What makes an effective leader?

A study into the characteristics of two prominent leaders

Executive Summary

This paper compares the behaviours and skills of two currently influential individuals, and will analyse which of these two are the most effective at their leadership. The two leaders that will be compared in this analysis are Sir Richard Branson who is the founder of the Virgin Group and Kim Jong-Un, the Supreme Leader of North Korea. The study will then conclude from the discussion that follows which individual is the more effective leader. Upon using various leadership theories to contrast between these two leaders, it is found that Sir Richard Branson is the most effective in accomplishing his leadership goals.

Introduction

Leadership is a vigorously debated topic that plays a critical role in all aspects of society. There are a multitude of styles and characteristics shown by leaders that have been witnessed throughout history, with many of these leaders leaving a permanent imprint upon the world, for better or for worse. This study compares two leaders, that upon first impressions their skills and some behaviour in regards to leadership may appear to be profoundly different. Sir Richard Branson is well known as a distinctive business leader and entrepreneur, while Kim Jong-Un is widely known for his ruthless tactics and violent totalitarianism control over the people of North Korea. It is firstly important to note for this study what precisely leadership is. (Astin and Leiand 1991), state that leadership is a process by which members of a group are empowered to work together synergistically toward a common goal or vision that will create change and transform institutions, and thus improve the quality of life There are many different theories in leadership that can be used to quantify the makeup of a good leader. Leadership also has an emotional and empathetic nature, which is somewhat more difficult to measure and record quantitatively. This emotional aspect can be witnessed by the opinions and actions of followers who interact and who are affected by the leader, as well as behaviours and attitudes shown by the leaders them self.

The first part of this study will briefly discuss the overview of each leaders style, looking at the effects of the leader themselves, the actions of the followers, while taking into consideration the situation. As Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy (2012) p 520 conclude, Leadership is a process that involves aspects of the leader, followers, and the situation. The second part of the discussion will then analyse these leaders using multiple leadership theories, such as power sources and path-goal theory from various literature reviews to come to a

conclusion on the most effective leader.

Discussion

1.0 - Sir Richard Branson

Sir Richard Bransons achievement orientation was apparent from a very early age. At the age of 16 Sir Richard Branson started a magazine called Student which was the start of his entrepreneurship, and was a pivotal leader in creating other business ventures that are flourishing to this day. The Virgin Group, which Sir Richard Branson founded in 1970, has more than 400 companies, which includes some commonly known entities such as Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Mobile and one of his most ambitious developments Virgin Galactic. Sir Richard Branson is such a prominent figure in the business world, that he was knighted in December 1999 from Her Majesty the Queen due to his services of entrepreneurship. Since the start of the magazine Sir Richard Branson created when he was a teenager in the mid 1960s, his drive and courage has continued and can easily be identified, while still being discussed today.

Sir Richard Branson is also commonly known and admired by many for his go for it attitude, and his ability to take informed, calculated risks in his business ventures. (Branson, R 1986) The behaviours and values of Sir Richard Branson are easily identified due to his distinctive and charismatic personality, and will be discussed further.

2.0 - Kim Jong-Un

In comparison to the open sources available on Sir Richard Branson, information on North Korea and Kim Jong-Uns leadership is much more restricted and filtered. North Korea is one of the few countries in the world where opinion and independent speech is so closely monitored and punished. It is hard to obtain factual information on this secretive country from the strict control North Korea reigns over information. (Atsuhito, I 2012), states that this makes analysis of the official North Korean media (including its choice of words) one of the few means available to gain insight into the country. On the 19th of December 2011 North Korea informed the public that the then current Supreme Leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-Il had passed away. On the same day Kim Jung-on was placed directly into the leadership following his fathers death. North Korea has appeared in many media and news stories as a highly secretive and unapologetic nuclear state who are still at war with the US and South Korea, with China one of its few allies.

People of North Korea are under extremely tight control, with cellular network severely limited and as of 2010 were ranked the second to last on the World Press Freedom Index. ('North Korea'

2010) Having described the information asymmetries, we will now analyse the leadership qualities they exhibit, using relevant leadership theories to contrast between these two leaders.

3.0 Analysis of Leadership Effectiveness

Leadership as defined in the Introduction of this report is a process by which members of a group are empowered to work together synergistically toward a common goal or vision that will create change and transform institutions, and thus improve the quality of life (Astin and Leiand 1991) We will therefore look at the process in which these two individuals influence their followers, while also noting that the situation also has a large impact on the effectiveness and outcomes of leadership. The Interactional Framework for Leadership diagram, found in Appendix 1.0 provides a clear illustration on the interaction between these three components of the leadership equation. Leadership is a process that aims to achieve targeted and specific goals. Sir Richard Bransons goals would be thought as achieving corporate success and expanding his network of achievements in the business environment, where Kim Jong-Uns goal can be viewed as military dominance with total control over the people of North Korea to create a strong, powerful and united country.

3.1 Values and Attitudes

It is somewhat challenging to accurately study Kim Jong-Uns personal values and attitudes due to the closed nature of this communist state, none the less we can still study his behaviour and the outputs of his leadership. Organisations have a set of intrinsic values, while the same can be applied to countries. As a leader, Kim Jong-Un has to uphold and promote the values that North Korea represents and believes in. Whether Kim Jong-Un truly believes in these values, or is merely a puppet of the North Korean leadership requires a separate in depth study altogether. A vast majority of the leadership qualities that Kim Jong-Un exhibits are considered dark side or unethical leadership attributes. Unethical leadership can be described as leadership that acts in a way that may appear to achieve a desired result or outcome, but fails to distinguish between right and wrong in achieving these goals. (Gini, A, & Green, R 2012)

Sir Richard Branson can be seen to show values that are common between good leaders and exhibits many traits of strong emotional intelligence such as empathy, self awareness and strong social skills. A brief overview of Sir Richard Bransons journey to where he is currently today shows that Sir Richard Branson possesses a strong set of interpersonal skills and has had a desire since the Virgin Groups earlier days, to build quality social capital which can be compared to goals of non-profit organisations. Sir Richard Branson is also seen to excel and produce positive behaviours by his Leadership by Example, which is defined as collective actions, decisions, and general deportment of leaders (e.g., personal sacrifice, servant leadership). (Ahn, M, Ettner, L, & Loupin, A 2011) While Sir Richard Branson is seen to have strong interpersonal skills, Kim Jong-Un is seen as

having strong intrapersonal skills, which involve goal orientation and adhering to rules. These skills do not involve interacting with others and are the most difficult to change. (Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy 2012) The appreciable difference that can be argued between Kim Jong-Un and Sir Richard Branson, are the moral or ethical values that each place on their desire to lead their respective groups to common goals. Supporters of the North Korean dictatorship may believe the values held are correct and are needed for the good of the country, though many would argue this is a case of moral justification from the leadership party of North Korea. This report will now discuss the way these leaders use their power to instill their values and beliefs upon their followers.

3.2 Power and Influence

The power that these two leaders hold will now be discussed. As defined in Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy (2012) power is the capacity to produce effects on others. It is clearly evident that both Sir Richard Branson and Kim Jong-Un have considerable power. There are five bases of power that French and Raven provided in 1959 which are reward, coercive, expert, referent and legitimate power. (Gaski, JF 1986) Kim Jong-Un can be observed as having very strong both legitimate and coercive power. The North Korea leader holds legitimate power by being placed as the Supreme Leader of North Korea as a result from the death of his father in 2011. The title Supreme Leader also reminds the people daily of this legitimate power. Both of these categories of power can be viewed as short term prescriptions to keep the balance of power, and by this power alone Kim Jong-Un cannot create an effective leadership and a unified, prosperous country. Sir Richard Branson and Kim Jong-Un both have different power needs, and differing sources of their power. Sir Richard Branson is seen as a charismatic character in which he uses a mix of his referent, legitimate and expert power. Sir Richard Branson encourages empowerment and support, stemming from a need of socialised power. Kim Jong-Un, through his totalitarianism ruling of impoverished North Korea, uses what is seen by most individuals as unethical coercive power. One of the sad results of this coercive power with reference to punishment has been witnessed by media reports of recent times claiming his ex-lover, Hyon Song-wol was executed by firing squad for violating domestic laws on pornography. (Ryall, J 2013) From this strong coercive power that is sometimes reported as non contingent, it may seem obvious to external onlookers that this control is self serving, and some would call evil leadership. The other opinion that should be stated is citizens of North Korea may argue that Kim Jong-Uns approach and tactics are for the good of the whole nation and believe the leaders are exhibiting needed utilitarianism for the people of North Korea.

3.3 Motivation

Motivation techniques between Sir Richard Branson and Kim Jong-Un vary quite significantly. There are many different motivation theories in regards to leadership. It can be seen with reference to Sir Richard Branson that he regularly empowers his employees and subordinates, allowing them to act as entrepreneurs in the business. This provides clear accountability and increases their motivation to succeed at the goals that are set ahead of them. (Ghosh, A 2013), states that Employee empowerment is the process of shifting authority and responsibility to employees at lower level in the organizational hierarchy. This is clearly evident when reviewing the many Virgin Group success stories about his subordinates, such as Brett Godfrey. (Thomas, G 2009) Kim Jong-Un is antithetical when comparing the empowerment to followers compared to Sir Richard Branson. The North Korean leader directs the people of his country via totalitarian control. The comparison regards to motivation between the two leaders can be viewed by using two motivational theories.

Maslows Hierarchy of Needs Operant Approach

The populations of North Korea that are enrolled in the military depend on their role in the North Korean leadership for access to constant physiological and security needs. More elite members of the military and other individuals would also be motivated by the higher part of Maslows pyramid, the esteem and self-actualisation needs. Appendix 1.1 represents the typical conceptualisation of these needs. The Operant approach to motivation deals with the rewards and punishment dealt to followers. It is evident that Sir Richard Bransons employees are rewarded by empowerment and are given greater control and influence over the operation that they directly impact, if good behaviours and attitudes are displayed. North Koreas military and civilian population is attempted to be tightly controlled by punishment. This punishment is administrated for seemingly innocent behaviours and activities that citizens of other countries take for granted. This tactic by Kim Jong-Un does not appear to be useful in the objective of leading his people to a powerful and prosperous nuclear state, and only seems to reinforce the powerful doctrine of the Supreme leader of North Korea at the expense of many North Korean lives.

3.4 Path-Goal Theory

Out of the five different contingency theory leadership models that are used in leadership, this report will use the Path-Goal Leadership model. (House, RJ 1971) states that the central concept of expectancy theories is that the force on an individual to engage in a specific behaviour is a function of (1) his expectations that the behaviour will result in a specific outcome; (2) the sum of the valences, that is, personal utilities or satisfaction that he derived from the outcome. Path-Goal Theory calculates the effort to performance probabilities, by looking at the satisfaction of followers and also the followers perception of their own ability. (Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy 2012) Appendix 1.2 illustrates a simple calculation of the PathGoal Theory.

With regards to this theory there are four separate styles that leaders can choose to support from their behaviours, depending on the followers locus of control and the task at hand;

Directive Leadership Supportive Leadership Participative Leadership Achievement-oriented Leadership

The above behaviours can be used individually, though effective leaders will utilise a mix of these depending on the power and the situation. Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy (2012) state that Leaders should first assess the situation and select a leadership behaviour appropriate to situational demands Sir Richard Branson is known quite well for his supportive and genuine concerns over his followers and fellow colleagues. When Sir Richard Branson is questioned in an interview from (Hanna, J, & Klein, D 2011) about how he drives his people to mirror his enthusiastic spirit, part of his reply is; So we try to promote from within.... (Use) lots and lots of praise; Criticism should not be part of their makeup and inspire people to really succeed. In this answer it is clear that Sir Richard Branson partakes in supportive leadership and achievement-orientated leadership. Achievement-orientated leaders are known to set challenging goals for group and follower behavior and continually seek to improve performance en route Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy (2012) Kim Jong-Un with his direct, strict laws and continuous strive for control, would use Directive Leadership, and rarely support any other of the leadership styles, regardless of the situation.

Conclusion

This report has given a brief overview of both leaders - Sir Richard Branson who is a well known and respected entrepreneur and Kim Jong-Un, a feared and extremely powerful leader of over 24 million people. Sir Richard Branson has an achievement-orientated personality, supporting and empowering his followers to succeed. The Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Jong-Un makes use of different leadership qualities including coercive power and directive leadership. Under motivation theory Kim Jong-Uns leadership to his people has been closely related to the physiological and security sections of Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. The goal of this report was to use relevant leadership theory to asses which of these leaders were the most effective at leadership. Here we define effectiveness as; the degree to which something is successful in producing a desired result; success: (The Oxford English Dictionary 2010) The evidence of the outcomes of Sir Richard Bransons leadership skills shows positive effects of his behaviours and attributes in the business environment, concluding that he is the more effective leader.

Kim Jong-Un in comparison - in extremely limited elements is seen as effective; and as this report has concludes a more holistic leadership approach is required for effective leadership. As Kim Jong-Uns leadership is not seen to improve quality of life and even degenerate it, this does not satisfy the definition of leadership as discussed in the Introduction. Tensions between North Korea and many continents are running high, with many citizens of the country oppressed and life expectancies declining. Evidence of this under North Korean leadership can be sighted in Appendix 1.3 There are many discussions and critical changes that need to develop for Kim Jong-Un and the leaders of North Korea to produce effective leadership, which will vastly improve the outlook for this country. For the people of North Korea, this cannot happen soon enough.

References

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