Oprah Winfreys Leadership - Essay Example

? Insert Insert Insert 29 November Leadership in Management Oprah Winfrey Oprah Winfrey remains to be an eminent television star for over twenty five years now. Her television program may be accessed from Asia, Africa, and Europe. Oprah also became a producer and actor for several years. The publication of O, The Oprah Magazine continues despite the fact that she ended her Oprah Winfrey Show in 2010. Oprah’s leadership qualities started while still in her teenage years. She served as a representative at White House Conference as well as became admitted to the student council and honor society. In addition, she won several contests and awards such as Peabody Award. The road to becoming a star strengthened while she was Chicago where she met Quincy Jones and Stedman Graham, who have remained influential in her leading role. She became the first African American to own a national television program (Garson, 2011). Oprah Winfrey’s leadership remains manifested in her entrepreneurial endeavors. She belongs to the fourth level of celebrities described as celebrity entrepreneurs. The characteristics representative of this level include well established business tycoons who preside over their personal empires, and goes beyond endorsing and claiming control of their products. Some of her attributes encompass a sense of self-making, wide audience appeal, over element of business knowledge and understanding, and a celebrity status that enhances appeal. In addition, she exists as an individual corporation, maintains a indistinct line between her private and public life, liked by many, niche finder and a tastemaker given her influence over public opinions. All these attributes reveal her influences, influence, and styles in leadership (Miller, 2004). The Disney Company exists as one of the long-term outstanding film producing companies in the United States. Disney upholds a film legacy from a Marxist, cultural studies, feminist, and post structuralism perspective. The company also bears a twofold role as both a cultural producing company and an American symbol. Thus, the company continues to maintain its brand name on the values of conservative American families. The film productions address a variety of contemporary issues. These issues include nature, heritage of fairy tales, engendered images of science, gender performance, technology, business, class, race, family, and translations of oral culture to visual texts. The ideology of Disney Company demonstrates how representation, identity, and power comprise the substantial positions in American cultural struggles (Bell & Sells, 1995). The Disney Company experienced a lengthy and complex relation to the lesbian and gay community. This became criticized based on how animations, theme parks, television series, merchandise, and live action films from the company provided ideas and traits that the gay culture readily embraced. This historical occurrence created an ambiguous legacy on how modern advertising and consumption affected ways in which gay men and lesbians express their sexuality. During this particular point in history, Oprah Winfrey’s leadership influence would have altered the ambiguous legacy of Disney while reinforcing the organization’s image especially to the gay and lesbian community (Bell & Sells, 1995). Oprah Winfrey also experienced an almost similar occurrence when the Independent Cattlemen’s Association of Texas placed a suit against her, claiming that she had ridiculed the production and distribution of beef products. This made her to relocate her daily show to Texas while working on the suit. However, she won the case. Concerning Disney’s historical case, Oprah’s leadership would have similarly reformed the legacy of the company given her strong and well-known leadership attributes. Given the self-made man ethos as well as the spirit of entrepreneurship as part of the cultural dimension of United States, it would be no surprise that Oprah would have utilized her celebrity power in addition to an image focused media advantage to assist Disney’s entrepreneurial pathways. Given her leadership characteristics, Oprah would have employed various dimensions to solving the case and attaining a positive image for Disney. For instance, she would have used her commercial value as a celebrity to market herself and the company, as she did with the cattlemen’s case, through different media channels in meeting the commercial needs of Disney. Oprah already owns a name brand appeal in the market place as a celebrity entrepreneur, thus, she possesses a unique ability to market herself alongside with the products. Her image would become synonymous with the products (films) and vice versa. Hence, in marketing herself as the brand, the company would function within an all-inclusive name brand extension in that her image and the associated products would convey the same message (Miller, 2004). In considering her attribute as an individual corporation, Oprah embodies a sense of film industry. Her name brand extension together with her multi product empires, Oprah would function as authentic or genuine corporations in enhancing her appeal with her associated celebrity status. The associated celebrity status acts as free advertising in altering the ambiguous legacy while reinforcing the public image of Disney Company. In another dimension, Oprah would display her overt attribute of business knowledge and understanding in all her film ventures and negotiations with the gay and lesbian community. In her capacity, Oprah would make managerial decisions on the company’s future business prospects and remain personally involved in every phase of Disney’s business processes (Miller, 2004). Oprah upholds her products with confidence and pride since she always settles for good quality film products. The qualities of her film products have received wide appeals that in turn have boosted her films to a level of entrepreneurial advantage. These appeals have subsequently made her to be likeable by all, an attribute that predominantly alters the ambiguous legacy of Disney Company film production and public image over that of the gay and lesbian’s community culture. Moreover, Oprah delights in a wide audience appeal irrespective of class, gender and racial elements. Wide following and universal appeal would significantly contribute to the success of Oprah in her leadership at Disney. The authority and association of Oprah with the production and marketing of film products creates authenticity of the films. The level of authority Oprah exhibits in leadership enables her to achieve the required business objectives of Disney. Authenticity would also originate from her own determination and hard work encompassed in self-made man ethos of the United States. In this regard, originating from a scanty background plus a sense of self-making adds authenticity to the name brand image of Oprah. In addition, people relate increases in audience loyalty to self-made success. Oprah possesses a profound understanding of the market place and is able to influence herself to a successful course. Additionally, Oprah possesses substantial influence over public opinion given the marketability of her name brand and the level of her celebrity status. Hence, as a tastemaker, Oprah would be capable of shaping public opinions in exerting much power to recommend taste (Miller, 2004). Conclusion Oprah remains to be all together one of the most influential individuals in the world as well as a friend to the world. However, not only does Oprah’s warmth influence people worldwide but also she surely remains one of the knowledgeable entrepreneurs. Her influence over public opinion and status as an entrepreneurial power-celebrity combine to render Oprah one of the most influential women in the world. An assessment of Oprah’s influence over American public opinion reveals an understanding of the ability of entrepreneurial celebrities to shape American taste. Thus, Oprah’s role as an entrepreneur defines her influence over public opinion and celebrity status. She also acknowledges that television endows her with enormous influence and power over popular thought. This self-reflexive quality contributes more to her power, and reflects awareness about her role as an opinion maker as well as an understanding of her own parameters. Oprah remains aware of her level of influence, and this awareness makes her substantially more powerful. Oprah’s self-reflective recognition of her ability to reach people beyond the reach of any politician makes her eligible as an agenda-setter. She decides on a topic of discussion that the public responds to in most realms of her public spheres. Oprah also represents the avenue and channel to public dialogue. Oprah symbolically represents empowerment in mutual relations. Indeed, audiences identify with her and feel encouraged by her very existence, personal achievements, and confident persona. It does not matter that the Disney Company would be different from the one in which Oprah Winfrey found so much success. In this regard, Oprah Winfrey would still be as successful in Disney Company. References Bell, E., Haas, L., & Sells, L. (1995). From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film, Gender, and Culture. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Garson, H. S. (2011). Oprah Winfrey: A Biography (2nd ed.). Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishers. Miller, L. E. (2004). The Changing Nature of Celebrity from Entertainer to Entrepreneur: Oprah Winfrey as Tastemaker (Doctoral Dissertation, Georgetown University). Washington, DC. Read More