Effective leadership behaviors in the sales functions of consumer driven business in South Africa
Date
2013-10-04
Authors
Hughes, Steven
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Abstract
Leadership as a topic provides an extensive challenge in that its scope is significant and
no ‘one size fits all’ approach exists. Within leadership, there are various theories and
styles. Potential leaders all have a natural style of leadership that they gravitate towards;
nevertheless, it does not mean that leaders cannot grow. They have the ability to learn to
lead more effectively by practising, observing and adjusting their behaviour where
necessary.
This research report aims to identify business leaders’ perceptions of the key behaviours
that determine effective leadership within sales functions of consumer driven businesses
in South Africa by using Nicholls’ (1994) Head, Heart and Hands framework, which allows
for differentiation between various types of behaviour.
A themed content analysis was conducted on the responses and information (interview
transcripts) gathered from 16 critical incident interviews involving 16 respondents with
current or recent sales director experience, thus meeting the research criteria. The
common factors identified across all respondents led to a deeper understanding of the
issues, resulting in a list of themes, categories within those themes and key behaviours of
effective leaders relative to behaviours of effective leaders within sales functions of
consumer driven businesses.
The most significant feature of the research was that provided a leader leads by example
and treats people in the manner in which they would wish to be treated, it would be
difficult to make fundamental leadership mistakes. By being authentic in their leadership
style, and being themselves they will ‘always’ do the right thing and make the right
decisions. Therefore, sales directors and aspiring leaders within the sales function of
consumer driven industries can learn and apply the key behaviours of a leader, which is
significantly easier to change and adapt than characteristics of a leader. Furthermore, the
literature review revealed that leadership behaviour plays an extensive role in the
performance and general productivity of the work force. The results of the research study
have identified key behaviours of effective leaders within the sales functions of consumer
driven businesses in South Africa.
Description
MBA thesis
Keywords
Leadership, Sales and selling, Authentic leadership