Use of Moral Compass by Kelly Mueller and Vince Brofft - Assignment Example

Case Study: Leadership Plan Use of moral compass by Kelly Mueller and Vince Brofft for vision implementation and company’s success The term moral compass can be stated as a guidance tool that has its application in guiding the decision of an individual so that it is based on significant virtues and morals. The moral compass can also be considered as an inner sense that distinguishes the right from the wrong. This makes the functioning of moral compass serve as a guide which can be linked to the compass needle so that the behavior of an individual is appropriate morally. The moral compass provides an individual with a wide set of virtues and values that leads the individual towards the right direction. The case study describes two significant leadership roles in the form of Vince Brofft and Kelly Mueller. The daughter and father are both dedicated leaders of their own family business, American Tool & Die. The changing scenario of the market had put excessive pressure on some of the local communities as more number of foreign automakers was grabbing the market share. In such a scenario the major goal of Kelly Mueller had been to adapt to the changing situations and shifting the business of AT&D from Michigan to Mississippi. This would eventually cause adverse effects on 195 employees as they have to get detached from their families. The concept of moral compass can be effectively incorporated in the attitude of Kelly Mueller with respect to her vision implementation. It can stated that she was more concerned with the future of these employees who were like a family to her, and she was more focused than her father in respect to goal orientation. Kelly Mueller was not a social architect rather she was more focused towards sustainability of her business. As a leader she was finding opportunities for her company so that she can take out her business from the financially unstable situation. As a leader of AT&D she was able to analyze well the potential problems surrounding the organization and take appropriate measures so as to overcome those problems. Kelly Mueller adopted the leadership role of directing its workforce towards success of the organization. She was not very determined towards following the traditional approach of leadership that focused more on coaching and supporting the employee base for business operations (Cameron, 2008). In context of moral compass Kelly Mueller can effectively put forward the virtue that decision she was taking to shift the plant was for sustainability of the business and also for the benefit of all those families of her workforce who were totally dependent on the business operations of AT&D. Her decision can be stated as aligned with the long term vision of the company. Kelly Mueller can use this concept by giving equal importance to her workforce and taking a collaborative decision for the benefit of the organization. In order to implement her vision she can utilize this concept so as to analyze whether her move for the future of the company is affecting the lives of her dedicated employees or not. This would help her to take better decisions for sustainability of the business. Here, Kelley Muller is a type of authoritarian leader. She is very much focused towards the future of the organization, in course of that she is not giving that much of importance to the future of existing number of employees in Michigan. She has very distinct individual leadership goals. She is a suitable change agent (Gill, 2006). She is thinking of shifting their business operation from Michigan to Mississippi. She is strongly backing her strategy as she has spotted good opportunities in that place. A change agent must have five different characteristics. All those characteristics are Clear vision, Patient and persistent approach, asks questions, leads by example and knowledgeable and maintains strong relationships. Here in this case all these aspect are there with Muller. Kelly has very clear vision about what the organization should do in near future. She has clear cut idea what should she does for the betterment of the organization. She has the ability to identify the future opportunities very well. She knows that changes are not possible within very short period of time. She has great amount of patient and she is consistently pursuing after her goal. Kelley has been able to present her ideas in front of local Toyota executives and those executives are very much happy and pleased with her presentations. It shows the level of continuous efforts Kelley is putting for implementation of her vision. Kelly also asked her father to come up with the new business decision. Knowledge of Kelly is very much appropriate as she worked as an engineer for last 15 years with two top US automobile companies. After that she worked as chief operating officer for 7 years in AT&D. She also leads by example. She has conducted extensive market research in Mississippi. She also presented several times in front of the executives of Toyota. She has created good relationship with different local executives of the company and is going to conduct one more meeting in the next month. All these above arguments are saying that she is a perfect change agent. Kelly is a fair relationship builder. Although her relationship with existing employees in Michigan may not be good in the context of the case but she has been able to build a good relationship with Toyota executives. It is very important for Kelly to maintain good relationship with those executives for her future business endeavourers in Mississippi. It shows that she has good relationship building abilities. Her relationship management, knowledge has given her good opportunity to take the process ahead. Kelly’s vision is for long term sustainability of the organization. She has been able to understand that she needs to change their business strategies and they should tie up with more and more foreign automakers. Reason for this kind of thinking is the increasing market shares of foreign auto makers. She has the capability to identify that market share of foreign players are growing day by day. So, futures of foreign automakers are very bright in US markets. It is a good long term goal orientation from the side of Kelly. She thinks that in modern uncertain business scenario sustainability is very much important and for sustainability the organization should come up with some new things. Moral compass is all about capacity to judge right and wrong. On the basis of that decisions are taken. Here in this case Kelly has a mixed moral compass. Her idea to remove the operation from Michigan to Mississippi may be a right idea for long term sustainability and opportunities but it is very much risky and on the process of this she is endangering careers of 195 employees of Michigan. In one way she is morally very correct about the success and sustainability of the company but on the other hand she is ignoring her existing employees. Here in this case Vince is more of a democratic kind of leader. He believes in employee participations in his organization. His daughter has told him about the new business idea but he was not agreeing with his daughter because he doesn’t want to forego his existing employees. To Vince, employees are like families. At any cost he doesn’t want to hamper livelihoods of employees. Vince has very strong emotional attachment with his existing employees and family business. It shows that emotion is a key attribute in the leadership role of Vince. It also indicates that Vince is very much cooperative leader and wants to support his followers. It shows that as an individual leader he is very much sentimental and gives significant importance towards employee well being. He is a great social architect. A social architect is such a leader who understands an organization very well and also knows how it works (Northouse, 2012). Here in this case Vince defines the culture of the company and designs the way people think, understand, perceive, feel and act. He has been able to understand that existing employees of the organization will not take it in a good spirit. He thinks that the new idea given by her daughter is against the core values of the company. He also considers that if the business operation is removed, then it may be a profitable decision for the company but at the same time some social fabrics will be destabilized, as families of 195 employees will face severe problems. He does not want to destabilize the current process at all. It signifies that he is an example social architect. In this case study Vince is not at all a change agent. He is strongly opposing the proposed changes by his daughter. Change agents are very open with organizational changes. But there is no sign of it in the characteristics of Vince. He is very much against organizational changes. It is very clear from its activities. When his daughter is trying to bring changes and struggling hard for that in Mississippi, at the same time he is holding meetings with labor unions for reviving company’s declining growth. He is not at all ready to accept her daughter’s proposals. He is trying hard in his way to stop all changes. All these factors are clearly pointing out that he is not a change agent. Here in this case from the characteristics of Vince one thing is clear that he thinks in short term basis. He is not giving appropriate importance towards the future potential opportunities of business in Mississippi. He has suggested three options to his employees. All those options are temporary solutions for turning around the organization. No permanent solutions can be achieved with the help of all these three options. This also indicates that father focuses towards short term goal orientation. Vince is also a very good relationship builder. He has great relationship with his employees. According to the case employees are like families to Vince. Employees will feel very angry if the business operation is moved from Michigan. Relationship between employees and Vince will be hampered. Vince does not want to sacrifice the relationship with existing employees. It shows that he is an emotional relationship builder. Moral compass of Vince is very much guided by emotions and relationship building. It is known to him that the business is not performing very well in Michigan. He also knows that opportunities are certainly higher in Mississippi. But his moral values and ethics are not allowing him to support his daughter’s decision. In this way he may be doing injustice with the profitability and long term future of the company but certainly he is trying to take care of his employee’s interests. So, Vince also has a very mixed moral compass as far as success and sustainability of the company is concerned. References Cameron, E. (2008). Making Sense of Leadership: Exploring the Five Key Roles Used by Effective Leaders. USA: Kogan Page Publishers. Gill, R. (2006). Theory and Practice of Leadership. London: Pine Forge Press. Northouse, P.G. (2012). Leadership: Theory and Practice. London: SAGE. Read More