Role & Responsibility of Leadership Theories And Its Styles - Whitbread PLC

These skills helps the leaders to perform their task in well manner or make them able to achieve their goals & objectives. This project report based on the Whitbread Plc which is UK based British multinational hotel & restaurant company. It is founded in 1742 by Samuel Whitbread and they serve many areas such as China, Dubai, Europe, India, Russia, UK and Ireland. This assessment cover various topics such as role & responsibility of leadership in the different styles and critically evaluate its strength as well as weakness of leadership theories & models in context of the organization. In addition, it include the critical analysis of Whitbread annual report of 2018 and compare & contrast the leadership style & approaches which can be followed by the CEO of Whitbread company.

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1. Leadership roles and responsibilities with respect to leadership styles and theories

The process of leadership involves motivating the group or individual to act and work accordingly so as to accomplish the common goal. This process directs, influence as well as decides the behaviour and ability of an executive to work efficiently and effectively in the provided situation and time (Mast and Latu, 2016). The quality of leadership enables the high authority employees and managers to induce the juniors and subordinate with positive thoughts and zeal. Such type of leaders are required in every organisation to develop and predict future goals and visions, and to motivate other employee in such a way that they collectively organise the work in the most profitable manner. The characteristic of leadership are discussed below.

• Influencing and guiding the workers to attain a specific aim requires such inter personal process and skills in the manger of an enterprise.
• The qualities and abilities like maturity, influencing personality and intelligence should be incorporated in ideal leader.
• Such process requires a group or at least two people communicating with each other on daily basis, thus the operation of leadership refers to a group process (Rathore, Chadha and Rana, 2017).
• The way of tacking provided situation and problems in most unique and creative way, is one of the characteristic of leadership and such type of qualities are present in the leaders of Whitbread Public Limited Company.

Roles of leadership

Leadership function being the most important part in motivating and providing guidance, the roles of leader play crucial role in fulfilling the needs and task, some roles are mentioned below.

• Mandatory at all level: Leadership is a process which is required at each and every level of management. At highest level, the function is required to get cooperation from subordinates for successful planning in making desirable policies and plans. At middle or lower stage, it is necessary for executing and actually implementing the plans and the policies which are formulated and framed by top level authorities.
• Representative of whole enterprise: The manager, that is the leader has been considered to be the actual representative of organisation. The role of leader is to present the concerns and ideas related to the future vision and present issues in seminars and meetings so as to pass along the rationale of the company to the outer public in order to enhance the reputation and funding for the organisation (Simms, 2016).
• Proper guide and philosopher: An ideal leader should posses traits which make the employee more comfortable in an environment. Such individual must be a friend, so that the workers can share their feelings, ideas and desires with them easily. The manager should be a philosopher, who can share their experience and knowledge with the existing associates to make them understand the way work is being done in given time framework. The person should be a guide, who supervise and interact with the working companion about the policies and plans of high level management authorities to achieve aims.

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Responsibilities of the leadership

The leaders in business have various number of responsibilities which may vary from training, guiding, hiring, mentoring in the associates. Common and specific responsibilities may range according to the scale and type of organisation. Some key responsibilities of leaders are discussed below.

• Encouragement: Strong leaders build such workplace temperament by boosting and encouraging the employee. Such purpose can be achieved by assisting them at the time of need professionally and help the workers in acquiring pre existing objectives and aims (D’Cruz and Noronha, 2017). The manager must provide clear feedbacks at the period of poor performance and evaluate the speed and quality of work being offered by the associates.
• Conflict management: One of the responsibility of leader is to resolve the disputes and conflicts which raise between workers and colleagues. The power comes with duties like to listen to the opinions and concerns of employee and analyse the situation by observing the issue minutely. They also solve the problems between customers and workers, ensuring smooth and effective servicing.
• Supervision: Another key responsibility of the manager is to supervise the functioning and working of the staff, such practice include categorising tasks, making plans, developing flow charts and presentations to clearly define the aspect of objective conferred. They help in getting access to the resources and necessary tools which are required to complete the pre defined content in provided time and confined workplace.

Such responsibilities and others like keeping associates in disciplined way and mentoring the staff by decently communication are present in the leaders of Whitbread plc.

Leadership styles

The leadership style defines as the method or approach by which the leaders provide path, guide people and take actions to implement plans are per the requirements. Different authors have derived various leadership styles of leaders in business and other field to demonstrate the way of working during difficult and challenging time (Kakar, 2017). Few leadership styles have been explained below.

• Autocratic leadership style: Such style has been considered as a powerful one dimensional style of leadership which provide immense power to the leaders. In this, all the important decisions regarding the project plans or objectives are made by the manager or boss without consulting with any middle or lower class staff members. The decisions made by them are then communicated to other associates and then they work according to the operating instructions provided. The leader in this type of style has the prime power in making decisions. It has been observed that high and developed organisation can not sustain on their own if they follow such type of style and tends to lose employee rate as well as sort the reputation of organisation down.
• Democratic leadership style: The democratic style of leadership is more cooperative in nature where the managers while making any critical and important decisions they always involve the subordinates. It has been observed that the enterprise that have experienced and intelligent staff members, such leadership style works well for them and leads in smooth functioning (Webster, 2016). The style ensure that the communication is flowing in all direction and all the members of organisation actively participate, which is determined as a key factor in any successful business. This type of style has been also called as participative leadership and demand leaders to be competent, skilled, innovative and considerate.
• Transformational leadership style: This style has been advised as the most convincing and desirable way, this style works in a manner to build high quality work culture through efficient and strong interaction within the team members. Moreover, it has been seen that building such type of environment demands a high level of strategic view and creative stimulation in respect to alter some features in an individual or in the organisation itself. The leadership requires to set high scale objectives with rigid and straight deadlines, work in collaborative way so as to execute and accomplish the aims and objective at the given period of time and resources provided. In this way, the expectations and demands which are set by the leaders are challenging and assist in achieving extraordinary and productive results in the provided set of rules and standards.
• Laissez - Faire leadership style: The actual meaning of this French word is 'let it be'. In this type of leadership, the designated mangers and boss allot the roles and responsibilities to the appropriate staff members according to their abilities and then let them perform their daily task on their own with least or no interruptions (Carter, 2018). Such style provide extreme scope for creativity and innovation as new and dedicated mind work on a common or specific goal. This style has been observed to best suited in the team who have experienced as well as self analysing individuals, who usually does not require high level of guidance and supervision and can stay motivated on their own. Such styles are more successful in start ups where no prior policies and guidelines are made and organisation initially focus on accomplishing aims without any type of deadlines. Such style, though have been proved to empower the team members, but it sometimes controls and limits the growth opportunities and development of the company.
• Democratic and transformational leadership style - This style may be implemented and monitored in Whitbread plc enterprise for smooth functioning and operation. Such style makes the employee work democratically and such style works in a mode to generate high and thriving work culture through efficacy and strong interaction within the associated staff members.

Leadership theories

Some of the theories of leadership that elaborates different aspects of the leaders which are involved in enhancing the style of leadership in the high level managers and authorities for proper and cost-effective working in the staff members of Whitbread Public Limited Company. Few theories of leadership have been detailed below. 

• Behavioural theory of leadership: This is one of the crucial theory of leadership as this focus on the behavioural of an individual. This theory is helpful for providing the framework to leaders in order to enhance their leadership style as well as skills. It has been identified that performance of employees is majorly dependent upon the behavioural of leader. It is essential of an leader to understand as well as identify or study about employees behaviour in order to motivate them and make them complete the task which are provided. Behavioural theory of leadership is classified into two major parts such as Ohio State University and University of Michigan (Charlier and et.al., 2016). The theory lays emphasis on collaboration and encourages the value of leadership styles. It supports collective decision making and developing a dedicated team to consider and support the desires and needs of the employees, by aligning and giving objectives of group depending upon the potentiality. It basically assist mangers in monitoring and analysing the behaviour style which affects the bond with the staff members and promotes participation towards the aims of enterprise.
• The trait theory: This type of leadership theory revolves around the fact that the each and every individual is born with certain types of traits and qualities, which later aids later in achieving and standing apart in the role of leadership. The qualities and skills such as innovation, intelligence, creativity, influencing personality, philosopher, confidence, charisma, honesty, energy, flexibility, tenacity, deep knowledge about the work, integrity and dignity which has the ability to make any person a good leader (King and et. al., 2019). Such theory mainly identifies the characteristics of behaviour which are ordinary and present in all leaders. This theory is one of the first leadership theory that tries to clarifies that why some of the people are good leaders while others are not. Under right situation, any person can with such successful qualities can be a leader, on the basis of the leadership style the personality type can be determined. 
• Transactional leadership theory: This theory is often used by the managers, and directs on organising, maintaining and planning the processes in management. The transactional theory consists of encouraging and directing the employees initially through certain and promising processes which involve self interest. Such power comes from the earlier working employees which were formal and has more responsibility in the organisation. It has been observed that the key role of the followers are to obey and conform the instructions of the leaders and short time planning is considered for attaining the goal in more clear and precise way. The process of motivating and encouraging the associates can be enhanced by providing suitable rewards at the time of achievement and must be punished at the time of wrong doings and criticism. Such type of theory provide clear and achievable goals at the time of short term planning. The effectiveness of the transactional theory increases at the time of production and lowering the cost, thereby ensuring cost-effective methods (Carnabuci, Emery and Brinberg, 2018). Such advantage is due to the fact that this theory involves the use of short term goals. This theory does not encourage creativity and innovativeness as it is rigid and can not bend according to the changing principles, such activity hampers the skills of the employees. The rigid structured policies make leaders harder to induce alteration in the existing aims and objectives.

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2. Critically analyse the annual report of Whitbread company and compare & contrast the leadership theory & style in organizational context

With the help of annual report of Whitbread, it has been critically evaluated that company performing well in the UK market. Whitbread Plc is the British multinational hospitality sector organization and its headquarter situated in Houghton Regis Bedfordshire, United Kingdom. This company currently division in Premier Inn that is largest UK based hotel brand and it has more than 785 hotels with 72,000 rooms. In 2019 it owned by the Costa Coffee and further it is sold to The Coca Cola Company. Whitbread include the chain of restaurant which includes Table Table, Brewers Fayre and Beefeater. It is listed in London Stock Exchange and constituted of the FTSE 100 index (Annual Report of Whitbread, 2018). Vision of Whitbread company is to provide best budget hotel in the world and provide best quality services to their guest in order to maximise the value of their money. Company follow the unique business model such as vertical integrated model that means they deliver the best services which enhance customer experience. Whitbread company invest in business for the purpose of high returns, profitable sites, innovation which provide the various growth opportunity (Rose and Gordon, 2015). They entered in the international market and their Premium Inn joint site model provide the high efficiency as well as returns. Premier Inn is the operational expansion of Whitbread company in the UK & German. After January they returned the money of £ 380 million to the shareholders through buyback programme. Around £ 190 millions if saving will be delivered to data from efficient program. It is the great opportunity for the shareholders to sell their shares and it return they get the £ 2 billion by using this method.

In order to focus on hotel business, sales of Costa provide the opportunity to the Whitbread expand their market share in the hotel industry. In February 2019, company announced that they have potential around 110,000 rooms in Premier Inn UK and 60,000 in Germany. It clearly mentioned that Premier Inn has well established business in UK where Germany is on the starting point. Company recently open their new hotel in Hamburg but the core strategy is to grow their business in the UK market. Revenue of the company in 2017-18 was £ 2007.4 Million which increases in the next year and reached at 2049.1 million. In 2018, operating profit of Whitbread company was £ 467.2 million which decreases and remain £ 294.1 million. Tax expenses also reduces and at the end net profit of the company for the year of 2019 was £ 3730.6 million and in 2018 it was £ 436.4 million. In the income statement, rental changes of the lease will be replaced with the depreciation of new assets and interest on lease liability. It will further impact the reporting measurements of the Whitbread which include the operational profit where pre interest as well as profit before tax increases and decrease the disproportionate the value of interest which is applied on the starting of lease. 

During the year, Whitbread delivered the robust financial performance because of continuous performance. Group revenue of the company is around £ 2049 million that is 2.1% and profit before tax increases by 1.2% that is £ 438 million. These changes will occur due to contribution of new hotel which helps in maximising overall revenue of the company. In addition, with the help of various efficiency programme, business able to off set cost inflation which reduce the overall finance cost. Statuary profit of the company reduces by 39.1% that is £ 260 million from £ 178 million of some underlying items. Such as disposal cost of the Costa sale and return on capital still maintain the strong position through maintaining 12.2% return which is good premium for the cost of capital of Whitbread.

UK market face lot of challenges due to uncertainty in the domestic market which impact the overall planning as well as spending of the company. Premier company was affected the most because of high regional presence and high proportion of domestic customers in comparison to the competitors. Whitbread focus on empowering their people through delivering high standard of quality service to their customers (Edwards and et.al., 2015). Along with this, they provide the great job opportunity to the people along with potential training which helps in maximising the overall outcomes. There are some financial highlights which provide better understanding regarding financial performance of the company. Brand performance will be classified as: Premier Inn performances decreases from 32.7 to 31.4 for the period of 2017 - 18 to 2018 - 19. Restaurant performance increases from the duration of 2017 - 18 to 2018-19 from 51.6% pts to 55.6% pts. In addition, Costa performance also reduces from 49.3% pts to 46.6% pts for the same period. By using Robust measurement system, organization able to measure the performance on the basis of customer rating and it is also based on other brands & their recommendations. In order to measure each brand performance they follow YouGov BrandIndex for Premier Inn and for Restaurants & Costa they implement net recommended guest survey. Growth of the company also reduces because in 2017 - 18 they grow 4565 and in 2018 - 19 it was 4008. These figures helps in analysis the overall progress so management need to formulate some effective strategy after analysing all the figures. That's why measurement of the annual growth will help the Whitbread to take necessary steps in order to improve it. After critical analysis of the Whitbread company, management should focus on the expansion of hotel business which provide great revenue and in future it has great opportunity. In order to achieve their goals & objectives they need to motivate internal people as per the requirement or maximise the overall revenue of the company.

In the above report there are various leadership style and approaches discussed which followed by the organization in order to improve their operational performance (Garcia, 2015). Autocratic leadership style which is one of the result oriented leadership which helps the business to maximise their final output and complete their task before deadline. If CEO of Whitbread follow this style then they have to give clear instructions to their staff members regarding their work. As well as employees obey the instruction without asking any questions. Basically, it is a dominating kind of leadership style where subordinates just have to follow the command it has various benefits as well as limitations as well. It increases the capability of Whitbread to achieve their desired goals on time but it will impact the employer or employee relationship. But in order to perform long run in the market, business need to build strong relation with their employees for effective performance. Democratic leadership style help the company to maximise the participation of employees in the business activities. It is the most common style which followed by the organizations (D’Cruz and Noronha, 2017). By using democratic leadership style, CEO Whitbread able to increase employees participation to build their relation more stronger but it can delay the operational activities because whole team will take more time to take any decision in comparison to single person.

On the other hand, there are various leadership styles as well such as transformational or Laissez – Faire leadership style. In the transformational leadership style leaders motivate or encourage the employees to innovate or generate new idea for the business which provide them success. CEO of Whitbread can follow this leadership style where they encourage their staff members to give valuable suggestions which helps them to maximise their overall revenue. Company focus on customers so they need to generate new ideas that how they will satisfy their guest through providing effective services. On the other side, Laissez - Faire leadership style is used by those organizationals which distribute the roles & responsibility as per the potential of individual employee. It is generally implemented in the small start ups because they does not have any previous policy or standards so they just perform to achieve their aim. CEO of Whitbread implement the democratic as well as transformational leadership style which is beneficial for them through increasing employees participation which provide the suitable solutions with the help of open discussion among the members (Skovholt, 2015). As well as, with the help of transformational leadership style they encourage staff members to involve in the organisational activities and provide innovative ideas for the success of the company. 

Along with this, there are various leadership approaches which followed by the managers of Whitbread company. It include the various theories such as behavioural, trait or transactional theory which further beneficial for the leaders to perform their actions accordingly. If leaders of Whitbread implement this approach then they should focus on how leaders behave or they assume that they are made rather than born. This theory based on the specific behaviour of the leaders which impact the functional activities of the company. It is not suitable for the company to just focus on single trait, because leaders should have multi tasking and talented as well which can handle work pressure, perform task, motivate etc. Along with this, trait theory is the early assumption that leaders are born along with some specific qualities (Kakar, 2017). It includes various traits such as honestly, self confidants, communication, determination etc. At the time of formulating any leaders in the organization they have to ensure that, relevant traits should acquire in the leaders which is beneficial for the business to achieve desired goals & objectives. CEO of Whitbread “Alison Brittain” provide some suggestions that how to become good or effective leader who maximise the performance of their business. Leaders should have to ask questions before doing any task and it will be possible under the democratic leadership style because in the autocratic they just have to obey the instructions of their superiors. They have to be real not fake because in the autocratic leaders said every thing on face so people become judgemental for the them. As a leader of Whitbread, CEO have to be face many challenges where employees criticise but it is important to manage their work life.

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In addition, they need to stay away from those people who always said yes or appreciate their work or decisions. Leaders has to perform with those people who provide them genuine response or suggest them for the importune. Because in the organizations, people always wanted to make their superior happy through giving false statements or appropriations. So they need to make distance from those people which is not beneficial for the business and it become barrier in front of organizational success. CEO of Whitbread has confidence which influence the followers and force them to listen which encourage them to improver their productivity as well as profitability (Webster, 2016). Along with this, CEO of the company also ensure that when they hire new people in the organization, then they have to provide them suitable training which helps in improving their efficacy as well as effectiveness. In the current scenario of business environment, every organization should follow any leadership style in order to enhance the overall performance of the business. So managers of Whitbread company implement the democratic as well as transformational leadership style. It helps them to motivate their staff members, encourage them to increases their involvement in the business activities with the help of open discussion of team members regarding any issues. Through implementing transformation style of leadership, company able to push the limits of employees to think creative or provide innovative ideas which helps in improving their operational activities or provide the success (Frank and et.al., 2017). By implementing these leadership styles Whitbread able to maximise the productivity of their workforce which provide the huge success as well as growth in the business through increasing revenue or achieving their business goals & objectives. It also increase the ability to get success in the work pressure because leaders provide confidence to their followers as well as guide them, that how to perform and encourage them at each step. Effective leadership will increase the emotional intelligence of employees so they able to perform in critical situations as well. A leader has charisma which influence the people or make them able to understand which motivate them to improve individual performance that is beneficial for the business to maximise revenue as sales of the company. By using suitable leadership style will raise the confidence of staff members or it will increase their efficiency to perform or provide desired results. In order to lead the entire team as well as operational activities they should have listening or communication skills which positively impact the business. So companies should ensure that their leaders have these skills which help in communicating internal issues or build effective relationship with others (Klag, Jansen and Lee, 2015). Communication maintain the good relationship among the different department which helps in running business smoothly or reduce the error from the operations which is important to identify. In context of CEO of Whitbread, they should follow various leadership styles or appraisees that is beneficial for the company and in result they maximise the productivity as well as profitability. Along with this, it helps the business to achieve their desired goals & objectives.

CONCLUSION

From the above discussion it has been concluded that leadership is very essential for the organizations to manage their overall performance in order to maximise productivity as well as profitability. It further helps in achieving organizational goals & objectives through implementing various leadership styles & approaches. It include various leadership styles such as democratic, autocratic, transformational etc. these are the common leadership which followed by the leaders or managers in order to improve the overall performance as well as productivity of an individual. It further motive the employees regarding their work or make them able to perform well in order to achieve organizational goals & objectives. Democratic leadership is the most common one which followed by the leaders in order to make good relation with their employees and ensure that they give their 100% to achieve their task. Along with this, there are various leadership theories which helps the business to understand that which types of leaders they required to complete their task or maximise the revenue of the company or provide the suitable growth.

REFERENCES

• Carnabuci, G., Emery, C. and Brinberg, D., 2018. Emergent leadership structures in informal groups: A dynamic, cognitively informed network model. Organization Science. 29(1). pp.118-133.
• Carter, A. D., 2018. Action Learning Coaching: A Practical Model for Novice and Emergent Leader Development. In Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Action Research and Action Learning (pp. 40-61). IGI Global.
• Charlier, S.D. And et.al., 2016. Emergent leadership in virtual teams: A multilevel investigation of individual communication and team dispersion antecedents. The Leadership Quarterly. 27(5). pp.745-764.
• D’Cruz, P. and Noronha, E., 2017. 6 Workplace Cyberbullying: Insights into an Emergent Phenomenon. The New Digital Workplace: How New Technologies Revolutionise Work, p.112.
• Edwards, G. and et.al., 2015. Exploring power assumptions in the leadership and management debate. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 36(3). pp.328-343.

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