Reference no: EM132654573

Developing Strategic Management and Leadership Skills

Purpose of this Assignment

For an organisation to be competitive both now and in the future, it is vital to understand how current thinking on leadership influences an organisation's planning to meet current and future leadership requirements.

This assignment will enable you to demonstrate an understanding of the links between strategic management, leadership and organisational direction, and the skills to be able to apply this understanding within an organisational context.

Scenario

Microsoft Corporation (MS) is an American multinational technology company with headquarters in Redmond, Washington. It develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services. Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft Office suite, and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface lineup of touchscreen personal computers. As of 2016, it is the world's largest software maker by revenue, and one of the world's most valuable companies. The word "Microsoft" is a portmanteau of "microcomputer" and "software". Microsoft is ranked No. 30 in the 2018 Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.

Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975, to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by Microsoft Windows. The company's 1986 initial public offering (IPO), and subsequent rise in its share price, created three billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires among Microsoft employees. Since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions, their largest being the acquisition of LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in December 2016, followed by their acquisition of Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion in May 2011.

As of 2015, Microsoft is market-dominant in the IBM PC-compatible operating system market and the office software suite market, although it has lost the majority of the overall operating system market to Android. The company also produces a wide range of other consumer and enterprise software for desktops and servers, including Internet search (with Bing), the digital services market (through MSN), mixed reality (HoloLens), cloud computing (Azure) and software development (Visual Studio).

Steve Ballmer replaced Gates as CEO in 2000, and later envisioned a "devices and services" strategy. This began with the acquisition of Danger Inc. in 2008, entering the personal computer production market for the first time in June 2012 with the launch of the Microsoft Surface line of tablet computers; and later forming Microsoft Mobile through the acquisition of Nokia's devices and services division. Since Satya Nadella took over as CEO in 2014, the company has scaled back on hardware and has instead focused on cloud computing, a move that helped the company's shares reach its highest value since December 1999.

In 2018, Microsoft surpassed Apple as the most valuable publicly traded company in the world after being dethroned by the tech giant in 2010.

Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. It represents a series of video game consoles developed by Microsoft, with three consoles released in the sixth, seventh, and eighth generations, respectively. The brand also represents applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox Live, and the development arm by the name of Xbox Game Studios. The brand was first introduced in the United States in November 2001, with the launch of the original Xbox console.

The original device was the first video game console offered by an American company after the Atari Jaguar stopped sales in 1996. It reached over 24 million units sold as of May 2006. Microsoft's second console, the Xbox 360, was released in 2005 and has sold over 77.2 million consoles worldwide as of April 2013. The Xbox One has been released in 21 markets in total, with a Chinese release in September 2014. The head of Xbox is Phil Spencer, who succeeded former head Marc Whitten in late March 2014.

You are appointed as an Assistant Manager in the head-office of Microsoft Xbox. The management asks you to conduct a research as they are planning to implement a new management and leadership method. In this case you are asked to provide a comprehensive review of the functions of major strategic management and leadership required to achieve strategic objectives. Before concluding this section you have to analyse the impact of different management and leadership styles on strategic decisions. Then you have to evaluate how these styles have been adapted to meet challenges in at least two (2) different situations and organizational contexts.

Once all that is completed the management wants you to critically analyse at least three management and leadership theories (with relevant models) and how these same models can be applied to Microsoft Xbox and which one is preferred.

Finally, once you complete all this your last task is to explore and assess some current challenges that leaders have to face now and in the near future. Next to this you also decide to propose a plan for the recruitment and future development for a specific leadership role in the form of a chart. You are required to submit a professionally presented research to the CEO by the agreed date.

Task 1
I. Understand the relationship between strategic management and leadership

1. Explain the link between major strategic management and leadership required to achieve strategic objectives of Microsoft Xbox. (1.1).

2. Analyse the impact of different management and leadership styles on strategic decisions of Microsoft. Finally evaluate how leadership styles can be adapted to different situations. (1.2, 1.3).

Task 2

II. Be able to apply management and leadership theory to support organisational direction.

1. Critically analyse a minimum of three management and leadership theories and models explaining how they can be applied to different situational contexts within Microsoft. This task should also include a discussion of the impact that different styles can have on the different situational contexts. (2.1).

2. Explain which management and leadership theories and models you would recommend for the organization in order to support its strategic direction. (2.2).

Task 3

III. Be able to assess leadership requirements and to plan the development of leadership skills.

1. Use appropriate methods to review current leadership requirements that leaders face both today and in the near future for a specific situation within Microsoft. (3.1 3.2).

2. Finally, you need to prepare a plan for the recruitment and future development for a specific leadership role in the form of a chart.

Task 4

IV. Be able to plan the development of leadership skills
1. Plan the development of leadership skills for a specific requirement within Microsoft. (4.1)
2. Report on the usefulness of methods used to plan the development of leadership skills (4.2)