Leadership and change at Ford Motor Company
INTRODUCTION
Leadership is the ability of leader that makes them able to handle several business situations effectively. Ford has faced huge trouble when in 2007 country was facing financial crises. The study will explain the contingency leadership approach and its implication to the case of Ford. It will explain strength and weakness of leadership of Leader of Ford.
MAIN BODY
Contingency change model/ Contingency leadership
Contingency theory explains that leaders are responsible to understand the different situations faced by the organization and leaders need to react according to this situation only. Leadership is highly depended upon the different conditions of the organization. There are many internal and external factors that influence the organizational performance and leaders need to behave by looking at these situations (Offstein, and et.al., 2020).
The contingency approach of Fielder states that there is no specific suitable leadership that can work in every condition. An effective leader needs to behave based on particular condition only. Hence leadership style of leaders is highly depended upon the situational aspects. This model indicates that leaders are the most important person those who behave in the firm that influence the performance of the organization greatly. Their preferred leadership style always supports the enterprise to gain the positive results (Basrie, & Jatmikof, 2020). The right leadership style can support leader in handling several tasks in an efficient manner and to get the positive outcome in the organization. Leadership style of the person is highly depended upon the personality of leader and situation predicts. Leaders those who have high score of LOP always experiences low situational control hence they can be non-directive behavior. A leader with high LPC score experiences high control behavior and individual behaves directive. Both these kinds of leadership styles work well in different situations hence this is responsibility of leader that to implement the right leadership style that fits to the situation in an efficient manner. The contingency theory explains that there are several factors that determine the style of leadership and influence the performance of leader in the firm greatly. These three factors are:
- Task structure: This is considered as essential element, the style of leadership depends upon t how task is being structured (Tsolka, 2020). That describes the extent to which it should be carried out.
- Leader-member relations: This is another major component that indicates that if there is strong relationship between employees and members then group members will support the leader and will follow their instruction so that workplace performance can be improved.
- Position power: This factor determines the extent to which leader is experiencing their power and the extent to which people are accepting their direction.
In the case of Ford, the company was facing huge trouble as financial crises have affected its performance badly. There was needed to make changes in the financial overhaul and process so that people can work better and can contribute well in improving the condition of Ford greatly (Sabzalipour, and et.al., 2020). In this condition Mullaly has adopted the task leadership style where individual has concentrated on the task so that overall performance of the Ford can be recovered soon. The leadership score of leader of Ford is Low LPC. This means task oriented leadership is being implemented by the leader. His main focused was on delivering the best quality products and services to consumers so that their trust can be maintained. This leadership style of him has helped the Ford to get sustainable results and improve performance of the business unit to great extent. Mullaly is also the relationship-focused person who always prefers to build healthy relationship with its employees. Individual involves them into the decision making process and discuss each small aspect it’s with the team members. Mullaly has developed the new structure and culture where all the people are involved and they discuss regarding the progress of the company. This has supported him to retain talented people in the firm and enhance overall performance of the organization greatly. It was needed that Mullaly makes changes in its structure and put new structure (Negrón Naldos, 2020).
He has recognized the team working importance to the business unit. He set vision and make its team members aware with the vision. He sets the system so that team members can respond to this new system and can give positive response towards this new system. This has developed positive relationship between leader and members and they have started following guidelines of their leaders (Mendy, 2020). Mullaly has set the environment of confidence and loyalty that has raised employee engagement and helped the Ford to improve its workplace performance greatly. The approach of Mullaly to build trust and meet the set targets have given positive outcome to the Ford and this has improved the condition of the business unit greatly. Mullaly has obtained the set target and lower level employees has developed trust on the leaders that has enhances speed of operational performance and has helped the business to gain success in the market. Mullaly has gained information about the issues in the Ford and have accelerated the production s that profit can be increased. He has taken loan from the bank so that it can invest more and can work better in the recession time. This investment has gives positive outcome and has improved the production process of Ford that has made the firm successful in the automobile industry (Chui, 2020).
Strength and weakness of Mullaly’s leadership
The leadership style of Mullaly was task oriented leadership style in which leader always concentrates on completion of task in a successful manner. The leader of the same leadership style always prefers to develop the structure that can be helpful in improving the working efficiency of the business unit. The leader set schedules ad assign task to all members so that they can perform it well and can manage it timely. Mullaly understands the requirement of employees hence he focused on team strengths and allotting responsibilities to each member according to their capabilities (Guerrero, and et.al., 2020).
Strength of this leadership style is theta it has helped in improving the communication at the workplace. Mullaly has started conducting meeting with the employees where employees were given rights to share their ideas and share their opinions. This has supported the leader in finding new ideas and making the workers feel valued and important in the organization. This is the great leadership style that always encourages team building in the workplace. This supports the business unit to develop a healthy team and develop confidence of this team. This is the best way through which business can gain success in the market. This leadership style of leader of Ford has supported in gaining success in the market (Mendez, 2020). Changing dynamics have created the hard situations for the organization where leaders can face huge difficulties in managing the performance level of the organization. At that time task-oriented leadership of the Mullaly concentrated on identifying the root cause of the issue and finding the best solution through which business can grow well in the market.
The clarity of objective is the main strength of this leadership style of Mullaly as he was very sure for what he is doing. He has set clear vision so that firm can work in the correct direction. He has given targets and set deadline that supported Ford to improve its production efficiency. Another strong point of task oriented leadership is that it analysis the task precisely. If person is working of any project then there is need to set mission or vision. Accordingly strategies are framed that allow the leader to gain success in the market (Best, and et.al., 2020). In this manner, Mullaly has managed all the action in proper manner that has given the positive result to its organization. Task oriented leadership of Mullaly has helped in offering the necessary guidance to all its staff members so that they can have adequate information and resources to perform their allotted task effectively. He focused on developing a strong team and raising coordination among all departments. This has raised confidence of employees and has boosted their level of performance to great extent. This has directed the team strength and has become able to attain the favorable outcome in the Ford (Wahab & Tyasari, 2020).
There are many weakness of the leadership style of Mullaly as many times core concentration on the task ignores the happiness of employees at workplace. The Mullaly was engaging all its team members in the meeting to discuss regarding the improvement in the performance of the company but there was less focus on needs of employees that can make them happy. The close focus on task many times created situation where critical issues within the team are being ignored. Mullaly was pushing all its employees to complete their allotted work within set duration that many times created pressure on the employees and have created negative environment in the workplace (Engstrand, 2020). This negative atmosphere has affected productivity of the employees and has reduced their level of production abilities. Every year Ford makes new strategies to enhance its level of performance but it can affect culture of the company. There was arrangement of formal training that reduces interest of employees and creates lack of enthusiasm within them.
Principle based approach to strategic leadership and its impact on management motivation and behavior
Strategic leadership can be defined as capability of leader to make new strategies that can help the organization to grow well in the market (Matos, & Machado, 2020). The leadership style of Mullaly has helped the Ford to enhance its level of performance and over the complex situations faced by the enterprise.
Distribute responsibility is one of the major principle of strategic leadership. Leader of Ford has distributed responsibilities to all members as per the capabilities and abilities. This has helped them to perform it well and feel comfortable as well. This has encouraged them to perform well and make more efforts so that business can improve its performance. This allocation of responsibilities has helped the business unit to raise level of performance in the market (Yusuf, & Kurniady, 2020).
Be honest is the principle of strategic leadership, honesty always enhances trust of the employees and they follow instruction of their leaders. In this manner, performance of workers gets improved and they support the leader that helps the organization to grow well and resolve organizational problems in a significant manner.
The main principle of strategic management is to create multiple paths for the employees so that they can raise new ideas and can test their ideas (Filthuth, 2020). Leader of ford has given power to the employees to share their ideas and discuss their ideas with the top management. They test their ideas and implement the best option that can help organization to grow well. This empowerment of the workers always motivates them and makes them loyal towards the brand. Developing new opportunities and learn new things is another principle of strategic leadership. The leader of Ford has made new tactics so that business can run well and can deal in such complex recession condition properly. Leader has utilized their experience in the best manner and has applied it at workplace properly. This has encouraged the organization to gain trust of employees and making them positive towards the brand.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it can be concluded that leaders are the most important stakeholder that always make efforts so that business can grow well. This is responsibility of leader that to understand the situation well and apply the correct leadership style that can help in managing such kinds of situation in an efficient manner.
REFERENCES
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