Comparison of the Leadership Style of OES and MPD - Example

Online Education Services (OES) and Metro Property Development (MPD) Student Name School Name Course Date Online Education Services (OES) and Metro Property Development (MPD) Companies listed in the top 100 fastest growing enterprises in Australia are a reflection of effective leadership and resource management. Achieving the growth of any business depends on various factors influenced by the leadership and the management of its available resources. The leadership determines the level of success considering it controls the allocation of these resources ranging from financial to human resource. The study below focuses on exploring the Business Review Weekly (BRW) magazine and the companies that featured among the top 100 for 2015. Among these, two top companies Online Education Services (OES) and Metro Property development (MPD) are examined further focusing on their leadership aspects and other factors vital in steering the company towards success. The leadership of each of these companies has played an instrumental role in leading them to their current position. 1. Comparison of the Leadership Style of OES and MPD The two companies have achieved their levels of ranking through development of high coordination between their teams and other resources all influenced by the leaders at the helm of the companies. A comparison between the leadership styles adopted by the two companies will reveal the role that leadership has played in their success. Solomon & Jacobs, (2003, p.9) asserts that there exist different definitions of leadership but each carries with it consistent focus on interaction between people, handling changes within an organizational setting and providing an exemplary conduct for others to follow. According to Northouse, (2010, p.5), leadership is defined based on traits and processes. As per traits, leadership involves a connection between the leader and the followers based on the height, intelligence, extraversion, fluency among other characters. Northouse defines leadership as an interaction process between a leader and followers. These two consistently indicate that leadership is more about interaction between the employees, changes and leading as an example. A blend of these three elements will determine the leadership style that one may choose to employ in an organization. There exist different leadership styles that range from the laissez-fair, autocratic, participative, transactional and transformational leadership styles (Johnson, n.d). Each of these styles varies and brings a different approach to people interaction, management of changes within the organizations and providing the exemplary aspect that all definitions of leadership carry. The laissez-fair style of leadership does not involve direct supervision of the followers. It employs those employees that prove highly skilled and experienced requiring limited supervision. The productivity of those employees that need supervision to perform is hampered when this style is adopted. It also leads to reduced production, increasing costs and the absence of control considering the limited supervision and management that the leaders provide. In the autocratic style of leadership, the managers make decisions without seeking inputs from the other employees. Managers in this leadership style carry all the decision making mandate. The managers possess all the authority to impose what they will to the employees without any form of challenge from the people they lead. The style is evident in North Korea and Cuba benefiting employees that work under close supervision. The style is discouraging for creative employees that want to actively take part in the decision-making process by contributing their thoughts. Transactional leadership on the other hand involves leaders providing tasks to employees with rewards for tasks well done and punishments for those team members that fail to deliver. The punishments and rewards are provided based on the performance resulting. Predetermined goals are developed before the start of the tasks with employees agreeing to the direction set before embarking on serving the roles. The managers review the progress of the employees at all levels during the task execution to provide corrections and training to employees that fail to deliver the required goals. Transformational leadership is one that depends on exceptional communication levels that management offers to the other employees. Through communication, the leadership motivates the employees hence enhancing productivity. Involvement of the management in decision making and leadership provides support considering they organize and delegate the tasks to the members of the team. A participative leadership style on the other hand works through a democratic approach that allows the input of an entire team while leaving the final decision to the leader of the participative team. The form of leadership promotes employee participation and boosts their morale. It encourages innovation considering the employees feel part of the organization and their opinion on the developments matter. Dealing with changes in this kind of structure involves the participative leaders working hand in hand with the entire team to understand the changes and implement them in their work. The style has worked in many cases where short period or abrupt decisions need making. The leadership team at Online Educational Services (OES) consists of Denice Pitt the CEO, Matt Packer the General Manager, Kay Lipson their Director of Strategy, Mark Doughty the General Manager Finance, and Shanyn Payne the general manager handling human resources. Teresa Smith the serves as the General Manager of the sales and marketing team, while Sue Kokonis serves as the Academic Director. Each of these leaders heads a group of other workers they engage with in serving the company. These indicate to the adoption of the transformational and participative leadership styles. On the other hand, Metro Property Development (MPD) has also ranked among the top companies on the BRW list. The leadership of MPD includes Mr. Luke Hartman that Managing Director also the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. David H. T. Devine the Executive Chairman, Mr. Ken Woodley Marketing Director and Mr. Peter Hobbs the General Manager in charge of Sales and Marketing (Metro Property Development Pty Ltd, n.d). The company also employs a participative kind of leadership with the transformation approach slightly included. These explain that the two companies OES and MPD use the same style of leadership through which they have managed to generate excellent performance that has had them ranked among the top 100 companies first and second respectively on the BRW. The leadership styles of the two companies have also focused on taking their businesses online to boost marketing and sales. Online education services has focused more on running online compared to MPD considering its business structure. The leadership of the OES has Denice Pitt as their leader that has experience and a commitment to enhance innovation in online education. The experience that the CEO has plays a significant role in managing the other 170 employees and ensuring they continuously contribute to innovation of the products. On the other hand, the leadership of MPD has a history in the real estate property market through which they have gained the ability to understand the market and manage their 142 employees to meet the set objectives. 2. Responsibility of Leadership in Growth of the Companies The leadership of the two companies has contributed massively to their growth. Identifying the extent to which leadership is vital to the growth of the two companies reveals the effective nature of the management in producing the growth prospects. According to Ingram, (n.d.), the effectiveness of the leadership lies in its ability to make all the other elements coordinate. The leaders need to coordinate all factors of production working as a catalyst to ensure these factors yield productivity and profits for the business. The leadership ensures all the resources available to the company interact positively for positive outcomes. They manage the subordinates, ensure they remain up to date with changes in their business areas and employ the most effective method to maximize effectiveness. According to Gandz, (2005, par 4), there are factors that determine the extent to which the leadership of any business contributes to its growth. These include: An understanding and interpretation of the business environment The success of any business leader rests in them understanding their business environment and interpreting it well to meet all the needs of their customers. Failure to understand the business environment results in mistakes and poor services that affect customer satisfaction leading to poor performance. The selection of Denice Pitt and Luke Hartman as the leaders of OES and MPD respectively was influenced by their experience in the online education services and real estate property management respectively. It aimed at ensuring a leadership that understands their business environment well. Development of winning strategies The role of any leadership is to ensure results are obtained. Achieving these requires the development of strategies that coordinate the team and other resources. The leadership of both OES and MPD has developed strategies including online business strategies among others aimed at ensuring customer value. The execution of these plans needs to prove brilliant and timely to yield higher results. Having good plans executed poorly may influence the growth of the company in the negative direction rather than the positive. The success of OES and MPD indicate that the execution of the plans made by the leadership was effective. Monitoring and measuring of impact created The leadership also provides monitoring roles that ensure the employees execute their roles well in line with the plans. Any changes in the plans are realized during monitoring. These changes are handled strategically with the guidance of the leadership. Enhancing the capabilities of the organization and the teams The leadership also proves responsible if it can improve the capabilities of the organization and the teams. 3. Other Factors beyond Leadership The growth of the two companies also depends on other factors beyond leadership. These divided into internal and external environmental factors played a significant role in leading to the growth of the companies. The internal factors cover those within the enterprise while the external factors cover those in the external environment within which the company operates. Internal Factors Highly qualified human resource The leadership did not work alone in influencing the growth of the two companies OES and MPD, but the highly skilled human resource that works under them played a significant role. Having a highly qualified team of employees with sufficient skills to serve their functions in the company influences positive growth. Under the leadership style adopted by the two companies, the participation of all the members of the team is critical to ensuring achievement of the goals and objectives of the enterprise. It is through the coordination of the employees and the leadership that the growth of the company is registered (Picot, 2015, p.34). The skills and expertise variety that each of these employees brings to the companies contributes to service delivery and product development. Availability of resources According to Hindelang & Hedrich, (2014, p.7), the growth of a company is propelled by three reasons that include the expansion in the market, reduction of operation costs and securing resources that facilitate operations. In expanding the market, the company aims at growing to cover a larger market than initially covered. Reduction of the costs of operations influences the increased profitability of the business. The success of the two depends on the availability of resources that support the operations of the firm hence expansion. It focuses on not only the human resource but also the financial resources. The ability of the two companies to mobilize other resources besides the human resource has contributed to their level of success and growth. Online focus OES is online oriented in its nature of business. MPD on the other hand has created an online presence by developing a website through which its customers can access information on the company, its products and services while also facilitating communication (Metro, n.d.). According to Canwell & Sutherland, (2005, p.265), the internet has currently reached its full maturity making it a medium that many people are choosing to explore in feeding their business needs. OES and MPD have explored this medium effectively leading to their registered growth. External Factors The external factors may take the form of PESTEL that includes political, environmental, socio-cultural, technology related, economic and legal factors (Dransfield, 2001, p.20). Each of these contributes to the growth of the company considering the companies have no control over them. A favorable political environment promotes the growth of the enterprise. The government of Australia has worked hard in ensuring it maintains a favorable political environment that fosters the growth of businesses. An environment of political instability affects the growth of businesses and would have negatively affected the growth of OES and MPD. Environmental factors also influence the growth of the companies mainly MPD that depends on physical business more than online. Socio-cultural factors According to May, (2010, p.21), the socio-cultural trends indicate to societal changes that have seen the changes in attitudes, cultural values and behavior of consumers of different products. These have slowly embraced the Internet as a marketplace and continued to support its growth by actively participating in internet activities. Online reading has increased due to greater availability of the internet and accessibility. These have contributed to the growth of OES. The increasing number of internet users has created a marketing option for companies. It has influenced the development of websites as tools through which marketing has proven easy influencing the growth of MPD. Innovation and Technology The focus of the two companies is also on high levels of innovation that the leadership has encouraged over the years. A high level of innovation is possible if the company employs highly skilled employees that are creative. OES and MPD have depended on innovation and adoption of technology in their business models to facilitate their growth and command of business in their respective fields. These and the other internal factors are central in the rankings achieved as per BRW with growth of over 371.5% and 383.5% for MPD and OES respectively. The economic and legal factors have collectively supported growth of the two companies in Australia. The economic growth of the country backed by a growing population and GDP has facilitated growth of businesses. The favorable legal environment developed on policies and legislative aspects that favor businesses have positively improved the growth of OES and MPD. 4. Empirical Limitations of Proving Leadership Influencing on Market Performance Nature of business The nature of business especially for OES makes it difficult to prove the influence of leadership on the market performance of the company. The dependence of the business on online services easily registers as the main reason for its growth considering the growth of the internet usage. The reliance of MPD on online business too may easily indicate this as the reason for its market performance. Highly Skilled Employees The presence of highly skilled employees in an organization does not warrant successful market performance amidst poor leadership. The application of an autocratic leadership style may discourage these innovative traits in employees considering it does not give them room to participate actively hence poor market performance. The leaders of both OES and MPD provided the requisite leadership to the skilled employees hence positively contributing to market performance. Availability of Financial Resources One may easily confuse that the presence of the financial resources massively drives market performance. The capital element of a business is among the factors of production that a business depends on to fund its operations. It is the role of the leaders to ensure coordination between all factors of production to yield positive results as indicated by Ingram, (n.d). If the leadership does not effectively control the production factors, the results in market performance may not prove desirable. Conclusion The effect of leadership on any company is evident through the performance registered. The growth level of the two companies OES and MPD indicates to an effective leadership that has provided effective interaction with the employees, managed the changes occurring in the environment while also proving exemplary. The leadership of the two companies has employed a mix of transformational and participative leadership that has led to the increased innovation and production of the teams working under them. These have hired highly qualified personnel andthem; positively mobilized the resources availed to them to yield growth for the companies. They have focused on building their online presence to feed the growing demand of customers to have product provided on the internet. The provision of reading materials online has gained from the growth of internet users to improve its performance leading to positive growth. These also mark other aspects that may have contributed to growth besides leadership. On the contrary, the human resources that work under a leadership control all these other aspects. Their skills and experiences controlled thorough a sound leadership contribute to growth. The results in growth are, therefore, a result of the leadership of the companies. List of References Canwell, D., & Sutherland, J. 2005. BTEC First Business. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes. Dransfield, R. 2001. Corporate strategy. Oxford: Heinemann. Gandz, J. 2005. The Leadership Role. Ivey Business Journal. Viewed from http://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/the-leadership-role/ Hindelang, S., & Hedrich, D. 2014. The Growth market China: How European companies manage the delegation of power. Hamburg: Anchor Academic Publishing. Ingram, D. n.d. The Importance of Leadership in Business. Retrieved September 27, 2016, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-leadership-business-3117.html Johnson, R. n.d. 5 Different Types of Leadership Styles. Retrieved September 27, 2016, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-different-types-leadership-styles-17584.html May, G. L. 2010. Strategic Planning: Fundamentals for Small Business. Business Expert Press. Metro Property Development Pty Ltd. n.d. Private Company Information. Retrieved September 27, 2016, from http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapid=128677641 Metro, n.d. Home Metro. Retrieved September 27, 2016, from http://metroprop.com.au/ Northouse, P. G. 2010. Leadership: theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Online Education Services, n.d. Leadership Team. Viewed from http://www.oes.edu.au/about-us/leadership-team Picot, A. 2015. The internationalization of German software-based companies: sustainable growth strategies for small and medium-sized companies. New York: Springer. Solomon, A., & Jacobs, K. 2003. Management skills for the occupational therapy assistant. Thorofare, NJ: Slack. Read More