Alan Mulally, CEO, Ford Motor Company - Essay Example

Alan Mulally, CEO, Ford Motor Company Abstract Leadership refers to the process involved in directing a group of people, implementing plans and motivating them to work towards the achievement of organizational goals. Leadership highly focuses on the act of leading individuals within an organization. It is quite of great essence since there some specific key roles that cannot be performed within any given organization unless there is that spirit of leadership (Tope 2001). Therefore, to high degree leadership is said to have a great influence on organizational performance. Leadership facilitates the establishment of a vision that is clear within the organization. It further facilitates the sharing of that vision with individuals in the organization so that they can follow it willingly. Leadership provides reliable information, skills, knowledge and ways through which the vision can be achieved in an efficient and effective manner. Also leadership coordinates and balances any interests of the members within the organization that might be conflicting (Tope 2001). Effective leadership emanates from the personality of an individual who posses the ability to think and take actions in ways that suggest creativity wherever difficult situations are encountered. Within any given organization leadership adversely impacts organizational performance. In a positive way it results to employee motivation enabling them to enjoy executing their roles. Productivity rises due to the fact that employees have the morale to work and are able to identify opportunities as well as save on time as they execute their tasks. All this is attributed to leadership that involves leaders communicating their expectations with clarity to their employees. It also involves leaders providing relevant feedbacks and fostering strong relationships with employees to improve their loyalty in the organization. Leadership also aids in the development of personalities both at an individual and group level. Personality of employees dictates the kind of results to be expected as far the performance of the organization is concerned. Therefore good personality of employees is a highway to greater and better performance in an organization. The ford motor company is an automaker based in the United States whose president and the Chief Executive Officer is Alan Mulally. The company has been seen to perform quite well under the leadership of Mulally. Its performance is attributed to Mulally’s leadership style which is basically a results oriented type of leadership. A results oriented type of leadership highly focuses on the impact or the outcome of exercising leadership. Based on a clear vision, measurable and attainable goals it aims at achieving maximum results that are desirable and expected in the organization. Mulally exercises his leadership in a crispy and authoritative manner (Vlasic 2009). This blends well with his leadership style due to the fact that he has to ensure that employees do not divert their working from the achievement of the expected results. By Mulally facilitating the installation of an operational discipline as well as initiating moves in a timely and strategic manner indicates that his leadership is result oriented. Through such actions he has contributed to the financial independence enjoyed by Ford Company and thus not depending on loans. Goal setting is a key factor that needs to be considered in regards to the performance of any given organization. Mulally came up with a plan that identified some specific for the ford company. He went step further creating a process that moved towards the achievement of those goals with a system to ensure that they are eventually achieved. Mulally demands to be updated regularly in line with the performance of the organization. Mulally's goal setting approach directed ford to moves characterized by smartness and good timeliness. For instance sensing the occurrence of the 2006 recession, against the assets of Ford Company Mulally borrowed $23.6 billion which basically was not that easy a decision to make since it meant more debt for the company (Vlasic 2009). From a positive point of view the debt meant no loan from the government if sales reduced the following year. Mulally is working towards the global integration of the company for better and improved performance. Mulally saw that ford’s performance would be improved if it directed its resources to the ford brand. Bill ford therefore disposed off land rover and jaguar brands under his persuasion. They were sold in 2007 to the Tata Company based in India when market for those who made luxury vehicles still existed (Krisher 2007). Though it took long to dispose Volvo it has now been put up for sale. All those actions have contributed to the improvement of ford’s performance. Mulally stresses on the importance of every employee within the organization to have an understanding of the company’s plan. This includes knowing the status of the plan as well as those areas that require some special attention (Krisher 2007). For example, Mulally has made a resolution that ford cuts down dependence on light trucks due to the increases in the cost of gas. He therefore has let the organization know about the resolution in a language that is most direct. A clear evaluation indicates that the fact that Mulally is open in his communication seems to win him support from other members within the organization. On arrival at ford Mulally carried out a research that made him develop a perspective on auto business that currently shapes all his decisions. During his research he interviewed employees, consultants and analysts working in the company. Pillars of ford company are drawn largely from Mulally’s experience when he worked with Boeing company. They have an element of objectiveness in them blended together with good communication for easier achievement of the company’s goals (Kiley 2007).They include the ford brand being the major focus; engaging in competition in every segment of market with products that are carefully and well defined, being connected to markets with few nameplates and lastly becoming the best company in regards to value, quality, safety and efficiency as far as the use of fuel is concerned. Mulally’s leadership style has proved to be quite effective. This is evidenced by the restyled 2010 Taurus to be put on sale which is his first new model (Kiley 2007).s Also the coming soon models, the Fiesta and the Focus both small and fuel efficient cars show a high degree of positive implication resulting from his leadership style. Though the cars are small they have a very high content. It is not known for how long Mulally will continue staying at ford nor the person to take over from him. In conclusion due to Mulally’s great performance within the company Bill ford hopes that he will never leave. Since ford is running quite smoothly it is therefore seen that there is no need to spend time looking for someone to take over from him. Mulally should continue with the same style of leadership as it has proved to be quite effective and efficient towards better performance of the ford company. References Tope Adeyemi-Bello, (2001) "The impact of leadership style on organizational growth", Work Study, Vol. 50 Iss: 4, pp.150 – 154 Krisher, Tom (2007) The Washington Post. Associated Press. Retrieved 2007-08-29. Vlasic, Bill (2009) "Choosing Its Own Path, Ford Stayed Independent". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-11-02. Kiley, David (2007) "The New Heat On Ford". Bloomberg Business week. Retrieved 2010-03-05. . . . Read More