International Leadership and Management - Literature review Example

International Leadership and Management Part Leadership refers to a technique of social persuasion through which an individual can join the guidance and support of others to accomplish a common objective (Bush, 2011, 4). Most fundamental is that a good leader must possess certain characteristics. These include but not limited to good communication skills, confidence, proactive and reactive, adaptability to audience environments, resourceful, open-mindedness, respectful, and definitely well educated. Steve Jobs is indeed a good leader. The reason is that he possesses various characteristics of good leadership, which include good communication skills, confidence, resourcefulness, respect, and adaptability to audience environment. He is very confident in giving his speech and even though he did not graduate from college; he is able to appeal to the conscience of the audience. Part 2 The business leader of choice is the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Boeing Company, James McNerney, Jr. He was born on 22nd August 1949 in Providence, Rhode Island (Wilson, 2011, 355). He graduated from New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois and later attended Yale University where he acquired a B.A. degree in 1971. Furthermore, he is well skilled and educated; a virtue, which has made him a leader in, firms for instance General Electric among others. Consequently, he has many leadership skills ranging from resourcefulness, good communication, and proper education. Since becoming the CEO, President and the Chairman in 2005, he has overseen a strategic growth and progress in the world’s leading manufacturer of military aircrafts and commercial jetliners (Denning, 2013, 37). Part 3 The organization under consideration here is The Boeing Company. It is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures and sells airplanes, rockets, rotorcrafts and even satellites. The company is at the forefront of airplane manufacturing in the world alongside the European Airbus Company (Denning, 2013, 40). The Company’s corporate headquarters is based in Chicago. Owing to its multinational nature, it is divided into four fundamental departments. These are Boeing Defense, Space and Security, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Engineering, Operations and Technology and lastly Boeing Shares Services Group (Finkelstein et. al. 2009, 147). Perhaps, more fundamental are the leadership and management theories that come in handy with the headship of companies. The leadership of any company at both local and international level demands the individual at the helm acquires relevant and utmost management skills and strategies (Adeniyi, 2007, 78). Effective leadership is a very important factor in the progress and success of any company. Many theories have existed since the beginning of time to try to explain the styles leadership that is existent (Mann, 2013, 55). These include situational leadership, contingency theory, transactional leadership, transformational leadership, participative leadership and trait theory among others. Specifically, trait theory assumes that a leader is different from the average person with regards to individual traits like perseverance, intelligence, and ambition. Participative leadership theory assumes among other things that decision-making facilitates a proper understanding of the issues existent by the people who make the decisions (Mann, 2013, 58). Situational leadership focuses more on the behaviors that a leader ought to adopt provided the existing situational factors. Contingency theory focuses on the contingent factors about a leader’s capabilities (Mann, 2013, pg 62). Importantly, transactional leadership assumes that individuals are motivated by rewards and punishments that social systems only work best where there exists a clear chain of command (Clark, 2009, 114). In this type of leadership, subordinates have to do what their leader tells them to do. Through this approach, the leader works with an aim of creating clear work structures. More still, the leader employs a strategy known as management by exception (Brayant & Kazan, 2013, 64). The principle here is that if an activity is progressing as expected then the leader assumes that the subordinates do not necessarily need attention. On the other hand, transformational leadership theory maintains that a leader carries out an examination and looks for the needs and motives of other work mates. Significantly, this is done with the aim of achieving a higher agenda of desires. Therefore, it is more of visionary operation agency while the transactional approach is more if a participatory and dynamic operation. Transformational leadership asserts that individuals tend to follow a person who inspires them (Hampton, 2009, 34). A look at James McNerney’s leadership technique presents a good leadership style, approach, and strategy. First, he acknowledges that as much as he and his team have managed to spearhead the company to greater success levels, there are challenges that also come with management and leadership. He recognizes that Boeing now faces competition from other aircraft manufacturers from Canada, China, and Russia unlike before when it was only Airbus. Through this, the CEO has urged all his departments to maintain a clear and focused strategy for production. Such a process aims at facilitating a proper growth and development. In fact, McNerney is quoted as saying, “companies are not revived by exertions, greatness or charisma of an individual or just a single team but through a consultative and all-inclusive process” (Hawkins &Smith 2013, 25). His quality in leadership is depicted in the commitment he had towards the progress of the company. He described his job as solely being the need to build on Boeing’s prior strengths and rectify its weaknesses. Perhaps, the best period within which the leadership of James McNerney can be measured is during Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s first year of service. Notably, this is the latest low moment the company has had to deal with. No less than four aircrafts of this model suffered electrical system problems originating from the plane’s lithium-ion batteries (Denning, 2013, 39). Fortunately enough, the firm through the stewardship of James McNerney was able to bring back operations to normal and rectify the problem that would otherwise have seen the plane becoming grounded completely. Arguably, Boeing has one of the most successful strategies, which facilitate the progress of their company (Denning, 2013, 40). Therefore, considering the leadership theories discussed above it is clear that James McNerney adopts and believes in transformational leadership style. At one time during a speech at the University of Montana, he delivered a very inspirational speech to his audience (Hampton, 2009, 67). In his speech, he made remarks that were not only inspiring but also accommodative to the subordinates that were in attendance. One thing about James McNerney is that he believes in an inclusive effort towards success. His speech was full of the characteristics of a good leader as discussed in part 1 of this essay. He is a good orator and a very resourceful leader who inspires the people below him to aim high in life. Significantly, through his stewardship Boeing set out six specific leadership attributes: charting the course, initiating high expectations, motivating others, living the Boeing values, and delivering results. These attributes have ensured that the company has made global achievements and lived up to the vast competition that currently exists in the aircraft manufacturing industry. In sum, it is clear that Boeing’s CEO has a great influence on the company’s operations and inspires his subordinates into a successful growth path. Similarly, the CEO is a good leader who has brought the company from difficult times into stable growth and production levels. Therefore, it can be argued that the leader is well suited for the job since he has managed to achieve the company’s goals. Part 4 Leadership like any other attribute can be measured to determine its effectiveness. Personality traits of good leaders vary a wide acknowledgment from one person to another. However, the agreement is that there are specific behaviors, which make up a good leader. In light of this, he presents four ways through which leadership can be measured which are adopted for purposes of this essay. First, leadership can be measured by looking at the ability of a leader to craft a mission for the company and whether he has the ability to inspire other like-minded individuals to join their operations (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011, 34).. Notably, a leader must be an individual who clearly understands an organization’s purpose. Additionally, he should be able to explain the same to his subordinates in order for them to work and commit themselves to it. Second, good leadership is determined by the ability of a CEO to create a strong organization. In light of this, the CEO must gain an idea of what the company is structured to do and find out the most efficient way of doing the same. Furthermore, the idea behind the creation of a strong organization is the endeavor of achieving collaboration with subordinates, as they are equally important to the process of goal achievement in the company. Third, another measure of leadership is undoubtedly good interpersonal skills (Kramar & Staw, 2005, 50). Whenever a leader of a particular company is equipped with good interpersonal skills, then he influences the manner by which people view the company’s goals. These skills also improve the relationship between the leader and other employees. Lastly, leadership goes hand in hand with motivation (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011, 60). Therefore, motivation is a significant measure of good leadership and ought to be a virtue that each organization leader possess. Leaders excise their powers in various ways; some through motivation while others guidance. However, certain leaders achieve motivation through exercising the authority granted to them by virtue of leadership and being possessive of special skills, abilities, and commitments. More interesting is that certain leaders even facilitate motivation from their charismatic nature, which drives people towards them. James McNerney presents himself as a leader who qualifies for the role he is performing at The Boeing Company as he meets the requirements and four measures of good leadership. Measuring efficiency of leadership involves an approach referred to as subjective realm. Notably, this approach considers the general morale of the company, the level of influence innovation has, improvement process, productivity levels, and amount of mistakes employees make, timely correction of errors among others (Kramar & Staw, 2005, 54). More still, the effectiveness of leadership can be measured through the implementation of a leadership index. Fundamentally, an index is a blue print and a measurement tool that is used to gauge the performance of the leaders in managerial and lower levels. Actually, it evaluates the performance of a leader through consideration of behaviors, skills and attitudes of a particular individual. On the other hand, measuring the performance of leadership involves monitoring how a specific company carries out certain activities (Kramar & Staw, 2005, 71). These activities include the design of jobs at the company, new employee selection criteria, incentive and other reward structures and whether the job practices are effective. Similarly, financial measures are important in measuring the performance of a leader. Often, this is identified in the company turnover amounts and annual profits. Significantly, organizations tend to seek four results from performance-oriented structures. These are clear focus and direction for employees, mechanism providing high performing high performing employees, incorporating employee efforts and the ability to control fixed compensation costs (Kramar et al. 1997, 431). The Boeing’s CEO James McNerney has without a doubt experienced a turbulent tenure owing to the challenges the company has faced. However, due to his relentless push for lower production costs and efficiency has helped Boeing achieve great profits (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011, 47). Arguably, this can be attributed to the good leadership qualities of the CEO, who has been able to coordinate all the functions of the company to accomplish desired results. In fact, he has since carried out a separation of engineers and mechanics including specific executive posts as well. The approach is aimed at eliminating duty conflicts and increasing performance at the company. Consequently, he is at the forefront of decision making for the operations of the company (Kramar & Staw, 2005, 64). However, he is unique in the sense that he does not let emotions and ill external pressures affect the way activities at the company are carried out. Through this, he brings out his good leadership qualities. Nevertheless, like any other working place, James McNerney faces a relatively low opposition level. Arguably, an element of opposition is significant for the growth and developmental of any sector otherwise the subordinates and subjects would be deemed unfit for office if they fail to question certain issues that they do not feel comfortable with. As much as some level of opposition may exist, James McNerney has ensured that the company is well on the course. In fact, when he took over at Boeing in 2005, the company was at a low point concerning reputation having been faced with two main scandals about military procurement. However, six months later, a meeting held in Orlando set out a plan to inflict discipline by cutting costs and increasing productivity profits (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011, 51). Arguably, all these were crafted by James McNerney. Therefore, he meets the measurement of leadership, the efficiency of leadership and performance of leadership. Considering the opinions covered in part 1 about the elements of a good leader, it is my opinion that James McNerney qualifies for the position he is holding at The Boeing Company. However, due to the human nature exhibited in us, nobody is deemed perfect thus, he may consider improving on his weak parts. Such an improvement will no less benefit his subordinates and improve the productivity and growth of the company. References Adeniyi, M. A. 2007, Effective leadership management: an integration of styles, skills & character for todays CEOs. Bloomington, IN, Author House. Bryant, A., & Kazan, A. 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