Abstract

 

The aim of this dissertation is the study of leadership during economic crisis for a manufacturing unit. The dissertation focuses on two main areas: 1) to examine the role of leadership in economic crisis; and 2) to find out the personal and professional skills required by leaders to handle such an economic crisis. In order to investigate these two areas, the selected organization for this dissertation is Saga Sports Pvt Ltd, Sialkot, Pakistan.

Saga Sports was the largest sports manufacturing company in Sialkot (Pakistan) before its economic crisis in 2008. The cause for the economic crisis is believed to be poor leadership, and as a result, thousands of employees lost their jobs. Three branches Kingra road, gopalpur road and khichyan road are totally closed. The global economic crisis was also a big factor which influenced the crisis situation in Saga sports. However, according to the annual report of the chamber of commerce of Sialkot Industry, the rest of the companies are still doing fruitful business due to their sound strategies and policies prepared by the leaders. Although the Pakistani Government offered different packages (such as tax relaxation and loans) for affected organizations to maintain their financial position, only four out of eight manufacturing units have barely survived. The Pakistani Government, chamber of commerce and Sialkot manufacturing goods association blamed the leadership for such a drastic economic crisis.

This dissertation will investigate the main role of leaders to develop the strategies to handle the economic crisis. We are also briefing the continuous evolvement of leaders in the business environment to develop the future plans for the organization. Even the big organizations (e.g. Centre for Chemical Process Safety) developed their economic crisis strategies at the same time as they built the vision and mission of the organization. Crisis management refers to appointment of leaders and developing a specific team to monitor the business atmosphere inside and outside the organization. Leadership also identifies the initial stages for possible remedies to avert disaster for the organization.

As a result from the investigation, research and finding, it is recommended that economic crisis leadership should be a vital part of an organization and that these organisations should be very careful to implement their policies to handle economic crises.

Furthermore, it is recommended to Saga sports to

• Develop a crisis manager
• Develop a complete system to handle the crisis
• Clarify the role and the responsibility of the crisis management team

 

This research will investigate the personal and professional skills required by the leaders of Saga Sports to handle the economic crisis. Literature is reviewed carefully, also with the help of finding chapter, for future reference, suggestions are written after reviewing the whole research.

Chapter One: Introduction

 

This thesis is a study of the role of leadership in economic crisis and identifies the personal and professional skills to handle such a crisis. It is said that, due to globalization, business activities have changed over the last three decades. Fast communication has opened new dimensions in business; organizations are exploring their business by finding new potential markets and customers, which they can manage from their own organizational site. As business opportunities increase, so increased competition is created globally. Leaders are adopting different methods and strategies to survive in industry. Apart from this global competition, organizations face more challenges such as economic crisis, the unstable activities of government (like political, fiscal policies etc), and customer satisfaction etc. Leadership has always been a vital part of organizations, and with the passage of time, its importance is increasing significantly.

The significant role of the leadership is to provide the vision and the mission to organize and to provide the organisation with a targeted plan to enable the organization to handle the economic crisis. Using the proactive approach rather than reactive approach, the leadership plan the future of the organization. Leadership leads the management and workers and prepares an attractive future vision for the organization. It is only the leadership who have the ability to turn the dreams of the organization into reality by identifying the hidden opportunities of the firm especially during crucial times.

It is the leadership who always accept new challenges and accordingly prepare the new territory to handle an economic crisis situation. Kotter(2001) explained that the primary function of the leadership is that they always welcome challenge and are ready to take