You are working at Webfoot Digistore (which is fictitious) that is one of a chain of retail stores owned and operated by a large multinational company

Student Name/ID Number

Unit Number and Title

Unit 4: Leadership and Management Issue 5

Academic Year

2025-2026

Unit Tutor

Assignment Title

Leadership and Management in Several Different Workplaces and Creating Strategy and Improvement.

Issue Date

4.11.2025

Submission Date

16.1.2026

Resubmission Date: 27.2.2026

IV Name

IV Date of Assignment Brief: 30.7.2025

Submission Format

The assignment submission format is in the form of:

Part A

• a case study report, written in a concise and holistic style. This covers Learning Outcomes (LO) 1 and 2. You are required to make use of headings, paragraphs, and sub-sections as appropriate. The recommended word limit is 2000 to 2500 words, although you will not be penalised for going under or exceeding the total word limit.

Part B

• A second report covering Learning Outcomes (LO) 3 and 4, for which the recommended word limit is 500-1000 words, although you will not be penalised for exceeding the total word limit.

All work must be submitted with research and referenced using the Harvard referencing system (or an alternative referencing system) and be written using comprehensive holistic writing that summarises and highlights key information and data.

You will need to provide a bibliography using the Harvard referencing system (or alternative referencing system). Inaccurate use of referencing may lead to issues of plagiarism if not applied correctly.

Please ensure that all sources of information are appropriately cited. This includes

acknowledging any AI-supported tools (ChatGPT or Grammarly, for example) that contributed to content generation, editing, or research assistance.

Unit Learning Outcomes

LO1 Examine leadership and management theories and principles, and their impact on the effectiveness of an organization.

LO2 Review the influence of different leadership and management styles on the culture of organisations.

LO3 Develop a motivational strategy to optimise organisational performance.

LO4 Apply leadership and management approaches to managing performance to ensure continuous improvement.

Transferable skills and competencies developed

• Understand different leadership styles, how to lead multiple and remote teams and how to manage team leaders
• Able to communicate effectively (verbal, non-verbal, written, digital) and be flexible in communication style.
• Able to analyse and evaluate a range of business data and sources of information.
• Able to undertake critical analysis and evaluation to support decision making.
• Interpretation of information that allows for evaluation of theory to practice.
• The ability to work collaboratively.
• Able to reflect on own performance and working style and their impact on others
• Digital skills using different software applications to visually present information and data concisely.

• Creativity, innovation and enterprise when seeking solutions to business needs.
• The ability to undertake critical analysis and evaluation to support decision making.

Vocational scenario

Organisation

You are working at Webfoot Digistore (which is fictitious) that is one of a chain of retail stores owned and operated by a large multinational company. It is like many such stores that exist in the Birmingham area. The stores sell various products, including personal computers, smartphones, tablet computers, smartwatches, digital media players, software and both branded and selected third-party accessories. Customers can shop by either walking into the store, buying online or reserving a shopping one-to-one session. Store employees receive above-average pay, are offered money towards education and healthcare and receive product discounts. However, there are limited or no paths of career advancement.

Role

You have recently been employed as a sales team leader on the shop floor, reporting to the sales solutions manager.

You lead and manage a team of eight members, and your key responsibilities are to:

●  provide direction, leadership, inspiration and motivation to team members

●  coach and mentor team members

●  focus on leading your team on selling products

●  assist team members to reach sales targets

●  work to targets and prioritise tasks to meet and exceed these targets

●  make decisions regarding operational activities

●  undertake regular ‘one-to-ones’ with direct reports, providing feedback

●  manage attendance

●  review and interpret management information.

This is a new role at the Webfoot Digistore where you are working, managing a large, well- established sales team that has been underperforming against targets for some time.

Since completing your onboarding training, you have been tasked with devising motivational strategies for your sales team.

These will be presented in a follow-up training session for team leaders, led by the professional development team, that focuses on your development as an effective sales team leader.

You have been paired with another experienced sales team leader for this activity.

Assignment activity and guidance

Part A

Case study report

As a new employee, you are to complete onboarding training to help you understand leadership and management in action. As part of this onboarding process, you have been asked to undertake a case study report to critically evaluate leadership and management in the company, researching theories and the impact they have on decision-making and the factors that influence culture within the company. You should examine and compare at least three different styles of leadership and management approach taken in a business context to evaluate their effectiveness and the impact that the leadership and management role has on culture and performance. Research into at least two additional digital tech store business examples should be used to assist in your research analysis and evaluation.

Business activities to inform your report will include the following.

•  Conducting research into leadership and management theories and their application in the workplace in order to analyse the effectiveness of leadership and management in the organisation.

•  Comparing at least two other organisational examples to compare the different styles of

leadership and management approaches taken for a range of business situations and how they impact decisions taken.

•  Examination of different leadership and management approaches taken to evaluate

their effectiveness and the impact that the role of leadership and management has on organisational culture and performance.

Your report should consider the following:

•  definitions of leader and manager

•  hard versus soft skills

•  analysis of various leadership theory examples and their impact on effectiveness and

decision making

•  comparison of leadership and management activities in three different organisations

•  the importance of culture and the role leaders and managers

•  critical reflection on the impact of leadership and management.

The report should have an executive summary, an introduction, a section on findings with a literature review, conclusion and reflection.

Please note that:

Management styles are the different ways in which a leader plans and organises their team in order to accomplish a goal. It encompasses the way they make decisions, how they plan and organise work, and how they execute their authority.

The most commonly used styles include autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire management approaches. The methods used different between organisations. 

Part B

You have previously worked in a similar role, so feel you can bring a different perspective on the sales team’s work to help members develop and improve. There is an ambitious sales plan to deliver, and you know your progress will be scrutinised by senior management. Some members of the team have been in post for a long time, and you have heard they are very apprehensive about you coming into post, especially the changes you might make to their working practices. One of them has already gone off sick, and only half of them have accepted your recent email invitation to a team meeting. There are a couple of team members who are noticeably more positive and have sent you emails welcoming you to your new role.

Motivational strategy

Your motivational strategy plan needs to work out how you will get the whole team on board to enable you to meet business plan targets.

Working as a pair, you will discuss a comprehensive motivational strategy that considers both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation alongside social, cultural, and organisational variables. The strategy should be supported with appropriate literature. It should be clear how the strategy supports the achievement of business objectives. In the first part of the training session, you and your partner will discuss a motivational strategy plan that considers a range of financial and non-financial incentives to both encourage successful performance and support unsuccessful performance.

Business scenarios

The next aspect focuses on enabling team leaders to put into practice leadership skills and approaches for motivating their teams and improving performance. You are to work in pairs to consider and discuss different approaches for managing performance and

continuous improvement.

You and your partner will take turns to consider/assume the roles of the team leader and employees in a minimum of three situations based on different organisations.

You will then individually reflect on and evaluate your experience/performance and prepare your own individual report that includes a written performance review/evaluation and makes recommendations to ensure continuous improvement based on your reflection.

You can select three from the following situations:

1)Your team has a regular `problem` customer that they are actively avoiding. Unfortunately, you have received a complaint from the customer about the way one of your team members handled their latest request when they came into the store. Your role play brief is to decide on an initial tactic to deal with this complaint and gain team members’ support in devising a team strategy for dealing with this type of customer.

2)One of your team members shows values inconsistent with company culture (e.g. shows a lack of transparency, overpromises on deliveries, stirs up drama with colleagues). They are relatively new but are already showing signs of being quite a negative influence within the team. They were out of work for a year before starting this job and seem to be finding it difficult to adjust to employment and meeting the company’s expectations around behaviour and attitude. You suspect one of the apprentices who works in the team is also being influenced by the negativity of the new team member, with whom they spend their whole working day. Your role play brief is to decide on how best to move forward and how issues the discussion raises will be handled.

3)You chair weekly team meetings. You are concerned because the meetings do not seem to be very productive – a lot of time is spent discussing administrative details and/or problems with processes. Your brief is to role-play your next meeting, when you want to address this with the team. How will you approach it?

4)Your team is exceeding sales targets and members work well together. Recognising their abilities, you feel they can now work more on their own. You have begun to redirect your energies to other projects and teams, and they have continued to work effectively. You must now ask them to accept additional tasks and responsibilities. Your role play brief is to delegate and empower the team at the same time.

5)An employee who is brand new to the company joins your sales team. This person is enthusiastic, willing to help and keen to progress. Their working style is very organised, and you can consistently rely on them to deliver within timescales. However, you have noticed that their enthusiasm and the speed of their work is sometimes at the expense of detail and providing exemplary customer care. They do not always explore multiple sales options, upselling products and services before deciding on a course of action, and they sometimes make errors. This has led to you feeling you need to observe their work yourself (at short notice) to ensure it is of a high enough quality. Your role play brief is to tackle these areas for development without dampening the staff member’s enthusiasm and ability to deliver.

6)The company has recently introduced a new Health and Safety policy you feel is not in the best interests of customers or the business. However, it has been made very clear that the policy is fully endorsed by senior managers, and you will be responsible for ensuring it is implemented by your team. After a few weeks, team members tell you the policy is causing complaints from customers and taking up a lot of their time, and that they do not understand why it has been introduced. Your role play task is to balance the competing demands from senior management, your team and customers to address the situation.

Recommended Resources

Please note that the resources listed are examples for you to use as a starting point in your research – the list is not definitive.

Textbooks

Kelly, P. and Cole, G. (2020) Management: Theory and Practice. 9th Ed. Cengage.

Mullins, L. J. and Rees, G. (2023) Management and Organisational Behaviour. 13th Ed. Harlow: Pearson.

Adair, J. (2022). Develop Your Leadership Skills: Fast, Effective Ways to Become a Leader People Want to Follow. 5th edition. London: Kogan Page.

Orti, P. and Middlemiss, M. (2019). Thinking Remote. Inspiration for Leaders of Distributed Teams. London: Virtual Not Distant.

Weblinks

BBC Learning English. The Handy Guide to Management. (Podcast) Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/work/handy/handy.shtml

Businessballs. Likert’s Management Systems. (Article) Available at: https://www.businessballs.com/organisational-culture/likerts-management-systems/

https://businessjargons.com Business Jargons- Motivation (Article)

MindTools. Motivation, Energizing Your People to Achieve Good Things. Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/motivating-your-team.htm

Motivation theories: Available at: https://businessjargons.com/motivation.html

Businessballs. Improving Workplace performance: Business Case. Available at: https://www.businessballs.com/improving-workplace-performance/motivational-case-study- exercise/

Also, Business Balls: Motivation and improving workplace performance (Resources) 

HN Global

HN Global Reading Lists. Available at: https://hnglobal.highernationals.com/learningzone/reading- lists

HN Global Student Resource Library. Available at: https://hnglobal.highernationals.com/subjects/resource-libraries

HN Global Textbooks. Available at: https://hnglobal.highernationals.com/textbooks

Journal articles

Alma Harris & Michelle Jones (2018) The dark side of leadership and management, School Leadership & Management, 38:5, 475-477, DOI: 10.1080/13632434.2018.1509276

https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2018.1509276.

M. Liphadzi, C.O. Aigbavboa, W.D. Thwala, A Theoretical Perspective on the Difference between Leadership and Management, Procedia Engineering, Volume 196, pp. 478-482, ISSN 1877- 7058, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.07.227

Nafiisa Sobratee; Shamim Bodhanya; Leading in a global context: The balancing act between leadership and management, JBRMR, Volume 12 Issue 4, 04 Jul 2018 https://doi.org/10.24052/JBRMR/V12IS04/ART-06

Patrick MacDonald, Stephanie Kelly, Scott Christen, (2019) A path model of workplace solidarity, satisfaction, burnout, and motivation. International Journal of Business Communication, 56(1), pp. 31–49.

https:// doi.org/10.1177/2329488414525467

Lara Manganelli, Anaïs Thibault-Landry, Jacques Forest, (2018) Self-determination theory can help you generate performance and well-being in the workplace: A review of the literature, Advances in Developing Human Resources, 20(2), pp. 227–240. Available at:

https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422318757210

Pass

Merit

Distinction

LO1 Examine leadership and management theories and principles, and their impact on the effectiveness of an organisation.

P1 Discuss different theories of leadership in relation to the management activities in different organisations.

M1 Analyse the impact of the application of leadership and management theories on the effectiveness of a large organisation.

LO1 and LO2

D1 Critically evaluate the impact of different approaches to leadership and management.

P2 Explore different theories of management in relation to the management and leadership activities in different organisations.

LO2 Review the influence of different leadership and management styles on the culture of organisations.

 LO1 and LO2

D1 Critically evaluate the impact of different approaches to leadership and management.

P3 Assess different leadership and management styles and their application in a range of business situations in different organisations.

P4 Examine the factors that influence the development of the culture in organisations.

M2 Compare the impact of leadership and management styles on decision making in different organisations.

M3 Evaluate the importance of organisational culture on the performance of different organisations.

Pass

Merit

Distinction

LO3 Develop a motivational strategy to optimize organisational performance.

 LO3

D2 Produce a comprehensive motivational strategy that effectively addresses all variables of motivation to enhance organisational performance.

P5 Produce a motivational strategy for an organisation that supports optimal achievement of organisational objectives.

M4 Produce a detailed motivational strategy for an organisation that addresses intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.