Leadership Of Alan Joyce In Business

Leadership Style of Alan Joyce

The main purpose of the report is to assess the leadership style of Alan Joyce in the regard to Qantas and to analyse that how his strategic leadership influence the direction of the business. For attaining this purpose of the report, the theory related to the leadership style is used to analyse the leadership style of Alan Joyce.

About the Leadership of Alan Joyce

Despite facing several difficult choices to turn around the airline, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has shown to be an outstanding leader for his organisation. After facing public criticism in 2011 for grounding the aircraft, Alan Joyce was once again enlisted by the union, lawmakers, and the media to take charge of the airline as it suffered its most tremendous loss in its history (FitzSimons, 2021). As a result of his efforts, Qantas has become one of the world’s most profitable airlines.

The company’s difficult choices have been met by Joyce, a transformative leader who has also delivered on the company’s financial goals. According to an article by CAPA (2011), Alan bravely adopted the techniques that aided in expanding his company. It was only after Alan Joyce’s strategic leadership had been effectively implemented that he could continue to engage in and lead social cause campaigns. Other organisations that have recognised him include Male Champions of Change and Career Trackers.

In 2011, Qantas was at its lowest position in the market, but Alan Joyce’s strategic leadership initiatives had turned the company around. When Alan Joyce assumed the reins as CEO, he was responsible for the company’s reorganisation. In 2014 and 2015, the firm took advantage of lower fuel costs to launch additional nonstop, long-haul, and international routes. Reorganisation of the company’s operations into local and foreign divisions was completed. In terms of Alan Joyce’s strategic leadership, he has a clear vision, is humble, and is quite decisive. Alan had to make several difficult decisions, such as decreasing the staff, which drew strong criticism from the general population (Freed, 2016). On the other hand, these choices were made with an eye on creating long-term value for the firm and maximising development, putting the company in an advantageous position. This facet of Alan Joyce’s character has been shown via the successful execution of his strategic leadership approach. He’s decided to shut down the whole airline and then re-launch it under a new name.

Analysis of Leadership Style

In an organisation, there are many different types of leadership styles to choose from; nevertheless, transformational leadership is often regarded as the most effective of them all. Transformational leaders constantly demonstrate an inspiring part of their personality because they want everyone on their team to accomplish at their highest levels as they do (Shelton, 2012). It is one of the reasons why transformational leaders can achieve high levels of productivity while also encouraging participation from all team members. However, there is a disadvantage to transformational leadership along with its advantages to the leadership of the organization. Although leaders’ passion is passed on to team members, the leader needs the help of “detail people” to ensure that the change is successful. As a result, a mix of transformational and transactional leadership styles is the most effective combination for leaders to use in corporate organisations (Arenas, 2019).

After the analysis of the case of Qantas, it can be stated that after being hired as Qantas’ chief executive officer, Alan Joyce was charged with the primary responsibility of boosting employee morale and increasing employee engagement that reflected his transformational leadership approach. Nevertheless, the decision made by Joyce to halt the whole airline was a remarkable one that prompted the federal government to act in a way that had never before been seen in the Australian business sector until then. In terms of strategy, however, he came out on top because, as we can see, he was able to break the impasse between Qantas and the three unions, as they were obliged to go through mediation and, if they failed, they would be forced to go through arbitrary conciliation, which he was successful in doing. As a result, Joyce, the amiable Irishman, was forced to fight his way through a difficult circumstance. With a firm commitment to restoring the business’s brand image, he is working hard to win back the confidence of consumers and workers in the organisation. The few characteristics which are found in Joyce’s leadership style is:

• Superb quality of leadership;
• Expresses clear vision for the development and survival of the organization;
• Not a self-important person;
• A humble and modest person;
• A decisive person to take required actions.

Thus, if we check, Joyce follows more of Transactional leadership style where the leader wants the team members appointed to be ready to obey and follow whatever their leader tells them. The leader has the right to punish the team members if the work is not up to the required standards and paid for the work done. This leadership style is effective in short term as the focus of the leader is on getting short-term tasks done and there are various limitations in the sense of creative work or knowledge –base (Bass and Riggio, 2006). But this kind of leadership is very effective in other situations. This leadership is very effective because the roles and responsibilities of every person in the team are already specified.

Further, leadership style of Alan Joyce was blamed due to his rigorous and abrupt decision making style. Modern corporate organisations, workers, and employment are evolving. Therefore a leader needs to adapt changing situations. But, Alan Joyce, Qantas’ CEO, has been criticised for his leadership style in balancing the company plan. Alan Joyce’s leadership style is transactional because he sees human relationships as a series of transactions. For this leadership style, penalties and payments are the foundation of transactional leadership. In transactional leadership, a leader leads and guides his people, explaining their roles and duties in detail. The leader rewards the employee if he effectively follows the rules and directions and completes the assignment satisfactorily. If he fails, the leader penalises him. Thus, a transactional leader leads his team or group (Arenas, 2019). This leadership style is also known as management leadership since it focuses on the organization’s performance, success, and sustainability. Thus, in transactional leadership, a leader often promotes and motivates his team by rewarding and punishing them.

Australian-based Qantas Airways is headed by Alan Joyce, an Irishman from Dublin. During her tenure as CEO, Joyce has guided the firm to incredible heights of success in the often-chaotic world of airline travel. However, his most recent show of leadership may be his finest. Even amid a competitive challenge, he had maintained growth of business through good customer interactions when industry is facing challenge of Covid-19 (Pontefract, 2019).

Conclusion

As per the above discussion, it concluded that the leadership style of Alan Joyce is a transactional leadership style that helped him to make strict decisions to bring the organization from loss into profit that is the most important aspect for the organization for its survival.

References

Arenas, F. 2019. A Casebook of Transformational and Transactional Leadership. Routledge.

Bass, B. and Riggio, R. 2006. Transformational Leadership. Psychology Press.

CAPA. 2011. Alan Joyce wins gamble on Qantas grounding but now awaits market’s lasting return. [Online] Available at: https://centreforaviation.com/analysis/reports/alan-joyce-wins-gamble-on-qantas-grounding-but-now-awaits-markets-lasting-return-61767 (Accessed: 5 January, 2022)

Freed, J. 2016. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce turns around the airline, and his public image. [Online] Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/qantas-ceo-idUSL4N1CP24Z (Accessed: 5 January, 2022)

itzSimons , P. 2021. ‘We just want our aircraft back in the air’: Alan Joyce on why prices won’t be sky-high when travel returns. [Online] Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/national/we-just-want-our-aircraft-back-in-the-air-alan-joyce-on-why-prices-won-t-be-sky-high-when-travel-returns-20211014-p5905t.html (Accessed: 5 January, 2022)

Pontefract, D. 2019. Qantas Airways CEO Delivered A Masterclass In Leadership. [Online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danpontefract/2019/03/11/qantas-airways-ceo-delivered-a-masterclass-in-leadership/?sh=3326bc146d1d (Accessed: 5 January, 2022)

Shelton, E. 2012. Transformational Leadership: Trust, Motivation and Engagement. Trafford Publishing.