Leadership Style and Motivation Theory of Debenhams

Leadership Style and Motivation Theory of Debenhams

Different leadership style: Leadership (Leadership Style and Motivation Theory of Debenhams) is the attitude of looking for something different in an individual. It is the ability of a person to influence the behavior of the subordinates or group to follow a particular course of action. Leaders are those who are committed to achieving a goal and manage to transmit others through enthusiasm and optimism to reach a common goal of the organization (Ciuriak, 2015). A leader can be anyone in their organization and the leadership quality can be flourishing in any human being at any time.

Various Leadership Styles

1. Autocratic Leadership: Autocratic leadership is centered on the boss for all the authority and responsibility. Here leaders make decisions without consulting subordinates and expect prompt implementation from them. An autocratic work environment has little or no flexibility. Here all the guidelines, procedures, and policies are added by the autocratic leader.
2. Democratic Leadership: Democratic leadership style involves the subordinates in making decisions and concentrates on their contributions. The democratic leader holds the final responsibility to delegate authority to other people, for working work. The most unique feature of this leadership is the way of communication actively among the employees of upward and downward (Ciuriak, 2015). It is one of the most preferred styles of leadership, with fairness, competence, intelligence, and honesty to bring the best results for the organization.
3. Strategic Leadership Style: Strategic leadership indicates a leader who performs as the head of an organization. He may not be at the top of the organization but a wider audience at all levels helps to create a high performance of team or organization through this leadership (Vidaver-Cohen, 1998). The strategic leader fills the gap of new possibilities and practicality by providing a great set of habits. It delivers the goods of an organization naturally by natural strategic thinking.
4. Transformational Leadership: Transformational leadership focus on initiating changes in organizations, groups, and others. It motivates others to do more and set more challenging expectations to achieve higher performance. This kind of leadership has more committed and satisfied followers (Cloke and Goldsmith, 2002).
5. Team Leadership: Team leadership helps the team to prepare for a team’s future. The vision inspires and provides a strong sense of purpose and direction for all the team members. It is all about working with the hearts and minds to recognize the opportunity of great teamwork by involving in the trusting cooperative relationships of the employees.

After considering all types of leadership styles, it is possible to say that the democratic leadership style is the best of all. It will also be the best-suited leadership strategy of Debenhams. Because of the following reasons the leadership strategy will bring some great results for the organization and make them effective for the company as well as the employees working for the Debenhams (Cloke and Goldsmith, 2002).

Reasons for choosing Democratic Leadership for Debenhams:

• The democratic leadership will provide the opportunity to communicate from upward to downward among the employees. There will be no barriers in communication so the interaction will be smooth and hassle-free. Any problems will be possible to solve immediately.
• Employees will feel their importance and contributions matter for the company. It will foster higher levels of commitment, employee engagement, and workplace satisfaction for the employees (Hariri, Monypenny and Prideaux, 2014). They will feel like part of the Debenhams and become more dedicated towards their work and opportunities.
• It will provide an excellent opportunity for supporting creativity and innovation in the Debenhams. Employees will have a feeling of honesty, fairness, courage, and competency in the works. The culture in Debenhams is caring, daring, enabling, and encourages sharing among the employees (Vidaver-Cohen, 1998). So without democratic leadership, it is not possible to promote such a workplace environment at all.
• The staff is treated in the same way as a valuable member of the organization. If any employees want to push the boundaries and take the initiatives to perform better or even help the organization in any way possible, the management helps do it (Hariri, Monypenny and Prideaux, 2014).

So from all the discussion above it is possible to understand that without democratic leadership no other leadership styles can suit the Debenhams organization better.

Motivation theory of Debenhams

Motivational theories help to drive individuals towards a goal or outcome to achieve with the fullest attention and dedication. Businesses are interested in motivational theories for increasing productivity and acquiring more economic use of resources. It helps the employees to perform with satisfaction and dedication for the betterment of the organization.

As Debenhams is a family-friendly store which supplies designer labels at affordable prices, it is the best organization to work with from any of the employees. The best statement of this organization is its culture and its people (Jogulu, 2010). Their organizational culture is well structured and designed for the betterment of the employees and provides them a very friendly and nice work environment. For the organization, Hertzberg’s Two-Factor Theory is suggested and recommended highly to ensure better management and growth of the organization.

Hertzberg’s Two-Factor Motivational Theory for Debenhams

The Two-Factor Theory of motivation or motivation-hygiene theory was developed by Frederick Herzberg in the 1950s. It works with two factors that influence employee motivation and satisfaction in the organization. Debenhams follow the theory to encourage and motivate their employees in the workplace. The theory consists of the following consideration.

• Motivator factors: These factors lead to the satisfaction of the employees and motivate them to work harder. The motivator factors are associated with enjoying work, feeling recognized and career progressions that are given by the Debenhams to their employees (Jogulu, 2010).
• Hygiene factors: If these factors are not presented in the workplace it can lead to dissatisfaction and a lack of motivation. They are salary, better and flexible company policies, benefits, friendly relationships with managers and co-workers.

According to the theory, while motivator and hygiene factors both influenced motivation employees to get the feeling of independence and freedom of work and perform all the activities more enthusiastically (Kozlinskis and Guseva, 2006). This theory for the happiest and most productive workforce which definitely indicates Debenhams as the workplace.

To help motivate the employees of Debenhams, they need to make sure that the employees feel appreciated and supported. The organization also provides feedback and focus on the employees’ growth and progress (Kozlinskis and Guseva, 2006). To prevent job dissatisfaction, they are treating the employees by offering the best possible working conditions and fair pay and maintain supportive relationships with them.

Recommendation for improvement of Debenhams

Here are some of the recommendations are given considering their overall condition and overcoming their problems in the future. They are:

• Debenhams’ need to cut down on promotional offers. They need to focus on improving their online offering and strengthening its product range to attract their customers base.
• The department store chain needs to offer a more competitive range of premium delivery options for its customers and focus on their new design and promotional strategies to make them popular among the customers (Miles, 1975).
• Debenhams can also ensure their appointment scheduling process to become seamless and consistent with all other channels. Their staff can be trained to record important customer information within a modern, branded interface for future use and treated them in a more premium and sophisticated way.
• They can introduce a free personal shopping service and open in-store gyms through a strategic partnership for the betterment of increasing their sales and profits (Miles, 1975).
• They need to use technological advancement and promote a new system to check the availability of the stock automatically and update all the information in real-time. Additionally, they can also inform their customers through SMS and email for providing reminders to ensure maximum convenience for them.
• They can also use technological support to ensure higher attendance rates for staff in the workplace and ensure better performance of them.
• Debenhams need to promote their democratic leadership and ensure their participation and support from their employees in all aspects of ensuring better profitability and productivity (Miner, 1993).
• They need to develop their designs based on market trends and competitors offering and innovate new ways to attract more customers in the long run.

Conclusion

Overall employees of the Debenhams are the assets of the organization. The management is also very working friendly and flexible to perform and give the best effort for the outcome. So the organization needs to use these positive factors in their favor and reduce their lacking of market challenges as much as possible by updating its market strategies (Miner, 1993). By adopting and implementing better marketing strategies it will be possible for Debenhams to overcome their problems and become the best departmental store of UK in the future.

References

1. Cloke, K., and Goldsmith, J. (2002). The end of management and the rise of organizational democracy. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
2. Hariri, H., Monypenny, R., and Prideaux, M. (2014). Leadership styles and decision-making styles in an Indonesian school context. School Leadership & Management, 34(3), pp.284–298.
3. Jogulu, U.D. (2010). Culturally‐linked leadership styles. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 31(8), pp.705–719.
4. Kozlinskis, V., and Guseva, K. (2006). EVALUATION OF SOME BUSINESS MACRO ENVIRONMENT FORECASTING METHODS. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 7(3), pp.111–117.
5. Miles, R.E. (1975). Theories of management: implications for organizational behavior and development. New York: Mcgraw-Hill.
6. Miner, J.B. (1993). Role motivation theories. London ; New York: Routledge.
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8. Turturean, M.A. (2014). Theories of Motivation and Performance in Education. SSRN Electronic Journal.
9. Vidaver-Cohen, D. (1998). Motivational Appeal in Normative Theories of Enterprise. Business Ethics Quarterly, 8(3), p.385.