Strategic Management Concepts and Processes

Question: Discuss about theStrategic Management Concepts and Processes. Answer: Introduction: 1. Many leaders are mentioned in the case study or the book such as Steve Jobs, Herb Kelleher, Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos. In the study, Herb Kelleher is taken for describing his leadership activities in Southwest Airlines. Herb Kelleher is considered s one of the most influential visionary leaders among the world. He has drastically changed the phase of the airlines. In his leadership, Southwest is considered as one of the most famous low cost carrier airlines in the world (Margolis Ziegert 2016, pp. 334-348). Visionary leaders are found in all types of organizations such as for-profit organizations, non-profit organizations, multinational corporations, startups, etc. CEO of Southwest has broken the record of earning an excellent profitability and formulation of organizational practices. Southwest Airlines is a company of hospitality industry. Herb Kelleher is known as the most popular visionary leader. A visionary leader must be a good communicator and a charismatic person. An airl ine is an industry that is based on providing services to the customers. A visionary leader must be a chief organizer, risk taker, charismatic leader, and a strategic planner. There are organizational practices that are practiced in Southwest Airlines. These practices have helped the company in acquiring number one position as the low cost carrier in the world. High-performance relationships are maintained with the organizational practices. The regulatory practices reflect the visionary leadership qualities of Herb Kelleher in the firm. Leading with caring and credibility, creating boundary spanners, measuring performance, using conflicts in building relationships, investing in frontline leadership, building relationships with suppliers, bridging family work divide, etc., are the organizational practices of Southwest Airlines (Van Knippenberg Stam 2014, pp. 241-259). Herb Kellehers leadership style can be described in the following ways: Do well with others: Dedication and faith towards the employees will make a difference in the work culture of a company. Herb is able for successful completion of his tasks while taking the decision of the employees. Employees are prior towards Herb resulting to excellent service to customers. Customer focus: Herb concentrates on the needs of the clients and the demands of the market to formulate organizational practices and strategies. Core values of the company are transferred to the mind of the employees while providing excellent service to the customers (Miller 2016, p. 1). Make a difference: Work culture of Southwest is full of fun and loud in nature. Herb follows this culture as a form of motivation. 2. There are many content theories of motivation mentioned in the case study. Apart from the theories, there are different types of motivators and needs are explained in this part of the case study. There are two types of motivators such as intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. A particular individual from inside creates intrinsic motivators. It is intangible. However, Southwest can provide external motivation to their employees. They are both tangible and intangible. A manager can also provide intrinsic motivations to the employees by putting him into a challenging task (Brown Capozza 2016). On the successful completion, rewards are allocated to him that acts as an intrinsic motivator. Another concept of needs is arrived to describe the human behavior. Motivation theories are based on the needs of a person. Needs are categorized into two sections such as learned and innate needs. Innate needs are the intrinsic needs of a human while academic needs are developed from experiences. Many content theories are proposed for enhancing motivation among people such as Alderfer's theory of needs, Maslow's theory, Lawrence and Nohria's theory of needs, etc. In this study, Maslow's hierarchy of needs is described to increase the motivation of the employees of the hospitality industry. There are five types of needs that are identified by Maslow in his theory. Physiological, safety, belongingness, self-esteem and self-actualization are the hierarchy of motivational needs introduced by Maslow (Wery Thomson 2013, pp. 103-108). The first two needs are basic needs. After fulfilling these needs, a person seeks for belongingness. The last two motivational needs are related to the motivational, organizational needs. Companies use each element of the theory to motivate them that lead to increased productivity. Service industry and hospitality industry falls under the same category. Herb implemented this method to motivate his employees. Participation of employees in decision-maki ng, patting back on doing a good job are various forms of motivation performed by Kelleher in Southwest Airlines (Shaw Finger 2013, p. 345). 3. Many barriers that are mentioned in the study are described in the following: Resistance to change: Many people reluctant about facing changes in their working process in the organization. Hence, they will not accept any modification quickly. Fear of failure: They have a wrong notion about the adaptability of the newly changed process. Employees think that they will fail due to lack of confidence in themselves. Intolerance of ambiguity: New working procedure brings a number of new possibilities and challenges. People are not ready to face any challenges in the new innovative process. They don't have any tolerance to wait for the new positive aspects of the creative idea. Fear of acting foolish: It is one of the biggest barriers to creative thinking. Many people are not ready to think of new ideas. They are comfortable in the old practices. Stereotyping: Employees in many circumstances are not able to see the problems in various viewpoints. It is an instance of stereotyping. Inability in presenting an idea: In many situations, some of the employees have innovative thinking abilities. However, due to lack of communication skills and confidence, they are not able to present in front of the senior managers due to fear. Excessive self-criticism: Many people not only criticize others but also criticize themselves in the field of creative thinking. These people are not satisfied with any benefits. They usually criticize new policy or idea in a company. It is one of the causes of de-motivation for other employees. Leaders in the field of creative thinking face many factors of resistance. Policies of change management are to be implemented in this scenario for implementation of new ideas and policies in the hospitality industry. It is a service-based industry. Hence, the employees must be updated about the recent trends of the level of service in the market (Kimbell 2014). Communication among the employees is the utmost important duty for a leader. A visionary leader must convey the messages to every employee of the firm. Feedbacks are required for implementing the new change in the field of operations. People who are resistant to change should be communicated more frequently. Meetings are to be arranged so that they can gather a clear idea of the new changes in the organization (Gnanavelraja et al. 2015, p. 3). References Brown, R. Capozza, D. eds., 2016,Social identities: Motivational, emotional, cultural influences. Psychology Press. Gnanavelraja, C., Elandevan, C.K., Angel, J., Janitha, A., Rajendren, P., Sureshbalaji, R.A. Kumar, R., 2015, Correlation of Anthropometric Parameters with Different Neuro Cognitive Style Barriers among Health Care Students-A Preliminary Study,Journal of Psychology Psychotherapy,2014, p. 3. Kimbell, L., 2014,The Service Innovation Handbook: Action-Oriented Creative Thinking Toolkit for Service Organizations. Amsterdam: BIS publishers. Margolis, J.A. Ziegert, J.C., 2016, Vertical flow of collectivistic leadership: An examination of the cascade of visionary leadership across levels,The Leadership Quarterly,vol. 27, no.2, pp.334-348. Miller, K., 2016, Visionary Leadership: Learning from Exemplary Organizations,Handbook of Research on Global Fashion Management and Merchandising, p.1. Shaw, J.A. Finger, R., 2013, Motivational Theories,Dimensions of Behavior: The Psychiatric Foundations of Medicine,vol. 1, p.345. Van Knippenberg, D. Stam, D., 2014, Visionary leadership,chapter,12, pp.241-259. Wery, J. Thomson, M.M., 2013, Motivational strategies to enhance effective learning in teaching struggling students.Support for Learning,vol.28, no.3, pp.103-108.