Leadership and Management of Virgin Group

Leadership and Management of Virgin Group

Part 1

In an organizational setup, both leadership and management are of crucial importance in maintaining a functional status (Smircich & Morgan, 2012, p. 259). Effective management practices are strengthened by effective leadership, therefore, creating a positive impact on the organization. The success of any given organization is dependent on its management, culture, and leadership style. The success of any given organization is usually dependent on both internal and external factors that powerfully shape the culture, structure, and performance of the company. This paper explores the relationship between leadership and the management of Virgin Group (Organization). The article also discusses the role of managers and leaders in dealing with challenges such as sustainability, gender pay gap, and cross-culture to achieve organizational objectives. The paper concludes by discussing the leadership skills and styles applied at the Virgin Group with the use of in-depth literature. Personal verdict is given on how the leadership style at Virgin Group is linked to academic theories.

Virgil Group is a British venture capital limited Company founded in 1989 by a rich businessman named Richard Branson (Akingbemisilu, 2018, p. 6).  The principal business areas for the company include traveling, lifestyle, and entertainment because it is regarded as a holding company. Richard Branson partnered with another individual to start a record shop, which was their first business and named it ‘Virgin’ as they considered themselves virgins in business (Akingbemisilu, 2018, p. 6). The company is presently appreciated for its presence in multiple arrays of world markets such as radio, mobile services, and music. The company’s success is owed to the innovative style of Branson, who led it to serve as the parent company of more than a hundred companies (Lewis, 2012, p. 29). The companies under Virgin Groups are run independently, and they mostly operate in entirely unrelated industries. The Virgin brand is a common factor amongst all the independent companies under the Group.

At the Virgin group, there is a clear distinction between management and leadership, where transformational leadership originates from either executives or managers at the top of the company (Akingbemisilu, 2018, p. 9). Richard Branson is the Chief Executive Officer (C.E.O) of the Group and is assisted by other company executives in setting common goals to be achieved by the company. Some of the Organizational goals may include loyalty amongst customers, venturing into international markets, joint ventures with other companies, and utilization of new technology. All the company goals should be voiced to all individuals involved with the organization as a challenge to accomplish their missions. Due to the Virgin Group being a brand with a common C.E.O., the brand is regarded as identical within every separate operation. This trait enables the organization to develop a higher level of loyalty across its customer base (Grant, 2005, p. 65). Managers and their assistants heading different departments apply the innovation concept as an inspiration mechanism to all employees at different levels of the organizations.

Additionally, the company’s goals are shared by everybody involved in the organization as they all have challenging missions to accomplish. The goals are shared from the highest position, which is the C.E.O., followed by executives, managers, employees, shareholders, and finally to the customers alike (Grant, 2005, p. 68). The success enjoyed by the company is encouraging all parties to put their best efforts into developing the firm more arises from the policy that benefits all individuals working to compliment the company and its goals. At Virgin Group, strict management is vital in getting the job done even though leadership is widely encouraged amongst managers (Akingbemisilu, 2018, p. 11). The higher level of management is encouraged to focus on both leadership and management, whereas the lower management levels are asked to focus more strictly on the management side of the company to improve performance. There are different management levels across the organization, with the managers at each division having specific management functions to perform and a broad range of goals to undertake.  The chief executives of the company ensure that each division is headed by a manager who has a solid background in the area of specialization they are assigned. This initiative of specialized personnel handling different divisions facilitates effective operations due to solid background knowledge of the requirements in the sector.

Furthermore, these leaders and managers, from the top-most executives to the lowest-ranked casual workers, play a vital role in not only achieving organizational objectives but also dealing with regulatory challenges.  The top-most executives are tasked with determining the company’s goals and educating the rest of the company about them through the managerial hierarchy (Akingbemisilu, 2018, p. 12). The executives must show belief in the realization of the set goals and make them challenging so that they can indulge all employees in working towards achieving the set goal. The organization executives and top- managers at the organization ensure that every division has different specialized goals indicating the ways on how to improve their products, services, and market share. As the management hierarchy and supply chain descends, the leadership quality depreciates, and management takes over as the goals become more specific and short-term. This system enables the company to maintain an ample working environment and be successful as both the leadership and management keeps it on track towards achieving the primary goal set by the executives.

Moreover, the company focuses on planning the functions of the management as the first step towards the creation of a winning team (Smircich & Morgan, 2012, p. 263). The complexity present at Virgin Group demands for a more detailed planning at all its multiple levels led by managers who act as leaders towards integrating and reconciling both the personal and company goals within the organization. The most vital and exciting function of management to this company is leadership as it solicits support and unity. The leadership dynamics are initially pioneered by Richard Branson, who is the chairman due to his colorful and vocal nature (Akingbemisilu, 2018, p. 17). Richard majorly advocates for people to work based on their abilities for Virgin Group’s good by bringing the best out of the employees. Richard encourages all top managers under him to adopt a similar philosophy since a good leader should act as a philosopher and guide to the juniors by offering them direction and letting them take control. Virgin Group advocates for freedom amongst its employees by allowing them to make the right choices for the good of the company because the controlling function is discouraged.

Additionally, the leadership and management setup at Virgin Group helps in dealing with internal challenges such as cross-culture and Corporate Social Responsibility (C.S.R.). Virgin Group advocates for transformational leadership, which allows people from all walks of life to work together willingly towards the realization of a common goal. Unlike transactional leadership that rewards individual achievement, transformational leadership utilizes delegation hence facilitates unity amongst the employees regardless of culture or race (Lewis, 2012, p. 29). Through delegation, the company ensures that the placement of employees in different departments is based on their qualifications and specialization, which improves the relationship between employees on the ground of basic skills. The organization also ensures that it is socially accountable to itself, its employees, stakeholders, and even the public.

Moreover, Virgin Group has managed to overcome both sustainability and gender pay gap challenges through its leadership and managerial structures. The chairman of Virgin Group Richard Branson strongly supports individualized attention to every employee hence avoiding making decisions on generalized terms. This ensures that both male and female employees are all treated the same and receive a fair share of pay not based on their gender but the contribution made towards the realization of the company’s goals. The leadership positions and salaries at Virgin Group are determined by the skills specialization and participation towards achieving the company goals. This practice helps reduce the challenge of gender gap pay, as witnessed in other related companies (Akingbemisilu, 2018, p. 17). Virgin Group has a sustainability leadership category tasked with organizing indicators referencing social, economic, and environmental outcomes. This leadership category enables the company to remain sustainable as it is provided with an avenue through which not only performance standards but also voluntary initiatives are benchmarked and assessed (Smircich & Morgan, 2012, p. 265). This category, therefore, protects the company against dangers such as climatic changes, demographical changes, and the introduction of emission trading schemes hence maintaining sustainability within the Group.

Part 2

Organizations require the achievement of immediate objectives hence fancy leadership as a critical aspect. Virgin Group, through its chairman Richard Branson, believes that the Transformational Leadership style is the most capable form of administration (Bel, 2010, p. 53). The Group believes that the transformational leadership style and leadership skills gained help in dealing with globalization issues. This leadership style helps the Virgin group to compete effectively in the harsh world of competitiveness as it provides consciousness of dynamic factors in the environment of business. Richard Branson has become one strong transformational leader by demonstrating his capacity to motivate employees to achieve the best results. His leadership has led the Virgin Group to be one of the most successful companies in the world (Bel, 2010, p. 49). Through the Transformational leadership style, Branson and the management team have closely worked with employees to ensure the Virgin group increases market scope, consistent rise, boosting the United Kingdom economy, and its profitability.

The transformational leadership style provides a new path to face various issues in an organization by providing employees with insight. It also attempts to help employees discover themselves (Smircich & Morgan, 2012, p. 276). Virgin has been practicing the leadership style to approach emerging trends and coping with the various changes in technologies. ThrougUsing transformational leadership skills, leaders make the employees realize that their untapped capacities can be exploited for better results and that the whole process is their own. Virgin group revoked desires on the employers through the leaders to see specific objectives and desired are achieved within the specified time. By doing this, it ties the firm aims with the employees’ objectives and desires.

Leadership style has several skills exhibited by the leaders or the management. This characteristic of Transformational leadership makes it a unique form of leadership, among other types of leadership (Offerman, Kennedy, & Wirtz, 1994, p. 46). These skills and characteristics exhibited by transformational leaders include: Authenticity, which is a skill of leadership that encourages the employees to work and act naturally. Branson has tried to meet all his managers and talk with them about their work. Branson believed in the leadership style mostly gives the best when the employees work naturally.

Passion is one of the important skills and characteristics a transformational leader has (Offerman, Kennedy, & Wirtz, 1994, p. 48). The skill requires leaders to be passionate about all the actions they take in the organization. This characteristic also links to the Responsible leadership theory that focuses on the relationship between leaders and workers, both internally and externally.

Transformational leadership embraces creativity, which is also a crucial skill in the contemporary world. Virgin Group leaders encourage their employees to embrace the culture of creativity. Lewis states that leaders must solve emerging problems in a creative manner (Lewis, 2012, p. 34). Richard Branson always cherishes these leadership factors as the organization can be creative in the market and be sustainable. This skill coordinates with the Leadership skill approach theory, which requires a leader to use an exceptional skill like technological abilities and conceptual skills to creatively drive organization objectives and its growth to its maximum achievement.

Transformational leaders have skills of interpersonal intelligence. This skill is vital as it helps a leader to individuals of different social and political backgrounds together. Virgin Group accommodates individuals from various backgrounds and hence requires its leadership to have the skill of intelligence to make the individuals and groups to reason in the same path and work as one unit towards achieving individual specific goals and objectives. This skill concurs with the transactional concept of leadership approach. The approach is viewed as a trade of reward of obedience, submission, and compliance of leaders towards the employees by drawing their special goals and self-interest with regards to rules to create universal power and working conditions (Offerman, Kennedy, & Wirtz, 1994, p. 265).

Skills like self-awareness, purpose, and integrity are also crucial to transactional leaders. One skill that maps the transactional leadership approach at higher heights is the global awareness of the leader on environmental factors (Offerman, Kennedy, & Wirtz, 1994, p. 268). This skill is exhibited in the Virgin group in order to transform employees and the Group towards a specific direction. This skill is more critical as the Corporate Social Responsibility approach requires firms to work in awareness of social responsibilities.

Works Cited

Akingbemisilu, T., 2018. Critical Evaluation of the Application of Leadership Theories to a Leader in an Organizational Context and Management Theories to a Contemporary Organization (A case study based on Virgin Group Limited and the Co-Founder, Sir Richard Branson). 3(3), p.25.

Bel, R., 2010. Leadership and innovation: Learning from the best. Global business and organizational excellence, 29(2), pp.47-60.

Grant, R.M., 2005. Richard Branson and the Virgin Group of companies in 2004. In Cases in.

Lewis, M., Sir Richard Branson, Chairman, Virgin Group, Ltd. Case Study Marina Crockett Strayer University BUS520 August 25, 2012.

Offermann, L.R., Kennedy Jr, J.K. and Wirtz, P.W., 1994. Implicit leadership theories: Content, structure, and generalizability. The leadership quarterly, 5(1), pp.43-58.

Smircich, L. and Morgan, G., 1982. Leadership: The management of meaning. The Journal of applied behavioral science, 18(3), pp.257-273.