Introduction
Alan Mulally joined Ford in September 2006 having worked at Boeing for 37 years. In his work as an engineer as well as a businessman, Mulally has often always employed a kind of leadership that is relentless in his quest to achieve results. Despite the fact that Mulally had no prior experience in sales, he joined Ford with the sole purpose of turning around its misfortunes. His leadership style is very unique and it’s ‘result-oriented’ encompassing a management protocol that is authoritative and candid (Kiley, 2009).
Discuss the role of leadership and how it can impact the performance of an organization
Leadership can be defined as the art of creating ideas, living by values that enhance such ideas, influencing other people to incorporate them in their own behavior as well as making tough decisions about both human and non human resources (Bates, 2011). It is therefore the responsibility of every leader to use power in order to help an organization accomplish its goals. In addition, for a leadership strategy to be successful, the leader should be able to use a wide pool of sources of power for the purpose of influencing those he leads as well as making the organization successful (Schermerhorn, 2004).
Just like other forms of art, perfection in leadership is rarely achieved, and therefore it is of paramount importance that the techniques used by a leader change according to how times change. The leadership in any organization influences its success or failure depending on the effects of what its leader does. The actions taken in any leadership strategy must be developed to fit individual and group personalities so as to bring the intended results upon use in a particular manner. The role of leadership in any organization is to provide a framework of order on how things should be done. The incorporation of discipline, self-expression, and good techniques results in the betterment of an organization’s performance (Kiley, 2009).
Discuss the leadership style of Mulally at Ford Motor Company and examples of how his actions fit this style
Mulally’s leadership style is entirely goal-oriented. When he joined Ford in 2006, many executives were shocked by his confidence that the company could make more profits from the sale of smaller cars as opposed to light trucks (Kiley, 2009). Moreover; he employs the policy of openness and communication among all the employees of the company. He clearly states that everybody should work as a team and if anyone is not comfortable with that, he or she should see him (Dubrin, 2011). This greatly promoted the company’s performance.
As opposed to competing companies like GM and Chrysler, Ford has its market share of retail sales go up in the past seven months and even promises to compete with Toyota. Alan’s leadership style has seen the share price of Ford increase by almost five times after its lowest point in November last year. (Kiley, 2009).
Discuss how goal-setting helped Ford improve its performance
When he joined Ford in September 2006, Mulally set forward goals that were aimed at turning the company into a profit maker from its state of going down. He hadn’t designed or built any cars before but he was set on improving the company no matter what problems he faced. His first task was creating a plan that identified specific goals for the company and consequently coming up with a procedure that would help in the achievement of those goals. His main goal was to reap maximum benefits from the sale of small cars contrary to the majority of the executives who were working in the company (Kiley, 2009).
Through goal setting, Mulally was able to make very positive moves that enabled Ford to reject government loans last year when sales went down. The growth of sales has seen an expansion into the European continent. The achievement of goals in the company has been enhanced by proper communication among workers as well as continuous reporting to the C.E.O on a weekly basis (Kiley, 2009).
According to Mulally, Ford should record a profit by the end of the year since it will have recovered from its previous misfortunes. He clearly says that it had better turn profitable because it can’t keep losing money indefinitely (Osborn et al, 2004).
Make an assessment of Mulally on the elements of communication openness
According to Mulally, every individual involved in the running of an organization’s activities should be having knowledge of its strategic plan as well as areas in its operations that require special attention. At Ford, this has been achieved as a result of the weekly updates that are carried out every Thursday morning. When he joined the company, he emphasized the importance of communication among the employees. Over time, his communication openness has won him exemplary support throughout the organization. His communication involves passing messages to the entire organization through the simplest language possible for everyone to understand (Ritson, 2009).
He has enhanced openness in the communication of the agendas and goals of the organization by creating one team of people working together having the sole aim of aggressively restructuring in order to operate profitably at the current demand and the changing trends. The people are able to discuss various issues affecting the organization and together come up with viable solutions. All in all, communication openness is the key to an organization’s better performance (Ritson, 2009).
Evaluate the effectiveness of Mulally’s style of leadership and recommend whether he should continue using this style or use a different one
Mulally’s style of leadership has borne considerable positive results so far. He surprised many when he joined Ford back in 2006 when he was asked whether Ford would be able to remain in business. His answer was, ‘I don’t know, but we have a plan, and the plan says we are going to make it!’(Dubrin, 2011). This shows that he had faith in the style of leadership from the beginning.
Through his effort, ford has been able to restyle the Taurus that would have been discarded into a more stylish car that went on sale in June 2010. He has also planned a new generation of fuel-efficient cars, the Fiesta and the Focus that will make their way from Europe to the U.S very soon. Once these small cars hit the market, Ford will be able to make more profits as he had anticipated when he joined it. People see Mulally’s leadership as a success since there are questions already arising about how long he will stay at Ford with Bill Ford hoping that he will never leave the organization (Ritson, 2009).
In conclusion, it is my recommendation that Alan Mulally continues using the same approach of leadership since it has so far revived a company that could have gone down over five years ago due to financial problems.
References
Bates, S. (2011). Discover Your CEO Brand: Secrets to Embracing and Maximizing Your Unique Value as a Leader. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional.
Dubrin, A.J. (2011). Essentials of Management. 9th Ed. New York: Cengage Learning.
Hitt, M. A, Ireland, R. D. &Hoskisson, R.E. (2009). Strategic management: competitiveness and globalization: cases. New York: Cengage Learning.
Kiley, D. (2009). Ford Heads Out on a Road of its Own. Business Week. P. 47.
Ritson, M. (2009). Ford’s clarity of focus. Marketing Report. Pp. 44-51.
Schermerhorn, J.R. &Osborn, R.O. (2004).Core concepts of organizational behavior. New York: Wiley& sons.