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1a
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Explain what business ethics means and how it applies to leadership.
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Answer
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Business ethics refers to a professional form of moral guidelines, which should be maintained when ethical crisis occurs within a business organisation. Ethics are part of individual characters, company norms and legal code of a certain country[1]. While conducting business, professionals should maintain and make others follow all the rules and moral values both in personal and professional space. These moral principles help to establish a decent relationship with company stakeholders.
The concept of leadership can be stretched much more than merely concentrating on production and profit of a certain organisation. Leaders who comply with business ethics and have a sense of respect for such moral values are considered as ethical behaviour. Application of ethics can be found in individual style of managing various departments and leading them towards organizational goal. A leader must follow personal moral values or principles directed by the organisation to influence other employees to do the same for establishing a healthy culture and environment. Following an ethical guideline is necessary for a leader as well as employees to provide the organisation a recognised brand value and the stakeholders a decent experience while dealing with the company.
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1b
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Outline the different types of leadership styles and how these relate to supporting an organisation’s mission, objectives and values.
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Answer
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There are several leadership styles, which are followed by business managers to drive the employees towards the organizational objectives. Those styles have been described briefly in this section[2].
i. Autocratic leadership is when a leader possess extreme level of power over team members or the departments working under his/her supervision. In this case, team members are provided with less or no opportunity to share their opinion or suggestion in the process of taking decision for organisational purpose. Most of the time autocratic leaders are being criticized for being too bossy and members do not like to be treated in this way. The purposes and benefits of working in a team are lost under such management. It may be effective if the leader is supervising unskilled workers.
ii. Bureaucratic leaders are very particular about following the theoretical framework and supervise with strict instruction of following the exact procedure. Leaders follow this style when high probability of risks are involved with the business. Suppose, high amount of capital has been invested or machinery which require high maintenance, is being used in those cases considering the safety risks leaders feel to play safe applying this style. However, in the case of some unpredictable circumstances the style may fail to response according to the changed environment.
iii. Charismatic leadership is when a leader is energetic enough to motivate his/her team with high potion of enthusiasm to attain the common goal of certain business organisation. There is a tendency among these leaders to depend on own capacities than on the team members competence. As a result, the organisation may suffer if the leader has to leave or company is not capable of replacing with someone eligible. Therefore, organisation demands a great sense of responsibility and commitment from a leader like this.
iv. Although in democratic practice of the leadership, leader is the one who takes the final decision, yet he/she invites every team member to share his or her views while deciding something important regarding business. This style works better when the quality of the work is more important than the productivity.
v. At times, people tend to confuse servant leadership with democratic style of leadership as entire team can participate in the process of decision-making. However, they are not formally recognised in general. They simply lead the team based on a simple virtue according to the requirement of the team members.
vi. The form of transformational leadership is considered as the style of a true leader. Leader who inspires the teams and departments with a common vision of bright future, spends most of the time in communicating and understanding the requirements and possess an enthusiastic approach are considered as transformational[3]. It can be said, although, leaders focus on routine jobs yet are efficient to response against unpredictable managerial crisis.
vii. Laissez-Faire is a French term, which means ‘leave it be’. This kind of leaders follow a casual attitude and depends on team members’ sense of responsibility to get the work done[4]. Although, the leader maintains regular supervision and communication with the members to be updated with the progress. However, this style can be applicable if the members are extremely efficient.
It has been observed by discussing all the possible styles of leadership that whichever is the style might be, each style is concerned with maintaining organisational production and ethics. The purpose of efficient leadership is to accomplish the organisational goal by motivating and developing human resource, which will be beneficial for both the business and the employees’ individual profile.
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1c
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Explain the impact of legislation on providing leadership in an organisation.
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Answer
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Business environment is changing rapidly due to the contemporary advancement of technology and changes in legislation. New restrictions and regulations are compelling the industries to rethink and reshape the traditional procedure to maintain a sustainable growth. As a business leader, it can be difficult to cope with the changing nature of the scenario and simultaneously, providing the organisation the satisfaction of success. It is more difficult to adjust with transformed legislation than adjusting with changing variable of market[5].
ü Leaders should understand that legal amendments are done not only for providing safety to the customers and organisations but also well-being of all citizens. Despite putting up resistance towards modified legislation, leaders can start working under new regulations to save both the monetary resource and time of organisation.
ü Effective communication between leaders and team members is necessary in order to make them aware about new legislative policies of executing regular jobs.
ü It takes time to understand legal changes even for the leaders. Therefore, leaders should consult with right partners who can guide them and make them understand the policies to apply under such circumstances.
ü It is responsibility of business leaders to understand and guide the company, educate the employees to achieve the competitive edge by surviving the newly applied financial and legal guideline.
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1d
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What is Bounce Fitness’ mission, purpose and values?
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Answer
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The central mission of this organisation is to deliver quality training in a unique way to promote the idea of being fit and healthy within society. The company considers creative collaboration of the employees in order to implement comprehensive courses. The purpose of opening this service sector is integrated to wellbeing of the society with values of maintaining a relationship of trust with the stakeholders by not being dishonest and practice unethical business operation.
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1e
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What are Bounce Fitness’ objectives, plans and strategies?
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Answer
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With the objective of promoting health benefits within the society, Bounce fitness plans to provide their customers with a heath care cost management course, which will indirectly improve employee productivity and reduce entire business operating costs. Therefore, according to market needs their strategies are as follows.
§ The marketing objective is to generate around 10% annual profit, increasing market penetration in every three months.
§ Build the company profile as a long term, result oriented fitness solution provider.
§ Lower the overall operation cost along with customer acquisition cost by 3 to 4% approximately.
Therefore, their strategy will be to publish advertisement in both the print and television media to make their company profile visible from all directions and the company website will be structured enough with every possible information about product and service. Besides, social media can also play an important role in market positioning. HR department should be presentable enough to recruit skilled employees to carry out the tasks with extreme professionalism.
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1f
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What are the various stages in a successful change management process?
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Answer
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A successful change management process includes almost eight steps to introduce new managerial guideline[6]. At first, it is essential to identify the areas of improvement first. Stakeholders should be aware of entire business process. After that, managers should sketch the process of change setting multiple levels. The company should provide adequate resources and practice of conveying true progress report to the authority in order to measure the procedure of change. The practice of two-way communication plays a crucial role among the managers and employees during this period. In order to make a change a strict supervision on resistance and cost risk is necessary. The entire model of change management should be revised maintaining a periodic gap to make it sustainable.
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1g
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Examine the strategic and business planning documents of Bounce Fitness. Discuss if they are consistent with the strategic direction and if they provide clear leadership and direction for Bounce Fitness itself.
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Answer
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Bounce fitness follows a strategy of providing health solutions in the areas of Melbourne and Brisbane lowering the cost and maintaining a high rate of productivity at the same time. As human resource is considered as one of the major variables in maintaining the right direction of business, therefore strategic planning requires managing them as well from the perspective of a leader. Leaders are expected manage human resource strategically, which involves identification of skilled workforce for current and future organizational goals. Leaders are responsible for providing them with benefits, development training and safety. Directly it influences the productivity of the organisation in a positive way complying with the business plan. Various strategic approaches help to meet the goals combating the ongoing challenges.
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1h
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Discuss whether Bounce Fitness’ job descriptions clearly state the links between the responsibilities of roles and the organisational objectives, values and standards
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Answer
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Bounce fitness requires skills and adequate knowledge among employees as this determines high productivity and better standard of service provided by the organisation. Allocation of responsibility to the eligible worker by a leader defines a lot about the outcome. According to the requirement of services, employees are bound to work as company provides customized services. Accomplishing the agreements on the values assists to meet with organizational objectives and regular targets. The central areas of revision in terms of achieving organizational objectives and standards are database of human resource, analysing job profile and performance and diversity among them. A leader needs to possess a contemporary approach while managing HR to develop a better culture in Bonus Fitness.
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1I
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Discuss whether the terminology used in the job descriptions builds commitment to Bounce Fitness
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Answer
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The most used terminology used in fitness industry is trainer and personal trainer. The role of trainer is to guide the clients with required exercises and diet chart. As the organisation promises to provide customized service to every customer, therefore the concept of personal trainer exists. Serving them solutions according to individual requirements can be considered as maintenance of commitment.
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1J
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How would you go about building trust, confidence and respect amongst your team? Discuss role modelling, effective communication and consultation, giving examples and discussing the purpose, usefulness and intention of each.
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Answer
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In order to build a relationship of trust, respect and confidence it will be appropriate if the leader follows transformational leadership style. A transformational leader works according to the needs of the employees and organisation as well as spends most of the time communicating with them in order to understand the requirements. Charismatic leadership style can be followed in order to build image as a role model. Constant communication and consulting with the employees before taking decisions are important as far as creative collaboration of every team member is concerned. Accomplishment of organizational purpose depends on the attitude of leaders and his/her of operating a team.
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1k
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How would you go about implementing improvements to Bounce Fitness’ organisational culture or you own organisation’s culture?
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Answer
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In order to implement improvements a framework of define/align/manage will be helpful. The ‘define’ stage involves evaluation of practicing culture and performance of a certain organisation. In this case, Bounce fitness can do that which will enable them to find out the areas where improvement is needed. According to that, leaders should clarify organizational vision, values and expected behavioural norms from the members. The next stage is ‘align’ which demands to clarify strategic priorities and along with that educate the employees about their job role, which supports the priorities distinctly. In this stage, leaders should engage themselves in strict measurements of desired outcomes. Besides, managing regular communication and motivating the team towards strategic priorities are some implementations of improving the organisational culture, which are relevant in the case of Bounce Fitness as well.
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1l
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How could the global environment and new technology impact on work activities in the Bounce Fitness Centres?
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Answer
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Like other industries, fitness industry is going through certain changes due to technological innovations. People tend to distract themselves while exercising, running or lifting. However, use of virtual reality devices while exercising is entirely non-traditional. Sometimes it is confusing for the customers when they receive different suggestions from different trainers. Therefore, the organisation is looking for optimal workouts as per the report of DNA test of individuals. It is a fashion trend among the young generation to wear gadgets, which measures lost calories in sessions of workout. There can be pages of Bounce Fitness on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, which are dedicated to fitness videos and instructions. Organisation can introduce 3D scanning to understand ideal body composition of every customer looking for fitness solution.
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1m
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How would you ensure that your actions let others know that you are flexible and adaptable to change?
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Answer
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In order to remain competitive, an organisation should response against the changes happening within business industry. The mystery behind a sustainable business practice is to adapt and be flexible. By adapting recent technologically advanced services, the company has made a safe space within the industry. This gesture can be considered as an example of the company’s flexibility or capability of adapting change according to the market trend. Thinking in a creative way can be helpful to see the goals from a different dimension yet such new ideas carry several risks. Still, the organisation should maintain a practice of consistent experiment to evolve from the traditional way of executing business operation. According to the market trend and changing preferences of the consumers if Bounce Fitness can shift their priorities then it can present themselves as flexible and adaptable to change.
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1N
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When a decision has to be made, how would you ensure that you had the best ideas and included the needs of all relevant groups and individuals?
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Answer
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While deciding something important for the organisation, identification of the issue is the most crucial thing to do. Before deciding, leaders should evaluate the decisions in terms of effectiveness. Then he has to choose between probable decisions and compare them on the basis of best possible outcome. Best alternative will provide the organisation a desired result after the implementation of the decision. Best alternative will cover both the interest of organization and all relevant groups or individual dealing with them.
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1o
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How important are risk management plans and timeframes for decision making?
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Answer
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Timeframes are always important in the case of managing business operations and in case of not maintaining that the actions lose their relevance[7]. As mentioned before, the process of risk management involves methodical identification of risks regarding the business practice, probability of risk occurrence, tools to handle unpredictable situations, and monitoring the positive approach throughout. These processes are applied in order to deliver desired results as assumed in the business plan and helps to mitigate the problems with proper planning and skills.
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1p
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How would you ensure that Bounce Fitness is represented positively in the media and community?
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Answer
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A good content coupled with authentic information can ensure Bonus Fitness to provide with a positive image in front of media and social community. Communities over social networks are considered best audience to observe and react on the products and service. Posts on Instagram, Facebook and fitness videos can be made on YouTube on behalf of the organisation. Social media managers can lead a team dedicated to establish the social image by posing and solving consistent queries of the social community over chat, email and comments.
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1q
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When assigning work to the team, what would you take into consideration?
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Answer
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The first thing is to consider priority, if getting the job done is the matter of highset priority then leaders should allocate the work to someone available at that point of time. The next thing is allocation of work considering the employee skills yet it depends on the person’s availability as well. However, if the person is not free to do the work then leaders should opt for alternatives. A person’s interest to do the kind of job is taken under consideration as well. Leaders also focus on periodical development of the workforce in order to make them capable enough to execute various duties with efficiency.
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1r
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How and for what purposes would you delegate?
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Answer
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Delegating works between the employees is better to take pressure alone. It increases the quality of the work and saves time as well. Delegating the responsibilities, improves leadership skills as the person has to take less stress and it helps to plan for the future with a clam mind[8]. Delegation of work responsibility decreases the gap between the hierarchical structures. Hence, communication becomes easy. Shared responsibilities among the employees let them to enjoy collective success. It encourages creative collaboration of all the team members.
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1s
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How would you create and maintain a positive environment?
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Answer
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At the time of communicating with individuals or team members, leaders should make a caring approach, which motivates employees to the fullest. Personal face-to-face communication can improve the relationship between them, which will indirectly help to improve the quality of production. Employees need appreciation for their good work it helps employees to feel more engaged with their job profile. Considering everyone’s ides before taking any important decision and trusting the members with the tasks are helpful to create a healthy atmosphere within the organisation. Although, production is the top most priority still it have to be kept in mind that at the end of the day, resources are not mechanical devices. Occasional arrangement of fun activities managing the work pressure, will be encouraging for the members and a friendly approach while dealing with colleagues makes the work process easier.
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1t
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How would you encourage teams and individuals to develop innovative approaches to the performance of work?
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Answer
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Incentives can help employees to feel more engaged with their job and innovate new ideas to get the job done within less time than it should take. Active participation of the team members will initiate ideas that are more creative and improve the skills of employees to prevent the potential crisis. This is nothing but encouraging brainstorming to make it a part of the organizational practice. Encouraging employees and providing them with adequate training is important for the quality production. Frame effective strategies of doing works and leaders should make sure employees can be recognised by their efficiency.
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1u
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How would you model ethical conduct in all areas of your work and encourage others to act in a similar way at work?
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Answer
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Positive ethical conduct in the workplace is indication of organisations’ moral standard and it helps to establish a respectable image in front of the society and stakeholders. The model of ethical conduct in professional space is a set of principles combined of legal and organizational responsibilities. Every employee and leaders should comply with those norms and zero tolerance is applicable if someone violates the law. It is a proven fact that if leaders do their job in an ethical way, automatically it motivates the employees to do the same. Still, taking individual’s moral approach under consideration it cannot be predicted that strongly. However, every employee should understand the importance of maintaining ethical conduct as it upholds company values, protects resources of the organization and help the organisation to maintain a sustainable position in the competitive market.
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