Business Leader: Indra Nooyi - Research Paper Example

 Business Leader: Indra Nooyi a. Indra Nooyi was born 28th October 1955, in Madras the present Chennai. Indra Nooyi is married to Raj Nooyi a management consultant and together they have two daughters. One of their daughters is actually attending Yale school of management. Her father was a bank official and her grandfather was a district judge whom she derived her inspirations from. As a young girl she loved to watch Tamil language films and reading. With the Indian society being male chauvinistic, she broke the mold to the extent of playing cricket. Nooyi’s mother also stretched also stretched the minds of the children making improvised problems for Nooyi and Chandrika her sister based on world problems (Annapoorna, 5). b. She started her education at Holy Angels Anglo Indian Higher secondary school. She later attended Madras Christian School where she graduated with bachelor’s degree in physics, chemistry, and mathematics in 1974. In the year 1976 she received a post graduate diploma in management (MBA) from the Indian Institute of management Calcutta (8-9). According to Annapoorna (12-15) asserted Nooyi kick started her career in India holding the position of the product manager at the Johnson & Johnson and later Mettur Beardsell. In 1978 she was admitted to the Yale School of Management earning a Masters degree in Public and Private Management. After graduating in 1980 Indra joined Boston Consulting Group (BCG). She the held strategy positions at Motorola and the Asea Brown Boveri. Ms. Indra Nooyi has been the Chief Executive Officer and chairman of PepsiCo, Inc. from May 2, 2007 and also from October 1, 2006 respectively. Nooyi has served as the President of Pepsi Company Inc. since May 2001. Besides, she has also served as its senior vice president and Chief Financial Officer since February 2000 and also from 1994 to 2000 as the senior Vice President of strategic planning, corporate strategy and development. She was responsible the worldwide strategic planning function of Pepsi such as developing and coordinating business plans for the companies operating divisions. Ms. Nooyi has been the Director of PepsiCo, Inc. from May 2001. She has also served as the Director of U.S. Soccer Federation, Inc, Director of International Rescue Committee and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Inc. c. Locus of control orientation, Nooyi had internal locus of control where she believed that her behavior is guided by her personal decisions and efforts. The outcomes of our actions are a contingent of what we do. This is because people who are high up the organizational structure tend to have more internal control. With very many managerial positions she has held, they have all been worked for with zeal and effort. Consequently, she had challenged herself in her tender years that she will one day be a manager which is now true because of internal control. Tolerance of ambiguity; by dutifully touting the progress of the company, she had handled the company as her own family. This is because she perceived information that is ambiguous about her management style, gender disparities, and behavior in a neutral way. This leads to risk aversion, and orientation towards diversity. FIRO-B; she has a personal approach to the management of the 200,000 employee company. This depicts how she is in control in the management of the company thus showing true company loyalty. In addition she has an extraordinary mode of communication but personally communicating with spouses of the 27 company executive managers. Cognitive Styles: intuitive by having preference for; developing knowledge through deduction; views things globally; view the similarities between two concepts; able to see the connections and integration between parts of a system; theoretical learning; connects processes with goals, often goal rather than process focused; knows something as it is a logical extension of a theory. She exhibits thinking abilities through product diversification and strategic planning of the PepsiCo. This done because of deciding analytically through examining facts, logical, and depends on cognitive component of attitude. d. Nooyi has shown the ability to outsource. Out sourcing is important in any organization. This because it cuts on the operational costs, it improves quality and customer satisfaction, frees up the resources that were to be used for in sourcing, and finally there is access to specialist expertise. This evidenced in the increased revenue to 141 billion annually from 109 billion (Annapoorna, 39-41). Openness to experience is also an attribute of Nooyi. She has distinguished herself from the conservative woman to corporate mogul depicting her straightforwardness, subtle, and also an intellectual. Openness to experience enable one to think critically examine the cause and effect beliefs before resulting in making decisions. Additionally, openness to experience is highlighted by her illustrious managerial roles in different organizations. According to Annapoorna (58) reported that Nooyi is agreeableness, which reflects individual differences in concern with social harmony and cooperation. Individuals who are agreeable value getting along with others. Therefore, they are considerate, friendly, helpful, and willing to compromise others interests with theirs'. They are of the belief that people are basically honest and trustworthy. Ms. Nooyi was in constant communication with her staff creating good employer-employees relation making employees feel their services are valued in the company. e. Self-awareness has the ability to recognize a feeling as it happens. It answers the question what and why; Self-management, workplace making of decisions in which the manager is in agreement with choices instead of being told what to do; Self-motivation, is what makes people to have that drive to do something thus the driving force of human behavior. As a result it initiates, guides and maintain the goal oriented behaviors. The forces works towards motivation can either be social, biological, emotional or cognitive in nature; empathy is the ability to mutually experience the emotions, thoughts, and direct experience of others; interpersonal skills: is the ability to properly relate with your colleagues. This creates a good rapport within the organization’s workforce and management (Lussier and Achua 154). f. Instrumental values include: ambitious; hard working and aspiring, as manifested in the various managerial positions she has held. Her ability to live up to her dreams and get many accolades shows how capable she is; capable; she is competent and effective in her duties. The position of a C.E.O is to be held by someone who is capable and Ms. Nooyi has shown that; Open minded, the broad mind has enabled to move up the ladder in the corporate world. Also she injects fresh ideas from the various positions she has held elsewhere (456-8). Terminal values include: social recognition, many young are inspired by the achievements of Ms. Nooyi especially in India. This attributed to the fact that she is a devout Hindu and mother; An exciting life, irrespective of handling the family and corporate issues the company is registering improved profits; self respect by having a self esteem that does not despise any one irrespective of their position in the organization to invoke and involve wisdom (459-460). g. Maslow theory; to ascertain contribution of employees’ motivational levels Maslow put forward a theory to enlighten the five levels of human needs which we need to be fulfilled by employees at work. The needs are structured in hierarchy manner. Once the lower level of the need is fulfilled would a worker be highly motivated by the opportunity to have the next need in the hierarchy be satisfied. Northouse (311) suggested that they included; physiological need of a basic salary and safe working conditions; safety and security which include job security and some fringe benefits; social needs by having compatible working group and friends at work; esteem needs like pay increase on merit and a high status job title; the final step is self fulfillment or self actualization like a challenging job, having creative task demands, advancing in opportunities and achievement in work on the provision of financial incentives. The urge to climb the corporate ladder is what drove Indra Nooyi to strive and reach greater heights. h. She uses Mayo’s human relation theory to motivate others. He found out that the strongest force of motivation behind the behavior of employees at the place of work was the nurturing and preservation of social relationships with their colleagues. They wanted to feel that they are valued and important, recognition of the work they do, to be controlled sensibly, accepting any objections, encouraging self regulation on some routine tasks. Mayo’s work leads to an approach geared towards staff members which encourages self direction, advocating for full participation on matters that are significant so as to make improvement on the quality of decisions and the nature of supervision being done thus providing a benchmark for rewarding employees. According to Northouse (362) found out that acquired needs theory by McClellan suggest that some needs are obtained as a result of life’s experiences. They include: need for achieving and accomplishing something difficult; the need for affiliation so as to form close personal relationships; need for power and control others. This makes the employees to perceive their CEO as a role model because they are yet to attain the needs they require. i. The authentic perspective leadership ensures self awareness where the leader is able to reflect on his or her core values, emotions, goals, motives and identity. The leader is able to have a strong anchor in the decisions and actions they make. By having relational transparency the organization fosters unity and a sense of discipline as the individuals can share their core feelings, motives and inclinations with the others. The balanced processing of an individual shows that she has the stability to objectively analyze information and exploring other people’s opinions before embarking on making a decision. This makes it easier to ensure division of work, in addition to creating a sense of command and direction in the organization. The internalized moral perspective is exhibited when they able to utilize their values and internal moral standards to guide their behavior (Daft, 101-113). j. Indra Nooyi can be emulated on the following fronts: she offers effective leadership by ensuring that all the implemented policies are appropriate and working. She has good social skills because she is tasked with leading and directing the people. The ability to manage an organization or a group of people that involves directing efforts to a particular group of people, therefore many variable factors have to be balanced, managed and directed so as to ensure optimum performance. Has put a heavy emphasis on the intangibles of values and motivation and comprehend intuitively the unconscious elements in leader-constituent interaction. The things to be done differently include: planning, organizing, and coordinating activities in the business; relating innovation and administration; focuses on the people rather than on the structures and system; to asks why and what instead of when and how; directing the eye to the horizon; differentiating originality and imitation. Works Cited Annapoorna. Indra Nooyi:A Biography. New York: Rajpal & Sons, 2011. Daft, Richard L. The Leadership Experience. Mason: Cengage Learning, 2008. Lussier, Robert N. and Christopher F. Achua. Leadership:Theory, Application, & Skill Development. Thomson Place: Cengage Learning, 2009. Northouse, Peter. Leadership: Theory and Practise. New Delhi India: Sage Publishers, 2009. Read More