Coca Cola and Tesco's Leadership Styles - Essay Example

Organizations and Behaviour Contents Task 4 Answer 1 4 Answer 2 5 Answer 3 5 Answer 4 5 Answer 5 6 Task 2 6 Answer 2 6 Answer 2.2 7 Answer 2.3 7 Answer 2.4 8 Task 3 8 Answer 3.1 8 Answer 3.2 9 Answer 3.3 9 Answer 3.4 10 Task 4 10 Answer 4.1 10 Answer 4.2 11 Answer 4.3 11 Answer 4.4 11 Answer 4.5 12 References 13 Task 1 Answer 1.1 The different types of organisational structure are as follows. Simple structure: These structures are loosely formed and tightly run and the power is centralised in the hands of one or few managers to whom everyone reports directly. These are mainly organic and flat structures with hardly any specialisation. Bureaucratic Structure: These structures are characterised by coordination of work through high degree of standardisation of work which results in low skilled and highly specialised jobs. Divisionalised form: These are formed from bureaucratic organisation and it is formed through vertical integration. These are similar to bureaucratic organisation but the difference is that while in bureaucratic organisations the entities are individuals, in divisionalised they are operating units known as divisions. The different organisational culture is Power culture: Here the control is the main element where centralized decision making power is one key feature. Role Culture: Here each employee has to focus on the particular role which is assigned to them. Task Culture: Here it refers to team based approach for completing a particular task. Answer 1.2 At Tesco the focus is on young people and hence it looks at providing the opportunities for the people in their working lives. Culture helps the employees bind them together with their colleagues, customers and their communities. They aim at creating trust by having a culture which is anchored in truth. Tesco have the culture which is characterised by a collective desire to do the right thing. Right culture has helped Tesco steer their business in the right direction in how they serve their colleagues, customers and communities. In Tesco in the financial sector there is a manager or an employee who has to follow the structure of the organisation. The decisions are made by the management throughout the working day and it impacts the structure and practice of all other employees in the company. Answer 1.3 There are both internal and external factors which motivate an employee. The internal factors include communication, motivation while the external factors include incentives and sales target. Communication is crucial and is important for the employees to be able to exercise their right. Further the whistle blowing policy at Tesco helps raise ethical issues and report grievances. Tesco understands the importance of motivated staff and supports the staff with a work-life balance through flexible working, discount gym membership etc. Tesco offers competitive salaries at all the levels and offers a whole package in ways that help the employees make more money, look after their health and safeguard their future. Answer 1.4 The communication of Tesco should ensure that appropriate communication policies are put in place and work effectively in building and protecting the reputation of the Group both internally and externally. It should to have a structured communications programme to provide the colleagues with clarity on matters. The Board of directors should review the performance targets for the current year and give awards to employees to ensure that they remain motivated to the company and represent a long term value creation for the shareholders. Tesco should revise their salary in accordance with the industry and should ensure that incentive structure of the employees remain aligned with their strategy so that they can strike a balance between creating long term value for the shareholders and rewarding the management fairly. Answer 1.5 Tesco should try to give more importance to communication process within the organisation so that the employees can tell about their problems openly to the management. Once the grievances of the employees are heard by the management, the employees will automatically feel that the management is redressing their complaints and hence they will be motivated to work for the organisation. Further the motivation by the management is important to keep track of the performing and non-performing employees and take necessary steps to deal with the non-performing one. The salary and incentive structure needs to be revised to make the employees deliver their best for attainment of organisational goals. Task 2 Answer 2.1 Leadership style at Coca Cola: Muhtar Kent CEO of Coca Cola follows constructively discontent style of leadership philosophy. According to him this leadership style is not fast enough, not entrepreneurial enough and not innovative enough. It’s more about injecting entrepreneurial religion and making the employees think as if they are the owners. Leadership Style of Apple: Tim Cook the CEO of Apple follows no-nonsense and methodical style. Cook is calm and attends every meeting and listens silently before taking appropriate decisions. At the same time he does not shy from taking tough decisions. He has been known to fire senior managers and have faced many challenges. Leadership style of Walmart: Sam Walton, the CEO if Walmart surrounds himself with the kind of people who had big ideas and are not afraid of taking risks and bring the ideas to life. He is known to have a vision and has a never give up attitude and is always optimistic. He learns constantly from its competitors and does thing in his own way. Answer 2.2 The management of Tesco believes in running every Tesco Store like a business in its own. The management team ensures that their stores deliver customer driven values which are crucial for their success. This simple management style unites their business. The management team spends most of their time on the shop floor so that they can improve the customer satisfaction level. The whole management team works together to ensure that the job gets done speedily and efficiently. The management looks at finding the optimal structure at every store since no two Tesco store are the same. They make sure that everyone is working in the right direction for attaining the same goal (Butler, 2012, p. 1). Answer 2.3 Management style at Coca Cola: The success of Coca Cola is because of the laissez faire culture which is followed by the management. It affects many people in the organisation and they give their best for attaining their goals. The management of Coca Cola believes that a sense of community improves their ability to retain, attract and develop many ideas and diverse talent which gives them a competitive edge over their competitors. Management style of Apple: The management of Apple provides a challenging work place for the employees. The employees are motivated to come up with innovative ideas which will help in manufacturing of great stuff. The company recruits specialist and puts them into roles which suits them as per their specific abilities and strengths. Management style of Wal-Mart: The management of Wal-Mart trains their employees to make them capable of managing new stores. Wal-Mart treats their employees in the right way. This ensures that the employees treat their customers in the right way. Further Wal-Mart focuses on making the deliveries on time. Answer 2.4 The management style of Coca Cola is effective which can be seen from the success of the company. The laissez faire culture of the management makes the employees have a say in the decision making process of the organisation. The management style of Apple helps create innovative ideas where each employee is allowed to present their ideas and work on it. The management identifies the right candidate for the right job and is crucial for the success of the organisation. The management style of Wal-Mart makes the employees ready to face the challenge. The management understands the need of the customers, reduce the checkout queues, deliver at the right time and treat the staff right. Task 3 Answer 3.1 Autocratic leadership: Here the leaders have absolute power over the teams and their workers. Here the team members and staff have little opportunity for making suggestions even if those are in the best interest of the organisation. This style is advantageous for unskilled and routine jobs since the advantages of control are more than the disadvantages. Bureaucratic leadership: These leaders follow the textbook and for them the rules are absolute and they ensure that their employees follow the rules and regulations strictly. This style of leadership is appropriate for work which involves high risks like toxic substances, working with machinery or working at dangerous heights. Charismatic leadership: This style of leadership inspires lot of enthusiasm among the employees and they become energetic in obtaining their goals. But such a leader believes more in themselves than in his team and hence it may result in collapse of entire organisation if leader fails. Answer 3.2 The motivational theory followed at Tesco is similar to Taylor’s motivational theories. According to Taylor employees work only for money and Employee Reward Programme of Tesco is similar to Taylor’s theory. The motivation factor at Tesco is it financial reward packages. But there are factors other than money which motivates the employees of Tesco. There are many non-financial factors which motivates the employees to improve their output. These include improving personal skills and desire to serve the people for promotion. Thus Tesco also follows Two Factor Theory: Herzberg. The hygiene factors of Tesco include discount gym membership, competitive salaries, staff discount etc. The motivational factor of Tesco includes non-financial rewards like sense of achievement, opportunity for advancement, appreciation for hard work etc. Answer 3.3 Motivating the managers is important since they have to lead the effort of motivating the employees even in cases where there are not enough money to do so. Two way communications is important for motivating the managers. They have to listen and feel everything before making a decision. The middle managers are important for keeping the workforce engaged. They set the direction for the workforce and serves as a link between performance and strategy. By keeping the managers motivated the team members will be productive and helps in better connection with the employees. It will result in a healthy work culture in the organisation which can’t be addressed only with simple programs. Motivated managers will feel committed and will understand the context of their work. The managers at Tesco track the performance of the employees and keep them motivated for accomplishing their work. Thus motivated managers are important for achieving profitability. Answer 3.4 Taylor’s theory of motivation seems to work in Tesco. The managers and employees are paid industry standard salaries along with good incentive structure. This makes the employees feel as if they are taken proper care of. Two factor theory of Herzberg is also applicable here where the company has both hygiene factor and motivational factor. At Tesco, equal stress is given to both the factors so that the employees are properly motivated. Tesco further follows Maslow’s theory of Motivation. Among all three two factor theory of Herzberg is given more stress on and have helped the company in keeping the employees motivated. Task 4 Answer 4.1 A group is a collection of individuals where the members have common tasks and they become interdependent in their performance and they interact with one another to accomplish their goals. Groups are classified into mainly two type’s namely formal and informal groups. Formal group are created to accomplish the objective of the organisation. There are different types of formal groups like command group and task group. Informal groups are created naturally by the people without any order from the organisation. They are created based on specific individual interest. There are two types of informal groups namely interest groups and friendship groups (Levi, 2010, p. 211). Answer 4.2 Factors which promote the development of teamwork are Diversity: Diversity promotes innovation, creativity and increase the awareness of supporting effective teamwork. In contrast to that team which lack diversity finds it difficult to solve a particular problem and it is much harder for them to find innovative solutions Communication: Clear and open communication facilitates effective teamwork. All the team members should be on the same page with respect to timelines, responsibilities and targets. This is created by effective communication. It is important for all the team members to ask questions regarding their responsibilities and jobs. Answer 4.3 For Tesco the IT systems have played a major role in delivering strong profits for Tesco. Tesco has invested heavily in its website and it has helped them with rise in grocery orders online. Tesco has further invested into advanced in-store queuing systems for improving the shopping experience of customers by reducing the checkout lines. Tesco is currently using heat-sensing technology for monitoring lines at tills. Tesco has improved better self service tills, scanners and checkout cameras which have helped reduce the queues. For example Tesco have invested heavily into their supply chain and it has measured on-shelf availability through the in-store picking of tesco.com orders. Answer 4.4 Tesco transfers the technological knowhow, processes and new systems among the team members to become a regular part of the business strategy. The managers at Tesco give proper training to the employees so that they are accustomed to the new technology. The technology adopted by Tesco is varied and each of the team members must be made aware of the usage so that they can use it and get habituated to it. The company gives frequent training to the employees and make them aware of how to fix small bugs in case it arises. Tesco tries to make the process as simple as possible so that it does not require an employee to be tech savvy to operate it. Answer 4.5 Tesco focuses on long term and strategic term for ensuring that it can discharge meetings and high-quality information flows. Tesco follows QHSE which is an integral part of the organisation. It is important for monitoring and continuously improving the quality of the products and services. It is important to identify and analyse the impact in QHSE performance and implement the controls for minimizing losses, reducing risks and preventing damage to equipments, environments etc (Tesco, 2014, p. 1). References Butler, S. 2012. Tescos new leader Phil Clarke asserts his dominance as Richard Brasher leaves. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9150503/Tescos-new-leader-Phil-Clarke-asserts-his-dominance-as-Richard-Brasher-leaves.html. [Accessed on: 19 April. 2014]. Levi, D. 2010. Group Dynamics for Teams. London: Sage. Tesco. 2014. Quality, Health, Safety & Environment. Available at: http://www.tescocorp.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=4-506. [Accessed on: 19 April. 2014]. Read More