BTEC Level 4 Evaluation of significant Leadership Theories

The very first leadership theory being discussed is “Stogdill Trait theory of leadership”. The trait model of leadership is based on the characteristics of both successful and unsuccessful leaders and is being adopted in order to predict the effectiveness of leadership. The resultant traits are then compared with the traits of the potential leaders so as to evaluate their likelihood of success and failure (Gill, 2011). The core traits identified in trait theory are achievement drive, honesty and integrity, leadership motivation, cognitive ability, emotional ability etc. The major strength of this theory is that it is a pleasing theory and serves as yardstick against the leadership traits. However, the trait theory is quite complex and leader centric i.e. it focuses only towards leaders and not the followers.  

The next theory is “Robert House path goals theory”. The path goal theory is based on the principle that the expectancies of the employee amid his performance and effort are greatly influenced by the behavior of leaders. It is the leader who provides support to his group members in attaining the rewards by clarifying the path to goals and helps in removing the obstacles while performing (Voon and et.al., 2011). According to Robert House, the effectiveness of the leader is dependent on the employee and environmental contingent factors and leadership style. The four leadership style being described by house is directive, supportive, participative and achievement oriented. The major advantage of this theory is that it is a practical model i.e. it helps in identifying and underscoring important ways the leaders can help their people. However, this theory fails to explain the relationship amid the behavior of leaders and motivation of employees.

The final theory to be discussed is “Max Weber’s transactional theory”. This style is generally being adopted by the managers, as it emphasize on basic management process of controlling, directing, organizing and short term planning. It involves motivating and directing the employees through their own self-interest. Here, the main objective of the follower is to follow the instructions of the leaders. Further, the leaders are of the belief that employee can be motivated through rewards and punishments. If employee fulfills the desired goals, he will be rewarded and if he fails to accomplish than he will be punished (Bogler, 2001). Thus, this theory is based on the assumption that the employee are not self-motivate rather they needs to be monitored and controlled in order to get the work done. However, the major implication of this theory is that the leaders focus more towards short-term goals and standard rules and regulations. They do not make efforts towards enhancing the employee’s creativity and development of new ideas. This type of theory can work efficiently in those organizations, where problems and issues are simple as well as clearly defined. 

TESCO, a popular name among the retail grocery is in the top 10 retail grocery in UK. It was first business of UK that has made the £2 billion in profits in the early year of 2005. Over many years, the retail grocery sector represents the largest industry in UK that offers employment opportunities to million in UK (Annual Report, 2008).  Pertaining to this, the leaders of the Tesco faces numerous challenges and issues in managing these people. In the current essay many theories have been evaluated, however for Tesco, trait theory is best suited. As per the theory, the leaders of the company needs to exhibit certain qualities and features so as to effectively exercise their leadership functions and these are:

• Command – As the demand of the situation, the leader of the firm should devise a course of action quickly
• Group influence – A leader should be able to create willingness among the employees to achieve the desired goals and objectives (Hamlin, 2002)
• Judgment – In order to have efficiency and effectiveness, the leader should possess an ability to arrange the available resources as well as information in a systematic manner.
• Coolness – It is important for the leader to remain composed under trying and testing conditions.

In order to remain competitive in this competitive and complex business environment, the leaders are required to adopt certain strategies and practices in order to tap the full potential of the human resource. The people of Tesco can become an important source of competitive advantage and this can be achieved by trait theory of leadership. The trait theory can be applied at all the levels of TESCO. According to John Adair, the information from the theory can be used by the managers or leaders to assess their position in the company as well as the ways through which it can be made stronger in the firm (Grint, 2000).

In the current essay the information and data in regards with the various theories and models of leadership is being collected by adopting secondary research methods. Concerning to thus, various journals, books, articles and research papers have been explored in order to gather information about the leadership theories and models (Daniel and Sam, 2011). However, there are some limitations of the secondary research on this essay such as secondary data being adopted can be general and vague and it cannot be used by the firm in order to take decisions. Secondly, the data may be old and out dated. Thus, to conclude it can be said that leaders are not made they are born leaders. A true leader comes up with own notions and skills. The leaders learn from their past experiences and examples.   

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REFERENCES

• Amanchukwu, R.N., Stanley, G.J. and Ololube, N.P., 2015. A Review of Leadership Theories, Principles and Styles and Their Relevance to Educational Management. Management, 5(1), pp.6-14.
• Bogler, R., 2001. The influence of leadership style on teacher job satisfaction. Educational Administration Quarterly, 37(5), pp.662–683.
• Daniel, P.S and Sam, A.G., 2011. Research Methodology. Gyan Publishing House.
• Gill, R., 2011. Theory and practice of leadership. London: SAGE Publications.
• Grint, K., 2000. Literature Review on Leadership. Cabinet Office: Performance and Innovation Unit.
• Hamlin, R., 2002. Towards a Universalistic Model of Leadership: a comparative study of British and American empirically derived criteria of managerial and leadership effectiveness. University of Wolverhampton.
• Voon, M.C. and et.al., 2011. The influence of leadership styles on employeesŸ job satisfaction in public sector organizations in UK. International Journal of Business, Management and Social Sciences, 2(1), pp.24-32.

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