Managing People: Leadership, Research Paper Example

DHL Express is a logistics and mail delivery company that manages many postage operations around the world. As such, it is important for the company to be headed by strong leadership at the international and local levels. Since DHL is responsible for managing a wide range of business, handling thousands of customers daily, coordination between employees is extremely important. Furthermore, it is important for executive leadership to be able to coordinate the roles of its employees, which extends to marketing, logistics, delivery services, customer service representation, and more (Antonakis et al. 2003). In each office or store, it is necessary for the management team to be aware of the company’s core principles and to implement them regularly during their practices to ensure that DHL customers are able to have positive experiences independently of the location they visit.

Since DHL is a complex organization, it is essential to focus on the leadership of the company focusing on several different levels. However, it is also necessary to determine the major themes that are implemented across these different levels in order to gain an understanding of how the company is able to maintain its efficacy. While there is no formal leadership protocol, the lead members of the DHL team were recruited by human resources because of their shared values, knowledge, and drive to ensure that the company achieves success. Therefore, many of these individuals share common traits (Friedman 2000).

Of particular importance if the need for leaders to facilitate creativity in this industry. Since there are many different shipping organizations across the world, DHL is require to compete directly with these institutions. Competitive challenges are distinct depending upon the area of business. In the United States, it is necessary for the organization to go head to head with UPS, FedEx, and more. On the other hand, there are very few competitors in Iraq and Iran so the company is prevalent. In areas with large amounts of competition, it is necessary to promote creativity to allow the DHL team to outcompete these other individuals. In less competitive areas, the marketing teams must use their creativity to determine how to appeal to the needs of the populace and to convince them to use a service that they may not have recognize existed (Tafvelin 2013). Therefore, the leadership is directly responsible for facilitating the creativity of these individuals (Kotlyar et al. 2006). The extent to which this is accomplished could impact whether DHL is able to successfully make the needed profit gains or not.

According to many different leadership studies, transformational leadership is the most effective method that leaders could use to foster the creativity of their workers (Muir 2015). This leadership style requires that the manager or supervisor understand the capabilities of their employees, in addition to their wants and needs. By taking advantage of these understandings and using them to allow their employees to grow, transformational leaders are able to promote productivity in the workplace (Joyce et al. 2004). Interestingly, the literature has shown that although people who share similar qualities are likely to exhibit the same leadership personas, people can alter aspects of their leadership in order to conform to a certain style. This is an important understanding because it shows that individuals that wish to serve as effective leaders traditionally implement transformational leadership into their practices (Kouzes et al. 1999). These individuals typically provide their employees with a greater control over the outcome of their projects, allowing them to generate a greater sense of accomplishment with regards to the work they are able to contribute. This is an important aspect of leadership because when employees feel that they are able to directly give to the success of the company, they are more motivated to perform well and continue producing high quality work for their managers (Burns 1978).

The concept of transformational leadership is especially important within the context of DHL because since it is a large company, managers, whether they are in a large office of employees with different job responsibilities or within the local delivery stores, must determine how to make their employees work in the most efficient manner (Judge et al. 2004). At the store level, it is important for managers to coordinate work in a manner that allows shelves to be restocked quickly, for customers to be seen in the quickest amount of time, and for packages to be quickly sorted for delivery. While it appears that the implementation of transformational leadership may not apply at such a basic level, this is not the case. The manager could provide his or her employees with the opportunity to determine methods that could be implemented to improve the efficiency of the store (Alimo-Metcalfe et al. 2001). This could range from the organization of the products to the customer check out procedures. When this input is successful, employees will be able to immediately recognize their contribution towards a more efficient workplace, addition to the development of a positive organizational culture (Bass 1998).

At the office level, there is a greater opportunity for managers to implement principles of transformational leadership (Eagly et al. 2003). For example, in the marketing department, these leaders could allow the employees to form their own work teams to generate advertisements. Since the employees are uniquely aware of each other’s abilities due to the amount of time they spend together, it would be beneficial to allow them to take on this effort for their own. Many positive results can form from such a collaboration and the manager will be able to gain a greater understanding of employee work groups that could be used in the future. These types of collaborations are likely to contribute to a project that is of high quality (Yukl 1989). If this is not the case, the manager could simply respond by changing some variables in this practice to ensure that there is a higher level of guidance, but in a manner that still allows employees to contribute to the project in a creative and productive manner.

While it is important for leaders to be willing to incorporate the ideas of their employees in DHL, it remains essential for them to assert their authority. DHL is a successful business because there is a clear chain of command that allows each individual to understand their specific job responsibilities in addition to the individuals that are there to monitor their work. The organization has a complex chain of command due to its size and location in a variety of culturally distinct countries across the world (Nissinen 2006). The current CEO of the company is Lee Spratt. He is responsible for the supervision of the international offices. On the next level, there is distribution centers that are responsible for the timely transfer of packages from one place to another. There are managers within these organizations who are responsible for managing the drivers, the logistics, and the organization of packages. Within large distribution centers, there are often lesser managers that are in charge of each of these individual functions in addition to the people who are present to ensure that these operations are carried out. This chain of command is also present at DHL shipping centers and retail stores, in which there is often a single manager who leads the retail staff. Overall, it is important for each of these individuals in power to exert authority over those below them. This allows the structure of the company to be kept constant, which is necessary considering its large size and the problems that would occur if this were not true.

Within the context of DHL, it is important to understand that effective leadership is defined as leadership that allows the delivery of packages to occur efficiently and effectively (Kotlyar et al. 2007). Therefore, it is important for all aspects of the company to be coordinated in achieving this process. In order for occasionally challenging goals to be accomplished, it is important for managers to motivate their employees to work hard to meet their goals. At the store level, these goals often involve making additional sales and maintaining timely customer service. At the warehouse level, this involves quickly adjusting to new logistical needs, quickly delivering the packages in the necessary location, and being able to immediately locate a needed package. At the executive level, this means being able to delegate responsibility in a manner that makes all of this possible.

In order for leaders to motivate their employees, they must often provide them with incentive. In this instance, incentive can be as basic as thanking these individuals for their hard work or allowing them to contribute more significantly to the company. On the other hand, it could also include providing these individuals with promise of promotions or raise increases. Good leaders are aware of how to use positive reinforcement to motivate their employees to perform well. They understand that too much incentive cannot be provided at once because this will cause employees to feel that because they have risen to the top, they have nowhere left to go. This is unfortunate because these rewards counteract the intention. Therefore, it is important for mangers to allow employees to slowly increase their status within the organization, because this will allow the quality of their work to increase in a more consistent manner, allowing them to achieve more short term goals due to their newfound motivation.

At DHL, lower level employees are incentivized with raises. Occasionally, there are bonuses provided for meeting sales goals. In some stores, managers will provide these individuals with increased responsibilities if they feel that this will be beneficial to their development. At the office level, motivation ranges from a simple acknowledgement to raises and promotions. Since there is a large staff at corporate DHL, there is a lot more room for employees to grow within the organization. Therefore, managers take advantage of this knowledge to ensure that they are able to help their employees produce the best quality of work possible. At the executive level, the executive team uses this same strategy to help develop the abilities of the lower level leaders. Ultimately, if the leaders are motivated to do well, the employees should be motivated to succeed as well.

The chain of command is an important component of DHL because these complex relationships control the ability of the company to maintain its power over its employees. Because it is challenging for the CEO to have a direct impact on the employees at the store level, it is necessary for him to implement his leadership skills in a manner that contributes to the professional development of those immediately below him on the chain of command. It is then expected that these individuals will transmit this if they are effective leaders, which should eventually cause the employees at the lowest level of command to feel motivated and confident with regards to their jobs. Therefore, it is important to consider that despite the large distance between the CEO of the company and the store employee, the actions and decisions of the CEO can ultimately impact each individual below him. To ensure that his own rigor is reflected in the practices of the individuals that serve him, it is occasionally necessary for him to switch between the types of leadership styles used. While transformational leadership is preferable to maintain relations between employees, it is justifiable for the CEO to occasionally behave as an authoritarian figure. This is especially important during times of crisis in which decisions must be made and implemented quickly.

In conclusion, DHL promotes a transformational approach to leadership because it recognizes the need to incorporate the desires of its employees into its business model. It is important for the organization to continue this model in order to motivate employees and encourage leadership to be effective at all levels. Overall, it could be said that DHL will continue to be successful if it is able to maintain this leadership standard of excellence.

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