Sir Branson

Sir Richard Branson, Chairman, Virgin Group, Ltd Case Study
5/23/2012
BUS, 520

Abstract

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies. In 1970, he founded Virgin as a mail order record retailer, and shortly afterwards he opened a record shop in London. With around 200 companies in over 30 countries, the Virgin Group has now expanded into leisure, travel, tourism, mobile, broadband, TV, radio, music festivals, finance and health and through Virgin Green Fund. (Finkle, 2011) For the purposes of this discussion I have been tasked with answering the following questions related to leadership in a question and answer format. With the first question I am to describe Branson’s leadership style in terms of the leadership models addressed in Chapters 10 and 11 of the text and evaluate the likely effectiveness of that style in the U.S. today. Afterwards I am to, recommend a different leadership style (or combination of styles) that would make Branson an even more effective leader. Along with, determining how Branson would develop and lead a global team working on a major project (e.g., space tourism). Followed by the last question where I am to discuss how you can incorporate some of Branson’s leadership qualities into you role at work or school.

Describe Branson’s leadership style in terms of the leadership models addressed in Chapters 10 and 11 and evaluate the likely effectiveness of that style in the U.S. today.
Sir Richard Branson’s leadership style is more focused on the end user experience doing publicity and promoting his products. However thus, Sir Branson is also very concerned with hiring and recruiting employees with strong communication and motivation skills and those that possess a teamwork type of attitude. In an article related to HR, Leadership Sir Branson said it best regarding his style of leadership, "The key to effective people management is ensuring everyone has a little of people management in them, The process and approach systems come from the people management principles, but the brands have a certain amount of freedom to do what they want to do." Moreover, Branson states that; “ The collective needs to be more important than him therefore the view at Virgin is that collective responsibility bonds teams, and having pride in your work is a far better driver than a hierarchical culture where the boss calls the shots”. (HRM, 2011) Therefore one can assume that Sir Richard Branson’s Leadership style is one that understands that if employees are happy and satisfied with their work then, so will the customer. This style of leadership is associated with a more humanistic approach to business but more commonly known as transformational leadership. Transformational leadership comes from the top managers and executives within the company. Sir Branson along with other company executives has set many common goals for the company to achieve as a whole. These ambitious goals include expansion into international markets, utilization of new technology, loyalty among customers, and joint ventures with other companies. Goals of this level are voiced to all people involved with the company. This has a benefit to the company by giving everybody involved a challenging mission to accomplish. The highest level of management encourages employees to use their skills in a way that will best compliment the company. (Hellriegel, D, & Slocum, J.W., jr. (2011). The idea behind this is to promote the philosophy that the overall benefit of the company will lead to individual benefits for each person involved. Group contribution will eventually lead to rewards for executives, managers, employees, shareholders, and customers alike. In the U.S., thus this style of leadership is fast becoming the best method to utilize due to the ever changing business landscape which is aimed at effecting business practice on a global scale.

Recommend a different leadership style (or combination of styles) that would make Branson an even more effective leader.

My Recommendations for a different type of leadership style for Sir Branson would involve a combination of several models, i.e. The Visionary leadership model, the Behavioral model and the Legacy model. These business models along with the Transformational model, that he already incorporates I think would make sir Branson’s leadership style even more effective given the fact that he already has such a disdain for “ Conventional Business” as stated in the case study. Although Sir Branson doesn’t like “Conventional Business Practices”, his style of leadership does indeed involve goals that are future oriented. As a leader he must perceive the future issues as well as the plan for how he wants his business to progress, all the while recognizing the shortcomings of the present problems and offer a strong vision of how to fix them. This is exactly what a visionary leader does. Visionary leaders see beyond the current realities define new goals and generates ideas about how to achieve them. In contrast, the Behavioral Model focuses on what leaders actually do and how they do it, but also the behavior of the employee. This style of leadership suggests that effective leaders assist individuals and teams in achieving the goal in two ways, task oriented relations with employees that focus on the quality and quantity of the work accomplished and by a having a positive and supportive attitude with employees to achieve work related goals i.e., work satisfaction, promotions and recognition. Too include the ability to settle disputes and keep people happy by providing positive reinforcement and encouragement. (HellReigel, Slocum, Woodman, 2003) followed by the Legacy style of leadership, this approach according to, an article written by Patrick Dobel, concerning Legacy models “ unites the personal search for meaning with an organizational focus on the mission and then it connects the individual's preoccupation with self-worth and significance with organizational results”(Dobel, 2005) Finally Legacy model can guide individuals to a less controlling leadership style, supporting people and institutions capable of adaptation and growth.

Determine how Branson would develop and lead a global team working on a major project (e.g., space tourism)

According to leading business experts, “Globalization has seemingly overwhelmed many organizations and leaders within them because of the rapid pace and lack of training many leaders have had on dealing with and understanding the various communities across the globe. Many organizations spend more time and resources providing employees training on new equipment and software than developing managerial and leadership skills. This occurs many times in spite of the discussion that visionary leadership is what is needed to compete, succeed, and to continue to grow as an organization in our global world. Another reason may be due to the fact that until very recently, global business was considered the view of a few large businesses and as a sideline for the few others that participated in this area. (Prewitt, Weil & McClure, 2011) Moreover, they point out that, “Global leadership models must draw from many academic disciplines to be able to understand and appreciate the business environment across the globe. By using a multi-disciplinary approach, leaders are able to understand the communities where the organization is present and have the ability to work with and motivate people in the different cultures”. Furthermore it is my assumption based on previous discussions about Sir Branson’s style of leadership, that if he were presented with the opportunity to develop and lead on a project related space or tourism, I am almost certain that he would basically employ the same tactics and methods he utilizes at Virgin Group, Ltd. now, i.e. Promoting from within, putting employees in the category of stakeholders all the while maintaining a strong but ethical style of leadership of which has allowed him to take calculated risks. Therefore due in part to his leadership abilities Sir Richard Branson, has obtained a highly respected and often imitated reputation for being a valued innovator in the fields of business. : What is Virgin Unite, its focus an

Discuss how you can incorporate some of Branson’s leadership qualities into you role at work or school.
In my work environment, we tend to lead using a more humanistic approach, all the while incorporating many other styles of leadership models, i.e. Behavioral, Situational, Transactional and Across Cultural. However, upon completing the research for the case study on Sir Richard Branson and the Virgin group, I do relate to his styles of leadership but more important, I feel that we as Human Resources Managers and Service Providers could in fact incorporate these same qualities into our organization, in efforts to develop a broader trust between employee and supervisor and also to achieve the overall mission and organizational goals. Therefore the task for my work place is to link Sir Branson’s Transformational leadership style qualities along with the Legacy style of leadership. As stated above, the idea behind Transformational leadership is to promote the philosophy that the overall benefit of the company will lead to individual benefits for each person involved. As for the Legacy style of leadership, according to the public management professionals they assert that, “The Legacy model approach unites a person’s personal search for meaning with an organizational focus on mission. It connects the individual’s preoccupation with self-worth and significance with organizational results”. Moreover,
” it embeds leaders in an historical setting linking their inheritance from the past and their obligations to the future. Finally, thinking of a legacy can guide individuals to a less controlling leadership style, supporting people and institutions capable of adaptation and growth” (Dobel, 2005). Therefore the linking of these two styles of leadership will in the end prove to be most effective for my workplace. In conclusion, Sir Richard Branson and the Virgin Group, Ltd. have been highly successful in creating business practices that motivate the employee without using tyrannical tactics simply because Sir Branson is the boss. With this paper we have answered several questions related to his style of leadership, the effectiveness of his style, different styles he could adopt along with a discussion on how I might incorporate these styles into my work environment followed by a brief discussion on how Sir Branson might develop and lead a major project provided for the reader in a question and answer format.

References

Crush, Peter (2010) Exclusive: Sir Richard Branson talks to HR magazine about leadership Human Resources Magazine.co.uk.com

Dobel, Patrick. (2005) Managerial Leadership and The Ethical Importance of Legacy. International Public Management Journal; 2005, Vol. 8 Issue 2, p225-246, 22p

Finkle, T. A. (2011) Richard Branson, Virgin Group, Ltd. Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies; 2011, Vol. 17 Issue 5, p109-121, 13p, 1 Diagram, 1 Chart

Hellriegel, Don, Slocum, John, Woodman (1998) Organizational Behavior 8th edition Southwestern College Publishing. Chapter (11-12)

Hellriegel, D. & Slocum, J.W., Jr. (2011) Organizational Behavior: 13th edition. Mason Ohio, Southwestern Cengage Learning.

Prewitt, J., Weil, Richard. McClure, Anthony (2011) developing Leadership in a Global and Multi-cultural Organizations Hawaii Pacific University, International Journal of Business and Social Science Vol. 2 No. 13

Zafar, Mehmood. & Muhammad, Arif. (2011) Leadership and HRM: Evaluating New Leadership Styles for effective Human Resource Management International Journal of Business and Social Science Vol. 2 No. 15; August 2011