Management and Leadership（Alibaba Group: Daniel Zhang）

MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP: THE ALIBABA GROUP Student’s Name Course Professor’s Name University City (State) Date Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc178342573 \h 2Task 1 PAGEREF _Toc178342574 \h 31.1 Explain the Link between Strategic Management and Leadership PAGEREF _Toc178342575 \h 31.2 Analyse the Impact of Management and Leadership Styles on Strategic Decisions PAGEREF _Toc178342576 \h 41.3 Evaluate how Leadership Styles can be Adapted to Different Situations PAGEREF _Toc178342577 \h 5Task 2 PAGEREF _Toc178342578 \h 72.1 Review the Impact that Selected Theories of Management and Leadership have on Future Organisational Strategy PAGEREF _Toc178342579 \h 72.2 Create a Leadership Strategy that Supports Organisational Direction PAGEREF _Toc178342580 \h 8Task 3 PAGEREF _Toc178342581 \h 93.1 Review Leadership Requirements in a Current Situation PAGEREF _Toc178342582 \h 93.2 Development of Future Situations Requiring Management and Leadership Skills PAGEREF _Toc178342583 \h 10Task 4 PAGEREF _Toc178342584 \h 114.1 Plan the Development of Leadership Skills for a Specific Requirement PAGEREF _Toc178342585 \h 114.2 Report on the Usefulness of Methods being used to Plan the Development of Leadership Skills PAGEREF _Toc178342586 \h 12Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc178342587 \h 13References PAGEREF _Toc178342588 \h 15Appendices PAGEREF _Toc178342589 \h 20 Introduction A business environment is driven by various internal and external factors influencing a firm’s competitive advantage. Progressive businesses integrate strategic management and best leadership practices to formulate a performative model to accomplish long-term objectives. Theoretically, strategic management is inevitable for companies to allocate resources and maximise profitability. Besides, strategic management ensures that companies are risk-resilient and pursue continuous innovation to adapt to paradigm shifts in the business environment (Singh et al., 2023). As a result, strategic management is a critical theory and leadership attribute to navigating business towards sustainable growth. On the contrary, leadership is a foundation for materialising strategic management considerations to accomplish long-term business objectives. According to Singh et al. (2023), leaders communicate strategic plans to team members at different hierarchical levels. Communication fosters sustainable culture and robust values to retain critical talents while shaping organisational strategies to align objectives with transforming environmental forces. Companies like Alibaba Group (Alibaba) are significant evidence for measuring leadership synergies in strategic management. Alibaba’s former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Daniel Zhang, strategised the company by strengthening technological capabilities and building risk appetite to manage evolving risks in the global e-commerce industry (Li & Goh, 2024). Hence, leaders are inevitable figures in organisations to materialise strategies and create a sustainable business model in the long run. This assignment will evaluate the significant influences of leadership styles on Alibaba, the world’s leading e-commerce business. Alibaba is a conglomerate in the e-commerce industry that utilised technology, finance, and diversity to dominate global marketplaces. The Chinese entity was founded by Jack Ma in 1999 to integrate diverse sectors by bridging buyers and sellers (Alibaba Group, 2024). Alibaba generated US$780 billion through e-commerce retailing, surpassing giants like Amazon to become a global market leader (See Figure 1 in the Appendices; SRD, 2024). Task 1 1.1 Explain the Link between Strategic Management and Leadership Strategic management and leadership share robust relationships for organisations when pursuing long-term objectives. According to Saleh and Auso (2023), strategic management is a planning implementation process to accomplish a firm’s vision and mission. However, the implementation remains paralysed in organisations if leadership intervention is absent. Leaders formulate plausible visions for organisations to dominate the marketplace. Leaders define timelines and allocate strategic resources to penetrate, expand, and diversify business propositions for sustainable growth (Saleh & Auso, 2023). As evidence, Zhang’s visionary leadership allowed Alibaba to capitalise on the global e-commerce market through technology and product diversity (Goh, 2023). Zhang invested in technological infrastructure to accomplish Alibaba’s long-term objectives and sustain operational excellence. Furthermore, strategic management is the timely decision-making of CEOs and other C-Suite members to foster a firm’s competitive advantage in the long run. Theoretically, leaders engage in critical decision-making and visionary brainstorming while determining strategic initiatives. Leaders collaborate and encourage team members to participate in decision-making to strategise business objectives through diversity and inclusivity. Strategic management remains ineffective for firms if leaders fail to make robust decisions while allocating resources and engaging team members to foster an innovative culture (Saleh & Auso, 2023). Lastly, strategic management and leadership are critical facets to foster change management in organisations. The business environment factors influence firm decisions, strategies, and vision. As a result, companies pursue long-term objectives by creating competitive advantages to enjoy market share leadership (Saleh & Auso, 2023). As evidence, Zhang revolutionised change in Alibaba using advanced algorithms and enhanced user experience. The change allowed Alibaba to dominate the global e-commerce marketplace and retain customers for continuous growth. Zhang’s change strategy made Alibaba a global e-commerce leader and customer preference (Alibaba Group, 2024a). Hence, strategic management and leadership directly relate to a firm’s objectives. 1.2 Analyse the Impact of Management and Leadership Styles on Strategic Decisions Leadership styles vary for organisations while pursuing long-term objectives and implementing robust planning to address environmental paradigms. However, distinctions in leadership styles influence strategic decisions due to the focus and interests of leaders. According to Sarioguz and Miser (2024), participatory leadership style focuses on decision-making efficiencies. Participatory leaders would engage employees and encourage collaborative decision-making to avoid conflicts of interest. Leaders would reduce power distance and communicate directly with team members to improve decisions. Participatory leaders emphasise strategic excellence and innovation by inviting ideas from diverse experiences and backgrounds of team members (Sarioguz & Miser, 2024). Participatory leadership style improves a firm’s decision-making outcomes in the long run. On the contrary, transformational leaders influence change management functions to align business strategies with internal and external market forces. Theoretically, transformational leaders inspire and motivate team members to embrace changes and take risks to capitalise on emerging opportunities in the business environment. Leaders would demonstrate openness to ideas, innovation, and creativity to encourage team participation. Transformational leadership style practices shared decision-making to accomplish long-term objectives. The theory resembles attributes with a participatory leadership approach. However, transformational leaders focus more on change management outcomes instead of improving a firm’s decision-making attributes. Transformational leaders improve initiatives to new ideas and strengthen the firm’s competitive advantage in the long run by embracing change (Mouazen et al., 2024). Lastly, transactional leaders optimise the firm’s operational strategies to maintain the status quo and monitor conduct. Unlike the transformational leadership style, transactional leaders create operational roadmaps to standardise business functions and mitigate conflicts. Transactional leaders are less resistant to change and accomplish operational efficiencies through continuous communication and prioritisation to maximise the firm’s profitability (Mouazen et al., 2024). 1.3 Evaluate how Leadership Styles can be Adapted to Different Situations Adaptability is a fundamental focus for leaders to accomplish a firm’s success. However, empirical evidence indicates that leaders should understand the situation and timeframe to adopt relevant styles while pursuing long-term objectives. According to Bwalya (2023), firms should promote transformational leadership when embracing change for competitive advantage and sustainable growth. Change is inevitable for organisations when operating in a dynamic business environment. Transformational leaders are robust resources for firms to implement change and capitalise on emerging opportunities when pursuing growth. Hence, firms should deploy transformational leaders to encourage change and mitigate conflicts with evolving situations in the business environment (Bwalya, 2023). Zourmpanos (2023) identified Zhang’s transformational leadership abilities to embrace changes in the global e-commerce business. The findings denote that Zhang pushed cloud technologies in Alibaba’s servicescape to increase user-friendliness in the interface. Technological dominance empowered Alibaba to surpass the market share of other global giants like Amazon and eBay. Besides, the transformation led Alibaba to step beyond the Chinese market and penetrate Asian, Middle East, North American, and European regions with customer loyalty (Zourmpanos, 2023). Zhang’s transformational leadership embraced changes in the global e-commerce industry to strategise Alibaba’s business model for sustainable growth. Nonetheless, transactional leadership is effective for firms operating in a stable and sustainable business environment. Transactional leaders improve operational excellence and retain decision-making autonomy to stabilise business functions. The adaptation prevents firms from mitigating conflicts of interest between internal and external stakeholders (Bwalya, 2023). As evidence, Zhang adopted a transactional leadership style once Alibaba stabilised six business units in global markets. Zhang diverted focus to operational excellence, customer centrism, and user-friendliness through a transactional leadership style to offer competitive value propositions to existing customers (Soo, 2023). Hence, leadership adaptability depends on the situation and timeframe to pursue a sustainable strategy. Task 2 2.1 Review the Impac...