Emirates Airline HR Department: Leadership and Its Effect

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Literature Review
Analysis of the Primary Research
Action Plan and Research Diary/Log
Conclusion and Recommendations
Evaluation
Reference List

Introduction

The concept of leadership has been a subject of investigation among scholars for several decades. According to Purwanto et al. (2020), it has become increasingly evident that the approach that one takes to guide others define their productivity, commitment, and loyalty to an organization. During the agricultural and industrial revolution, dictatorial and autocratic leadership styles were seen as some of the most effective governance strategies. However, the world is changing and these approaches are no longer as effective as they were about a century ago. In the late 20^th century and in the 21^st century, it has become increasingly evident that people work best in an environment where they feel trusted and valued. They want a space to make decision and to contribute to the developmental policies within their organization. Chandra (2016) explains that every context requires a unique approach to leadership depending on what is to be achieved and forces that the team is facing.

Emirates Airline is one of the leading corporations in the aviation industry. The company has broadened its product line to ensure that it increases its sales and profitability in this highly competitive and volatile market (Asrar-ul-Haqa and Kuchinke, 2016). The management has realized that one of the best ways of managing competition is to recruit and maintain a team of highly qualified and talented employees who understand their role effectively. As such, the firm has been keen on developing an effective leadership style that is meant to maintain a team of highly diversified workforce. It understands that the performance of these workers depend on the style of governance that is embraced. The aim of this research paper is to identify leadership styles and their effect on the performance of employees at the human resource department at the Emirates Airline.

Research Question Objectives

When planning to conduct this study, the researcher developed a research question that guided the process of collecting both primary and secondary data. The question was based on the topic of the study and it reads as follows:

Which leadership styles are effective in enhancing employee performance at Emirates Airlines’ human resource?

The primary research question above formed the basis upon which both primary and secondary data were collected. During the stage of developing the proposal for this study, the researcher developed objectives that had to be realized through data collection and analysis. The researcher identified the following research objectives based on the primary research question:

To analyse different leadership theories and their application in the modern business environment;
To assess employees’ opinion on leadership within HR department at Emirates Airline;
To research management opinion on leadership among managers within HR department;
To identify gaps between theories and practice in leadership;
To develop recommendations for more effective leadership within HR department.

Literature Review

In the current challenging business environment, firms are under pressure to find effective ways of governing workers. Chandra (2016) explains that human resource is one of the most critical aspects of an organization that defines its ability to achieve success. While the management is responsible for developing policies that guide various operations, junior officers are responsible for interpreting and implementing them to achieve the intended goal. It is in the interest of the top leadership to ensure that it has a team of highly skilled workers responsible for implementation of such policies. A study by Rathore et al. (2017) shows that it may be easy for a firm to recruit a team of talented employees but the challenge is to always ensure that they remain motivated in their respective workplaces. Having capable but demotivated workers may mean that their performance is compromised. Losing such valuable workers to a rival firm may have devastating impact on the performance of a company.

A company can use various strategies to motivate its employees in the workplace. A study by Purwanto et al. (2020) noted that one of the best ways of maintaining a team of happy workers is to ensure that they are properly remunerated. However, the claim by this scholar has been criticized by other scholars who believe that motivating employees goes beyond pay. According to Saeed et al. (2014), in the current business environment, people prefer working in places where they feel free, respected, and valued by those in authority. They want to work in companies where their views count and opinions taken into consideration during policy development. They prefer not to work in places where they feel constantly threatened or belittled by the management. As such, the style of leadership that a firm embraces has come under a sharp focus in the recent past. In this section, it is necessary to summarize and criticize relevant literature that focuses on various styles of leadership.

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership has emerged as one of the most popular concepts of leadership in the modern history. As Clark (2017) explains, this approach to leadership emphasizes the need for a leader to create a vision and guide subordinates on a path towards its realization. This theory is based on the belief that organizations should understand the changing forces in their environment and put in place measures that can manage them. A transformational leader is expected to understand the current capabilities and weaknesses of juniors and help them find ways of realizing their potential. It involves challenging employees to embrace continuous improvement to ensure that their current performance exceed that of the previous one.

This approach to leadership has become highly relevant in the modern business environment. It is popular among employees because it does not involve any coercive practices. Instead, employees are allowed to understand their current level of productivity and their potential. They are then guided accordingly to greater performance based on existing structures. As Chandra (2016) notes, the concept is based on McGregor’s theory Y, which holds that subordinates can be self-driven and highly productive even without close monitoring by those in authority. As a leader, one is expected to work closely with employees to understand how to inspire them. When working in a highly diversified workplace, a leader must find a way of creating a common vision that everyone can identify with based on the common forces that they face. They have to be charismatic enough to influence their subordinates to take specific actions without using any form of coercion.

Democratic Leadership

Democratic leadership has been in existence for several decades and it is one of the most popular leadership strategies. In this case, subjects are allowed to take participative roles in the process of making decisions (Asrar-ul-Haqa and Kuchinke, 2016). Leaders are required to consult widely with their subjects when making critical decisions, especially when it will affect employees. In some cases, it becomes necessary to allow members to vote on issues relating to policy that an organization embraces. In such a system, members are allowed to share their opinion and ideas over issues relating to the normal operations of a company. They have the power to block a given policy if they have a legitimate reason to do so (Eliyana and Muzakki 2019). They can do so through the leadership of their unions or directly by engaging those in top managerial positions.

It is important to note that in most of the cases, the leader is expected to make the final decision, although members have a significant influence in the way they are governed. Although it is considered as being more relevant in political leadership, this approach of governance is gaining popularity in the corporate world. According to Rathore et al. (2017), creativity and innovation have become critical aspects of a firm’s capabilities. It has become increasingly evident that democratic leadership promotes innovation among employees. They realize that their ideas are valued by the management and can inform policies of their organization. As such, they will always strive to develop a new concept meant to improve the overall performance.

Autocratic Leadership

Autocratic approach of governance, sometimes referred to as authoritarian leadership, refers to a governance approach where a leader has absolute authority over followers. In this strategy, followers are not expected to make any policy contributions unlike their opinion is sought for by the leader (Wuryani et al. 2020). All decisions in the organizations are based on what the leader wants as opposed to a consensus by the majority. It goes against the principle of democratic leadership by diminishing the role of subordinates in providing views on governance. It upholds McGregor’s theory Y, which argues that employees tend to be lazy and demoralized (O’Neill, 2018). As such, they require close and constant motivation to ensure that they accomplish tasks assigned to them. Such leaders do not hesitate to use punitive measures whenever they feel that their subordinates are not following instructions provided to them.

Autocratic leadership may be relevant in specific instances when governing a given group of people. Chandra (2016) believes that this strategy may be used when it is necessary to achieve short-term goals with a diversified group of people. In such a setting, it is always necessary to make quick decisions within a short time and ensure that everyone follows a given direction. When the team is highly diversified, it may take a long time to reach a consensus. In this approach of management, a leader needs to develop a path, based on personal knowledge, experience, and consultations, and then guide other team members towards it. In the current business environment, this strategy can only work in short team goals to achieve specific goals (Rathore et al., 2017). The leader must have the authority to dictate what others do and means of ensuring that their decisions are followed.

Situational Leadership

This form of leadership is based on the premise that one should choose the right approach of governing subordinates based on competence, maturity, and forces that a firm is facing at a given time. The model emphasizes the need to be dynamic when governing employees. It is based on the understanding that different situations may require different approaches of leadership to achieve intended goals. It identifies four stages that should help a leader to define the approach of governance that should be embraced. Stage 1 of leadership, as shown in figure 1 below, requires a leader to embrace directing as an approach to governance. It involves high directive and low supportive behavior (Eliyana and Muzakki 2019). In such a case, the leader is expected to offer close supervision of activities that subordinates are doing without necessarily guiding them on what to do. A leader needs to issue instructions and ensure that they are strictly followed without fail. It is often used when a leader feels that subordinates understand what they need to do but are reluctant hence need some support.

The second category of leadership under this model is coaching. It is characterized with high directive and high supporting behavior (Chandra, 2016). This type of leadership is discussed in details in the section below. The third approach is supporting leadership strategy. In this case, the governance approach is characterized by high supportive and low directive behavior (Purwanto et al., 2020). In this case, the leader is not concerned with directing employees on what they need to do. It is based on the belief that employees are self-motivated and do not need close supervision. However, they need to be supported so that they can understand what they need to do and how to achieve greater success. The strategy is often used when guiding a team of highly motivated young workers who have been newly recruited in an organization.

The last segment of leadership in this model is delegating of roles. Unlike the strategy of directing workers, this approach promotes an environment where leaders trust their subordinates so much that they can delegate important decision-making tasks to them. The model is often used when governing a team of highly skilled, experienced, and motivated workers. The leader trusts that these employees know what they should do and are motivated enough not to wait for close supervision (O’Neill, 2018). As such, a leader only needs to inform them of the existing expectations, changes that may affect their work, and any other information that they may need to make important decisions in undertaking their assignments.

Figure 1. Situational Leadership Theory (Clark, 2017. P. 78).

Coaching Leadership

As the name suggests, coaching as a leadership strategy focuses on close provision of support and guidance to the subordinates. A leader is expected to be highly involved in the activities that their juniors are doing. Instead of issuing orders and expecting them to follow, this leader will provide instructions and offer guidance on how junior officers should implement them. As a coach, one must be ready to assess the capability of an individual employee. The goal of such an assessment is to identify potential strengths and weaknesses of the employees. The coach can then develop a plan that can be used to address identified weaknesses of the workers as a way of enhancing their performance. The strategy promotes the idea of coaches working together with their subordinates to determine how they can be assisted to improve their performance.

Laissez-faire Leadership

Laissez-faire is a leadership concept that is gaining relevance in the 21^st century as an approach of governing highly skilled and experienced workers (Soni, Ganeshan, and Rajesh, 2017). Unlike autocratic leadership where the manager makes all the important decision, this approach require the leader to provide adequate room for workers to make independent decisions on how to undertake their responsibilities. The leader will be expected to communicate the strategic goal and plan to the staff. The employees will then have the liberty of choosing how to implement these policies based on their knowledge. The strategy is popular when handling experienced employees who qualify to be leaders. It works well in an environment where the top management trusts that subordinates understand what they need to do to achieve the desired goals.

Sources used in this investigation were scholarly and reliable in providing the needed information. The review of the literature was based on data collected from peer reviewed articles and books. They were all relevant to this study because they address the research question and objectives of the study. The researcher was keen on ensuring that authors of these sources have the relevant academic authority to make claims in this field based on their education and experience in this field. In most of the cases, the audience of these authors are both managers and subordinates. It is directed to managers so that they can understand how to provide leadership despite the numerous challenges that they face in their places of work. The information is also directed at non-management employees to help to understand what their managers expect of them. It is also meant to ensure that they are properly guided in a path towards leadership, which is always the desire of most of them.

Analysis of the Primary Research

The previous section provided a detailed review of the existing literature. In this section, the focus was to analyze and discuss primary data collected from a sample of participants. One of the questions that the researcher presented to the participants was their ability to work without close supervision. Respondents were asked to state whether they needed to be closely supervised to perform well. As shown in figure 2, a significant majority of the respondents (58%) stated that they do not agree (strongly disagree and disagree) with the statement. Only 21% stated that they need close supervision to undertake their duties properly. It means that most workers prefer an environment where they are given some freedom and allowed to complete their tasks without being subjected to supervisory pressure.

The outcome shows that workers tend to perform well when they are not subjected to strict supervision. Baig et al. (2019) explain that when a leader maintains a close supervision of employees, it creates a sense that they are incompetent and lack self-motivation. Such perception will be entrenched in their mind and it will become a standard practice. These workers will pretend to focus on their assignments when the supervisor is with them. When left to work on their own, they will not focus on the work because they have been used to the close supervision. As such, it is essential for the management of Emirates Airline to allow its employees to enjoy some sense of self-governance. It promotes a culture of responsibility and reduces the need for leaders to consistently monitor actions of employees.

Figure 2. The Need for Supervision in the Workplace.

Some leadership styles allow subordinates to be involved when making decisions while others strictly forbid them from giving their opinions and ideas unless they are requested to do so by the person in power. Respondents were asked to state whether they prefer to be part of the decision-making process in their workplace. Figure 3 below shows the outcome of the analysis of their responses. An overwhelming majority of the respondents (71%) of them stated that they prefer and enjoy being part of the decision-making process in their places of work. It makes them feel valued and respected by those in leadership. Only one respondent had a contrary opinion to this. It means that managers must understand the fact that their employees prefer being involved in policy making processes, especially if it will affect them directly or indirectly.

The response obtained above strongly indicates that employees do not prefer working in an environment where they are closely monitored. Baig et al. (2019) explain that in such a setting, some of them may become demoralized. It creates a perception that they cannot deliver the expected outcome if they are granted the opportunity to work without supervision. Such workers will only focus on pleasing the supervisor to avoid potential consequences. They will not focus on delivering the best outcome possible based on the environment in which they work. Another challenge is that such workers are rarely creative when undertaking their work. They are denied the opportunity to be creative because of the constant supervision and corrections in case they deviate from the standard practices. Leaders are strongly encouraged to avoid this approach to governance because it not only creates dissatisfaction among workers but also limit their capacity to develop new approaches to completing their tasks. It also creates discord among employees, especially if some feel that they are mistreated while others are given preferential treatment. Such sentiments may paralyze operations at a given department of a company.

Figure 3. Being Involved in Decision-Making Processes.

It was equally important to get the view of respondents regarding the role of a leader in an organizational setting. The researcher wanted to determine if respondents feel that the purpose of a leader should be to offer guidance to followers without exerting undue pressure on them. Figure 4 below shows the outcome of the analysis of the response received from these participants. An overwhelming majority of the respondents (88%) agreed with the statement (strongly agreed and agreed) that leaders should offer guidance without exerting unnecessary pressure on their followers. The remaining 12% were unsure about this statement while none of them had a contrary opinion. This outcome strongly suggests that people do not appreciate being subjected to pressure in their work. It negatively affects their performance and level of satisfaction at work.

Emirates Airline is operating in a highly competitive and volatile industry. As such, it needs a highly reliant workforce that is capable of meeting tight goals within a short period. As Chandra (2016) observes, such high levels of performance require a leader who understands and appreciates the significance of having a motivated workforce. The data below shows that most of the employees feel that leaders should provide guidance when it is necessary. However, the process should be devoid of unnecessary pressure. A leader must understand the fact that subordinates can follow their guidance without using threats or harsh words. Subjecting employees to pressure at work is one of the ways of making them less motivated.

When conducting a review of the literature, it emerged that sometimes it may be appropriate for the leadership style to change in accordance with the forces that an organization faces at a particular time. It was necessary to get the opinion of the respondents regarding this view. They were asked to state whether they feel leadership style should change according to the situation that a team is facing. The majority of the respondents (79%) felt that it is necessary for the style of leadership to change in accordance with the situation that a company or a team faces. It means that sometimes one will be justified to use dictatorial leadership style at a given moment, while in other times they may need to use democratic strategy. They need to assess the situation and select the most appropriate approach that would ensure that the intended goal is realized. Only 2 respondents had a contrary view to this argument, stating that leaders should not change their governing strategy. Figure 5 below shows the response from these participants.

It is evident that leaders should remain dynamic and understand when to apply specific principles in their management practices. At Emirates Airline, it is essential for the management to employ coaching when handling newly recruited workers. They need to understand how to serve customers or pilot the planes from one part of the world to the other. On the other hand, those who are highly skilled and experienced in this company need Laissez-fare approach to leadership where they are allowed to make independent choices based on the situations they are facing. They should not be treated in the same way because it may breed discord among workers. Newly recruited employees may feel ignored while the experienced ones may feel belittled by the management.

Figure 5. Changing the Leadership Style.

The researcher was interested in determining how well respondents understand the concept of leadership. Some people would not argue with their managers because the only leadership style they have been exposed to regularly is autocratic approach to governance. As such, they were asked to state how well they understand the concept. They were given a scale of 1 to 6, where 1 represented the lowest level of knowledge and 6 the highest. None of the respondents stated that they had extremely low level of knowledge about leadership. 2 of the participants stated that they had some knowledge about this concept. 63% stated that they have sufficient knowledge about the concept of leadership. 13% of the participants indicated that they are highly knowledgeable on issues about leadership. This information was important in ascertaining whether these participants had the capacity to respond to the research questions. It was evident that the majority of them understands this concept and as such, have the capacity to provide the needed information. Figure 6 below shows the outcome of the analysis of primary data that was conducted.

The level of knowledge that employees have also define how well they will embrace specific management strategies that leaders embrace. Sometimes the human resources management of Emirates Airline may need to embrace autocratic leadership style even when democratic leadership is the main approach. When employees understand these styles and when they are used, they will not feel intimidated when a leader changes tact, especially when trying to achieve short-term goals. Instead, they will offer the necessary support and do what is expected of them to ensure that the goal is achieved within the shortest period possible. The knowledge of leadership among workers creates harmony within the firm.

Figure 6. Level of Knowledge about Leadership.

The researcher was interested in identifying leadership styles and their effect on employees’ performance at Emirates Airline. They were asked to identify the leadership style that they prefer and to state the one that they always experience in the workplace. Figure 7 below summarizes the information that was obtained from these respondents. It is clear from the statistics below that the most preferred leadership style is democratic governance. People prefer working in an environment where their views and ideas matter. They want to be involved in decision-making processes, especially when dealing with issues that affect them. They also want to be respected by those in power and to be subjected to fair treatment at all times.

Laissez-fare also emerged as one of the popular styles of leadership. It gives workers the freedom to choose how to undertake their responsibilities with very minimal supervision from the leader. It is an effective approach when handling a team of highly qualified and self-motivated employees. A number of respondents stated that coaching is a good approach to leadership, especially when handling young and inexperienced workers. Situational leadership was also identified as a potential approach to governance that helps in adjusting to various forces in the market. It is important to note that two of the respondents felt that autocratic leadership is their preferred approach to governing people. It is important to reiterate that they are a minority group among those who were interviewed.

When it comes to existing leadership style at the company, the response was almost the opposite of what they prefer. Although democratic approach to governance is their most desirable style, the respondents noted that the most common practice was autocratic. Most of them felt that in most of the cases. The managers are dictatorial in guiding and supervising the work of their subordinates. They do not allow room for dissenting ideas and always insist on their instructions being followed strictly. It is important to note that a significant number of these participants noted that democratic leadership also exists in their company. Some aspects of Laissez-fare also do exist, especially when engaging the highly experienced members of the company who need little or no supervision. It was noted that none of the participants felt that coaching leadership exists. It was also evident that although one of them identified situational leadership as an appropriate approach to governance, none of them stated that it is practiced at their places of work.

Figure 7. Preferred vs. Existing Leadership Style.

The analysis of primary data conducted above shows that organizations can embrace various forms of leadership. At Emirates Airline, respondents have identified various styles of leadership that they would prefer and those that are regularly used in their workplace. The researcher has concluded that although many organizations claim to embrace transformational leadership, autocratic form of governance is still highly common. At this company, it was identified as the most common strategy that leaders use to ensure that they achieve their goals. However, it should be noted that it is also the least desirable approach of governance. The outcome of the analysis shows that the majority of the respondents do not want to be ruled under strict policies and regulations. They prefer working in an environment where they can share their opinion with their superiors without the fear of intimidation or reprimand.

The primary data also shows that a leadership approach where people are allowed to make personal decisions on how to undertake specific tasks is popular. Laissez-fare and democratic governance are effective ways of guiding subordinates. The study also suggests that one should consider coaching as an effective strategy of guiding those who have just been hired and lack the experience. It ensures that these young employees get the support they need to enable them undertake their duties effectively and as per the expectation of the management.

Action Plan and Research Diary/Log

When planning to conduct a research, it is often important to have a clear action plan on how different activities are to be conducted. In this investigation, the researcher outlined various activities that had to be completed within a specific time. The first step was proposal development. The researcher developed a plan that identified various actions that had to be taken to achieve the aim of the study. During the same period, the preliminary review of the literature begun, as shown in the Gantt chart shown in table 2 below. It is important to note that review of the literature was a continuous process because of the need to find information that support findings made from primary data. When the proposal was approved, the next step was to collect primary data from the sampled respondents. The process of sending the questionnaires to participants and receiving the document back took about five weeks. Once the raw data was obtained, it took about one week to process it using both quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis. The last stage was to write a report based on data collected from primary sources and information obtained from books and journal articles. The researcher also did proofing and editing before handing in the completed report. The final step also took approximately one week to be completed. The research dialogue in table 1 below identifies specific activities that were conducted at various dates. It also indicates where these activities were conducted and the time when they were completed. The table gives a comprehensive picture of the how this study was completed.

Table 1: Research Diary/Log.

Date	Activity	Where	When/what time
Aug 14-20	Proposal Development	Home and online library	I spent most of my time in the online library conducting the research. Upon completion, I wrote the report while in my home library, mostly in the evening hours
Aug 14- Nov 9	Literature review	Home and online library	Literature review was a continuous process that started when developing proposal until the last day of writing the final report.
Sep 8- Oct 18	Primary data collection	Online survey	The researcher contacted the participants on the date that the proposal was completed. Those who agreed to be part of the survey were given two weeks to respond to the research questions.
Oct 22- Nov 1	Data analysis	Home library	When the filled questionnaires were received by 18-19 October, the researcher focused on processing it to answer the research questions.
Nov 3- Nov 9	Writing the report	Home library	When the analysis was completed by November 1, the researcher embarked on the task of writing up the final report. It was based on information collected from both primary and secondary data sources.
Nov 10- Nov 16	Proofing and editing	Home library	The final task that begun on November 10 as soon as the writing of the report was completed was proofing and editing. This was the final task before the document was handed in as per the requirements set by the school.

The table above provides a detailed explanation events from the stage of proposal development to the final stage of writing the report, proofing, and editing. The information above was summarized in the Gantt chart below. It is important to note that when timing these activities, there was a time allowance between the time when one action ended and the time when the next begun. For instance, primary data collection ended on October 18 while the process of analysing it started on 22 of the same month, which is 4 days later. The allowance was meant to ensure that if there was a slight delay in the completion of one activity in the project, there will not be a delay in starting the next activity. It helped in ensuring that there was a smooth transition from one activity to the next.

Table 1: Gantt Chart.

Activity/Timeline	Aug 14-20	Aug 14- Nov 9	Sep 8- Oct 18	Oct 22- Nov 1	Nov-3 Nov-9
Proposal development	X
Review of literature	X	X	X	X	X
Primary data collection			X
Data analysis				X
Writing report					X

The Gantt chart and activity log above identifies various activities that were conducted in this study and their timeline. It was necessary to also develop an action plan to further explain how this study was conducted. The action plan, shown in table 3 below, provides information about how specific activities such as development of research proposal, conducting secondary research, conducting primary research, evaluation, and making conclusion and recommendations were completed. The table identifies the date when these activities were conducted, actions that were taken, and resources used to complete each task. Also discussed in the action plan table are individuals responsible for monitoring and control, changes made at each of these stages of the research, and the impact that these changes had on each of these processes. The table provides a clear picture of the process that took place when planning for the research, data collection process, and writing of the final document. It can help future scholars when conducting their own studies.

Table 3: Action Plan.

Action Plan
Date	Actions	Resources	Monitoring / control	Changes made	Impact of the changes
Aug 14	Starting research log/diary	Self	Self and lecturer	Minor changes were made in the research diary/log based on the changes made in the study	Changes made in the document improved the quality of the research log.
Aug 14-20	Developing research proposal	Peer-reviewed journal articles, books, industry publications, previous dissertations, newspapers, and reliable online sources.	Self and lecturer	The initial proposal that was developed was approved, hence changes were not needed	There was no impact because there were no changes made on the document
Aug 14- Nov 9	Conducting secondary research	Home library, online databases, personal computer, and internet connectivity	Self and lecturer	The researcher increased the number of secondary sources to include recent online publications. These changes were made throughout the process of the research because literature review was a continuous process	Changes made provided critical information about the current state of affairs about the issue that was under investigation. The researcher was able to gather detailed information about the issue under investigation.
Sep 18- Oct 18	Conducting primary research	A sample of employees working for Emirates Airline, a questionnaire, personal computer, internet connectivity	Self	Before sending the questionnaires to the participants, the researcher made some changes on the document to ensure that it captured all the important information and that it was easy for the respondents to answer the questions with ease	Changes made improved the capacity of the researcher to gather detailed information on leadership styles and its effect on employees’ performance. These changes also simplified the process of answering the questions for the respondents because there was no physical interaction between the researcher and respondents.
Oct 22- Nov 1	Evaluation	Self	Self and lecturer	A few changes were proposed by the lecturer to help ensure that the document met full expectations of the school. Changes included addressing some identified syntax and grammar mistakes. Minor style issues were also identified and corrected during the evaluation process.	Changes improved the overall quality of the document. It helped in ensuring that all the research questions were responded to effectively and that cases of grammar and style mistakes were all eliminated. It significantly improved the overall grade of the final document that was presented.
Nov 3- Nov 9	Conclusion and Recommendation	Self	Self and lecturer	A section of the conclusion and recommendation part of the report were adjusted when additional resources were collected in the study.	Changes made to the conclusion section helped to respond to the aim and objectives of the study. Adjustments in the recommendation section made them more practical in a broad setting.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The concept of leadership has become increasingly important in the modern society. Traditionally, many companies embraced autocratic form of governance as a way of guiding their followers. This strategy gives the leader an absolute power over the subject at all times. The directive given by such a leader must be followed without question. However, this dictatorial form of governance is becoming less popular in the modern environment. People currently prefer being governed in a system where their opinions count. They wanted to be respected by those in power and be given opportunity to take part in policy development.

Emirates Airline is one of the most successful companies in the aviation sector. Its human resource department has been keen on creating an environment where all the employees feel that they are valued. When employees of the company were interviewed, they noted that different leaders of the company employ different management strategies depending on various external factors. Autocratic leadership was identified as one of the most common approaches of governance common in this company. This style of leadership may be necessary at certain times, especially when it is necessary to achieve specific goals within a short period. However, it should not be applied at all the times. Democratic leadership and coaching were the other forms of governance that participants noted were common. As explained in the paper, the leadership strategy that a company embraces defines the efficiency of the workforce. It is important to take into consideration the following recommendations to ensure that employees at Emirates Airline perform as per the expectations set by the top management:

The management of Emirates Airline should develop a leadership awareness program to enable employees to understand why some governance approaches are more appropriate than others;
The awareness program should be conducted using various social media sites such as Facebook and other internal communication platforms. Such programs should run for at least six months, especially when new employees are recruited;
The leadership of Emirates Airline should embrace dynamism in its management practices. It should know when to use specific leadership strategy depending on the factors that it is facing;
It is important for Emirates Airline to avoid or significantly minimize autocratic leadership as much as possible. This style of governance can only be used for a short time to achieve specific goals when other strategies may not be applicable;
The leadership of this company should consider engaging employees as much as possible in decision-making processes. Primary data collected from them show that they prefer being engaged when making important decisions;
The management is encouraged to embrace transformational leadership as the best way of governing employees. Principles of this approach to governance should be put into actual practice in most of the times unless other forms of management are more appropriate.

Evaluation

When conducting this academic project, the researcher encountered some challenges, yet there are major milestones that were also made in the process. The current COVID-19 pandemic limited the capacity to physically interact with the participants and to collect primary data from them. The initial plan was to engage these participants in a face-to-face interview to understand their views about leadership styles. However, that was not possible because of the containment measures put in place by healthcare officials that limit physical interaction. The researcher had to wholly rely on online survey to collect information needed from a sample. It was challenging to identify and collect data from a section of employees of Emirates Airline.

The researcher had a number of issues that went well during this academic project. One of them was the response rate from the few individuals who were contacted and requested to take part in the investigation. Although it was not easy to reach out to these individuals because of the current pandemic, those who were contacted were positive towards the study. They agreed to participate in the primary data collection process. The questionnaire was mailed to them through the addresses they provided. They responded to all the questions in time and in the manner that was directed. They then sent back the filled questionnaire in time to facilitate the analysis. Access to secondary data was another major area of success in this investigation. The researcher was able to access digital libraries for books and articles. Online databases such as JSTOR and Google Scholar provided important information needed in this study.

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