Leadership Theory and Contemporary Challenges †MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about the Leadership Theory and Contemporary Challenges. Answer: Introduction: Rock Paper Scissors is a salon operating on small scale in hair dressing industry in Australia. Establishment of salon was done after its owner won a major Australian national hair dressing competition. Report is prepared to address several contemporary challenges faced by salon in the Australian business environment. Rock Paper Scissors does not have any established mission and vision statements and does not have any defined strategic goals and objectives. Management of organization lacks in each and every aspect as it does not have any properly planned financial and strategic planning (Dean Bowen, 2016). Since, the year of its formation, salon has never been operating profitably and in light of ongoing issues profit generation seems impossible. Present study deals with analysis and evaluation of strength of salon by forming and executing strategic in appropriate manner to achieve desirable targets. Furthermore, it has been viewed that there are no proper documentation of policies and does not have any developed performance indicators for measuring financial performance and customer satisfaction. Employees are demotivated to the extent that they are not punctual and leading to theft of salon properties (Petronio, 2013). All these have a devastating impact on the overall performance of salon and its sustainability position. Implementation of proper management tool for improving the position of salon in competitive environment of Australia hairdressing industry. Development of key performance indicators for assessing financial performance and performance of employees. Formation of coherent and cohesive mission statements and development of corporate goals and objectives. Identification of core competencies and working on it for gaining competitor advantages over other salon operating in same area. Employment of management tools and principles of leadership and motivational theories for creating a environment that will generate organizational success. Management concepts, principles and theories: Mission and vision statements are regarded s an extremely important part of business planning of enterprise such as salon. It serves as a platform for unifying all the stakeholders such as employees, customers, government as they work towards attainment of organizational goals. Mission statements should incorporate defining of core competencies that would set a particular organization apart from its competitors. Such statements should ne motivating and inspiring and all stakeholders are benefitted from uplifting mission statements. It is required by any business to formulate its mission statement first as stayed by rational goal model that would ultimately lead to establishment of strategies, objectives and goals (Van Wart, 2013). Rock Paper Scissors is required to formulate a mission statement that should incorporate the following elements: Mission statement of Rock Paper Scissors should be concise, focused and clear and the statement can be crafted depending upon the budget of salon. Mission statement should be displayed proudly and certain materials should also display such statement. Providing quality service to its customers Incorporating and adhering to ethical requirements Priorities of management and organization as a whole Strategy, goals and objectives: An organization is likely to experience higher growth and profitability if it has well defined strategy, objectives and goals. Setting clear objectives and goals will assist the management in monitoring the performance of enterprise such as hair dressing salon. There are few organizational goals that is served by the formulation of strategies and goals such as it facilitates planning, provides direction and guidance, inspiring and motivate employees and staffs and assisting organization in controlling and evaluating performance. Employees can seek strategies and goals for guidance when they are to deal with difficult circumstances (Antonaki House, 2013). Goal setting should be done by considering all the facets of salon as there can be inappropriate gaol formation if it is done promptly. Carrying out assessment of salon opportunities and weakness for strategies formation Developing action plan and setting out measurement basis Developing ways to overcome some of operational issues faced by salon Gaining perspective of target market about what they seek from hair dressing salon and according forming strategies Evaluation of financial and operational performance by setting benchmark Strategic and Financial planning: Rock Paper does not have any strategic and financial plan that is one of the reasons why salon is lacking behind in terms of profitability and performance. Prolonged sustainability can be experienced by any business if it has the capability of overcoming external and internal challenges posed by competing environment. The back bone of any business is its financial planning (Meredith, 2013). Salon discussed in the case study does not have any such plan and it has never operated profitably since its establishment. Rock Paper is required to have financial and strategic plan in place to deal with current issues they are facing: Development of financial indicators for measuring financial performance and reviewing financial report in annual basis as well Salon has immense potential for growth if they have proper plans and sufficient amount of funds should be available to meet some unanticipated changes. A proper and understanding in the field of business should be there as having a professional qualified experts and staffs would add great advantage to salon. Performance indicators and adoption of some techniques for data collection on number of customer visits and serviced by staffs to monitor operations. Innovation plays a vital role in shaping the future of salon and they should have the commitment of responsible and sustainable innovation. Innovation will help salon to improve their existing operations by developing, testing, prioritising and modifying. However, it is sometimes difficult for organization to get involved and formulate innovative strategy. In the area of intense competition in Australian business environment, shortened product life cycle and speedy changes in trend and tastes of customers, innovation is regarded as critical factor (Hill et al., 2014). Rock Paper should make marketing a central part of the business planning as they have a very significant role to play in creating sustainable business. Rather than developing an image, salon should focus on cultivating an ethos that will ultimately improve image. Salon is required to be savoir-faire about their products and services prices. Services provided by professionals should be kept on higher prices and this high price can be offset by offering discount on some promotional programs. Creation of an efficient process by and encouraging and creating a collaborative and participative environment. Leadership is essential tool of management that is necessity for managing any organization. Team building is a key management approach for managing salon. For handling growth in cultural diversities of employees and customers and changing trend in Australian society is done by inculcating appropriate leadership skills and employing appropriate leadership theories. A leaders leading any salon is required to have some traits such as confidence, self promotion, resilience, delegation, motivation, independence, thirst for knowledge and passionate. Manage are required to employ a particular leadership style depending upon organizational structure and current scenario for dealing with emerging situations (Pfeffer, 2014). A leadership style theory incorporates two basic leadership style that can be employed by leaders or mangers such as democratic leadership style and autocratic leadership style. Democratic leaders encourage staffs to participate in decision making, work with employees and do not carry out supervisions. Autocratic leaders closely supervise employees and direct them and take decision themselves. Fiedlers contingency leadership theory makes the assumption that leadership styles are constant and it considers the situation for employing leadership style and maximizing performance. It determines whether the leadership style is relationship oriented or task oriented. Another model is path gaol leadership theory that helps in identification of most appropriate style of leadership suiting specific circumstances for maximization of both job satisfaction and performance (Northouse, 2015). In accordance with this model, responsibility of leaders is to motivate employees for attaining organizatio nal and personal goals. Such leaders take into account environmental and situational factors. Hairdressers at Rock Paper should be encouraged to pursue hair dressing carrier rather than performing their task as daily routine job. Delegation of weakest leadership skills by salon mangers for identifying the existing gap in there. Rock Paper scissors should employ path goal leadership style that is one of the most suitable leadership models to be incorporated in the management of salon given the current scenario. Consultative decision making, participation and encouraging and collaborative participation, sharing responsibility, task delegation and reflective listening should be adopted by manners at salon. Motivation is crucially important for getting task done by employees in efficient and effective manner. Rock Paper employees are not motivated for performing their obligations and damaging and causing theft to salons property. Motivation is required for increasing job satisfaction and enabling a sense of achievement. There are three motivational factors that drive the performance of employees according to McCellands, theory of needs that involves affiliation, achievement and influence (Gladwin et al., 2015). As per Maslows hierarchy of need theory, there are five motivational factors that involve physiological needs, self actualization needs, ego and self esteem, social needs and safety needs. Salon is required to develop an environment that encourages and motivated employees to work. Rock Paper should make the employment of Maslows hierarchy that will drive the employees performance if such needs are addressed. For setting challenge and specifying goal and objectives, salon should incorporate goal setting theory. Management of performance of organization and employees is very essential for its sustainability. Rock Paper does not have any want to measure employee performance such as there is no track and records of number of clients served by them on each particular day. There are not any developed performance indicators for measuring financial performance (Ramos et al., 2014). Implementation the performance appraisal system would help in rewarding employees for the efforts undertaken by them. Individual hairdressers should be assessed by reviewing their performance and rewarding them for their efforts. Execution of performance planning that leads to identification of key responsibilities of employees. Managerial environment in which hairdressing salon operates: Skills development for managing resources and planning are required to be done by managers at salon. Strengthening of retention and recruitment strategies is the priority of managers for handling the current scenario. At the very initial stage of business planning and enabling hair dressing salon to survive, management training is considered to be of utmost importance. In the era of technological advancements, managers at Rock Paper are required to have greater knowledge and understanding of technologies. There is wide variety of small roles that needs to be upgraded for skills enhancements that requires possession of such skills. For management of Rock Paper, managers are required to have greater knowledge of financial, operational, marketing and human resource management. Human resource management skills are needed for addressing diversified needs and boosting employees morale towards attaining organizational goals (Donaldson et al., 2014). Government regulations- Hair dressing salon are required to adhere with regulations of hair dressing establishments. They are required to comply with the requirements of code of practice for skin penetration procedures. Any change in such regulations requirement would impact salon operations (Donaldson, 2014). Technological development- Information and communication technology influences the rate of performance of salon. It is required by salon to adjust in current competing environment by adopting the technological softwares that would ease the task of employees and assist them in providing services efficiently. Trends and fashion- Operations of hair dressing salon is considerably impacted by the rapid changes in trend, tastes and preferences of customers. Population- The demand of hair dressing and beauty services in Australia has been increasing significantly with the increase in population that has the consequence of increasing discretionary income. Conclusion: From the analysis of case study on Rock Paper Scissors, it has been ascertained that there are many contemporary challenges that are faced by salon in present situation. Issues are mainly related with financial and strategic planning that had adversely affected the overall performance of organization. Salon is required to develop internally on several fronts such as management of its employees, customers and other stakeholders for sustaining in this competitive environment. Addressing such challenges and issues faced by Rock paper would help them in operating profitably. Recommendations: Report has displayed recommendations separately for each of issues presented and discussed above. However, all the recommendations van be wrapped up by saying that Rock Paper should employ relevant management theories and tools for dealing with present challenges they are facing. Issues faced by organization in retention of customers and for handling demotivated employees are dealt by employing the above recommended leadership and motivational theories. Path goal theory of leadership is considered to be the suitable strategies for generating employee satisfaction and motivating them leading to improved performance. 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