QUEEN MARGARET UNIVERSITY

CASE STUDY

LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT

LEADERSHIP ISSUE AT X (FORMERLY TWITTER)

SUBMITTED BY Mohammed Moiz

STUDENT ID: ISDC/QMU/092024/334

PROGRAMME : MBA IN INTERNATIONAL FINANCE

MODULE : LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Email: [email protected]

Word Count: 2018

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 Statement of Originality and Student Declaration

I hereby declare that I know what plagiarism entails, namely, to use another’s work
and to present it as
my own without attributing the sources in the correct manner. I further understand
what it means to copy
another’s work.
1. I know that plagiarism is a punishable offense because it constitutes theft.
2. I understand the plagiarism and copying policy of Queen Margaret University.
3. I know what the consequences will be if I plagiarize or copy another’s work in
any of the assignments for this programme.
4. I declare therefore that all work presented by me for every aspect of my
programme, will be my own, and where I have made use of another’s work, I will
attribute the source in the correct manner.
5. I acknowledge that the submission of the assignment answer document
constitutes my agreement with the above.

Signature: Nandana.S

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 Table of Contents
Introduction.......................................................................................................4

Evaluation of the strategic leadership skills essential for attaining X’s strategic
ambitions
...............................................................................................................................
............. 5

Impact of organisational culture, legal, and regulatory alongside ethical

requirements on the strategic leadership of X
..........................................................................................................................
6

Discussion of various change management theories and recommendation of

strategies7 McKinsey 7S change management theory

.......................................................................................................................

Lewin's Change Management Theory.............................................................8

Debate on current alongside emerging social concerns and expectations

impacting strategic leadership in the organisation and implementation of
strategic change
..........................................................................................................................
9

Conclusion.......................................................................................................10

References.......................................................................................................11

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 List of Figures
Figure 1: McKinsey 7S change management theory.........................................7
Figure 2: Lewin’s change management theory..............................................................8

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Introduction

Efficient leadership is required for any organisation to flourish in the highly

challenging business market. In this assignment, a case study of X (Formerly Twitter)
depicting the issues faced by the company due to the inefficient leadership of Elon
Musk will be provided along with the strategic leadership skills essential for attaining
X’s strategic ambitions. Moreover, the impact of the organisational culture, and
ethical, legal and regulatory requirements of X will be highlighted followed by a
discussion of change management theories. In addition, emerging social concerns
and expectations influencing the leadership of X will be discussed.

Evaluation of the strategic leadership skills essential for attaining X’s strategic
ambitions

One of the major goals of X is to promote global connection by providing users with
the advantage of sharing messages easily globally without facing any issues. As a
result of this, the company’s strategic ambition is to incorporate user-friendly
features to enhance X’s efficiency. Apart from this, the company’s strategic ambition
is also to promote transparency and utilisation of effective technologies for
safeguarding the user's details to gain the trust of the users (Antonakaki et al. 2021).
However, the company shows dissatisfaction among employees, unethical practices,
lack of transparency and other issues under the leadership of Elon Musk which
indicates the company is facing issues in meeting its strategic goals (forbes.com,
2023). Thus, to attain these strategic ambitions, the organisation require the
implementation of effective leadership skills. According to Oon et al., (2022), it is
essential for the leader of X to remain empathetic to the employees and possess
effective conflict resolution skills so that the issues that the workforce is facing can be
easily mitigated. This can help the leader to decrease the discontentment among the
employees regarding the company. Apart from this, Evans et al. (2022), argue and
claim that the leader's efficient decision-making skill is the most essential skill for
allowing X to meet its strategic ambitions. This is due to the fact that the organisation
can maintain its transparency based on the effective and strict decisions taken by the
leader to control or track the employees’ performance. The skill of maintaining
equality in an organisation is a basic requirement for any business leader and it is not
an exception for X as well. As per Super, (2022), this is the reason that the leader

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who maintains equality can be able to provide equal growth opportunities to all
employees which can aid the firm in reducing unethical practices of the firm. Also,
Glogovac et al. (2023), claim that the adaptability of the leader is the most crucial
skill for providing strategic leadership to X. This is due to the fact that X can be
able to upgrade its features as per the changing needs of the

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customers by implementing modern technologies in the business processes.
Additionally, the proper use of modern technologies can help the firm to improve the
data security efficiency of the company to gain the customers’ trust which is essential
for standing out in the highly saturated business market.

Impact of organisational culture, legal, and regulatory alongside ethical

requirements on the strategic leadership of X

Good organisational culture plays a vital role in determining the success rate of an
organisation. According to Garengo and Betto, (2024), this is due to the reason that a
good organisational culture provides the opportunity for the employees to
concentrate solely on the enhancement of performance efficiency for providing better
benefits to the organisation. It also aids the employees to remain motivated and
dedicated towards the organisation. As per Cano-Marin et al. (2023), the collaborative
workplace culture of X changed as Elon Musk did not allow the employees to question
any decision taken by him. This resulted in the deterioration of the ladder-employee
bond of the organisation which negatively affected the organisational performance as
the issues of the employees remained unresolved. Thus, the company failed to
provide strategic leadership essential for remaining competitive in the marketplace.
Maintaining proper legal strategies or approaches is important for any business
leader to enhance the performance efficiency of an organisation (Adaga et al. 2024).
This is due to the fact that it can help an organisation restrain itself from getting
involved in any legal issues. According to Stäbler et al. (2023), the mass layoff
strategy followed by Elon Musk without any prior notification depicted the inefficiency
of the legal strategies of X. This is due to the reason that it had led the organisation
to face legal issues and defamation and thus resulted in the failure of the leader to
provide strategic leadership.
Good business regulatory strategies help a firm to stand out from other contenders
by giving outstanding business performance. This is the reason that efficient business
regulatory strategies allow a firm to maintain its various business processes
judiciously without engaging in any internal conflict. As per Pfeffer et al. (2023), X
showed internal conflicts and a lack of collaboration among the employees due to the
inefficient implementation of proper initiatives by Elon Musk to understand the
problems faced by the employees. Metz, (2023), claims and argues that Elon
Musk did not interact efficiently with the employees which resulted in the persistence
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of internal conflicts. This indicates Elon Musk failed to implement good business
regulatory strategies which restrained the company from getting proper strategic
leadership.

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Maintenance of accurate ethical standards in any business is important as it allows a
firm to gain the trust of the employees as well as the customers. This is also true for
X as well but the company failed to remain transparent to the employees and
customers. According to Jia et al. (2023), the company failed to maintain the trust of
the customers regarding data security due to a lack of upgradation of the
technological development initiatives by Elon Musk. Also, Varol, (2023), claimed that
the company failed to remain transparent to the employees regarding the
performance evaluation strategies as well as recruitment procedures. All these
impacted the business ethics of the organisation and indicated a failure of Elon Musk
to provide good strategic leadership to the company.

Discussion of various change management theories and recommendation of

strategies

McKinsey 7S change management theory

Figure 1: McKinsey 7S change management theory

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(Source: Slideteam, 2023)

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It is considered one of the most important change management theories and it
consists of 7 elements among which 3 are hard elements (Strategy, Structure and
System) and the remaining 4 are soft (Shared values, Style, Staff and Skills).
According to Keček et al. (2023), the hard elements are greatly influenced by
leadership and management but the soft elements are driven by organisational
culture. This model depicts the elements which are essential for allowing a firm to
attain organisational effectiveness. Adaptability to change is a quintessential need for
any organisation that allows a firm a manage change. As per Rawson and Davis,
(2023), the hard elements of the theory (Strategy, Structure and System) are planned
and implemented by the business leader as per the changing requirements to keep
an organisation profitable. On the other hand, the soft elements (Shared values,
Style, Staff and Skills) of the theory are attained by an organisation when the
employees are highly motivated and remain satisfied with the workplace culture. This
is for the reason that shared values and style of a satisfied employee can be
appreciated which can allow a firm to attain success. Also, the skill set of an
employee can be enhanced only if the organisation provides enough growth
opportunities to the workforce which in turn contributes to the enhancement of
organisational performance.

Lewin’s change management theory

Figure 2: Lewin’s change management theory

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 (Source: linkedin, 2023)
This theory consists of 3 stages demonstrating the process of change which an
organisation is required to follow to implement a change or to show a transition in
any organisational strategies.

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The initial step of this theory (Unfreeze) helps an organisation properly demonstrate
the requirement of change in a particular business function. The second step of the
theory depicts the change that an organisation need to undergo to fix any issue
related to any business function. As per El-Sayed, (2023), this step highlights the
benefits that the organisation can obtain by implementing the change. The last and
final step of the theory denotes the ‘Refreeze’ step which helps an organisation to
implement the change to ensure better organisational performance as well as growth.
With the aim to resolve the issue of bad organisational culture, X needs to implement
McKinsey 7S change management theory which can aid the firm to bring modification
to its collaboration approach. This in turn can aid the firm to improve its
organisational strategy needed for allowing X to perform optimally. Apart from this,
the organisation need to bring alterations in its human resource management
initiatives by understanding the issues faced by the employees and accordingly
taking measures for the mitigation of the same. This can allow the development of
strong bonds between the leader and employees which is necessary for the
development of good organisational culture. Also, X needs to implement Lewin’s
change management theory to bring improvement in its technological development
strategies and also in the improvement of its business ethics (Adelman-Mullally et al.
2023). This is for the reason that by the proper implementation of this model, the
organisation can be able to efficiently detect the need for change and the benefits
which the firm can obtain by implementing the change.

Debate on current alongside emerging social concerns and expectations impacting

strategic leadership in the organisation and implementation of strategic change

Nowadays, the concept of equality is gaining special attention among the society
which denotes giving equal rights and opportunity to every individual irrespective of
caste, creed, religion and gender. According to Casavantes et al. (2023), one of the
major social concerns is protecting the LGBTQ+ community from harassment. This is
undoubtedly crucial since it affects the mental health of individuals belonging to this
particular community. Erikson et al. (2023), claim that X gives barely any attention to
the improvement of the application feature for safeguarding the LGBTQ+ community
from harassment. Thus, it can be said that the company is quite reluctant to stop the
social as well as online abuse on this particular group or community which can
become a threat for the organisation to retain its business position in the highly
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challenging marketplace. Moreover, Pierri et al. (2023), argue and claim that the
misinterpretation of any sensitive incident or spreading of fake news regarding any
sensitive information is an emerging threat to the

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organisation. This is the reason that it makes X plays a role in spreading fake news in
addition to hate comments regarding sensitive issues. This in the long run can
reduce the trust of the users in the company and its policies which can be quite
harmful for the growth and development of the brand. Apart from this, as per
Dourado, (2023), the spread of fake news or misinterpretation of sensitive news can
lead to the emergence of social conflicts which can lead to the creation of an anarchic
situation in the society. Thus, it can be considered as the major threat or social
concern for X which can affect its business reputation and growth. These social
concerns identified above can raise questions about the proper implementation of
strategic change management approaches along with strategic leadership initiatives.
This is the reason that an organisation can only function effectively and sustain
successfully in a challenging as well as dynamic business market if obtains the
required support of strategic leadership.

Conclusion

Effective leadership is crucial for any company to be successful in the fiercely

competitive commercial environment. This assignment includes a case study of X
that highlights the challenges that the firm has encountered as an outcome of Elon
Musk's ineffective leadership. Apart from this, the assignment also contains the
strategic leadership characteristics required for accomplishing X's goals. A review of
change management theories is also presented after analysing the influence of X's
organisational culture as well as its ethical, legal, and regulatory constraints.
Furthermore, expectations along with new societal concerns that can affect X's
leadership are also covered.

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