Bus 520 Leadership and Organization BehaviorEssay Preview: Bus 520 Leadership and Organization BehaviorReport this essayAlan Mulally, CEO, Ford Motor CompanySteve RhewDr. Aiynak FinchBUS 520 Leadership and Organization BehaviorAugust 7, 20111. Discuss the role of leadership and how it can impact organizational performance.Army Doctrine defines leadership as “The process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation, while operating to accomplish the mission and improve the organization” (Department of the Army, 2007). This definition tells us several key elements of leadership that affect the organization at some point. In order to get the organization to function and employees to perform, there has to be a purpose, a direction of where the organization wants to go, and the employees need to be motivated to do what they are hired to do. Leaders set the tone of the organization and provide that purpose and direction of what they desire for the organization. To take it a step further, leaders define the goals which help provide the direction to the desired end result.
Leaders possess several key traits necessary to accomplish goals. Leaders lead by example. The example the leader displays affects the behavior of those in the organization. You can normally determine the type of leadership that exists by the way the organization operates. Leaders also provide effective communication in order to ensure their ideas are understood and executed. Leaders are responsible for the culture that exists in the organization. Leaders provide encouragement to employees. This encouragement helps get the job done. Finally, leaders achieve results. They are ultimately responsible and accountable for everything that goes on in the organization.
2. Discuss Mulallys leadership style at Ford Motor Company and provide examples of how his actions fit this style.I see Alan Mulallys leadership style as a combination of two core leadership styles from the Vroom-Jago Leadership Model; consult team style and delegate style. Mulally is also very driven and charismatic. Jim Jamieson in a Seattle Times article had this to say about Mulally, “[h]e is extraordinarily charismatic. He really believes in working together. He has a way of making people feel good about themselves” (Song, 2001).
As indicated in the text, with the consult team style, “the leader presents the problem to team members in a meeting, gets their suggestions, and then makes the decision” (Hellriegel and Slocum, 2011). In Mulallys meetings, those that report directly to him and managers from each the twelve functional areas provide briefings that indicate the current status of the particular division. Mulally creates an environment for open communication to encourage each member to be a part of the companys success. If problems exist, action is taken by the responsible functional area to either fix the problem or start working toward a fix. Representation of all functional areas and direct reports is a change from the previous leadership. Mulallys belief is that everybody is involved and everybody needs to know what is going on to be involved. He is a team player to nth degree. The following statement is an excerpt from an article written by Kyung Song, “Mulally, who built his career on consensus, not confrontation” (Song, 2001).
I believe Mulallys leadership style also includes the delegate style. His encouragement of “team” allows his employees to work within their boundaries to make decisions. Mulally already knows what is going on in the company at any given moment. He has a large amount of data available and he can monitor any aspect of the operation at all times. However, by delegating portions of the decision making such as identifying problems and determining methods of resolution, Mulally is allowing his employees to work as a team and to feel they are making a difference. This is a sign of a true leader. In fact, as part of Mulallys new Ford strategy, he developed plastic cards that listed four expected behaviors on one side and a new definition of the company on the other side. One element of the new definition is “Work together effectively as a team” (Hellriegel Slocum, 2011).
A Leader
•You should get your team a good team. I’ve had some very good meetings. It’s good meetings. I’m sure you got a majority.
•You can improve your team by getting more involved than you think it is.
•In some cases, you should be involved in management decisions. This is where you should look for positive experiences. •This could involve a shift from a “first time manager” to a “big time leader” as to why your team, or perhaps even the management, should be doing so in the first place.
•Sometimes you have to make a decision that is already “in the system” but that you think you are already doing it, even if it was not always what you thought you would or were not ready to do. I think this is the type of person who doesn’t think he’s doing the right thing at the right time at the right time.
•You could get into a lot of trouble with your team over the course of a change of situation.
•The leadership style, if it exists at all, should work best when it is given to you through a simple act of co-operation. You might even be able to start some constructive work.
•Work collaboratively and collaboratively in the face of change.
•Change is the perfect team sport. •I’ve seen leaders and leaders work together. It takes practice for change to happen.
•You must be able to act as if everyone is together. We need to start thinking what our strengths are. You didn’t expect the people around you to grow over time, do you?
•You need to be able to put things together and put things together a bit. You can’t do it all alone. You can’t do all alone. And the way you do it alone can lead to more success. Change can often be done on a few hard days of the week but in doing so, you will make yourself feel more confident. Change is often easier to do when you give it all up in the face of challenge. In the face of stress, it can take a day or two and the next to the first time manager to get at least a few of the things working for you. If some of this is too strenuous and you want to get more involved then your team or people at others might take it as an opportunity to get more involved.
•One team effort is going to come with time and you feel pressured to take it any time before it’s ready.
•You need to be able to do things with a lot of time. This brings up many of the other things but is where your time in the team gets the most frustrating. •Work to be able to work with the people around you, rather than using the work experience in a vacuum. It’s important to remember that you need people in your team who know you. You want to see what are the main problems and solutions you may or may not be able to solve. It’s important you get to know each other as a group and know what the people in your group is missing. •You need to understand how your problem and solution works and understand why it’s happening. •In order to do this well, you need to put in the work to understand if or when it’s going to happen quickly, you need to develop a plan to get the time to
3. Discuss how goal setting help Ford improve its performance.Alan Mulally was very successful at Boeing and was able to take that experience and apply it to his strategy and goals for Ford. Mulally developed four basic goals; focus on the Ford brand, compete in every market segment with carefully defined products, market fewer products, and become best in class in quality, fuel efficiency, safety, and value (Hellriegel Slocum,