Abstract
In business, leadership is of vital importance because the financial success of every company depends upon the abilities of its leader to structure the work, motivate employees and customers, promote the goods produced, and facilitate the increase of the company’s market share. Richard Bronson, the founder of the Virgin Company, is one of the leaders that possess all the above abilities, which makes his company a role model of successful leadership implementation.
Introduction
Human beings are always active and their activities need to be structured and guided in accordance with certain rules and limitations so that to be successful. Namely for the purposes of this guidance the phenomenon of leadership has appeared in the society making some people prominent leaders while other are left to follow them and fulfill their recommendations. In business, leadership is of vital importance because the financial success of every company depends upon the abilities of its leader to structure the work, motivate employees and customers, promote the goods produced, and facilitate the increase of the company’s market share. Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Company, is one of the leaders that possess all the above abilities, which makes his company a role model of successful leadership implementation.
Company Background
History
Although nowadays famous as the worldwide corporation comprising the mail order companies, airline companies, wholesale and retail stores, etc., the Virgin Company used to be a personal project by Robert Branson. In 1969, Mr. Branson founded the Student magazine which brought him fame and money for establishing retail record stores first of which opened in London in 1970 (Branson, 2009). 1970s saw also the development of the Virgin record label and the opening of The Manor, the first Virgin recording studio. Virgin Atlantic, the airline company, was founded in 1984 as another area of Branson’s business expansion (Branson, 2009). On the edge of 1980 – 1990s, Virgin Megastores are added to Branson’s corporation and developed overseas. Late 1990s saw the birth of Virgin Trains, Virgin Radio, Virgin Cosmetics, etc (Branson, 2009).
Main Activity Areas
Nowadays, the Virgin Company is the worldwide famous brand owning over 200 business companies around the world and employing about 50,000 people in Europe, Asia, and America. According to Branson (2009), nowadays Virgin Company operates in 29 countries. The annual revenue of the company at the global range amounted to $17 billion in 2008, and this year’s figures report 3% increase as forecasted for the end of the fiscal year (Branson, 2009). With such figures showed on the company’s balance sheet every year, the Virgin Company does not limit its activities to one particular area. The Virgin products and services are offered in airline business, train and machine building, military equipment, wholesale and retail trade, recording business, cosmetics, etc. The company’s head, Robert Branson, still runs the business and is often named as an example of the successful leader (Marriott, 2009).
Leadership Practices
Leadership Practices Used
The above discussed success of the Virgin Company is possible due to the leadership practices of ensuring the unit level strategic direction, ensuring successful goal achievement, and ensuring the quality of goods and services marketed by the company (DuBrin, 2009, pp. 14 – 16). These practices are the parts of the leadership development program introduced in the Virgin Company in 2007 for the purpose, as Martindale (2007) argues, of increasing the income levels by 7% for the next 4 years: “We need to have the leadership strength to be able to [respond to opportunities] without damaging the main business” (Martindale, 2007). Thus, strategic development, long-term goals’ priority, and quality assurance are the major leadership practices used by Virgin to facilitate its development.
Leadership Practices Misused
Accordingly, there are no obvious cases of the misuse of the leadership practices considered in the Virgin Company. The success in ensuring the unit level strategic direction, ensuring successful goal achievement, and ensuring the quality of goods and services marketed by the company allow the company to currently structure its work on achieving the long-term goals. According to Branson (2009), for instance the Virgin Blue Group, the Australian branch of Virgin airline business, achieved the level of 100,000 customers for 7 months of its work. Martindale (2007) reports ₤140,000 of saved funds the Virgin Atlantic obtained from its leadership development program implemented in 2007. These facts allow speaking of proper implementation of leadership practices considered in Virgin Company.
Leadership Practices Lacked
Concerning the lacking leadership practices, the Virgin Company displays none as well. In other words, the official web site of the company, its strategy, mission, and values, as well as the reports and research works by scholars like Martindale (2007) and Marriott (2009) prove that the Virgin Company works not only on the leadership practices considered in this paper but on the wide variety of other practices that include paying attention to customers’ and partners’ needs, ensuring environmental protection, facilitating social development, etc (Martindale, 2007; Marriott, 2009). The Virgin Company leadership practices also ensure the appeal to the senior citizens and people with limited physical and mental abilities. All these points do not allow speaking of lacking leadership practices in Virgin Company.
Leadership Styles
Leadership Styles Applied
Such a consistency of leadership practices can be ensured only by the properly structured and balanced system of leadership styles adopted in the Virgin Company. According to DuBrin (2009) and Syque (2009), there are seven major leadership styles whose single of combined application depends upon the personality of the leader, the goals of the company, timeframe of their achievement, and tool adopted for this. In Virgin Company, the combination of charismatic and participative leadership is in use (Branson, 2009; Marriott, 2009). This combination explains the company’s success and popularity among its employees and customers, and helps the Virgin to expand worldwide and develop its activities in various areas of business.
Leadership Theory in the Workplace
In more detail, the leadership theory, as DuBrin (2009) argues, presupposes the presence of the so called charisma, i. e. personal appeal, that the leader should have to form the base of supporters and make them untied for the joint goal (p. 68). The application of this principle is perfect at the workplace in Virgin Company as Robert Branson is a role model of the charismatic leader (Marriott, 2009). He is the person that managed to create the worldwide corporation and interest thousands of people with his ideas without any external power, just through his charisma, communicational and business skills.
Incompatibility of Leadership Theory and Workplace
At the same time, the participative leadership as observed in the Virgin Company does not correspond to the traditional theoretical views expressed by DuBrin (2009) and Syque (2009). According to the latter scholars, the participative leadership involves decision making and strategic planning by whole teams of managers and employees of the company (DuBrin, 2009, pp. 113; Syque, 2009). However, in Virgin Company the participative leadership goes beyond these theoretical boundaries and involves the company’s customer and business partners that might participate in planning and decision making by communicating their ideas either to the company’s representatives or to the official web page.
Conclusions
Thus, it is obvious that the proper and balanced leadership is vital for any business company. The successful leaders must possess profound knowledge of his and other areas of activity, have perfect business and communicational skills, and be able to motivate people. Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Company, is one of the leaders that possess all the above abilities, which makes his company a role model of successful leadership implementation. The Virgin Company makes use of the leadership practices of ensuring the unit level strategic direction, ensuring successful goal achievement, and ensuring the quality of goods and services marketed by the company. This set of leadership practices combined with the charismatic and participative leadership styles adopted in the company allow it develop and expand internationally.
Questions
- What are the leadership practices that facilitate the development of the Virgin Company in different areas of business around the world?
- What are the leadership styles adopted in the Virgin Company and how this can be proved?
- Is there any factually proven relation of the leadership practices and styles adopted by the company and its success in the international business?
References
Branson, R. (2009). Welcome to the Virgin.com! Web.
DuBrin, A. J. (2009). Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills. South-Western College Pub; 6 edition.
Martindale, N. (2007). Virgin Atlantic’s HR in Practice: high-flying management. Web.
Marriott, J. W. (2009). Be a Good Leader. Web.
Syque. (2009). Leadership Styles. Web.
Diversity And Demographic Impacts On Behavior
Abstract
Businesses or firms that employ a diverse workforce are in a better position to appreciate and realize the demographics of their market. Demographics in this case refer to specific characteristics used in marketing or business research. They include race, disabilities, income, gender, location, and age. A company with a limited range of employees does not stand to benefit from diversification and demographics. There is evidence that diversity in the workplace improves employees
- Satisfaction
- Productivity
- Retention
However, diversity alone does not automatically result in a better understanding of the market or improved motivation among the workforce. The companies have to take extra initiative so that diversity achieves desired objectives. (Schermermon, Hunt & Osborn 05)
Gender
The proportion of females and males in business and the workplace has an impact on how people interact and carry out their day-to-day business. A big percentage of male employees in the workplace may harm their female counterparts and vice versa. The proportion of male and female employees affects how people interact and behave. This consequently affects the culture and social environment of a company. As indicated earlier, diversity and demographics affect the behavior of employees in companies. Gender issues mainly are referred to as females. Throughout history, women have been relegated to second place in numerous areas.
This is not because females are weaker or anything but due to the patriarchal nature of society. Society has treated women as the weaker sex despite proof that the ability of both males and females and males in many areas is relatively the same. For instance, the number of women in the United States Supreme Court has never exceeded one. Women have therefore been forced to fight for their positions in the workplace as well as in social life. We have to acknowledge though that the improvement in gender-based bias and issues have been tremendous. Women have shown a great deal of energy in their pursuit of equal treatment. (Vaughn 06)
Gender-based prejudice has several implications on the behavior of female employees, executives, and entrepreneurs. Women are forced to work a little harder to achieve the same position as their male counterparts. A female worker has to demonstrate extra ability to achieve the same aspirations a male of relatively same abilities. This is of course a negative impact on women. A typical check across the business, corporate, and even political fields shows a significantly low representation of the female gender. It is commonplace to find women grouped with other variables such as minority races. Successful women derive a lot of encouragement from their success and ‘triumph’ over their male counterparts.
This in a way drives them even further to yearn and work for more success. It will also be fair to say that a section of males is intimidated by female bosses or successful females. Many men would prefer to have a male boss rather than a female one. A company that has a relatively equal number of employees about gender will have more benefits in the discharge of its services and feedback from the market. (Page 07)
Age
Businesses require a diverse range of workers for them to be successful in their endeavors. Age is an important component as far as the workforce is concerned. People of different ages bring varying contributions to their companies. Companies draw the following influences from age:
- Experience
- Diversity
- Creativity
- Transformation
- Conservativeness (Meredith, Haim, & Schewe 02)
Older individuals tend to be cautious and mainly have a conservative approach to major decisions. This is in contrast to younger workers who are usually adventurous and try to work out new and previously untried projects. Technology for instance has had a huge impact on age relations in business as well as in the workplace. Young people tend to have a higher interest in new technology than older technology.
Since most modern jobs require knowledge in the latest technological advances, the average workforce in most places has come down considerably. Younger people have therefore acquired senior positions in firms as a result of upper edge on recent trends.
Older people though have the advantage of being more experienced. Even when younger people want to venture into a new undertaking, they need to be informed on certain dimensions by their experienced older colleagues. This brings a healthy balance in the operations of a company. Younger employees or executives also contribute to a company’s transformation since they inform on the latest trends in the market. (Meredith, Haim, & Schewe 02)
Personal traits and sexual orientation
Sexual orientation refers to the sex or gender that an individual is attracted to. Straight or heterosexual is whereby a male is attracted to a female or vice versa. Homosexuality on the other hand is whereby individuals are attracted to members of the same sex. Sexual orientation brings several challenges in the workforce. For instance, heterosexual men tend to be uncomfortable in the presence of homosexual men. This trend however is declining as issues of sexuality get spoken about so often. The number of openly gay people is increasing by the day. The view of one being a social pervert if he or she is gay has drastically reduced in the last couple of years. There are people though who still discriminate against homosexuals. This can harm gay people in their discharge of services in a company. (Page 07)
Personal traits have a direct impact on individual behavior. Psychologists for instance have broadly classified individuals as being either introverts or extroverts. Introverts are reserved and tend to avoid new and adventurous ventures. As a result of this, introverts in the workplace will tend to be conservative and rely on experience rather than creativity. Extroverts on the other hand are outgoing, adventurous, and fun-loving. They are also bold enough to take risks in their life as well as in work-related areas. Traits, therefore, are bound to have an impact on the behavior of an individual in his life and at the workplace as well. (Klauke 2000)
Conclusion
Diversity has its benefits and challenges in the workplace and business as well. Diversity is not only beneficial to an organization but its members as well. Benefits include improved problem-solving capability, better decision-making, innovation, and creativity. The results of this include successful marketing to various groupings and enhanced product development. The benefits of diversity however cannot be achieved without effective communication in the organization. Assimilation is one of the challenges of a culturally diverse organization. The management should also be ready to acknowledge differences among people to be able to manage a diverse workforce and market. (Schermermon, Hunt & Osborn 05)
References
Klauke, A. (2000). Coping with changing demographics: Oxford press.
Meredith, G., Schewe, C., and Haim, A. (2002) Managing by defining moments: Innovative strategies for motivating 5 very different generational cohorts, Hungry Minds Inc., New York.
Page, Scott (2007). The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Schermermon, John R. Hunt, James, and Osborn, Richard. (2005). Organizational Behavior.
John Wiley & sons Society and Individual Behavior. Web.
Vaughn, Billy (2006). High Impact Diversity Consulting. San Francisco, STUPID.
Middle Ages: “The Darkness Of History”
Let us start by saying that it is evident that world history is dynamic, it has been constantly developing and changing. I would like to mention that the Middle Ages, one of historical epochs of humanity, is unique and it has a lot of debatable features and peculiarities that have been arousing scientists’ interest for many decades on end. Now our task is to compare the life in medieval city and living on the land.
The first question under consideration is as follows: would anyone like to live in a Medieval city? As far as my opinion is concerned, I would never like to live there. A number of reasons may be given to prove my point of view.
One of the reasons is that the Middle Ages are called “The Darkness of History”. It means that on the whole it was a sullen, primitive and depressing period.
People were ignorant and illiterate and they were not considered to be personalities with their own rights and freedoms. God was in the center of the world and people were just like grains of sand, they were of minor importance. Their personal feelings and ambitions were ignored and stifled.
Moreover, the epoch of the Middle Ages has a lot of terrible peculiarities, such as Holy Inquisition, crusades, rebellions, etc. A graphic evidence of the difficulty of the life of medieval people is given by Derek Hall. He states the limits of lifespan of those people: “The average lifespan in medieval times has been estimated to be 35 years for males and 31 years for females” (Hall 30). I do not know, if it is possible to find a person who would like to experience all those things and to be in the shoes of a medieval man.
Still, let us imagine that we are medieval people. In that case the question is as follows: what place is better for living: a town or a village?
I believe, I would have liked to live in a Medieval town or city. This choice has a lot of reasons. For instance, during the High Middle Ages the growth of cities was observed. The life there was evidently far more comfortable than in villages. A number of Universities appeared there, so people got the opportunity to become literate, though the initial quality of the process of study leaved much to be desired, but we know that it was greatly improved during the epoch of Renaissance.
The growth and development of trade and commerce could be observed in the cities. As a consequence, general level of life grew; town dwellers led a prosperous, stable and rather wealthy life. It can be proved by the following words of Shulamith Shahar about a Medieval town:
Peace was essential to its development and its economic activity, which was based on artisanship, commerce and money affairs. It evolved its own ethos, which differed from that of the feudal nobility. Though urban society was a class society from the outset, it abolished the distinctions between freemen and serfs and, legally speaking (in contrast to rural areas), all townspeople were free (Shahar 174).
In contrast, the life of people in villages was rater hard. Peasants were still illiterate, but, nevertheless, they tried at all costs to defend their ancient traditions and to get at least some social and judicial status. All those attempts usually ended in armed revolts.
To draw a conclusion, I would like to mention once again that city dwellers in the Middle Ages we far more lucky and led a happy life in comparison with peasants.
Works Cited
Hall, Derek. Burgess, Merchant, and Priest: Burgh Life in the Scottish Medieval Town. Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2002.
Shahar, Shulamith. The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages. New York: Routledge, 2003.