Point of View
TESCO is among the most profitable and largest chain of supermarkets in Britain. Improper management of the company may make it lose its current competitive advantage.
Due to this fact, it is vital for the management to adopt an effective leadership style that can help TESCO to continue enjoying its current competitive level against its competitors.
Statement of the Problem
Tesco focuses a lot on its customers by ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction through production and delivery satisfactory and high quality products and services.
In order to maintain the desired level of performance, the company requires a well trained and knowledgeable workforce as well as an appropriate team of leadership that is capable of developing the qualities of all the members within the organization.
Choosing the right staff is not a simple process since errors done during the selection process may have very adverse effects on the overall performance of the organization.
For instance, selecting members of staff who are not well conversant with traditional system used by the organization can be a major disadvantage to the company in the sense that some customers who are used to the traditional processes of the company may be affected in one way or another.
This may occur when the new members of staff decide to initiate new changes within the organization without ascertaining the impact of such changes. Selection of the staff depends on the type of leadership that exists within the organization.
Inappropriate leadership style is likely to negatively affect the performance of an organization while an effective leadership style is definitely roves to an organization.
This paper aims at finding out the style of leadership that should be employed by TESCO so that the organization can gain competitive advantage.
Areas of Consideration
Before deciding on the style of leadership to be adopted, it is important for the top management to consider factors such as the task to be performed and the availability of resources.
Determining the manner in which the company has been operating in the past is also extremely crucial when deciding the leadership style that should be adopted. In my view, the above areas can be well addressed if the top leadership at TESCO adopts a democratic form of leadership.
The latter type of leadership can offer significant contribution to the company in different ways and consequently make it easy for TESCO to realize the set goals and objectives.
For example, a democratic form of leadership highlights the importance of respecting suggestions given by the employees during the decision making process. Respecting employees is one way of motivating and encouraging them in order to continue providing satisfactory services to customers.
Apart from relying on the employees as a tool of improving the performance of TESCO, it is necessary for the company’s top leadership to delegate authority to other staff member in all the departments of the company.
Such a leadership style helps employees to have adequate understanding of their roles without necessarily consulting the top leadership. In some cases, it is not easy to access the top leadership especially when the leaders are out of the company for official functions.
The staff tasked with the responsibility of managing the various departments within the organization should ensure that they conduct either a weekly or daily audit.
This assists in identifying and providing solutions to issues that can negatively affect the smooth running of the organization. This process should go hand in hand with inspection of other activities within the department to ensure that customers are provided with high quality services.
Another important factor that should be considered is the method of communication within the organization. Democratic form of leadership helps leaders to ensure effective communication among various teams and departments.
This can be achieved by holding regular meetings and making frequent staff inspection to make sure that all the members within the organization are undertaking their duties and responsibilities as required.
Putting in place this kind of leadership at TESCO can greatly help the company in managing the increasing rate of competition.
Alternative Courses of Action
There are other alternatives that TESCO can use to reach the desired level of performance. For example, the organization can attempt to establish appropriate ways of attracting and retaining its customers.
Giving gifts or discount to customers who make bulk purchases is a viable strategy of retaining customers. The company can also decide to increase the level of advertisements and promotions in order to increase the number of customers on the type of products and services offered by the company.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is evident that democratic leadership style can help TESCO to reach the desired level of performance and also meet the set goals and objectives. This form of leadership provides employees with the opportunity of airing their views during the decision making process
Recommendation
In my view, I believe that TESCO should use appropriate techniques when carrying out various processes (such as recruiting new employees) in the company.
It is also important for the management of the company to portray a democratic style of leadership so that all the members of staff within the organization are given equal chances of expressing their views regarding the performance of the company.