Leadership theories, assessment tools, approach, and styles

This research is focused on a case study overview of the applicability of leadership philosophies, appraisal methods, approaches, and styles to a specific market organization. This considered business organization is Global Delivery Direct (GDD), which was founded and developed in the late 1960s by four British friends and colleagues. This research would primarily focus on applying such leadership ideas and styles, such as trait leadership theory, to the overall operation of the organization. The company’s rapid growth in its domain appeared due to hard work that adopted the consistent Laissez-faire leadership style empowering certain intra-organizational groups. This was possible due to many factors including adopting a clear and concise _x0091_Team Leadership approach_x0092_ selection specifically to run the company (Kruse, 2017).

Leadership generally refers to the process of influencing a group of people to help in increasing the outcome and productivity associated to that group members_x0092_ efforts. In the business context, the Team Leadership Style has a more broader and visionary perspective by empowering the employees by adopting a de-centralized chain of command that defines and sets the growth pattern of a particular company. The Trait Leadership theory and Team Leadership Style adopted within an organiztion is important to determine the possibility and chances of its sustainability and growth. These leadership aspects are connected to the business ethics and credibbity of an organization. The overall investigation involves to determine the effectiveness of business and organiztional perspectives in connection with the leader’s role associated to the Trait Leadership model.

Nowadays, the industries are formed and developed on the principle of exerting adequate influence and effectively applying a particular leadership model (Nahavandi,, 2016).

GDD_x0092_s Results

Some noticeable and slaient features concerning GDD specific performance-based results and growth based upon the sucessful implementation of Trait Leadership theory, Laissez-faire Leadership Style and Team Leadership approach are:

GDD has expanded its business from England to Europe, US and other international markets.

The company’s revenue recorded in the year 2015 was approximately $ 2.245 billion (Companies House, 2017).

GDD’s employee base consists of 6500 workers. The operational and package distribution statistics are over 1.75 billion during the year 2015. GDD’s service area includes delivering its services in 15 different countries world-wide and ability to reach at every address in US, North America and France.

GDD’s delivery fleet is one of biggest among other global delivery business providers. It includes more than 34000 vehicles among which 1000 vehicles are advanced and equipped with alternative fuel based options and accesories.

GDD has around 80 cargo-based aircrafts under its ownership and around 25 leased aircrafts to support the logistics and cargo operations.

The company_x0092_s current investments of $ 2.8 billion are under pipe line to acquire more aircrafts to stregthen its existing fleet of aircrafts.

GDD acquires the colloborative corporate culture and highly values its employees by considering them as a family. The decision making is given to the lower level at functional level in order to enhance the overall tactical piaradigm (Companies House, 2017).

Candidate_x0092_s Results

The existing four potential candidates to become the future manager in the company possess diverse and different personalities as compared to each other. It is important to view and analyze the possibilities in the light of leadership-specific literature and theories to identify the most appropriate candidate (Clark, 2016). Therefore as per Trait Leadership theory seeing the tendency and natural potential of each proposed leader the selection team of company might consider some aspects to select the best person. These key aspects associated to each of four candidates are:

Henrietta Raynard

(Authoreterian Leadership Style) Orson Hernandez

(Laissez-faire leadership style) Jonathan Livingston

(Transformational Leadership Model) Drianna Coyote

(Undercapacity Issues) 1. She is 28 years old and a student of UMUC.

2. She served as assistant to Alex Cheng.

3. She possesses friendly behavior.

4. She does not like nonsense and unnecessary detail-oriented talks.

5. She likes much controlled and small setup based environments.

6. She likes collaborative environments where opinions are welcomed.

7. She likes principled and structure operated approach to run organization.

8. She most likely holds an authoritarian and transactional leadership style.

1. He manages the local Kinkos stores.

2. He is customer oriented and likes to facilitate the customers in the best possible manner.

3. He thinks that the company_x0092_s corporate culture has become _x0091_rigid_x0092_.

4.He likes to offer adequate incentive based programs to employees.

5. He thinks that the leader should be honest and insightful.

6. He likes the collobrative culture as it enhances the productivity and creativity.

1. He is IT specialist with military background and serving in UPS.

2. He was confident during the interview.

3. He was well prepared to discuss on comparison of GDD and UPS.

4. He is currently a Team Lead and wants to enhance his career by being part of management.

5. He is sort of transformational leader.

1. She started as part time worker at GDD.

2. She wants to excel in her career.

3. She possess many innovative ideas concerning GDD_x0092_s business growth.

4. She is flexible and people oriented person as per her colleagues_x0092_ observations.

5. She intends to be leader who is servant and partly authoritarian.

(Hoch & Bommer, 2016)

GDD/ Candidates Comparison

Table 1 shows the rating of four potential candidates based on the similarities in GDD_x0092_s leadership model and each candidate_x0092_s leadership trend.

Candidate 1 No Fit 2 Bad Fit 3 Not Sure 4 Good Fit 5 Best Fit Raynard       4    Hernandez         5  Livingston    2       Coyote    2      

Table 1: Ratings (Level 1 to 5) of four candidates based upon the similarities in GDD leadership model (Trait Leadership theoretical framework and Team Leadership approach)

Table 2 shows the rating of four potential candidates in accordance with differences in GDD_x0092_s leadership model and each candidate_x0092_s leadership trend .

Candidate 1 No Fit 2 Bad Fit 3 Not Sure 4 Good Fit 5 Best Fit Raynard   2    Hernandez  1     Livingston        4   Coyote        4   Table 2 Ratings (Level 1 to 5) of four candidates based upon the differences in GDD leadership model (Trait Leadership theoretical framework and Team Leadership approach).

Recommendation

The results of case study analysis clearly present and identify the effectiveness of Trait leadership theoretical framework in case of its applicability to a business entity. It also investigated facts related to the applicability of Laissez-faire Leadership Style and Team Leadership approach in the GDD_x0092_s context by considering a manager position_x0092_s selection scnerio. The selection included a recommendation made on the basis of considering and analyzing the previousy mentioned leadership models and associated ethical concepts in line with the GDD_x0092_s leadership requirement. Based upon the data illustrated in the Table 1 and 2, Hernandez is recommended as the most ideal candidate to be recommended for the proposed position. Raynard is number 2 as she lacks with some ideal leadership attributes and shortcomings in her approach to respond to various challenging situations. Livingston and Coyote lack with the adequate skillset and experience in terms of understanding the details of leadership model and perspective.

_x000c_References

Clark, B. L. (2016). Organizational Leadership Analysis: 4th Armored Brigade Combat Team Scenario.

GLOBAL DIRECT DELIVERY LTD - Overview (free company information from Companies House). (2017). Beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 4 February 2017, from https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/06411606.

Hoch, J. E., Bommer, W. H., Dulebohn, J. H., & Wu, D. (2016). Do Ethical, Authentic, and Servant Leadership Explain Variance Above and Beyond Transformational Leadership? A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Management, 0149206316665461.

Kruse, K. (2017). What is Leadership?. Forbes.com. Retrieved 2 February 2017, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2013/04/09/what-is-leadership/2/#7c78079fe825

Nahavandi, A. (2016). The Art and Science of Leadership -Global Edition. Pearson.