Leadership skills
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Leadership skills in British petroleum
Introduction
Leadership is the ability
to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals.
Sometimes influence that arises outside the formal structure of the
organization may often as important as or more important than formal influence
within the organization. Organization needs strong leadership and strong
management for optima effectiveness and attaining competitive advantage. Knowing
what makes a good leader should thus be valuable in improving organizational
performance. Effective leadership behaviors can facilitate the improvement of
performance when organizations face these new challenges (McGrath and
MacMillan, 2000; Teece, Pisano and Shuen, 1997).Organizational performance
refers to ability of an organization to gain such objectives as high profit,
large market share, good financial results (Koontz and Donnell, 1993).
Consequently, leadership skills is a reflection of productivity of members of an organization
measured in terms of revenue, profit, growth, development and expansion of the
organization.
British Petroleum, a
British multinational company established in 1908, is the one of the world’s
leading international oil and gas companies. It’s headquarter is located in
London, England and running operations in almost 80 countries of the world. British
Petroleum finds, develops and produces essential sources of energy and turns
into products that people need. British Petroleum provides fuel for
transportation, energy, lubricants and petrochemicals to its customers. British
Petroleum’s management and leadership practices are fascinating but some recent
incidents have challenged its leadership skill which is a concern to the
company now.
Leadership definition
Rationale of the Study
Leader is a person who lead a group or set of people to achieve certain objective. He can be a political leader who pursuing passionate for personal cause an explorer, who cut a path through the jungle for the rest of his group to follow or an executive, who develop his company's strategy to beat the competition. the tasks accomplished by a leader is known as leadership.
According to Professor Warren G. Bennis "Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right."
Rationale of the Study
The research issue is assessing
importance of leadership skills and its impact on organization’s overall competitive
advantage. This research will analyze leadership styles and qualities of
British Petroleum and its importance in getting competitive advantage. Finding out the inefficiencies in the leadership functions
of British Petroleum is crucial for making it objectives more viable. Most
of the internationally operated companies often seen failed due to having lack
in the proper management system
(Emery, 2012). Since
British Petroleum is concerned of its competitive environment, there might be
sufficient competition in the main markets of British Petroleum although world
energy markets are unaffected by government policies and changes. This research
issue is also itself a vital issue for many organizations in getting competitive
advantage.This research issue will provide effective findings along with recommendation
that is important for British Petroleum. Moreover, to find out the
inefficiencies of management and leadership practice will also be paid more attention (Koontz and Donnell, 1993). To make the research more successful, it will evaluate
the competition level in the market and appropriate strategies to overcome the
competition through leadership practices and its importance and contribution in
attaining competitive advantage.
Research Aim and Objectives
The aim of the
study is to analyses the British Petroleum’s leadership practice and
contribution in achieving competitive advantage.
The objectives of
the study are:
·
To
understand the present leadership skills traits of British Petroleum.
·
To
analyse the leadership’s effectiveness of British Petroleum and impact.
·
To
evaluate challenges for British Petroleum in leadership traits to gain
competitive advantage.
·
To
recommend strategies to be successful in effective leadership practice.
Leadership skills in British petroleum
Research Questions
The research
questions of the study are:
·
What
are the leadership practices are using by British Petroleum now?
·
How
does leadership play role in achieving competitive advantage?
· How leadership skills practices of British Petroleum are effective for achieving
competitive advantage?
·
How
leadership styles and qualities of British Petroleum are increasing competitive
advantage?
·
How
leadership may be considered in a way that result maximum competitive advantage
for British Petroleum?
Literature Review
What is Leadership
Leadership is a dynamic process where clear, concise
communication and direction influence subordinates to follow. Leadership
performs the asking of motivation and controlling employees and leads them to
the planned way where success is ensured. Since Leadership is the backbone of
an organization, it is leadership which make a company successful in the
market. Leaders can positively inspire organizational creativeness and
invention. Strong leadership can also give the competitive advantage in the
market which will be helpful to increase the market share of the organization. Competitive
advantage means the fact that organization has the capacity to achieve market
share when they consider it possible
(Koontz and Donnell, 1993).
leadership skills and competitive advantage are two different
variables though leadership implements the tracks for the team of an
organization to achieve competitive advantages. Leadership always has influence
on attaining competitive advantage of an organization. In British Petroleum
some leaders are well served; others are poorly served; and still others are
not served at all. In addition, it is missing an important opportunity, to
develop a common understanding of what a leader meant to be in British
Petroleum. Strategic leadership trait can make British Petroleum more
competitive company.
Leadership styles
Leadership styles refers to how a leader interact with his subordinate. it may be in the form of servant owner interaction or in the form off partner to partner interaction. Strategic
leadership refers to the ability to learn and to change at the mean time
managerial wisdom where top executive bodies make decisions in the short term
that guarantees the long run viability of an organization. This leadership involves
the ability to make strategic vision and motivation in others for accepting it.
Leaders of British Petroleum need to have the ability to think strategically
and to be emotionally intelligent and to be capable of combine a range of
behaviours and wisdom for the right time (Amphora, 2010). At the incident of oil spill at Mexican gulf, lack
of strategic leadership role was noticed. Later on this incident put question
to the leadership of British Petroleum. The company should be more focused on
strategic leadership to avoid such incident in future.
Participative and
Democratic leadership traits also need to be developed for supporting inclusive
direction for attaining competitive advantage. Charismatic leadership as
optimistic force which produces required consequences. Though there is
particular undesirability on charismatic leadership, charismatic leadership
encourages subordinates to contribute additional production when that is
predictable from them in getting comparative advantage.
Leadership skills in British petroleum
Types of leadership
- Autocratic Leadership
- Democratic Leadership
- Strategic Leadership Style
- Transformational Leadership
- Team Leadership
- Cross-Cultural Leadership
- Facilitative Leadership
- Laissez-faire Leadership
- Transactional Leadership
- Coaching Leadership
- Charismatic Leadership
- Visionary Leadership
Leadership Framework
The Leadership
Framework sets out the standard for leadership which is also a concept that
leadership is not restricted to people who hold designated leadership roles
where there is a shared responsibility for the success of the organisation. To be
market leader it is very much important to have competitive advantages. The better
performance and excellence in the production directly produce competitive
advantages. Competitive advantage is the primary source for potential
competition in the market and it also provides the clear understanding on
leadership which will play the main role for successful in the market.
British Petroleum
can develop a framework by developing competence in the team and by energizing
people. Collaborative leadership program as a competency can play an effective
role in the framework as well (Koontz and
Donnell, 1993). Sustain
performance, effective succession planning and distributed leadership at all
levels are considered to be helpful while developing leadership framework. Clear
direction setting and considering tough decisions will also lead to safe,
reliable and efficient operations and continuous improvement in order to
achieve competitive advantage.
Ethics and Leadership
Ethical implications
in leadership are considerable issue when achieving competitive advantage as
ethics and leadership intersect at many points. Leaders who follow ethical
conducts and lead ethically are the role models inside and outside of an
organization. Ethical leaders use socially constructive directions to serve
others (Emery, 2012). Leaders considering their
subordinates with fairness, honesty, with frequent and accurate information are
found more effective. Leaders of British Petroleum should set high ethical
standards and demonstrate them through their behaviour and wisdom. By avoiding
misuses of power and encouraging integrity in others, leaders of British
Petroleum may turn more effective. Ethical managers must develop trusting
relationships with subordinates because, as organizations have become less
stable and predictable, strong bonds of trust are replacing bureaucratic rules
in defining expectations and relationships. So, ethical leadership may fetch
profitability through its people and growth to the British Petroleum as well as
more competitive advantage.
Leadership Challenges
Leadership
is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something
extraordinary happen (Alan, 2007). Real leadership is defined by how one responds when an unexpected crisis
arises although many can response well in stable one. Yet, no leader can
predict any unexpected situation, but an effective leader who knows what to do
in the right time, expects the unexpected and deploy a plan to deal with it.
Diverse workforce and few numbers of leaders in R&D, marketing, human
resources and so on has become a challenge to the leadership of British
Petroleum. Turnover rate, safety, costs, quality, social responsiveness,
environmental performance and innovation are also the emerging challenges to
the company.
Few leadership development
programs are also a barrier to effective leadership and competitive advantage.
Redefining leadership and understanding the profitability may help British
Petroleum to overcome these challenges. Strategic leadership and potential
leadership framework may fetch solution to these challenges.
The conceptual
framework of the study is designed through the objectives of the study;
rationale of the study is British Petroleum’s effective leadership practice
where processes need to improve for getting more competitive advantage in which
it is backward right now. So, organizational
growth and development through effective leadership practice is present target
of British Petroleum to increase competitive advantage. Strategic leadership,
training program for leaders, measuring effectiveness and with the combination
of ethics can improve the leadership skills into the company, thus more
efficiency in managing organizational activities and more productivity, better
performance will show up which will lead to more comparative advantage. The
conceptual framework develops from the idea gathering of literatures that
provide prior idea about the background of the study to develop analytical
conceptual framework of the study
(Emery, 2012).
Research
philosophy is important for choosing the research conducting process that can
provide vital idea about primary data collection and analysis that represent
the real business context for an organization (Alan, 2007. The researcher can use positivism research
philosophy for analysing impotence of leadership practice of British Petroleum
in increasing competitive advantage.
Deductive research
approach is important for competitive advantage based on effective leadership
research works because the concepts are developed earlier where need to impose
present market situation. Deductive research approach helps to find out the
effective and appropriate process of leadership practice that will ensure
competitive advantage.
3.3 Type of Investigation
Exploration type
of investigation has been used to analyse the leadership’s effectiveness for
achieving competitive advantage of British Petroleum.
Multiple
strategies have been applied for analysing critical situation of effective
leadership practice of British Petroleum to contribute in achieving competitive
advantage (Raab, 2008). The possible research strategies may represent
survey research strategy, as case study for analysing the real context of
leadership practice of British Petroleum.
Data collection
techniques are important for representing manufacturer to customer based
information where leadership practice of British Petroleum based issues can analyse
for representing the research finding
(Barney and Hesterly, 2006). The possible data collection techniques are representing below:
Primary data
collection technique is important for representing real nature of practical
view of target research problem where many options are available for researcher
to collect primary data (Malhotra, 2010). The researcher use questionnaire survey and
interview survey for collecting primary data to represent the critical view of
British Petroleum’s leadership practice that ensure competitive advantage.
Secondary data
collection represents to find effective information from previous researchers’
research finding that can help to develop the background of the research work
to represent prospective leadership practice of British Petroleum. Secondary
data is collected from books, journals, website documents, British Petroleum
Company’s publications for develop conceptual framework of the study.
Sampling technique
is important for collecting primary data that can shape the data collection
process for maintaining time frame of research and to finish the research work
within proper budget. The researcher may use convenient sampling process for
collecting questionnaire primary data from the customers of British Petroleum.
This sampling technique represents the non-probability sampling procedure that
can help to represent all the customers of British Petroleum.
Leadership skills in British petroleum
Data analysing
part is most important where effective leadership, measuring its impact and
effectiveness, critical analysis may represent through vital opinion of British
Petroleum customers and employees. Data analysis part is important where
statistical analysis through graphs and charts, SPSS sue representation through
MS Excel operations are used
(Barney and Hesterly, 2006).
Ethical issues are
most important factor of scientific research where the researcher remains
active for following the rules and regulations of research conducting. Ethical
issues are essential for establishing safety for both the researcher and the
respondents of primary data collection.
The ethical issue
also provides full credit of previous researchers’ research findings by
providing proper in-text citation and full reference list those are used for
developing the background and literature part of the study (Raab, 2008). To the readers, ethical issue is most considerable
view for accepting the research finding and the researcher have to be careful
for maintaining research ethics properly.
Accessibility Issues
The researcher can
access secondary literature from previous researchers written books, journals
from library support and to collect first hand data (Malhotra, 2010). When the researcher collect data, then the
researcher can access leadership practice and completive advantage of British
Petroleum.
The limitations of
the study can assume because the research work is not conducted and that
requires representing research limitations from possible challenges of
conducting research work from the thinking of the researcher. The researcher
thinks time limitation will be most important limitation of the study. Then
difficulties to collect primary data from British Petroleum customers and
employees can be limitation because it is too difficult to collect primary data
which is challenging task as well.
Timetable
Research work will take 16 weeks to be completed. Research topic will take 1st week as well as aim and objectives will be clearly shown within 2nd week and after that ethical endorsement will be running up to 15th week staring from 2nd week. There should be a valid strategy and methods to conduct the research which will be fixed within 4th to 7th week. Data collection is a lengthy process to conduct this research; more or less it will take ten weeks. After collecting primary and secondary data analysis and findings have critical role in this research which will be done with 13th week as discussion, argument are need to done by 15th week. Binding and final submission will take 16th week and other tasks are shown in the Gantt chart which will show a clear view of timeline. The researcher is confident about completing the research within this timeline.
Research work will take 16 weeks to be completed. Research topic will take 1st week as well as aim and objectives will be clearly shown within 2nd week and after that ethical endorsement will be running up to 15th week staring from 2nd week. There should be a valid strategy and methods to conduct the research which will be fixed within 4th to 7th week. Data collection is a lengthy process to conduct this research; more or less it will take ten weeks. After collecting primary and secondary data analysis and findings have critical role in this research which will be done with 13th week as discussion, argument are need to done by 15th week. Binding and final submission will take 16th week and other tasks are shown in the Gantt chart which will show a clear view of timeline. The researcher is confident about completing the research within this timeline.
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