...Ford Motor Company: Management and Leadership Randall Bullard Randall Bullard, Yahoo Contributor Network Sep 11, 2009 "Share your voice on Yahoo websites. Start Here." More: Ford Motor Company Newsvine Effective Management Effective Managers FlagPost a comment Economic changes continue to transform the very essence of how business is conducted. A company must be able to recognize the paths they face and be able to poise themselves to confront any obstacles to achieve the goals they set. One would ask how a company can poise themselves to meet these demands and the answer to that would be simple, thorough capable management and strong leadership. The answer may be simple but achieving this can be a daunting task. What does it take to have capable management and what qualities make up a good leader? Ford Motor Company is one company that has taken these items to task and have produced results that illustrate the power of effective management and precise leadership. The company's ability to appoint qualified managers and leaders has allowed the company to rise from previous lows and mistakes to be poised for a bright economic future. To be successful Ford Motor Company is required to have both good management and good leadership. Looking at these two terms one would think that they are one and the same. Isn't a manager a leader? Isn't a leader a manager? Thought these terms seem to be one and the same, they can be truly different when taken in...
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...INTRODUCTION “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it” Dwight D Eisenhower Leadership is one of those things that are often awfully hard to define but you know when you see it, and you definitely know when it is missing. Leadership is a process that is ultimately concerned with fostering change. In contrast to the notion of management, which suggests preservation and maintenance, leadership implies a process where there is movement-from wherever we are now to some future place of condition that is different. Leadership is not something we do, it is something we are. Leadership also implies intentionality, in the sense that the implied change is not random-“change for change’s sake”- but is rather directed toward some future end or condition, which is inherently value-based. A traditional definition of leadership: Leadership is an interpersonal influence directed toward the achievement of a goal or goals. Three important parts of this definition are the terms interpersonal, influence, and goal. • Interpersonal means between persons. Thus, a leader has more than one person (group) to lead. • Influence is the power to affect others. • Goal is the end one strives to attain. Basically, this traditional definition of leadership says that a leader influences more than one person toward a goal. Consistent with the notion that leadership is concerned...
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...5-03-05 Leadership Alan Hollingshead Western Governors University Competency 317.1.5-03-05 Leadership Executive A has led a commercial printing company to success by diversifying their services and creating a tradition of excellence and has been credited as the major contributor to the company’s success. Executive A has a “level 5” leadership style and in executive A’s plan to retire is considering two different leaders to take his place, leader B with a transactional leadership style and leader C with a transformational leadership style. By understanding the three unique leadership styles and applying them to the given company scenario, the effects of each leadership style on the company can be identified. As the chief executive officer leader A demonstrates the qualities that make up a “level 5” leadership style. Executive A has been referred to as fiercely ambitious with a drive or ambition which is concentrated on the company’s success. This drive has led the company to an extraordinary 128% increase in stock value under executive A’s leadership. When recognized as the source of the success, executive A gave credit to other leaders in the company and backed away from personal recognition. This unique mix of humility and drive for success is one of the unique aspects of a “level 5” leader. Some other aspects that show executive A’s leadership style is that executive A takes full accountability for errors and poor results and takes pride in training new leadership within...
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...1.Analyze the leadership style(s) of a senior executive in your current or previous organization who made a positive or negative impact on you. Leadership is considered to be an important aspect of organizations and there are several reasons to suggest that managerial styles are of particular relevance. However, every organization needs to determine how they define their desired leadership style within the organization, which must support their unique vision. Leadership is an art of moving people in a certain way, which is very difficult to explain, or for that matter follow by an individual. Leaders must be able to direct their team, which would eventually lead to success; this is where a leader can exhibits the vision, which is considered so important for leadership. The leadership style for the Program Director of the non-profit organization Catholic Charities for which I worked for I would say was a very effective leader whom had developed a level of self-awareness and capacity to monitor his own learning and development because he knew that leadership attributes can be defined, learned, practiced, improved and passed on to others. My previous director had a positive impact on me while I was employed with the organization because he installed in me that each individual’s leadership success would depend on my ability to create structural relationships that facilitate co-operation, performance, production and mutual satisfaction of my needs and goals. 2. Analyze the...
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...Successful Leadership in Business Successful Leadership in Business Liberty University Rachel Lake February 21, 2012 Abstract Successful leadership is motivational and interpersonal behavior within the organization. Effective leadership involves delegation of authority to the subordinate in an influential demeanor. In preparation of teams, managers assist by leading for the better achievement of the team. Successful leaders build and maintain a team that out performs its competitors. Survivability is one main focus of businesses today. There is no secret method or mysterious formula to become an effective leader. Trial and error is the process that determines whether a leader is a success or failure. Never stop learning and with practice your can increase your success in leadership. Introduction Successful leadership is a never ending learning and creative process of influencing others. You cannot call yourself a leader simply by achieving goals. Instead it is the long term ability to encompass all of these elements; being aware of your thoughts and actions, behaving in a way that encourages others to follow your behavior and inspiring others to improve upon their actions. “For success it is not enough to understand the industry, the technology and business models.” (Rizzatti 2005) Successful leaders have the expertise required for a position but also influence unity towards organizational goals. Any manager or leader, who strives for success, should acquire...
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...money got it all through their leadership. Leadership inspire followers to do their best, in order to achieve a certain goal. Therefore leadership is different from supervision and managing, as these two deal with the day-to-day operations and with more tactical work, whereas leadership is focused on the long-term, strategic outlook. The Obsession of leadership is a strong idea, and one of the main issues with business is control. Control of people, control of supplies, control of processes, product or service, costs, overtime, taxes, regulations, is principal to success in order to stay in business, for anyone in leadership. Most of the Business leaders...
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...When a company is small, communication among employees is as simple as rolling a desk chair around the room to talk to the president, the admin, or the chief engineer. But as a company grows, communication becomes more difficult. And strategic direction can suffer as a result, even if those at the top assume otherwise. "Having communication that goes bottom-up is just as important as having communication that goes top-down." "In many cases you have an executive team that's so sure about company strategy, but then you go inside the organization and find that nobody else has a clue," says Harvard Business School Professor Boris Groysberg. "Nobody knows what strategic conversations are actually unfolding." For that reason, many CEOs are reconsidering the classic command-and-control structure in which a few people are sending all the directives from the top of the corporate hierarchy. Instead, they are adopting a conversational approach. In their new book, Talk, Inc.: How Trusted Leaders Use Conversation to Power Their Organizations, Groysberg and communication professional Michael Slind show how several global companies are adopting principles of face-to-face conversation, and why this approach positively affects a company's bottom line. "In many ways the book is not about communication as much as it is about performance," Groysberg says. "In an economic environment where there is so much uncertainty, the senior management of a company might not know where the company...
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...This era has become very competitive and in order for organizations to be successful they need leaders to establish and manage relationships and lead their subordinates accordingly in order to achieve the company’s mission and objectivity. Leadership overall plays a very important role in the success of a company because the leader controls their subordinates behavior. If subordinates have uncertainties that are not directed accordingly it can result in an unhealthy environment, and in turn it will affect the growth of the organization, therefore good leadership is necessary. There are different leadership styles; a particular leader that will be discussed is Alan Mulally a CEO of Ford Motor. Alan faced many challenges and he impacted his business style on a corporate level as well as socially. Alan Mulally is one of greatest leaders, who managed business challenges effectively and because of his effectiveness he brought high profits to the organization. Mulally was an engineer in 1969. He handled various projects that were in relation to airplanes. One of Mulally’s greatest achievements was introducing the concept of “all digital” flight deck in the commercialized aircraft field. By 1993 Alan Mulally had had drastically climbed the ladder and became Vice President of Boeing. Alan Mulally was known to the commercial airline group as ‘Vice President of Engineering” (Biography: Alan Mulally 2011) Currently, Alan Mulally is the CEO and President of Ford Motors. Mulally joined...
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...Leadership styles, entrepreneurial orientation and family business growth in Ghana. The research problem While the number of family business abounds in Ghana, one sees lots of these slowly dying and some going bankrupt (Wolf, 2004). The lack of continuity and growth in family businesses is a major concern because of the primary contributory role that family businesses play in the world economy (Lansberg 1999: 1). It is perceived that entrepreneurial activities in Ghana lack the dynamism and competitive edge of those in more developed countries (Saffu, 2004). One reason that can be advanced is the lack of appropriate leadership style and competencies to manage the family business enterprises in Ghana (Wolf, 2004). Researchers in the fields of organizational behavior and leadership have examined leadership styles and their effects on such variables as job satisfaction, job stress, role conflict, job performance and organizational commitment (Humphreys et al., 2003, MacKenzie et al., 2001 and Stock and Hoyer, 2002), in the context of the North American and other developed countries and has rarely been conducted in emerging economies with different cultural orientation (Fakhrul et al 2011), and the Ghanaian context is no exception in this regard. Globally, there is a dearth of research regarding the influence of leadership styles and entrepreneurial orientation on the growth of service sector businesses including private schools. According to (Kest, 2007) there is a lack...
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...critical analysis of decision support systems research David Arnott1, Graham Pervan2 1 2 Monash University, Melbourne, Australia; Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia Correspondence: G Pervan, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia. Tel: þ 618-92667390; Fax: þ 618-92663076; E-mail: pervang@cbs.curtin.edu.au Abstract This paper critically analyses the nature and state of decision support systems (DSS) research. To provide context for the analysis, a history of DSS is presented which focuses on the evolution of a number of sub-groupings of research and practice: personal DSS, group support systems, negotiation support systems, intelligent DSS, knowledge management-based DSS, executive information systems/business intelligence, and data warehousing. To understand the state of DSS research an empirical investigation of published DSS research is presented. This investigation is based on the detailed analysis of 1,020 DSS articles published in 14 major journals from 1990 to 2003. The analysis found that DSS publication has been falling steadily since its peak in 1994 and the current publication rate is at early 1990s levels. Other findings include that personal DSS and group support systems dominate research activity and data warehousing is the least published type of DSS. The journal DSS is the major publishing outlet; US ‘Other’ journals dominate DSS publishing and there is very low exposure of DSS in European journals. Around two-thirds of DSS research...
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...Managing diversity last seminar One of the main changes in modern consumer behaviour has been the transition from a passive to an active and informed consumer. Internet enables customers to share their opinions on, and experiences with, goods and services with a multitude of other consumers. Online consumer reviews are used by prospective buyers of related products who are interested in obtaining more information from people who have purchased and used a product of interest. Word-of-mouth (WOM) is one of the most important information sources when a consumer is making a purchase decision as it is also a new trend of marketing. The arrival and expansion of the Internet has extended consumers' options for gathering product information by including other consumers' comments, posted on the Internet, and has provided consumers opportunities to offer their own consumption-related advice by engaging in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). eWOM can be defined as all informal communications directed at consumers through Internet-based technology related to the usage or characteristics of particular goods and services, or their sellers. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of, one type of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), the online consumer review, on purchasing decision of electronic products. This empirical study also focuses on the relationship between reviews and purchasing behavior. Therefore, one question comes in our mind: How online reviews have changed consumers’ decision-making...
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...Ehriq White Professor Griggs Writing 391 (Literature Review) 23 February 2014 INTRODUCTION Cyberbullying has become an extremely hot topic issue among parents and school officials as technological advancement has changed social behaviors over the last two decades. Cyberbullying occurs through texting, emails, social networks and the posting of inappropriate pictures of the person or persons victimized. While technology is a positive change for the future, bullies has created a significant challenge to the safety of society’s youth. Hinduja & Patchin (2008, p. 156) In providing and overview of the literature, this review will describe researchers’ concerns and findings. After reviewing definitions of traditional and cyberbullying, this paper will describe findings on the means of bullying and the effects on perpetrators and victims. To conclude the literature review, a short overview will detail experts’ thoughts on solutions. BODY The rapid development of technology has allowed a social change among today’s youth. The access to internet has reached unprecedented levels among adolescents through many devices provided through technology. In comparison to the 1980’s into the 90’s, the internet can be accessed almost at a moment of the day. Researchers like Perren, Dooley, Shaw & Cross (2010), concluded that a high percentage of victims in Swiss and Australian adolescents of cyberbullying have one or two computer systems in their home. They also describe that today’s youth...
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...Step 1 Our purpose is to help the homeless in the GTA and Toronto, by providing a food service, and a welcoming and comforting home for those in need of help. * We will be providing a food service that provides a breakfast and dinner, from a complimentary chef. Breakfast will consist of a cup of coffee, milk, orange juice, eggs, toast and bacon. Dinner may vary on particular days: spaghetti with meatballs, vegetarian or meat lasagna, or rice and stew. Dinner will also come with a complementary soda or water and a bun. * We will also be providing a homing service which includes several beds (first come, first serve) that will home the people in need whom don’t have a place to stay for the night. We will be providing a bed, with a blanket, pillow. We will be able to home about 50-60 people per night. People staying for the night may also take a shower/wash-up in our complementary shower rooms, and will also be provided clothing and daily necessities such as a toothbrush, tooth paste, razor, deodorant, etc. Step 2 Workers * Volunteers, cooks, supervisor and manager * Willing to help the homeless and needy * Mannerly (respectful, initiative, helpful) * Great communication skills, and right speaking ability to help the customers * Caring and willing to help others Money * $1 million, at least to start off (buy building, furniture, cooking equipment, and supplies) * 4000 a month, from charities or funds that are willing to provide. ...
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...Is new leadership going to revitalize an organization, thus bringing success to it? Leadership to an organization is rudder to a ship, without too much emphasizing on the importance of leadership, I agree that those in power need to step down for better leadership when necessary. If leaders are making big mistakes, they need to step down anytime necessary. But if current leaders are leading their organizations to make significant progress, they need to stay in power for the sake of their organizations’ continuous progress. New leaders can bring new ideas, innovation and other important resources to their organizations, which are important for the success of organizations. By the 1980s, Haier Group had debt of over CNY ¥1.4 million and suffered from dilapidated infrastructure, poor management, and lack of quality control. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Zhangruimin, the saver of Haier Group, introduced the sense of quality to its members by smashing 76 faulty refrigerators in front of everybody. The company started turning around in late 1980s with Zhangruimin’s disciplined management. As an avid reader of western and Japanese business, he brought Haier into international competition after cooperating with Germany Liebherr Group. This has been one of the most told stories where a new innovative leader saves an almost bankrupted company. Under some extreme circumstances, those in power might need to step down before the end of their due time. Chairman...
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...Eastern Thoughts On Leadership The lessons taught to us by the great philosophical masters of the last few centuries are still applicable today. It's amazing that the thoughts of both Eastern and Western leadership have transcended the generations still maintaining validity in our everyday lives. When one looks to the East, we find the ideas of Confucianism and Taoism present in so many aspects of our daily and business lives. Though the current government of China (PRC) would like to consider itself not Confucian, its people still practice many of the ways taught by the great masters. The question arises, "can the ideas and ideals taught by Confucius and Tao, be relevant to the business practices of the West?" I believe this not to be a black or white answer but somewhere in between. It is essential for today’s business leader to understand this gray area where East meets West, especially in regards to leadership. While Western influences in leadership such as Plato, Shakespeare, Machiavelli, and others, have depicted the leader as having certain qualities, only some of these hold true in the Eastern concepts of leadership. What are the core leadership values as put forth by Confucius and Taoism? Foremost is morality. Confucius tells us: “He who rules by moral force (te) is like the pole-star, which remains in its place while all the lesser stars do homage to it.” (Waley, Confucius 88) Likewise, his feelings on governance were clear, "…govern them by moral...
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