An investigation of the role of transformational leadership behaviours: a case study on Sainsbury's
Creators: name: Imam, Md Taufique
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024

description: The UK retail industry is one of the largest retail industries in the world, and Sainsbury’s is the second-largest grocery retailer in the industry. In order to stay ahead of the competitionby offering a lower price for their commodities in the market, Sainsbury’s has gone through the most significant transformation (management structure change) of its lifetime. The management restructuration is expected to save money from the business operating cost of Sainsbury's. However, due to the management restructuration, there was an extreme level of uncertainty that persisted in the work environment of Sainsbury’s. In the transforming context of Sainsbury’s, the effective leadership behaviours of the store managers play a crucial role in bringing stability and eradicate uncertainty at the convenience stores. Transformational leadership has been the focus of researchers for over 40 years due to its proven effectiveness in various aspects of the business. In addition, during the period of change, the behaviours of transformational leadership were found to be very useful. However, there have been no significant qualitative studies of transformational leadership in the transforming context of Sainsbury’s. Therefore, this study examined the impact of transformational leadership behaviours within the convenience stores of Sainsbury’s, so as, to understand the challenges faced; and also, to identify the transformational leadership behaviours that are important for success in the retail environment.The narrative literature review was conducted to investigate the relevant literature. The outcome of the narrative literature review has shown that the transformational leadership concepts and the challenges faced by the transformational leaders in the retail sector are underdeveloped. Therefore, this study of transformational leadership was conducted in the context of Sainsbury’s. The philosophical proposition of interpretivism and constructionism was adopted for this study. The inductive research approach was used to guide the research process. This exploratory study is based on the case study of Sainsbury’s. The primary sampling technique was judgmental sampling; however, snowball sampling was also used to generate respondents until the data saturation was reached. The study was qualitative, and the data was collected from 16 store managers and 16 of their corresponding employees serving at Sainsbury’s convenience stores. Thematic analysis was conducted to interpret the findings of the interviews. In line with the transformational leadership model of Bass (1985); Bass (1990); Bass and Avolio (1994); Bycio, Hackett and Allen (1995); Bass and Riggio (2006). and also, based on the data analysis, a retail-specific transformational leadership behavioural model to develop resilience to change at Sainsbury’s was proposed, consisting of 5 behaviours; namely, idealised influence (trustworthy, confident, reasonable, engaging, emotionally attached, supportive and adaptable), inspirational motivation (visionary, passionate, optimistic, accessible and targetoriented), intellectual stimulation (encouraging and erudition), individualised consideration (conversationalist, considerate, appreciative, career-focused, compassionate and mentoring) and performance evaluation (critic and confrontation). The thematic analysis also revealed the external challenges (competition and changing trends) and internal challenges (store manager’s behaviour, understanding the business, understanding the employees, facilitating motivation, managing performance and managing attendance) faced by the transformational leaders serving in the convenience stores of Sainsbury’s.The findings of this study have implications, in theory, practice and problem-solving. In the transforming context of Sainsbury's, to eradicate uncertainty and bring stability, the complete model of retail-specific transformational leadership behaviours provides a remedy to build resilience to change. The proposed model will serve as a prerequisite to success in the transforming context of Sainsbury's. Prospective store managers should be trained to develop such behaviours, and existing store managers should be trained to understand how to maintain them. Retail organisations can develop and expand the behaviours of their transformational leaders. Therefore, the proposed transformational leadership behaviours magnify the role of training and development in the UK retail industry.In order to augment the knowledge of transformational leadership in transforming context, in addition to the existing 4 transformational leadership behaviours; performance evaluation was included as an essential behaviour to deliver transformation successfully. Also, the behavioural component of adaptable, erudition and confrontation has enhanced the knowledge of transformational leadership theory. Furthermore, the adoption of qualitative research methods to investigate transformational leadership in the transforming context of Sainsbury's has made a significant methodological contribution to the literature of transformational leadership.The findings from this study not only include the behaviours employed by the store managers but also shed light on the challenges faced within the sector. The challenges outlined in the study enhance the knowledge with regards to challenges persisted in the turbulent work environment of Sainsbury's. The challenges faced by the transformational leaders will help the store managers (transformational leaders) to reshape their behaviours effectively to combat the obstacles that persisted in the transforming context. Furthermore, this thesis will serve as a valuable document for policy-making decisions by stakeholders of the UK retail industry.