AE_900 LP1.doc

Assignment Topsheet

Your Name: Sulaiman Mahmood Al Nadabi Student ID: 1513429

Unit Title: Leadership Project Unit Code SHR011-6

Unit coordinator’s name: Professor John Grisby Submission due date: 06/01/2016

Assignment Title: Leading People

Signature: Sulaiman Al Nadabi Date 06/01/2016

Please note that for students studying at Majan College the deadline for submission of an assignment is 12 noon local (Oman) time on the assignment submission date. Submissions will not be accepted after this deadline unless prior agreement has been granted by the Mitigation team. Please ensure you allow adequate time for submission to resolve any technical issues you may encounter. If you are unable to submit to Turnitin for any reason then assignments must be emailed to [email protected] BEFORE the submission deadline.

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mailto:[email protected]

LEADING PEOPLE

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Table of Contents

Introduction......................................................................................................................................3

I. Describing the background of the Value System Theory of Dr. Clare Grave..............................3

II. Evaluating the different leadership styles and behaviors in the contexts of culture, geographic

perspectives and historic perspectives.............................................................................................5

III. Analyzing the particular leadership issues with the help of relevant theories...........................8

IV. Personal view regarding the definition of leadership..............................................................11

Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12

Reference List and Bibliography:..................................................................................................13

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Introduction

In this assignment, the main focus is made on the leadership styles applied by the business

organizations in present world of business. In order to make the study more fruitful, one of the

famous organizations that are Apple is chosen. During this assignment, the discussion is started

by describing the Value System Theory of Dr. Clare Grave. Gradually, the discussion covers the

different styles of leadership in cultural, geographic and historic perspectives. After that, the

current issues faced by the organization in the leadership are analyzed with the help of the

different leadership theories. At last, a conclusion is drawn.

I. Describing the background of the Value System Theory of Dr. Clare Grave

In the decade of seventies, the psychology professor Dr. Clare Grave developed the Value

System Theory that helps to understand the behaviour of human being. According to Dr. Clare

Grave, only the human needs are not enough to understand the behaviour of human being. In

order to understand the behaviour of human being, it is very important to understand the

biological, psychological and cultural aspects of human being in a better way1. Due to this, Dr.

Clare Grave developed the Value System Theory that includes the eight value systems, those

played a great role in the evolutionary period of human being. These eight value systems are as

under:

Beige drive: This particular drive denotes the survival attitude of a person. If a person belongs

from this particular drive, then that person always tries to survive in any ways.

Purple drive: This drive denotes the security and safety of a human being. This means, when an

individual is in the purple drive, he or she finds the safety and security at first2.

1 Elza S. Maalouf, (2014). Emerge: The Rise of Functional Democracy and the Future of the Middle East, SelectBooks Inc.

2 Dawlabani, S. E. (2013). MEMEnomics: The Next Generation Economic System, Select Books.

4

Red drive: This particular drive denotes the need of respect of a human being. This means when

a person is in red drive, it is expected that the person wants respects from others and in order to

get that, the person also gives respects to the other persons.

Blue drive: Another drive is the blue drive, which indicates the security and order giving needs

of an individual. This means, when a person is in the blue drive, the first thing that he or she

wants is giving order to other persons and finding security for him or herself. At this drive, the

person is reliable, disciplined, controlled and dutiful.

Orange drive: The next drive is the orange drive and this drive denotes the competition and

winning behavior of a human being. This indicates that when a person is in orange drive, the

person loves to compete with other and in that competition the person always wants to win3.

Green drive: Another drive is the green drive that denotes the ideals and loyalty of a human

being. If a person is in green drive, then the person always give value to the relationships with

the other people and keeps a loyal relationship.

Yellow drive: This particular drive in the Value System Theory denotes the learning and

independence of an individual. The person belongs to this drive is creative and wants to be

independent through learning the things and analyzing the matters.

Turquoise drive: This particular drive denotes the big picture of a person. That means the

person belongs from this drive wants to become a well known person in the society.

Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be said that the Value System Theory of Dr. Clare

Grave gives a wider picture of the behavior of a human being. With the help of this particular

theory, in the present scenario, the business organizations are also getting help. The Value

System Theory has helped in developing and improving the new leadership styles of the

organizations4. Presently, in maximum sectors like, finance, sport, electronics and other sectors

the use of this particular theory is increasing. For example, presently, most of the well known

business organizations are emphasizing on friendly leadership where domination is less and

3 Beck, D. (2005). Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change, Wiley-Blackwell

4 Adair, J. (2010). Strategic Leadership: How to Think and Plan Strategically and Provide Direction , 3rd ed. London: Kogan Page

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providing full respects, equality, scope for independence and creative thinking are encouraged. If

the leadership style of one of the most well known bank in Oman that is Bank Dhofar is

considered, then it can be seen that the bank is presently trying to motivate the employees to

bring more creative thinking for its products and it is done only by emphasizing on the yellow

drive of Value System Theory.

In case of Apple, the company is always trying to bring some more innovative products. In order

to bring innovation, the motivation and coordination of the employees are very essential. This

can only be done through effective leadership5. In many researches it has been identified that

Apple always tries to keep its employees happy and never use to dominate its employees so that

they can give their best performance. If the employees give the best performance, then only the

company can be successful. In this case the Value System Theory is the one that helps to

understand the psychology and behavior or the employees in a better manner.

II. Evaluating the different leadership styles and behaviors in the contexts of culture,

geographic perspectives and historic perspectives

In the previous section it has been identified that in the Value System Theory of Dr. Clare Grave,

there are total eight Values. On the other side, in case of leadership style, there are different

styles for leadership depending on the cultural, geographical and historical demand of the

organizations6. In case of Apple, the company is operating its business in different places of this

globe. The origin of the company is from US. Therefore, it is obvious that the culture of the

organization is mostly the US or Western culture. In this type of culture, the people are less

conservative more friendly and always try to bring something new. In this particular

organization, the management or the higher authority mainly emphasizes on the yellow drive

among all other drives in the Value System Theory. In case of leadership style, the organization

is mostly dependent on the participative leadership style. However, sometimes, it also

emphasizes on the transformational leadership style also.

5 Kingdom, A. (2015). Apple (United Kingdom). [online] Apple. Available at: http://www.apple.com/uk/ [Accessed 11 Dec. 2015].

6 Allen, D. (2010). Leadership and Teamwork Essays. 6th ed. London: McGraw-Hill Education.

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In the words of different scholars by emphasizing on the yellow drive of the Value System, the

company mainly wants to bring more innovation in its products and services. The yellow drive

helps to bring creativity in the minds of the employees7. However, in many studies it has been

opined that the company may also get tremendous success if it could emphasize on the orange

drive, which helps to bring a competitive mindset in the employees of the organization.

According to many authors or researchers yellow drive helps to build and enhance the core

competencies in a business organization. If a company influences the yellow drive of the human

behavior, then it actually influences the unique quality of the people8. This unique quality of the

people helps the organization to think in different way. In case of Apple, the yellow drive was so

powerful in the owner Steve Jobs, which helped him to make the company as one of the largest

mobile company in the international market. This is continuing in the organization in these

present days also.

On the other side, the participative leadership style helps the management of the company to

encourage the employees in taking part in the business decision of the company9. However, as

the participative leadership style is followed, the management has the full control over the

employees. This style of leadership helps the members of the company to take part in the

decision-making process, which actually brings the mindset in the employees that they are also

valuable for the company. At the same time, the employees feel respect within the organization.

This ultimately motivates the employees of Apple to work more effectively and produce their

best outputs10.

However, as the organization has its business in different countries of this world, it sometimes

follows the transformational leadership style also. This particular leadership style helps the

employees of Apple to get motivated towards any kind of positive change11. This leadership style 7 Fairholm, M. R. (2010). “Different perspectives on the practice of leadership”, Public Administration Review, 64(5), pp.577-590.

8 Brooks, I. (2010). Organizational behaviour. Individuals, group and organization, London: Pearson education

9 Day, D. V., Harrison, M. M. and Halpin, S. M. (2012). An Integrative Approach to Leader Development, 3rd ed. New York: Free Press.


11 Dionne, S. D., Yammarino, F. J., Atwater, L. E. and Spangler, W. D. (2011). “Transformational leadership and team performance”, Journal of Organizational Change Management, 17(1), pp.177-193.

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also helps Apple to adopt different working culture in different countries. For example, the

working culture of Apple in India is different from US or China. In India, the managers of Apple

provide more value to the society or families of the employees, which is not same in case of

Apple in US. This indicates that the transformational leadership style helps the leaders of the

organization to motivate their employees as per the geographic perspectives.

At present, the leadership structure of the company that is Apple is as under:

Figure: Leadership Structure

(Source: 12)

In the above diagram, it can be seen that the leadership structure of Apple includes a systematic

way. The leadership flows from the top to bottom. In the top most position of the leadership

there is the top management or the board of directors. Then the leadership flows down to the

different departmental heads and from those departmental heads, the leadership flows down to


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Top Level Management /

Board of Directors

Finance HeadMarketing HeadOperational Head

Employees under

finance Department

Employees under

marketing

department

Employees under

operation

department

the employees of different departments. These leaderships follow the participative style of

leadership and the yellow drive of the value system13.

In the very beginning of the business of Apple there was authoritarian or the autocratic

leadership style present. However, this leadership style was creating problem in the business

operations of the company because the business culture in US needs the leadership style that

allows employees participation along with the management. Due to this, the top management of

the company decided to apply the delegative leadership style but in this leadership style, the

employees started to misuse their power to take decision. The rate of conflicts between the

employees started to rise and the misunderstanding was creating major trouble for the company.

Therefore, after facing lots of problems from these two leadership styles, the management of the

company decided to apply the participative leadership style, which is still present in the

organization14. After adopting the participative leadership style, several changes have been taken

place in the regional and global environment of the company. The workflow of the company

became more systematic and wastage of the company has been reduced. At the same time, the

level of conflicts between the employees has been decreased and a friendly atmosphere has

come. The employees of the organization have adopted these changes through proper training

and development program. Several seminars were arranged by the top management and

counseling programs were arranged to understand the needs of the employees in a better way15.

III. Analyzing the particular leadership issues with the help of relevant theories

In the present days’ scenario, the business organizations are facing several issues or challenges at

the time of leading their people or the employees. The main issues that the organizations are

facing are as under:


14 9levels.de, (2015). 9 Levels institute for value systems. [online] Available at: http://www.9levels.de/ [Accessed 14 Dec. 2015].

15 Essedunet.nsd.uib.no, (2015). European Social Survey Education Net - ESS EduNet. [online] Available at: http://essedunet.nsd.uib.no/ [Accessed 11 Dec. 2015].

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The leaders of the organizations are becoming failure to identify the reasons behind the

conflicts between the employees16

The employees are becoming more aggressive17

The team jelling is decreasing day-by-day, which is affecting the team performance and

coordination between the employees of the organizations18

However, the issues or the challenges can be easily identified with the help of the different

theories of leadership. According to the Trait Theory of leadership, the leadership is the traits as

well as the qualities that help to lead or direct the other people. These traits are empathy,

assertiveness, likability, integrity and better decision-making skills19. However, presently, the

business organizations are lacking the traits like integrity and empathy. The people of the

organizations are becoming more competitive and jealous of each other which are creating

conflicts between them and they maximum times feel that the leaders are trying to dominate

them. This type of feeling throws a big challenge to the proper leadership in the organizations.

At the same time, the Behavioral Theory of leadership helps to understand the behavior of the

leaders20. This particular theory suggests that there are mainly three types of behavior those can

be noticed in the leaders of any organization and those behaviors are autocratic behavior,

democratic behavior and delegative behavior21. In the above, it has been mentioned that

presently, the employees of the organizations think that they are being dominated by the leaders, 16 Algera, P. M., and Lips-Wiersma, M. (2012). “Radical Authentic Leadership: Co-creating the conditions under which all members of the organization can be authentic”, The Leadership Quarterly, 23(1), pp.118–131

17 Bel, R. (2010), “Leadership and Innovation: Learning from the best”, Global Business & Organisational Excellence, 29(2), pp.47-60

18 Avolio, B. J., Walumbwa, F. O. and Weber, T. J., (2010). “Leadership: Current theories, research and future directions”, Annual Review of Psychology, 7(4), pp. 421-449.

19 Boyatzis, R. E., Stubbs, E. C., and Taylor, S. N. (2011). “Learning Cognitive and Emotional Intelligence Competencies Through Graduate Management Education”, Academy of Management Learning & Education, 1(2), 150–162.

20 De Hoogh, A. H. B., and Den Hartog, D. N. (2010). “Ethical and despotic leadership, relationships with leader’s social responsibility, top management team effectiveness and subordinates' optimism: A multi-method study”, The Leadership Quarterly, 19(3), pp.297–311

21 Augier, M. and Teece, D. (2011). “Reflections on (Schumpeterian) leadership: a report on a seminar on leadership and management education”, California Management Review, 47(2), pp. 126-127

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which indicates that the leaders are adapting the autocratic behavior. This behavior includes

dominating nature where team involvement is not necessary for taking any decision.

In case of the organization like Apple, the management mainly faces four leadership issues or

challenges and those are as under:

Taking proper decision for motivating the employees in order to compete in the

international as well as the regional market

Influencing the people or the employees those belong from the weak economy countries

like Bangladesh, Pakistan etc in proper way to give their best efforts

Creating co-ordination between the different cultures of the employees belong from

different countries

Providing proper security to the employees of foreign countries in the job place

In order to understand the leadership issues in a better manner, the Value System Theory can be

used22. According to the value system theory, the orange drive within a human being helps to

grow the competitive attitude. Therefore, with the help of this particular theory, it can be said

that the orange drive is missing in the minds of the employees of Apple. On the other side, the

purple drive of the value system theory helps to grow the attitude within the employees or people

that provides them security and safety23. Therefore, as the employees of Apple in the down

economic countries are lacking behind in giving their best performance and feel insecurity in

their job place, it can be said that the purple drive is missing within the employees. At the same

time, with the help of the value system theory, it can also be said that the green drive is also

missing within the employees of Apple because there is a lack of co-ordination within the

employees of different culture24.

22 Elçi, M., Şener, İ., Aksoy, S., and Alpkan, L. (2012). “The Impact of Ethical Leadership and Leadership Effectiveness on Employees’ Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Work Related Stress”, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 58(1), pp.289–297

23 Kim, W. G., & Brymer, R. A. (2011). “The effects of ethical leadership on manager job satisfaction, commitment, behavioral outcomes, and firm performance”, International Journal of Hospitality Management, 30(4), pp.1020–1026.

24 Hollander, J., Hollander, J., Leal, J., Hollander, J. and Hollander, J. (2015). NLP Meta Programs Measurement MindSonarÂ®. [online] Mindsonar.info. Available at: http://www.mindsonar.info/ [Accessed 14 Dec. 2015].

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As the business environment in the international as well as in the regional market is changing

day-by-day, the company that is Apple is facing more leadership problems. Due to the increased

rate of competition, the management of the company is facing the challenge to change the way of

motivating the employees as per the changing mode of competition. At the same time, due to the

economic ups and downs after the global economic crisis in 2008, the management of Apple is

facing problem in giving proper job security to their employees. Therefore, in this situation it is

very important for Apple as well as the other organizations to understand the needs of the

employees in a better way so that proper leadership style can be adapted.

IV. Personal view regarding the definition of leadership

After studying the details about the leadership styles and different leadership theories along with

the value system theory of Dr. Clare Grave, I have understood that leadership is nothing but

motivating the people in the right direction by adapting the right way. There is no single

definition available regarding leadership. However, from the different theories of leadership, it

can be said that leadership is the group of traits that help to coordinate the people by

understanding their behaviors.

As per the value system theory developed by Dr. Clare Grave, there are eight different drives or

values that help to generate different attitudes within the human characters and the knowledge

regarding these eight values is very important to understand the behaviors of the people or the

employees of the organizations and lead them in a proper manner. In this study, I have identified

that there are different approaches or styles of leadership available to the leaders of different

organizations and those are autocratic, democratic and delegative. With the help of the value

system theory, the leaders can understood in which style of leadership which drive is essential

and when those must be applied. During this study, I have identified that there are different

challenges that the organizations are facing in this present business scenario and these challenges

can be understood and solved with the help of different theories of leadership along with the

value system theory.

In this study, I have understood that the idea or the definition of leadership in the business

organizations has been changed from the past to the present scenario. I have mainly focused on

the leadership style of Apple and there I have identified that in past, he leadership style of Apple

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was mainly the autocratic style but due to changing business environment and the needs of the

employees, the company has changed its leadership style from autocratic to participative.

Therefore, it can be said that there is no single or universal definition of leadership. I can be

changed in time to time basis as per the changing demand of the situation. At the same time,

change in the leadership style is also important to solve the issues or challenges in the leadership

within an organization.

Conclusion

In this particular study, it has been identified that Value System Theory is very much effective in

understanding the behavior or attitude of different people or the employees of the organizations.

There are mainly three types of leadership styles are available and those are Autocratic,

Participative and Delegative. In the organization that is in Apple the autocratic leadership was

present in the past but due to the changing atmosphere, the company has adapted the

participative style of leadership. However, the company is presently facing different challenges

in its leadership.

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Reference List and Bibliography:

Books

Adair, J. (2010). Strategic Leadership: How to Think and Plan Strategically and Provide

Direction, 3rd ed. London: Kogan Page

Allen, D. (2010). Leadership and Teamwork Essays. 6th ed. London: McGraw-Hill Education.

Beck, D. (2005). Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change, Wiley-Blackwell

Brooks, I. (2010). Organizational behaviour. Individuals, group and organization, London:

Pearson education

Dawlabani, S. E. (2013). MEMEnomics: The Next Generation Economic System, Select Books.

Day, D. V., Harrison, M. M. and Halpin, S. M. (2012). An Integrative Approach to Leader

Development, 3rd ed. New York: Free Press.

Elza S. Maalouf, (2014). Emerge: The Rise of Functional Democracy and the Future of the

Middle East, SelectBooks Inc.

Journals

Algera, P. M., and Lips-Wiersma, M. (2012). “Radical Authentic Leadership: Co-creating the

Augier, M. and Teece, D. (2011). “Reflections on (Schumpeterian) leadership: a report on a

seminar on leadership and management education”, California Management Review, 47(2), pp.

126-127

Avolio, B. J., Walumbwa, F. O. and Weber, T. J., (2010). “Leadership: Current theories, research

and future directions”, Annual Review of Psychology, 7(4), pp. 421-449.

Bel, R. (2010), “Leadership and Innovation: Learning from the best”, Global Business &

Organisational Excellence, 29(2), pp.47-60

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Boyatzis, R. E., Stubbs, E. C., and Taylor, S. N. (2011). “Learning Cognitive and Emotional

Intelligence Competencies Through Graduate Management Education”, Academy of

Management Learning & Education, 1(2), 150–162.

conditions under which all members of the organization can be authentic”, The Leadership

Quarterly, 23(1), pp.118–131

De Hoogh, A. H. B., and Den Hartog, D. N. (2010). “Ethical and despotic leadership,

relationships with leader’s social responsibility, top management team effectiveness and

subordinates' optimism: A multi-method study”, The Leadership Quarterly, 19(3), pp.297–311

Dionne, S. D., Yammarino, F. J., Atwater, L. E. and Spangler, W. D. (2011). “Transformational

leadership and team performance”, Journal of Organizational Change Management, 17(1),

pp.177-193.

Elçi, M., Şener, İ., Aksoy, S., and Alpkan, L. (2012). “The Impact of Ethical Leadership and

Leadership Effectiveness on Employees’ Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Work

Related Stress”, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 58(1), pp.289–297

Fairholm, M. R. (2010). “Different perspectives on the practice of leadership”, Public

Administration Review, 64(5), pp.577-590.

Fairholm, M. R. (2011). “A new sciences outline for leadership development”, Leadership and

Organizational Development Journal, 25(4), pp.369-383.

Gilpin-Jackson, Y. and Bushe, G. R. (2010). “Leadership development training transfer: A case

study of post-training determinants”, Journal of Management Development 26(10), pp.980-1004.

Gilpin-Jackson, Y. and Bushe, G. R. (2010). “Leadership development training transfer: A case

study of post-training determinants”, Journal of Management Development 26(10), pp.980-1004.

Kim, W. G., & Brymer, R. A. (2011). “The effects of ethical leadership on manager job

satisfaction, commitment, behavioral outcomes, and firm performance”, International Journal of

Hospitality Management, 30(4), pp.1020–1026.

Websites

15

9levels.de, (2015). 9 Levels institute for value systems. [online] Available at:

http://www.9levels.de/ [Accessed 14 Dec. 2015].

Essedunet.nsd.uib.no, (2015). European Social Survey Education Net - ESS EduNet. [online]

Available at: http://essedunet.nsd.uib.no/ [Accessed 11 Dec. 2015].

Hollander, J., Hollander, J., Leal, J., Hollander, J. and Hollander, J. (2015). NLP Meta Programs

Measurement MindSonarÂ®. [online] Mindsonar.info. Available at: http://www.mindsonar.info/

[Accessed 14 Dec. 2015].

Kingdom, A. (2015). Apple (United Kingdom). [online] Apple. Available at:

http://www.apple.com/uk/ [Accessed 11 Dec. 2015].

Palermo.edu, (2015). Universidad de Palermo, UP | Buenos Aires, Argentina. [online] Available

at: http://www.palermo.edu/ [Accessed 17 Dec. 2015].

Spiraldynamics.org, (2015). spiral dynamics Â® | NVC Consulting â€“ Spiral DynamicsÂ®

Training & Graves Theory. [online] Available at: http://spiraldynamics.org/ [Accessed 14 Dec.

2015].

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