective communication with organisational members. Thus, in context to the company, Vodafone it can be stated that all the top and executive –level managers are examples of the transformational leadership. The reason behind the manager’s practising transformational leadership is that they performed the role of inspiring their subordinates and other employees to work hard and enhance their productivity (Vodafone, 2018).
According to some of the managers it was found that democratic/participative leadership style is advantageous in Vodafone as managers believed in the fact that the decisions taken in the organisation affect larger number of people. Thus, to facilitate an effective decision-making practice in the organisation, democratic leadership was the most appropriate style.
In addition to the above used leadership approaches in Vodafone, it has been considered appropriate for the marketing department managers as they were more concerned about meeting their sales and targets to be achieved. Task-oriented leadership in the company has made significant contribution in acquiring a larger customer base of around 323 million taking as the user base of the subsidiaries (Visser and Tolhurst, 2017).
From the above discussion it has been understood that leadership is an important phenomenon in every organisation. Likewise, Vodafone Ireland needs to identify the issues facing organisations and reduce their impact on the performance through implementing suitable leadership approach. Leadership styles are important to every manager or leader in an organisation towards motivating employees and their work-related behaviour. Motivation acts as an important aspects or factor leading to organisational success in the dynamic and competitive business environment. Team in an organisation refers to the group of people who are willing to work together towards the attainment of common goals and objectives. iT has been explored that various approach to leadership in an organisation such as democratic, autocratic, transformational, transactional or situational are treated as the independent variable, and employee performance or their positive attitude towards work is treated as dependent variable (Micro focus, 2018).
For an instance, implementing democratic leadership in the company Vodafone would lead to positive organisational outcomes, as it acts as the major factor to employee motivation. Democratic leaders bring out the idea or philosophy which includes the equal participation of employees along with their managers. They have an opportunity in the activities or the decision-making practices of the organisation. This leads to a positive impact on their attitude towards the organisation as they show higher commitment towards attaining organisational objectives. On the other hand, applying participative leadership in Vodafone like other such businesses will yield higher acceptance from their employees working in the organisation. Participative leadership engages employees in identifying all the goals and procedures relevant to the organisation, which characterises leader as a facilitator rather giving order to them. Thus, the function of leader as a facilitator is beneficial in driving employee motivation and positive results (Campopiano and De Massis, 2015).
Vodafone faced some issue or problems in terms of their sales team and management which made a huge impact on their employee’s attitude towards the organisation’s goal and objectives. Vodafone put control on their operating costs in the telecommunication market to maintain and enhance their leadership position in the market. There are other issues which the company has been facing at the present time, as the telecom sector has been on the shaky ground since the last two years, which has influenced companies like Vodafone to a major extent due to a sharp drop in the tariff rates. The reason found behind this was the introduction of Jio backed up the cash rich reliance, Vodafone has to make huge investments in the content and monetization of the same (Elsaid and Mostafa, 2016).
According to the research on the challenges faced by the telecommunication leader Vodafone, it has been found that there were issue related to the mobility of employees. High profile issues stated that the company is under a high pressure to introduce new working practices in their organisation which will enable workers or employees to work in the remote areas, without making any loss in terms of productivity. These changes in the organisation led to the emergence of the other issue such as compromising data security, control system in the organisation. This ultimately had a major impact on the working of the team influencing the functioning and performance of the overall organisation (Muirhead, Imran and Arshad, 2016).
To recommend the best leadership style in the organisation, Vodafone it has been found that situational leadership would be best suited in the organisation. Situational leadership brings about an intuitive approach in the organisation, and helps in acquiring a better understanding of the team and the issues faced by the team members. As the telecom sector has been facing certain problems in, to adapt to the new technological and cloud trends, and improve their functions in the aspect of Communication technology. It is a wise decision to recommend to the company situational leadership approach as it is considered as the most effective approach to achieve success in the dynamic and complex work environment. Thus, it will enhance the morale of the team members to work together in a team spirit towards the attainment of goals (Lunn and Lyons, 2018).
Discussing about the change management approach in Vodafone it has been analysed that there are various type of change which are introduced in any organisation. Implementing situational leadership will benefit the organisation, as it will help in motivating employees in the organisation and reducing employee’s resistance to change. For introducing change in Vodafone, the company can first make changes in only one department or unit of the organisation, which will help employees to understand and adapt to the change. Thus, it will benefit the managers or leaders to enhance employee’s morale to accept to the organisational change and manage their work according to the new amendments in the company (Hajir et al., 2015). As it is essential to implement change because it will also facilitate managers control the technology infrastructure telecommunication system in the organisation which helps in implementing and managing change efficiently within organisation. Thus, implementing situational approach in Vodafone Ireland will help in sustaining change and enhancing motivation amongst team members (Chege and Gakobu, 2017).
The second part of the assignment encloses the assessment of the governance structure of the company, Vodafone, control system and the methods used to ensure optimum measure and quality of services. Thus, defining corporate governance of the company it can be stated that it refers to the system by which companies are directed and controlled within the system. The purpose of the governance structure to any company is to facilitate effective, entrepreneurial management system which leads to the long-term growth and success of the organisation. The responsibility of governance is hold to the hands of Board of Directors of the company as they are in a strategic position to set aims or objectives of organisation, putting leadership into practice, supervising management of the business, and responding to the shareholders on their management. Thus, it has been clear that good governance is advantageous to any organisation, as it has the fundamental influence on the improvement of transparency and answerability within the system (Boesso et al., 2015).
Vodafone Ireland shows higher commitment towards maintaining a standardised corporate governance structure, as it is vital to maintain the business integrity and hold the interests of the investors in the company. The company expects their directors, employees, shareholders, and investors to act with honesty and integrity. They also aim to deliver their duties, responsibilities and treat customers in a fair manner (Corte, Iavazzi and D’Andrea, 2015). To define about the governance structure of the company, it has been found that BOD operates in effective manner. The company’s board consists of 13 directors, amongst them 12 are served throughout the year. The members of the board are held responsible for the overall conduct of the group’s business and strategy formulation and implementation. The company’s Audit and Risk committee consists of the four non-executive directors, and Chairman Nick land that ensures effective governance in system over the performance of the group’s financial output. He also ensures in controlling or monitoring the performance of the internal audit function and external auditors, and the management of the business risks and compliance related activities (McCall, 2014).
The company has their mobile networks in almost 26 countries which is inclusive of the joint ventures and several other associates, and has been consistent in providing services in 17 of these countries (Otoo, 2015). In addition to the chairman of the organisation Gerard Kleisterlee, there were 3 executive director, and 9 non-executive directors. Thus, analysing the above aspects, it is known that board of Vodafone Ireland, is responsible for the overall conduct and performs all the obligations and has the accountability towards the group, shareholders, investors and other members vital to the corporation. In addition, board of the corporation keeps a formal schedule of the matters important for the decision-making in the organisation. These aspects include group strategy, long-term plans; major capital projects; acquisitions or divestments; annual budget and operating plan, group financial structure; inclusive of tax and treasury, and system of control and risk management (Vodafone Sustainable Business Report, 2016).
Internal control systems as defined in context to the accounting and auditing refers to the process of assuring the effectiveness of an organisation in operational effectiveness, efficiency, and reliable financial accounting and the compliance to the laws and regulations (Speicher and Salot, 2016).
Discussing about the controls or control systems in Vodafone it can be stated that with the company, Vodafone has been efficient in ensuring and maintaining control within the internal systems of their business. In Vodafone, the board has the overall responsibility of the internal control which has been designed to manage the risks of failure to attain business objectives (Kraus and Strömsten, 2016).
The company conducts their audit in accordance to the standards of Public company accounting Oversight Board. Vodafone also maintains a disclosure controls and procedures which have been designed to ensure that the information to be disclosed in reports must be processed, summarised and reported within the required specific time according to the Securities and Exchange Commission rules and forms. In addition to this, the information accumulated must be effectively communicated to the management and the company’s Chief Executive officer and Chief Financial officer.
Vodafone has been efficient in their management, governance structure, and ensures to maintain and enhance the quality of the services provided to the customers around the world. To describe about the practices and quality ensured by the company it is essential to discover the methods used by the managers in the organisation. Vodafone’s board members have implemented certain policies and one of them is Quality of customer experience policy, in which the measures and procedures are place in a manner which leads to higher customer satisfaction. Other policies include selling prices policy stating the initiatives of the board, that CEO of every local company must establish a procedure to calculate the selling price of the products. To calculate the prices of products they appoint a person within the organisation to perform the work of calculations. Also, the CEO ensures that the quotations are determined on the basis of some logics rather using some arbitrary methods, and the quotation must be subjected to the process of internal check irrespective of the fact whether it is relevant to the customer or not (Goel, 2019).
Product quality assurance is another policy introduced by Vodafone, i.e. pRoduct safety and assurance policy designed to ensure that the products provided by the suppliers are safe for use to the employees, and customers and others who use them. The policy makes sure that the company complies with the rules and regulations regarding the safe design, installation, and the product’s maintenance in the long-run.
Vodafone, being a mobile communication company, is bound to provide outstanding products and services in their market, across all the countries where they practice, i.e. across 150 countries. Thus, the company builds trust, with their employees, customers and shareholders, along with that considers making changes in the way they conduct their business. Thus, analysing the aspects of strong governance structure and advanced mobile communications, and technology Vodafone performs best in their practices, and aims to provide best services to their customers.
To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that Vodafone has been the most efficient company in the telecommunication sector. The company has been providing employment to approximately 71000 people around the world, and capture a larger market share. Vodafone works best in terms of effective CSR as the above essay has mentioned about the situational leadership, strong culture, and governance structure and has adopted best practices to ensure quality products and services to their customers.
References
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