Leadership Style of Banglalink

Executive Summary
Banglalink became the fastest growing mobile operator of the country within one year of
operation, with a growth rate of 257%. This milestone was achieved with innovative and attractive
products and services targeting the different market segments; aggressive improvement of
network quality and dedicated customer care; and effective communication that emotionally
connected customers with Banglalink. The strength of Banglalink was the confidence of the
subscribers in the government institution.
On the other hand its being the part of government, is probably the biggest weakness
from operational perspective of Banglalink, which will be understandable as we go through this
article. Banglalink follows participative leadership style. There is a supportive work in
environment. The employees of this organization can provide their opinions that are evaluated by
the top managers with importance. The organization provides an optimal level of job freedom
towards the employees corresponding to their work, so the employees can make decisions of
their respective works. This leadership style is the key component of their success within a short
time period and in a very competitive telecom market in Bangladesh.
Leadership is the process of influencing and supporting others to work enthusiastically toward
achieving objectives. It is the critical factor that helps individuals or a group identify its goals and
then motivates and assists in achieving the stated goals. The organization can arrange
suggestion programs, quality emphasis programs, can build quality circles and total quality
management within it, self- managing teams can be built in the engineering department and
network coverage department as the employees are sophisticated in IT sectors and most
valuable employees in the organization. The top managers should arrange training for both
employees and managers in Participation. To make further improvement and efficiency in the
leadership style of Banglalink which will increase the productivity and foster the employees
satisfaction level the managers can also apply the recommended steps stated above.

Introduction:
The telecom industry of Bangladesh is, at the moment, experiencing accelerated growth.
According to one telecom analyst, Abu Saeed Khan, the growth curve may resemble a hockey
stick by the end of 2006. All credit this fact to Orascoms acquisition of Sheba Pvt. Telecom in
September 2004. Considering its track record, people knew that the newly formed
BanglalinkTM would shake the market somehow. Since its entry into the market, the company has
managed to make the others stand up and take notice. Its subscriber base is growing at a very
high rate per month. Plotting the position of the company in a BCG matrix reveals that the
business is a question mark, and with more investment injected into the company it can come
closer to, if not become, the star. This will be the likely scenario, as the CEO of the company
announced during a press conference recently that it was planning to invest a further $180 million
for expansion purposes. With the amount of promotion AKTEL is doing, it is also likely that it may
overtake to GPs industry leader soon and occupy the star position (200% growth rate compared
109%) If one studies the comparative analysis of the market, it can be seen that GP has already
built brand equity among its subscribers. Thus far, it has been able to hold on its leadership
without doing very much. However, this is likely to change soon with the other telecoms taking
steps to increase their market share by keeping the consumers in mind. Already people are using
a Banglalink SIM as it has lucrative tariff rate value added services. The company has the
expertise and background to pull off that kind of a game.

Objectives:
The root objectives are given below:

To have an idea of Leadership Style of Banglalink.

To identify problems regarding of Leadership Style Banglalink.

To develop some recommendations regarding the problems found

Methodology:
The study was conducted based on secondary data. The sources of those data are stated below:
The secondary data were collected from the following sources:

Internal newsletter of the company

Various research journals of different research organizations

Web pages

Annual reports of the company

Various books and other internal publications of the company

Limitations:
The limitations are mentioned as follows:

One of the major limitations faced while conducting the study was to communicate with the

selected corporate clients because they were very busy with their regular jobs.
As, I had more dependence on the secondary sources, so there might be some levels of
inaccuracy with those collected information.
o
Confidential information regarding leadership style was not accurately obtained.
o
Many of the analysis on the obtained data are based upon our sole interpretation.
This in result might bring some biases, as lack of knowledge and depth of understanding
might hinder me to produce an absolute authentic and meaningful report.

Oranizational Background:
When Banglalink entered the Bangladesh telecom industry in February 2005, the scenario
changed overnight with mobile telephony becoming an extremely useful and affordable
communication tool for people across all segments.
Within one year of operation, Banglalink became the fastest growing mobile operator of the
country with a growth rate of 257%. This milestone was achieved with innovative and attractive
products and services targeting the different market segments; aggressive improvement of
network quality and dedicated customer care; and effective communication that emotionally
connected customers with Banglalink.
In Bangladesh, Banglalink aims to understand peoples needs best and develop appropriate
communication services to improve peoples life and make it simple. All our work is aimed
towards meeting our vision. All members of the Banglalink family are highly passionate
individuals, fully committed to achieving the vision that we have set ourselves. Our customers
needs matter most to us- making their life simple and improving it is all we want. To ensure our
vision is achieved, we have set ourselves a few values, we want to be

Straight Forward

Reliable

Innovative

Passionate
All the Banglalink family members have one thing in common- a passion to serve. We want to go
that extra mile, so that you can have the best possible service investing in the future of
Bangladesh. The biggest barrier today for people is the cost of handsets. We will strive to lower
the total cost of owning a mobile. We are here to help make a difference in peoples lives by
providing affordable and reliable connectivity solutions. We will strive to connect people and link
their lives by listening to them and by understanding their needs. We are here to help you speak
your language.

Literature Review:
Leadership is the process of influencing and supporting others to work enthusiastically toward
achieving objectives. It is the critical factor that helps individuals or a group identify its goals and
then motivates and assists in achieving the stated goals. The three important elements in the
definition are influence / support, voluntary effort, and goal achievement. Leadership then is the
catalyst that transforms potentials into reality. The primary role of a leader is to influence others to
voluntarily seek defined objectives (preferably with enthusiasm). Leadership styles represent a
consistent combination of philosophy, skills, traits and attitudes that are exhibited in a person
behavior.
Positive leaders emphasize rewards. Negative leaders emphasize on threats, fear, harshness
and penalties.
The way in which a leader uses power also establishes a type of style. Each style autocratic,
consultative and participative- has it benefits and limitation.
Autocratic leaders centralize power and decision making in them. They structure the complete
work situation for their employees, who are expected to do what they are told and not think for
themselves. The leaders take full authority and assume full responsibility. Autocratic; leadership
typically is negative, based on threats and punishments but it can appear to be positive as
demonstrated by the benevolent autocrat who chooses to give some rewards to employees.
Consultative leaders approach one or more employees and ask them for inputs prior to making a
decision. These leaders may then choose to use or ignore the information and advice received,
however. If the inputs are seen as used, employee are likely to fill as though they had a positive
impact, if the inputs are consistently rejected employees are likely to feel that their time has been
wasted.
Participative leaders clearly decentralize authority. Participative decisions are not unilateral, as
with the autocrat, because they use inputs from followers and participation by them. The leaders
and groups are acting as social unit. Employees are informed about conditions affecting their jobs
and encouraged to express their ideas, make suggestions and take actions.

Leadership Style:
According to path- goal theory, the leaders roles are to help employees understand what needs
to be done (the goal) and how to do it (the path). Further leaders need to help employees see
how achieving the goals will be beneficial to them and the organization. Leaders, however, have
to decide which style to use with each employee; there are four style of leadership:

Directive Leadership:

The leader focuses on clear task assignments, standard of successful performance and work
schedules.

Supportive Leadership:

The leader demonstrates concern for employees well being and needs, while trying to create a
pleasant work environment.

Achievement-oriented Leadership:

The leader sets high expectations for employees, communicates confidence in their ability to
achieve challenge goals, and enthusiastically models the desired behavior.

Participative Leadership:

The leader invites employees to provide input to decisions, and seriously seeks to use their
suggestion as final decisions are made.

Findings:
Banglalink follows participative leadership style. There is a supportive work in environment. The
employees of this organization can provide their opinions that are evaluated by the top managers
with importance. The organization provides an optimal level of job freedom towards the
employees corresponding to their work, so the employees can make decisions of their respective
works. This leadership style is the key component of their success within a short time [period and
in a very competitive telecom market in Bangladesh.
Participation is the mental and emotional involvement of people in group situations that
encourages them to contribute to group goals and share responsibility for them. This definition

entails three important ideas:

Involvement
Contribution
Responsibility
Participative managers consult with their employees, bringing them in on problems and decisions
so that they work together as a team. The managers are not autocrats, but neither are the
managers who abandon their management responsibilities. Participative managers still retain
ultimate responsibility for the operation of their units, but they have learned to share operating
responsibility with those who perform the work. The result is that employees feel a sense of
involvement in group goals.

The Participative Process:

A simple model of the participative process is shown in figure. It indicates that in many situations
participative programs result in mental and emotional involvement that produces generally
favorable outcomes for both the organizations and employees. Participating employees are
generally more satisfied with their work and their supervisor and their self-efficiency rises as a
result of their new found empowerment.

Prerequisites for Participation:

The success of participation is directly related to how well certain prerequisite conditions are met.
Some of these conditions occur in the participants, some exist in their environment. They show
that participation works better in some situations than in others and certain situations it works not
at all.
1) Employees must have time to participate before action is required.
2) The potential benefits of participation should be greater the costs.

3) The subject of participation must be relevant and interesting to the employees.

4) The participants should have the ability to participate.
5) Participants must be mutually able to communicate.
6) Neither party should feel that its position is threatened by participation
7) Providing job freedom
Recommendations:
Banglalink follows the supportive and participative leadership style taking the most positive areas
of these two leadership styles even though there can be some points to be noted that we think
that we should recommend to make further improvement and efficiency in the leadership style of
Banglalink that will increase the productivity and foster the employees satisfaction level. The
points are given below:

Programs for Participation:

The organization can arrange suggestion programs, quality emphasis programs, can build quality
circles and total quality management within it, self- managing teams can be built in the
engineering department and network coverage department as the employees are sophisticated in
IT sectors and most valuable employees in the organization. Banglalink can develop EmployeeOwnership Plans as there is a great competition in the market in which it operates business. The
plan can be effective as the main idea of the plan is to make employees think as an owner by

providing them stock shares.

Improving Managerial Concerns about Participation:
The thoughts and concerns of the top managers should change a bit. The top managers and area
managers should remove Theory X beliefs. They should support the employees more. The
managers must not feel fear of losing power, status and control. It will make them more
participative with employees. The top managers should arrange training for both employees and
managers in Participation. The managers should start thinking their employees as their partners
but they still need to communicate a direction for their unit, help set challenging goals, mentoring

and monitor resources.

Extensive Feedback Systems:

There should be some scope to express the satisfaction level of the employees towards the
organization and should take steps to improve it. Employees can fine-tune their performance
better if they know how they are doing in the eyes of the organization.

Conclusion:
Banglalink is the 2nd largest cellular service provider in Bangladesh after Grameen Phone.
As of November, 2009, Banglalink has a subscriber base of 12.99 million. It is a wholly owned
subsidiary of Orascom Telecom. Banglalink had 1.03 million connections until December, 2005.
The number of Banglalink users increased by 257 per cent and stood at 3.64 million at the end of
2006, making it the fastest growing operator in the world of that year. In August, 2006, Banglalink
became the first company to provide free incoming calls from BTTB for both postpaid and prepaid
connections. On August 20, 2008, Banglalink got past the landmark of 10 million subscriber base.
Leadership is the process of influencing and supporting others to work enthusiastically toward
achieving objectives. It is the critical factor that helps individuals or a group identify its goals and
then motivates and assists in achieving the stated goals. The three important elements in the
definition are influence / support, voluntary effort, and goal achievement. Leadership then is the
catalyst that transforms potentials into reality. The primary role of a leader is to influence others to
voluntarily seek defined objectives (preferably with enthusiasm). Leadership styles represent a
consistent combination of philosophy, skills, traits and attitudes that are exhibited in a person
behavior. Banglalink follows the supportive and participative leadership style taking the most
positive areas of these two leadership styles even though there can be some points to be noted
that we think that we should recommend to make further improvement and efficiency in the
leadership style of Banglalink that will increase the productivity and foster the employees
satisfaction level.