The leadership styles of the Follett Corporation
Prepared for Dr. Gossman MAN 4120
Presented by Gabrielle Smith
April 25, 2011
Introduction The leadership styles of the Follett Corporation are outstanding and will bring about company growth. This paper aims at revealing through analysis and research the leadership styles found within a Follett bookstore. This bookstore is well known by the writer and was chosen because of this intimate knowledge. This research focuses on four leadership styles that have been used within the organization. These styles play apart in the success of objectives and tasks being accomplished. Leaders need to acquire skills that will keep them one step ahead of the
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During 2010, Chuck Follett the great grandson of CW Follett and son of Laddie(Charles Sr) was promoted to CEO after Traut retired.(Follett Corporation, 2011).
As stated on the company website, their vision and mission is to provide help to all stores thus enabling them to become the best supporters of higher education. Follett hopes to accomplish this by becoming the top supplier of services and products deemed academic and collegiate. Values play an important part in making any company successful. This is without a doubt one of the reasons why the Follett Higher Education Group has been so successful throughout the years. The company points out that their values are: “customers, innovation, integrity, teamwork, accountability and each and every associate.”(Follett,2011) Through the first value “customers,” the company recognizes associates who show a deep passion for excelling in customer expectations and are active, accessible and respondent in their relationships with internal and external customers. Through the second value “innovation,” the company encourages associates to be diverse in their thoughts, imaginative, problem solvers and wise risk takers. Through the third value “integrity,” the company requires that all employees follow the code of ethics as well as exercise honesty and trustworthiness. Through the fourth value “teamwork,” the company rewards employees who
The six basic styles of leadership presented (Coercive, Authoritative, Affiliative, Democratic, and Coaching) can have either a net positive or net negative affect on an organizations climate. The basis for being
d different leadership styles, such as: the trait approach to leadership the behavioural school (McGregor, Blake and Mouton) the contingency or situational school (Fielder, Hersey-Blanchard, Tannenbaum and Schmidt, Adair) leaders and followers (Servant Leadership, Team Leadership, Transactional and Transformational) dispersed leadership The key responsibilities of the leadership role in terms of: taking responsibility contributing to overall vision and goals setting and providing guidance on values setting direction for significant programmes or projects stimulating innovation and enterprise anticipating, planning for and leading change overcoming obstacles delegating setting objectives for teams and individuals communicating and motivating supporting and developing programmes, projects, teams and individuals modelling appropriate behaviour representing the team and feeding back its experiences and views protecting the team and its members Assessing the impact of different leadership styles Organisational values and acceptable standards of behaviour in the organisation Organisational values and organisational purpose, vision and mission Management Standards Centre (MSC)
A1. Leadership Style Upon conducting research, it is clear that the definition of “leadership” is not agreed upon. It is fluid, based upon many perceptions, situations, and surroundings. According to Robinson (2010), adopting a specific style of leadership is rather futile as it is, “contingent on the personal traits of the leader, the people being led, and the nature of the activity.” Tools are available to help guide potential leaders in determining a preferred style of leadership. For example, utilizing the “Leadership Self-Assessment
In the changing business environment, leaders of all organisations may face unprecedented uncertainty, especially the technology advancement and changes among the employees. To survive and succeed, leaders should have some necessary attributes. Meanwhile, some changes for leadership skills have to be made to confront the challenges.
Identify factors that will influence your choice of leadership styles or behaviours in your workplace.
With that in mind, leadership theory has identified four management styles--authoritarian, democratic, participatory, and laissez-faire. There is inherently nothing wrong with any of them; all have their place at any given time. But it's the communication aspect that is important when implementing any given method of leadership that makes an organization rise or fall, and determines if respect is retained or lost within the group. Stated another way, the problem does not lie in the styles themselves, but rather in the presentation.
Other forms of leadership styles that are known to exist derive from the Leadership Style Inventory (LSI) developed by Rowe, Reardon, and Bennis (1995). The inventory identifies four basic styles; commanding, logical, inspirational and supportive. The differences in style used by leaders are based on the following two questions: How adaptive are leaders when dealing with the issues they face? How do leaders communicate with, persuade, and energize employees in the process of change?
The adult learner finds that if a company has good leadership that has the experience and leadership skills and knowledge it can make a difference in how the management makes decision for the company. The student agrees with Peter
The styles today are less authoritative and more on trying to get feedback from co-workers. This change is driven by today’s individuals that want to be treated with respect and empowered to be self-driven. Today’s business environment requires managers to constantly evaluate his or her leadership style to maintain the so called competitive edge. Leadership moves through many power roles and how power vs. soft power that relates to managers as they manage people. The types of leaders are described with characteristics, as it relates to each individual. The characteristics styles that leaders show
Each of these leadership styles has its own benefits (advantages) & disadvantages and they are as follows:
At the same time the person will need to continuously keep the company in the eyes of the many prospective clients all the while being able to keep up with the ever changing technologies in the industry.
In terms of leadership styles a wide variety exists for one to employ (Boykins, 2013). There isn’t firm consensus as to which styles prove to be the most effective. Different situations call for different approaches. In the article, Empirical Study of Leadership Styles, it discusses several leadership styles that I can relate to.
During the course of my career and personal study of leadership practice, I have had the good fortune of becoming acquainted with a number of leaders whom I admire. When considering a choice for this paper number strong leaders from a wide range of backgrounds came to mind. I considered Alan Mulally, former CEO of Ford Motor Company, Milton Hershey founder of The Hershey Chocolate Company, Jack Welsh former Chairman and CEO of General Electric, and Lee Iacocca former CEO of Chrysler. All of these leaders are well known and would make excellent candidates for a leadership profile. Instead, I chose John Hand former operations executive of Georgia Pacific Corporation.
Leadership styles and approaches vary from situation to situation, including the personality, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the leader and the followers. Employees teach the leader how to lead them. Their competence, ability, and willingness to complete a task are indicators, which assist the direction of leadership the leader takes. Keeping all of this in mind, we will describe and analyze the Situational and Style leadership approaches.
An effective leader influences their employees in a desired manner to achieve goals and objectives. Different leadership styles can affect an organization’s effectiveness and performance. The objective of this paper is to analyze the review of literature on various leadership styles over the past years and how effective and ineffective different leadership styles are in the workplace.