Sample MBA401 People Culture and Contemporary Leadership Assignment

MBA401 People, Culture and Contemporary Leadership Assignment Sample

The Assessment Task

Students will complete an individual essay which will explore and analyse the leadership of a contemporary leader.
Length: 1,500 Words (+/-10%)

Assessment Description

Students will research and analyse ONE contemporary leader drawn from a list provided by the MBA401 Workshop Facilitator. Students may not use any other leader, apart from those shown on the list provided for the purposes of this assessment. Students will select a leader they consider as being influential to them in their day to day living or career. Students will apply theoretical concepts covered in the subject to assist them to interpret the actions of the leader they have chosen.

The following elements should be included in the essay:

• The effect of the leader on the top management team of the organisations they have led.
• The effect of their strategic leadership in developing the human resources of the organisations they have led.
• The effect of the leader on the development of ethical practices within the organisations they have led.

Please refer to the assessment marking guide to assist in completing the assessment criteria

The essay will be assessed against the following criteria:

• Evidence of good academic practice in relation research, appropriate sourcing and referencing (see here for further details);

• Evidence of a development of a body of knowledge in the field of contemporary leadership and people;

• Level of analysis;

• Clarity of argument;

• Appropriate use of theory and relevant literature

List of CEOs to be explored for the assessment.

Choose one leader from the following list to explore for the MBA401 Assessment 1. Students may not choose any other leader for this assessment.

Leaders

Georgie Harman - Beyond Blue
Shemara Wikramanayake - Macquarie Bank
Oliver Morton-Evans - Neuromersiv
Tarun Gupta - Stockland
Matthew Halliday - Ampol Ltd
Alison Deans - Cochlear Ltd
Paul Perreault - CSL
Melanie Perkins – Canva

Solution

Introduction

With the rapid globalization and increased competitiveness in the global business environment, development of effective leaders and leadership behaviour has become a significant concern for all organizations. Leadership strategies and behaviours largely influence organizational members, which makes it essential to analyse them (Day, et al., 2014). The essay here aims to understand the effect of leaders on top management team of organizations, impact of strategic leadership in developing human resources and effect of leader on developing ethical practices in the company. For this purpose, Tarun Gupta, the CEO, MD and Director of Stockland has been considered as a potential leader for best assignment help.

Effect on Top Management Team

Tarun Gupta was appointed as the next Managing Director and CEO of Stockland in 2020. He was chosen as the next executive leader for having deep commercial experience and proven track record of managing and leading various large property operations (Stockland, 2020a). Tarun has been successful in gaining a strong reputation amongst property investors and high regards in the industry, which made Stockland’s chairman to depend on his leadership for the future of the company. Furthermore, he has had wide range of experience with regards to retirement living, investment management, community development and commercial property in his career (Stockland, 2020a). He has also performed numerous senior roles during his 26 years tenure at Lendlease where recently he served as the Group CEO. Thus, the widespread knowledge, skills and experience made Tarun as the perfect choice for the next CEO of Stockland.

The top management and senior leadership team of Stockland comprises of the CEO, CFO, Chief Legal & Risk Officer, Chief People & Stakeholder Engagement Officer, Chief Investment Officer, CEO Commercial Property, CEO Communities and Chief Innovation, Marketing and Technology Officer (Stockland, 2022). This senior management team under the guidance of Tarun’s leadership has been contributing towards the success of the organization. He has brought with him different skills and abilities alongside industry experience. Such skills and abilities have been beneficial for him to adapt in the new organization and further generate a positive influence on the top management team as well (Desai & Paton, 2014). This is evident from Gupta’s expected ability of better understanding property and housing business of Stockland with the Indian customers shaping the market. Tarun Gupta has been able to develop a vision for the top management team about how Stockland can be a significant part of providing affordable and entry-level housing to the migrants (Bleby, 2021). His leadership skills include being cautious about potential risks and strong work ethics that further influences the senior leadership team working with him. Moreover, Tarun also undertakes a humble approach for leading the top management team by embracing a collective organizational vision to attain greater good rather than focusing only on personal glory (Ou, et al., 2014). He emphasizes on realizing the unique potential of every top executive and empowering them to work towards the collective vision. This has been evident from his initiative of reshaping the Stockland Group with the help of senior leadership team for managing issues of problematic retirement business and bringing third-party capital from international market (Boyd, 2022). It has made possible to generate more cash for distributions in the company by leveraging its development capability and partnerships. Thus, this has contributed to the expansion and growth of business at Stockland.

Effect of Strategic Leadership

Strategic leadership involves a set of behaviours and attitudes undertaken for developing an organizational vision, strategies and fostering a culture of change. This leadership helps in providing the future direction to a company by displaying the purpose of growth and context for success (Azhar, et al., 2013). Tarun Gupta has been utilizing strategic leadership approach for telling the people what to do and how to do it to ensure the long-term growth, survival and success of Stockland. In this regard, his strategic priority has been to focus on the company’s purpose of offering better ways to life for all through values of community, excellence, accountability and respect (Stockland, 2021a). He further emphasizes on building a strong organizational culture with efficient brand and customer focus, which further motivates employees, managers, workers and other organizational members to work towards the same.

Gupta realizes that it is essential to keep the employees motivated and encouraged in the organization for managing and developing the human resources. His strategic leadership approach involves being concerned with the different activities and strategic choices of the human resources residing at the centre of the organization (Carter & Greer, 2013). With the changing dynamics of the global business environment, this strategic leadership at Stockland acknowledges the importance of diversity and inclusion for developing the human resources. The company focuses on enhancing the diversity of the workforce and fostering an inclusive culture with the help of strategic leadership. Here, the senior leaders and managers emphasize on maximizing the potential of all employees by appreciating and acknowledging their individual gender, backgrounds, ethnicity, physical abilities, family status, sexual orientation and thinking styles. This helps in encouraging diverse thoughts, informed decision-making processes and better business outcomes for the company.

Furthermore, strategic leadership also enables Stockland in developing an inclusive leader mindset and organizational culture. Here, the leaders focus on inclusive collaboration, empowering others, diverse thinking and ensuring psychological safety of the employees (Gotsis & Grimani, 2016). Strategies of open communication, fair treatment, cultural and emotional intelligence and continuous learning are often undertaken for building such an organizational culture to develop the human resources. The strategic leadership at Stockland further includes harnessing diversity alongside providing a true sense of belongingness and inclusion within the workforce (Stockland, 2020b). Here, every employee is provided with equal growth and development opportunities, fair and equal treatment, promotional chances, compensation and benefits, wellbeing and accessibility to information. This culture is maintained through appropriate and effective strategic leadership practices of flexibility, gender equity, wellbeing, accessibility and cultural inclusion and recognizing LGBTI+ minorities (Stockland, 2020b). Thus, it helps in enhancing social connection with the employees, providing them with opportunities and ultimately developing the human resources.

Effect on Development of Ethical Practices

Leaders are considered as crucial for moral actions in an organization by demonstrating virtuous and strong moral character. Ethical leadership involves both transactional and transformational approach for motivating their followers to behave in an ethical manner by using rewards and punishment systems (Fehr, et al., 2015). Tarun Gupta, as the CEO of Stockland, displays appropriately normative conduct through his personal actions and other interpersonal relationships in the organization. This promotion of ethical conduct takes place through two-way communication, decision-making and reinforcement in the company (Demirtas & Akdogan, 2015). Here, such ethical leadership behaviour helps in shaping attitudes of employees and other organizational members, thereby motivating them to act ethically. This is because the ethical judgments of the leaders have strong influence on the followers or employees in the organization.

In today’s business environment, establishing a culture for promoting and supporting ethical behaviours has become essential for the companies to attain sustainable growth, positive brand image and strategic superiority (Demirtas & Akdogan, 2015). In this regard, Stockland focuses on fulfilling its long-standing commitment and track record towards using an ethical and sustainable way for conducting business. Effective senior leadership enables the company to continuously innovate and pilot test the scalability of different circular models for reducing its environmental impact. This leadership also provides significant importance on enhancing and supporting the local communities and ensuring their personal wellbeing (Stockland, 2021b). Thus, Gupta’s leadership commitment has been able to continue the business operations in an ethical and sustainable way with the help and support from employees and partners.

Stockland undertakes a holistic approach for dealing with sustainability issues that has helped it to create liveable communities and delivering highest standards of social, environment and governance. The company focuses on challenging the status quo and achieving sustainable economic, social and environmental outcomes (Stockland, 2021b). This has helped it to reduce property emissions, enhance employee engagement score, increase savings from emissions reduction and increase community investment of health, education and wellbeing initiatives. These have been possible because of the CEO ethical leadership and sustainability initiatives undertaken in Stockland. Such ethical leadership has enabled organizational members in following actions and policies for enhancing the company’s environmental, social and economic performance (Wu, et al., 2015). Thus, effective leadership helps in developing ethical practices by fostering an ethical climate in organizations.

Conclusion

The essay aimed at analysing the effect of leader on top management teams, influence of strategic leadership in developing human resources and impact of leaders on the development of ethical practices in organizations. For this purpose, it considered Tarun Gupta, CEO of Stockland for studying about the effects of leadership on individuals in the organizations. It was found out the leaders influence top management teams by providing them with a clear direction and vision. These leaders also undertake various strategies of diversity and inclusion to treat all employees equally and develop the human resources. Lastly, effective leadership also helps in developing ethical practices in organizations. 

References