Leadership Style of Hewlett Packard - Research Paper Example

?Leadership Style Hewlett Packard Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Leadership Style & Organizational Culture of Hewlett Packard 3 Personal & Organization Values 4 Ethical Conduct, Strength & Weakness 4 Effective Traits contributing to the Organizational Success 6 Influence of Communication, Collaboration, Power & Politics on Group Dynamics 6 Introduction: Meg Whitman The corporate executive Meg Whitman started her corporate career at eBay in the year 1988. Meg Whitman had joined the company when it was in its infancy; the company constituted of 30 employees and had revenue of approximately $4 million (CrunchBase, 2013).It is believed that during her initial days in the company she was not accustomed with the traditional methods of working in eBay and developed her own executive team. She had made several changes in the working procedure of the management team and had made 23 business categories to accomplish goals in a smooth manner. In the year 2009 Meg Whitman announced plans to run for the governor post of USA. However, after her defeat in the political rally she was asked to serve for the post of CEO at Hewlett Packard in the year 2011 (Forbes, 2013). Leadership Style & Organizational Culture of Hewlett Packard During her tenure eBay sold and exchanged goods worth $52 billion in more than 38 countries (Swartz, 2013). Recently, the shareholder’s of Hewlett Packard had filed suit against the company for the purchase of autonomy at $8.8 billion (Garside, 2013). The shareholders of the company were unhappy about the accounting misrepresentation, financial disclosure failure etc. It is observed that Meg Whitman adopted the transformational leadership style at various stages and situations. Transformational leadership style helps in accomplishment of goals and objectives of the company in a systematic method (Hautala, 2008). It is also concerned with the individual consideration and intellectual stimulation. Managers exhibiting transformational leadership are mainly concerned with the achievement of the targets and the performance of the employees (Ozaralli, 2003). Transformation al leadership and organizational culture and have a significant impact on the organizational performance. Traditionally, Hewlett Packard believed in “Hire &Fire” method, however, with the recent implementation of Management by Objectives (MBO) the company’s managerial decision making has been effective and clear. Presently, the environment at HP is very informal and positive which indicates the influence of the transformational leadership exhibited by the CEO. Personal & Organization Values The organization values are often associated with the corporate, social power and the attitude of the workers, employees and the managers. It has been observed that Meg Whitman has exhibited transformational leadership in certain situations but her sole focus on attainment of goals reflects her aggressive behavior. The organizational climate within a company becomes an essential part of the value system of an individual which helps him / her to achieve corporate goals. The leadership style exhibited by the CEO has delivered positive results in eBay and not in Hewlett Packard. During her tenure as the CEO of the company, there were 29000 job cuts and there was a major decline in the share price of the company. This signifies that the CEO was more focused on “Legitimate reciprocity” which signifies that managers are more focused on performing an action which is related to the positive organizational outcome. Ethical Conduct, Strength & Weakness Ethical conduct and managerial decision making are deeply interrelated and affect the organizational outcome of the company. Meg Whitman exhibited excellent organizational leadership and managerial abilities in her previous company. However, rationale ethical decision making exhibited in the previous organization could not be translated into something effective in HP. With the firing of 29000 employees she has instilled job insecurity, lowered the morale which was a major contributing factor to low employee turnover rate. Presently, the company’s main focus is profit, welfare of the employees, customers and growth. However, the CEO had laid special emphasis on the financial performance of the company and not the interest and welfare of the employees. The purchase of autonomy had angered the stakeholder and shareholders of the HP. This signifies that the CEO was suffering from ethical dilemma that guided her to take certain actions which led to negative outcome. The strength of the CEO’s personality and character is directly related to the organizational effectiveness. Some of the biggest strengths of Meg Whitman is her strong ability to identify the weak links in an organization which can disturb the smooth functioning of the company, delegating the tasks and responsibilities to the right employees and proper coordination of activities within the departmental units of the organization. Some of the weakness of the CEO would be to not regard the employees as the valuable assets of the organization, inability to exhibit the various types of leadership approaches in organizational situations and the inability to assess the various non financial variables which are directly related to the organizational outcome of the company. Although, the tenure of the CEO of HP is generally 5 years it has been observed that the present CEO has demanded for further extension. This has sparked controversy among the employees and other top level managers about her inability to achieve the target within this stipulated time frame. The actions of CEO have a direct impact on the employee performance and behavior. As mentioned before a sense of job insecurity that has prevailed over the employees has led to a low employee turnover rate. This is because of the irrational ethical decision making and the inability of the CEO to adopt the other leadership approaches (Pimentel, Kuntz & Elenkov, 2010). Effective Traits contributing to the Organizational Success The tenure of the CEO has been only two and half years in HP which makes it too early to judge the success of the CEO. Based on her successful performance at eBay it can be stated that the transformational leadership exhibited at various stages has been fruitful in several managerial decisions making like developing an informal communication hierarchy, several successful acquisition and mergers etc. The successful accomplishment of targets and objectives by the CEO has made a positive impact on the outcome of the company. Influence of Communication, Collaboration, Power & Politics on Group Dynamics Presently, the company follows an informal communication approach which has helped in the increasing the organizational effectiveness and enhancing the communication skills of the employees. A company following a hierarchical order helps in smooth facilitation of communication flow from top level to lower level. Instruction should be disseminated properly through a proper communication model by the top level managers to enhance the productivity of the employees. In the corporate world the authority that the CEO demands is deeply influenced by his social status. For example if the manager wants to change the subordinate behavior largely and he/she is reluctantly to comply with the changes then the manager should apply the tactic of rewards. The exercise of power by the managers is considered as influence and the authority or potential to exercise the authority is called power (Koslowsky& Stashevsky, 2005).There are various kinds of power from the managerial perspective which can increase the organizational effectiveness like reward, coercive, legitimate and expert power (Koslowsky& Stashevsky, 2005).These powers are exhibited to increase the employee performance and help in adapting to the change and development in the organization. Politics has a considerable influence in the functioning of the organization and the managerial decision making. The legal system of a particular country affects the human resource, administrative policies of the organization. Legal laws can enhance the performance of the companies and also act as a hindrance to growth and learning of the company. Thus, we can observe that a proper communication model and the correct exhibit of the social power can not only promote a congenial atmosphere but also change the procedure of interaction among the employees but also affects the organizational culture on the whole (Lucas& Kline, 2008). References Hautala, T.M. (2008). The relationship between personality and transformational leadership. Journal of Management Development, 25(8), 777-794. Koslowsky, M., & Stashevsky, S. (2005). Organizational values and social power. International Journal of Manpower, 26(1), 23-34. Lucas, C., & Kline, T. (2008). Understanding the influence of organizational culture and group dynamics on organizational change and learning. The Learning Organization, 15(3), 23-34. Ozaralli, N. (2003). Effects of transformational leadership on empowerment &team effectiveness. Leadership & Organizational Journal, 24(6), 335-344. Pimentel, J.R.C., Kuntz, J.R., & Elenkov, D.S. (2010). Ethical decision-making: An integrative model for business practices. European Business Review, 22(4), 359-376. CrunchBase. (2013). Meg Whitman. Retrieved from http://www.crunchbase.com/person/meg-whitman Garside, J. (2013, April 10). HP's Meg Whitman: 'We had to be straight' on Autonomy. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/apr/10/hp-autonomy-deal-meg-whitman Forbes. (2013, June 05). Meg Whitman. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/profile/meg-whitman/ Swartz, J. (2013, June 05). Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman considers politics.ABCNews. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5859886&page=2#.Ua3gfdJHIbA Read More