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ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Leadership and organisational culture

Plenmark Retail faces a fast-changing market after a competitor launched an online platform. The board must decide the type of capability the next senior appointment should emphasise. The company's existing systems are well controlled and efficient, but staff are anxious and there is no shared view of the future. Using Kotter's distinction between leadership and management, which emphasis is most needed?

The firm most needs leadership, because Kotter links leadership to coping with change through setting direction, aligning people and motivating them. Its controls and efficiency are already good, so more planning, budgeting or procedure tightening would not solve the anxiety and lack of a shared vision.

  1. AStronger budgeting and controlling to deliver predictable results
  2. BLeadership: setting direction, aligning people and motivating them through changeCorrect
  3. CMore detailed organising and staffing to improve role clarity
  4. DProblem-solving focused on tightening existing procedures

Explanation

Kotter associates management with coping with complexity (planning, budgeting, organising, controlling) and leadership with coping with change (setting direction, aligning people, motivating). Controls are already strong; the gap is a shared vision and motivation amid change. Options 0, 2 and 3 are management activities that address a problem the firm does not have.

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