Leadership and Change Case 3 - Essay Example

Marissa Mayer is one such charismatic leader, as demonstrated by her leadership approach at Yahoo. During the first year of her tenure as the CEO of the corporation, she got rid of all BlackBerrys and replaced them with iPhones and Androids. She also started providing free food to employees just like every other Valley corporation did to its workers. She also put in place the process to allow the members of staff to complain about bureaucracy. The F.Y.I meetings held on Friday afternoons gave the staff an opportunity to ask whatever questions they felt like asking her or other executives (McLean, 2014).

All these are efforts to make her subjects feel loved and important as workers of the corporation. This in turn becomes the driving force for their desire to work for the institution since their leader values and loves them. For instance, providing them with free food takes care of their physiological needs whereas allowing them to complain freely about the bureaucracy takes care of their psychological needs. Allowing them to ask questions freely during the Friday meetings gives them a sense of security and belonging.

The charismatic leader may not embrace change of things, but work to maintain the status quo. This is exactly what Mayer did in her first year, as some critics like Michelle Quinn assert that her impact had not been felt at Yahoo during the first 18 months of her tenure (Quinn, 2014). On the other hand, Marissa Mayer can be perceived as a transformational leader. A transformational leadership is the form of leadership whereby the leader and his subjects raise one another to higher levels morally and motivationally (Grint, 2010).

Their primary focus is on transfiguring the organization and their followers using their charisma. Mayer can be described as the charismatic leader but her basic focus was transforming the corporation that had experienced a lot of turmoil.