MGT808 Responsible Leadership: Report Assessment 1 Answer

Answer :

RESPONSIBLE LEADERSHIP

Executive summary

The purpose of the current study is to focus on the effectiveness of a responsible leader in managing the organisational activities. Responsible leadership is crucial for performing all the responsibilities successfully for a concerned firm. In the current study discussion has been made on the trait, skills and task of a responsible leader with special reference to Tim Cook. The study also aims to focus on the responsibility of a leader to manage the culture and the relationship for the organisation. Further improvement processes that can be adopted by a leader to become more successful also have been discussed in the study.

1.0 Introduction

Effective leadership is crucial for managing the business activities of an organisation. There are several traits needed by managers to become a successful and responsible leader. These include strong communication skills, acceptance of responsibilities, emotional intelligence and controlling the team members. On the other hand, motivating the employees with positive behaviour is also important for the leaders to achieve a better performance by the team members. Apart from this, there are a number of responsibilities that are provided with leadership tasks for managing the relationship with the stakeholder. 

2.0 Research Overview 

The present research aims to evaluate the effective skills, qualities and traits of the leaders and the role they play in maintaining the relation between the organisation and stakeholders with special reference to Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple. Furthermore, the research explores the organisational culture which forms as the result of the responsible leadership.   

The research is carried out based on the secondary gathered from the articles, books and websites to assess the different aspects of responsible leadership.  

3.0 Analysis of Research 

3.1 A responsible leader shows confidence and emotional stability along with motivational and creativity skill    

3.1.1 Traits 

As commented by Voegtlin et al. (2019) capable organisational leaders should be eager for accepting the leadership responsibilities by undertaking risks and guiding the employees towards attaining the objectives. For instance, Tim Cook was a significant risk taker and he believed that risks can sometime result in failure. However, undertaking responsibility has helped in development of brilliant and innovative ideas. For instance, the support of Cook has helped Phillip W. Schiller, the vice president of the company has successfully turned the image and the sales of the company (Morello, 2019).     

Figure 1: Most important traits of a responsible leader

(Source: Voegtlin et al. 2019) 

Confidence: Confident and self-assured leaders are able to clearly convey what they know and take up the challenges (Voegtlin et al. 2019). For instance, Apple has encountered worries owing to negative performance of the company but the confidence of the Cook coupled with the innovative culture of the organisation has helped Apple to be the highest revenue company in the world (Agence France-Presse, 2019).  For example, in the interview it has been evident that the leaders need to have effective confidence to deal with the challenges and lead the organisation towards sauces. 

Emotional stability: Leading an organization for the leaders can be considered as a stressful affair. As mentioned by Özbağ (2016), the leaders must be provided with the psychological maturity to adjust them with every up and fall of the organization. For instance, when Cook took over the company, the position of Apple was not effective but under his expertise, the company rose significantly as he was able to handle the pressure and create an innovation culture that motivated the employees to perform their best (Weinberger, 2016). Consequently, in the interview, it was found that leaders need to deal with pressure and yet lead the employees towards fulfilling the objectives.  

3.1.2 Skills 

Motivation: As commented by Hu & Judge (2017), motivating the employees is necessary for achieving a greater performance from the employees. Motivation enhances positivity which is key to an energetic organizational workforce. In this regard, Roßnagel (2017) commented that leadership intervention enhances the motivation of the employees. Considering the goal setting aspect, feedback is essential to enable the employees to understand their changes. Thus, a leader is responsible for systematic goal setting as well as provides feedback which can act as motivation for the staffs. For example, Tim Cook has designed a new strategy in which he asks questions to the staffs to understand their problem and set goal accordingly. Furthermore, Tim Cook also rewards its employees with week. As is evident in the interview, the responsible leaders reward the staffs for motivating them towards their job (Eadicicco, 2019).        

Creativity: A creative leader is capable of making the business process unique for an organization. This is helpful to discover their own way to run the business process and to guide the employees towards the right performance track (Hyypiä & Parjanen, 2013). In the interview, it has been evident that creativity is important skills of responsible leader as it lead the organisation towards success. This can be tallied with Tim Cook leadership qualities as he consider that best ideas comes from feedback. Thus, Tim Cook has been able to develop an innovative culture through flexibility, diversity and openness of sharing ideas (Insights for Professionals, 2019).   

3.1.3 Tasks 

As mentioned by Nonet, Kassel &Meijs (2016), the most important task of the organizational leader is to guide the team members towards the successful organizational outcomes. In this regard, Tim Cook uses to increase the team collaboration by managing the conflict and relationship between the employees. Tim Cook focuses on thanking its employees professionally and personally as these influences to perform better. Tim Cook has relied on creating a flexible organisation that has helped the employees to share ideas (Mello, 2019). As commented by Vidyarthi, Anand & Liden (2014) the leaders use to arrange the training programs to increase the team performance to achieve a better performance from the team. In the interview, it has been evident that the leader responsible for guiding the employees and leading them towards success.   

The decision making for an organization is also dependent on the business leaders. The leaders use to analyze the business situation for choosing the most appropriate decision, which in turn helps the leaders to run the business towards planned objectives, management of the risks involved in the business process is also important task for the leaders. In this process Tim Cook uses to identify the risks factors that may negatively affect the business activities of the firm (Mello, 2019). As mentioned by Miska & Mendenhall (2018), after that, the leaders use to analyze the impact of these on the business activities to develop the risk register. 

3.2 Responsible leadership results in relationship management through effective communication    

Effective relationship management for an organization is solely dependent on the communication system of the firm. Strong communication skills can improve the relationship between the stakeholders like employees and customers. As opined by Mohelska & Sokolova(2017), responsible leader maintain transparency through effective communication as it helps in avoiding the conflict between the organizational stakeholders that can negatively affect the business reputation of the firm. This is also necessary for improving the team collaboration and team cooperation that in turns improves the employee relation for the company that has been evident from the communication management of Tim Cook. For instance, Tim Cook has enabled open communication with formal approach but having a downward aspect. When Cook, took over the company, the performance of Apple has declined. He effectively communicated with the employees and realised that they had limited freedom has they has to work on given guidelines and ideas of management. Tim Cook opens up the horizon of Apple and encouraged the employees to share ideas and communicate effectively which improved relation with the stakeholders. The result is evident in the improving performances of the company (Mello, 2019).   

Communication transparency and management of relationship by a responsible leader is not only restricted to employees but also to customers. As opined by Rupp et al. (2018), customer relationship management can be considered as the key factor for generating profit by an organization as this can increase the customer base. In the interview, it has been seen that the leaders plays a great role behind this customer relationship management process for an organization. For a customer-centric company like Apple, customer loyalty implies everything. As a result, Tim Cook has always considered the feedback of the customer and this has been possible by maintaining transparency and improving the communication methods with the customers. The opinions of the customers have helped the company to further improve their innovation (Gallo, 2020).      

3.3 Innovative and people culture exists as a result of Responsible leadership  

The responsible business leaders use to cultivate the foundation of organization culture that empowers the employees for achieving the company goal. The organizational culture importantly affects the business reputation and business image of an organization. In this regards, the leaders use people culture to improve the business reputation in the competitive market as it enhances the performances of the employees. For example, Tim Cook has focused on sharing ideas and giving feedback that has acted as significant tool for motivation of the employees (Eadicicco, 2019). For instance, in the interview, the consideration of the employee’s perspective and high engagement improves the performances of the organisation. Properly treating the employees by the responsible leaders’ can help the firm to attract its customer base. As suggested by Bansal & Song (2017), this in turn can positively affect the profit margin of the firm. The experienced business leaders also use to clearly clarify the strategic priorities to the employees that help the employees to run towards the business objectives of the firm.   

The main objective of the responsible leaders is to enhance creativity and innovation thereby creating an innovative culture.  The leaders, such as Tim Cook also Drives a Thirst for Continuous Learning process that can improve the knowledge management process in the organization (Han, Wang & Yan, 2019). For instance, Tim Cook has focused on creating an environment that has helped in balancing work with fun. Thus, amidst the strict competition within the industry, the employees are effective in maintaining balance and this has further improved the creativity and innovation. The existence of its innovative culture is evident in the quality of its products like i-phone, i-watch and i-pads which has created significant differentiation in the market (Chatman et al. 2013).  

4.0 Conclusion

4.1 Traits and skills of Leaders 

A successful leader is confident to handle risk and guide teams as well as emotionally stabile for tolerating the greater deal of frustration and handle pressure.  

4.1 Relationship Management  

A responsible leader is capable of building a strong relationship between the managers and the employees as well as the customers of the firm. Leaders like Tim Cook have focused on maintaining communication transparency with the employees and customers for improving the organisational performances.  

4.2 Organisation Culture 

The organisational culture is dependent on the leadership activity and a responsible leader implements people and innovative cultures which are useful for motivating the employees and also to enhance the performance. Consequently, motivation skills of leadership enhance creativity of the employees as is evident in case of Tim Cook.   

5.0 Recommendation

• Continuous development of leadership skills:  In this process the leaders needs to be a lifetime learner that will help the leaders for becoming a successful leaders’ in future
• Strong communication skill: This helps the leaders to communicate with all the stakeholders for managing the communication channel of the firm
• Creativity: This is useful for the leaders for finding out a proper and creative solution for all the issues faced by the organization
• Increased dominance and team management: The leaders must need to be dominating for controlling the members of the team. However, they must need to maintain friendly behaviours with the employees for achieving a better performance from the employees.