Leadership Analysis of Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg - Case Study Example

Leadership analysis of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg Leadership analysis of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg I. Summary of the leader’s early life and education Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984 in White Plains, New York, United States. His interest in computer programming begun in early age. At age 12, he created a messaging program called “Zucknet” through Atari BASIC (biography.com, 2015). His father then hired a computer tutor David Newman to develop Mark Zuckerberg’s interest in computers programming. Zuckerberg first graduated at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and earned a diploma in the classics in 2002. During this time, his interest in computers persisted. He enrolled at Harvard University where he first created Facemash, the predecessor of Facebook (biography.com, 2015). II. Qualities of leadership that seems to appear more recently in the leader’s path Recently, Mark Zuckerberg is beginning to display different qualities of leadership than what was displayed when Facebook was still starting up during the Facemash days. Mark Zuckerberg’s public pronouncements now are more concerned about the greater good and how he and his company could contribute more to society. For example, he just launched the project entitled Internet.org in Guatemala where people in Guatemala can now have “free access to information on health, jobs and education on the Tigo network” (Zuckerberg) consistent with the vision of Facebook to connecting the world. He also help designed their new building where his employees could work collaboratively with projects that are consistent with Facebook’s mission of connecting the world. These ideal qualities of leadership are only recently showing because Zuckerberg is still very young when he founded Facebook at only around age 23 in 2004. The company Facebook is still in the process of evolving and so is its leader, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. III. The chosen leader’s current organization Mark Zuckerberg’s current organization is Facebook. Facebook is a social networking site which he founded along with his dorm mates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, and Dustin Moskovitz (www.businesslab.com, nd) in the dormitory room in the campus of Harvard University. He has been the organization’s Chief Executive Officer since its founding in 2004. IV. Analysis based on Path-Goal Theory Leadership Path Goal Theory is a leadership theory developed by Robert House and it state that a leader’s behavior is dependent to the satisfaction of his her followers with the end of improving their performance (House, 1971). This theory states that a leader helps its subordinates achieve their goals by removing hindrances that are inimical to ideal performance and then reward such ideal performance to make it consistent and norm. In the reformulated theory of path-goal theory of leadership, it added that a leader’s behavior should enhance subordinates capabilities that would empower them to become satisfied with their work unit that would further enhance their effectiveness. It asserted that the leaders behavior is important for good performance because of its impact on subordinates perceptions of paths to goals and the attractiveness of the goals (House, 1996). Having said this, Leadership Path Goal Theory considers the factors that motivates the employees for them to improve their performance which includes complementing their capabilities with the leader’s own and improving their shortcoming through various forms of leadership implements. The Leadership Path Goal Theory can also be categorized as transformational leadership because it seeks to better its subordinates as a manner of improving their performance. Based on the history of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is a strong disciple of Path-Goal Tehory of Leadership. The social networking website may have a less than ideal motivation when it began during the early days of Facebook as Facemash in 2003 where they used it as a platform to network with “hot girls” in Harvard and then rate them whether they are hot or not (Fincher, 2010). The initial motivation to create Facebook may be initially driven by hormones but the manner that Zuckerberg led his roommate student Eduardo Saverin is consistent with Leadership Path Goal Theory because he incorporated Saverin’s idea in the creation of Facebook as what Leadership Path Goal Theory prescribed. He was also a level headed leader when they started the company recruiting the best and the brightest in a very unusual way and then take them aboard with the promise of sharing the success of the company with them (Fincher, 2010). It can also be observed in the autobiographic film The Social Network where it narrated the early stages of Facebook of how responsive Mark Zuckerberg to the inputs of his partners to get funding for their company (Fincher 2010). Today, we can even say that Zuckerberg is a fully developed disciple of Leadership Path Goal Theory evident with the creation of their new Facebook building in Menlo Park, California where it was designed to have the largest open floor plan in the world. The idea is to fit thousands of people in a single room where there are plenty of small spaces around where they can move around and collaborate with anyone (Zuckerberg, 2015). What Zuckerberg has done here is to institutionalize the Leadership Path Goal Theory of letting his employees collaborate with each other so that their capabilities will be complemented and enhanced by others to create a synergy that would help create new innovative ideas for Facebook. V. Analysis of Leader using Authentic Leadership theory Authentic leadership theory is defined as “a process that draws from both positive psychological capabilities and a highly developed organizational context, which results in both greater self-awareness and self-regulated positive behaviors on the part of both leaders and associates, fostering positive self-development” (Novicevic, Davis, Dorn, Buckley, & Brown, 2005, p. 1404 cited in Bishop and Virginia, 2013). Management Guru Kevin Kruse summarized its essence in his article in Forbes Magazine as 1. Authentic Leadership are self-aware and genuine. 2. Authentic leaders are mission driven and focused on results 3. Authentic leaders lead with their heart 4. Authentic leaders focus on the long-term (Kruse, 2013).  Being self-aware and genuine meant knowing one’s strength, weakness and emotional tendencies. It also meant being truthful and honest to others to generate trust among followers. It also emphasizes ethics in the conduct of the leader and his or her business. Mission driven and result oriented meant having a lofty purpose in the organization that is embraced by the followers that they might pursue it as well and improving their performance in the process. Authentic leaders also lead with their heart and not just with their minds. It meant that they lead with genuine concern with their subordinates and is not afraid to show their humanity. They are not embarrassed to admit vulnerability and emotions that makes their employees relate to them. Finally, focusing on long-term is self- explanatory that the leader does not only intend to make short term profits out of the employees but rather intends to make the company long-term under his or her leadership. Under these criteria, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook failed miserably in the criteria number one that Authentic Leaders are self-aware and genuine. He dropped his friend and partner Eduardo Saverin under the prodding of his new investors and that makes him questionable as an authentic leader. Zuckerberg ethics is also put into question because he is accused of copying the code of Divya Narendra and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the founders of social networking site ConnectU (Phillips, 2013). True or not, this made Mark Zuckerberg a suspect as an authentic leader. An authentic leader’s integrity must be beyond reproach. Without question, Mark Zuckerberg is mission driven albeit the initial mission of Facebook was less than the ideal of connecting with “hot girls” of Harvard University and other Ivy League universities. He has overcome this juvenile tendency and evolved his mission to really connect the world evident with his new project in Guatemala where anyone in the country can now have access to free information on health, jobs and education through Tigo network (Zuckerberg, 2015). Leading with his heart and not only with his head is very questionable with Zuckerberg because he fired his roommate and partner Eduardo Saverin who helped him build the company from their dormitory in Harvard. That is very callous to say the least. With regard to focus on the long-term, Mark Zuckerberg without question is a visionary because he was able to transform the initial juvenile purpose of Facemash of just finding hot girls to a more lofty purpose of connecting the world with Facebook. VI. Conclusion Based on the lens of Path-Goal Leadership Theory and Authentic Leadership Theory, Mark Zuckerberg was not really a natural leader. He is very intelligent, cunning, creative and insightful but not a genuine leader in the true essence of the word. It is only recent that he has developed his leadership skills. His lack of genuine leadership when he created Facebook could be attributed to his young age because he was only 23 when he first wrote the code of the Facemash, the predecessor of Facebook. He may have partially followed the Path-Goal Theory of leadership as he integrated the idea of his partner Eduardo Saverin, and shared the vision of the company with his new hires, and institutionalize collaborative working so that his subordinates will complement their abilities through each other, but it is only a partial quality of leadership. When we use another leadership lens of Authentic Leadership Theory, Zuckerberg failed miserably. His genuineness is doubtful which an essential part of authentic leadership. It is because there are allegations that he just copied Facebook from Divya Narendra, and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss brothers who accused him of copying their social networking site ConnectU. The case may have been dismissed but it was dismissed on mere technicality (Philips, 2013). With regard to his roommate, friend and partner Eduardo Saverin who helped him build the company, Zuckerberg later betrayed him when Zuckerberg fired him from Facebook under the prodding of the new investors of the company (Fincher, 2010). Whether this was a business necessity or not, it still reflected negatively on how he deal with his subordinates and partners. Of course all people change and improve and this includes Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg is no longer obsessed with making money with his company to value it more than $ 1 bn (www.astrumpeople.com, 2015) but rather on how to connect the world which was the evolved vision of the company (from the original intent of connecting with the hot girls of Harvard University and other Ivy league universities). Today, Mark Zuckerberg is still in progress (he is still very young) on how to improve his leadership to become one of the truly great leaders of our generation. References (n.d.). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/mark-zuckerberg-507402#going-public Bishop, William H. (2013) "Defining the Authenticity in Authentic Leadership," The Journal of Values-Based Leadership: Vol. 6: Iss. 1, Article 7. A Short History of Mark Zuckerberg. (2013, August 27). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from http://businessideaslab.com/mark-zuckerberg/ House, Robert (1996). “Path-goal theory of leadership: Lessons, legacy, and a reformulated theory,” The Leadership Quarterly: Vol. 7, Issue 3. Pages 323-352 House, R. (1971). A Path Goal Theory of Leader Effectiveness. Administrative Science Quarterly, 16(3), 321-321. Kruse, K. (2013, May 12). What Is Authentic Leadership? Retrieved April 7, 2015. Mark Zuckerberg Biography: Success Story of Facebook Founder and CEO. (2015). Astrum People website. Retrieved 9:00, Apr 7, 2015, from http://astrumpeople.com/mark-zuckerberg-biography-success-story-of-facebook-founder-and-ceo/.  Phillips, S. (2007, July 25). A brief history of Facebook. Retrieved April 7, 2015, from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/jul/25/media.newmedia Zuckerberg, M. (2015). Facebook logo. Retrieved April 7, 2015, from https://www.facebook.com/zuck?fref=ts Read More