Transformational Leadership at Holden Motors Australia - Case Study Example

Student Name Tutor Title: Holden Motors Australia Institution Date Holden Motors Australia Leadership styles Managers of Holden Motors use transformational leadership. The leadership focuses on changing the culture of the organization. Transformational leadership motivates the workers in order to have them carry out their duties. Holden Motors managers use this kind of leadership to train and improve the employees’ skills and in the long run increase productivity of the employees. Therefore, the main goal of these managers is to transform employees and company’s department within a literal sense: to transform their mind, enlarge vision, insight and understanding, clarify organizational objectives, make behavior congruent with beliefs and bring about changes that are permanent and self-perpetuating (Steven 2008). Transformational leadership is a process whereby the managers take action to attempt to enhance their associates’ understanding of what is appropriate and important. Therefore, the managers offer their associates with a sense of purpose that supersedes a plain exchange of rewards for effort offered (Russell 2006). Holden Motors managers are proactive in several different and unique ways. For example, the managers at Holden Motors decentralized the organizational entities. Every GM entity is responsible for its own success, this was strengthened by the 2009 GFC where financial controls were given back to the division to monitor and maintain. Each of the regions was responsible for its own failure or success. This is a good strategy as each of the GM entities/subsidiaries had more control of its destiny and this has improved the overall standing of each of the business units. Basically, development covers the maturation of ability, motivation, attitudes as well as values. In this type of leadership, the leaders are able to assess the maturity level of needs of their associates and this is why Holden Motors decided to decentralize the organizational entities. As a result, the managers are in a position to convince their associates to make every effort for a higher level of achievement in addition to higher intensities of moral and ethical standards. Through the development of their links, the leaders optimize the improvement of their organization. High performing associates create high performing organizations. According to Hooper & Potter 1997, there are seven main competences of magnificent leaders; those in a position to engage the emotional support of their employees and as a result successfully transcend change: Setting direction Setting an example Communication Alignment Bringing out the best within employees Establishing decision during crisis and on the ambiguous (Grint 2006). The managers at Holden Motors are reorganizing and decentralizing the entire organization. This will develop the appropriate conditions for entrepreneurial management to resurface. Consequently, Holden Motors will be forced to organize around markets, separate marketing from sales and also separate engineering from production. The organization will be required to bring new changes within the organization and free itself from dominance by its financial division. The style of the top leadership of an organization is very important in establishing culture of an organization (Russell 2006). To sustain the culture of entrepreneurial spirit, Holden Motors discovered that is very essential to have leaders who are creative and visionary as well as leaders who are able to drive the organization to push its limits and reinvent itself; this is what led to appointment of Michael Devereux as the new CEO of Holden Motors in January 2010. Traits demonstrating a good leader A good leader is supposed to model the employees to be hard-working by being an example. The Holden’s CEO is therefore a good leader. Holden’s CEO attends departmental meetings in touch with operational objectives. The CEO ensures the little things get acknowledgement. The MD personally visited all departments in Holden where he gave motivating speeches focusing on quality. By doing all this, the CEO demonstrated that he is positive on the company’s improvement and this is bound to improve productivity in the organisation (Russell 2006). A good leader should be accountable and responsible. A good leader is supposed to be accountable for all actions and results that he/she supervises in the organisation. The Holden’s CEO is responsible and accountable since after discovering that the quality of the products was being compromised, he took the responsibility and began the process of instilling the necessary change. This is why he visited all the departments insisting on quality improvement and after the visits he instructed the heads of departments to reinforce the message through continual delivery of messages regarding cultural change and its significance to the clients (Phipps 2004). Furthermore, a good leader should handle failure professionally. Good work place leaders should know how to tackle failure and should therefore perceive failure as a learning experience. Moment 2007, argues that “an organization needs a leader who is able to change with circumstances” in the business environment. In this regard, the CEO at Holden is a good leader. When CEO of Holden realized that the quality of Holden cars was failing that of its competitors, he embarked on a mission of handling this failure through quality improvement. A good leader should also be energetic, charismatic, persistence and social (Russell 2006). The CEO has the traits as he visited all organizational departments insisting on the necessary changes confidently. Through these traits, the CEO was able to direct and guide the employees on the due process of enforcing the cultural change in Holden. Leadership communication The CEO is a visionary leader and hence while communicating he sets the big picture and is successful in moving the employees towards a shared vision. He is an excellent public speaker and also enjoys life within the spotlight. For instance the leader always has the right platform and adequate time to explain his vision to others. An example a leader with this communication style is Holden’s CEO. For instance, he visited and addressed while motivating the employees regarding the cultural change he had anticipated. Moreover, he also issued regular email communications to employees to emphasize these messages and also had all heads of departments reinforcing the message through continual delivery of the message regarding cultural change. Employees’ satisfaction satisfied with current leadership styles The employees are partly satisfied with the current leadership style. This is because the leadership style within the organisation is effectively able to persuade the employees regarding the set goals. The leader puts a lot of energy in establishing enthusiasm for the objectives he wants to do (Handy 2002). The manager also does a lot of explanation and in the long run is able to overcome any possible resistance regarding what he wants to do. The employees end up being persuaded and accepting the manger’s decision. However, the employees would be entirely satisfied if the leaders employed consultative leadership style. This is where the leader consults the employees and seeks their views regarding his decision. This is because the employees would feel they took part in decision making even though the decision and responsibility remains with the leader (Steven 2008). Holden Motors strategies to nurture leaders Holden Motors has strategies to nurture leaders. High Performers are given the opportunity of a varying number of cross functional roles at the same level to get a betting working level understanding of the organisation. After the required number of cross functional roles the employees can look for roles at a higher level. In this regard, the leaders at Holden are able to identify and nurture leadership qualities within the organisational employees and hence helps in increasing productivity and provides employees who are ready to step up to the place in case of organisational changes, necessitating new leaders (Russell 2006). For example, the CEO at Holden is able to mentor the employees and supporting them to develop their leadership skills. Mentoring the employees exhibiting leadership skill enables the leaders to take the role of developing these skills for them to become efficient leaders. Holden Motors also has learning culture within the organisation which is a prerequisite in nurturing the leaders. Bibliography Grint, K., 2006, Literature Review on Leadership, Cabinet Office: Performance Innovation Unit, New Delhi. Handy, C., 2002, The language of Leadership, Blackwell, Oxford. Hooper, A. & Potter, J., 1997, The business of Leadership, Ashgate Publishing Company, Aldershot. Moment, R., 2007, Top 7 Leadership Skills for Business Success http: Top 7 Business: Retrieved 18 august, 2011 http://top7business.com/?Top-7-Leadership-Skills-for-Business- Success&id=3632. Phipps, S., 2004, The System Design Approach to Organizational Development: The University of Arizona Model," Library Trends, Vol. 53/1. Russell, K., 2006, Organizational Development, Leadership, and Change, Library Trends, Vol. 53/2. Steven, R., 2008, Handbook of Leadership, Free Press, New York. Read More