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Sir Richard Branson Case Study

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Sir Richard Branson Case Study
Sir Richard Branson, Chairman, Virgin Group, Ltd Case Study
Nicole Walls
Dr. Jeffrey Weaver
BUS 520 – Leadership and Organizational Behavior
March 10, 2013

Sir Richard Branson, Chairman, Virgin Group, Ltd Case Study

In this paper I will describe Sir Richard Branson’s leadership style and evaluate the effectiveness of his style in the United States today. I will give my recommendation of a leadership style that I feel would make Branson a more effective leader. I will also determine ways in which Branson could develop and lead a global team when working on a major project. In addition, I will discuss ways that I could incorporate Branson’s leadership qualities into my role at my workplace. Sir Richard Branson is the founder of Virgin Group. He was born in 1950 in the United Kingdom. Branson dropped out of school at the age of 16 due to having trouble in school in addition to being diagnosed with dyslexia. Branson began a student paper at the age of 16. He later started a mail-order business and a record label soon after. During the growth of the Virgin brand, Branson also ventured into Airlines and also started a record label in the US. Branson started Virgin Galactic which is a space tourism company in 2005. Today the Virgin brand has more than 200 various businesses in over 30 countries (Dearlove, 2007). I believe that Branson’s leadership style is transformational. He is also appears to be a very charismatic leader. Transformational leadership is when a leader anticipates future trends that inspire followers to understand and embrace a new vision of possibilities, developing others to be leaders or better leaders, and building the organization or group into a community of challenged and rewarding leaders (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). Transformational leadership has four components. Transformational leaders show individualized consideration which is the degree to which the leader attends to followers’ needs, acts as mentor or coach, and


References: Bass B. M, (1985). Leadership and Performance. N.Y.,: Free Press. Cascio, W. F., & Shurygailo, S. (2003). E-Leadership and Virtual Team. Organizational Dynamics, 31(4), 362-376. Dearlove, Des (2007). The Richard Branson Way. Chichester, UK: Wiley & Sons. Eich, Ritch K., (2012). Real Leaders Don’t Boss. Pompton Plains, NJ: The Career Press. Heller, R (2010). Global Teams, Trends, and Solutions. Cornell Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies. Hellriegel, D. & Slocum, J.W. (2011). Organizational behavior (13th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Hunsaker, P. L., & Hunsaker, J. S. (2008). Virtual Teams: A Leaders Guide. Team Performance Management, 14(1/2), 86-101. Kramer, R. J. (2005). Developing Global Leaders: Enhancing Competencies and Accelerating the Expatriate Experience. The Conference Board. Zigurs, I. (2003). Leadership in Virtual Teams: Oxymoron or Opportunity? Organizational Dynamics, 31(4), 339-351. Zaccaro, S. J., & Bader, P. (2003). E-Leadership and the Challenges of Leading E- Teams: Minimizing the Bad and Maximizing the Good. Organizational Dynamics, 31(4), 377- 387.
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