Alan Mulallys Personality and Leadership at Ford Company

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Alan Mulallys Personality and Leadership at Ford Company

Using the Big five personality dimensions, diagnose Mulallys personality. How have these dimensions influenced his leadership at Ford?

Personality is complex and varies according to different people. The big five personality dimensions are usually broad categories of personal behaviors and traits and though most of the researchers do not agree on the exact labels, the five dimensions are characterized as Extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and conscientiousness (Heinstrom, 2003).

In line with the above five dimension personalities, Mulally can be described as an open person and this can be described in the case study by his desire to communicate every idea he has and the fact that he asserts that everyone has to know the plan, its status and the places that need attention. His openness and respect to all the workers and executives have won him support throughout the organization.

Mulally is also a conscientious person since he is goal-directed and like achieving his objectives. Mulally is also an extravert, this is because he is adventurous, assertive in his actions and sociable. We can confirm this by the fact that he holds executive meetings every Thursday where every member has to forward the progress his department has been making and during the week he visits two rooms which are lined up with performance charts arranged according to the department.

He can also be described as an agreeable person who is ready to nurture and give the emotional support required to support the growth of the Ford Company. This is described by his color-coded reports in which special attention is given according to the color of the reports. When one of his executives stated that there was a problem in one of the departments, he appreciated the clear visibility the executive showed and he states that if anything is noticed to be off-track then necessary measures need to be taken.

Neuroticism is a measure of affection and emotional control where low levels of neuroticism indicate emotional stability to which we can associate Mulally. On his arrival at Ford, the company was making losses and earlier when he was asked whether the company could succeed, he said he did not know but he indicated that they had devised a work plan which could help in reviving the company. This shows he was emotionally prepared for anything that could follow during his tenure in the company.

What is Mulallys leadership style? What evidence supports your choice?

The manner and the approach through which directions, plan implementation and motivation of the people working in a company are integrated into a working tool are often described as a leadership style. There exist three different leadership styles which are: authoritarian, delegative, and participative. For a leader to succeed in his authority, it is necessary to mix all the three types of leadership although many tend to stick with one.

In our case, Mulally seems to mix all three types of leadership styles. The participative aspect is clearly shown by the weekly meetings which are held every Thursday morning, during the meetings, all issues are discussed in a round table where everybody contributes to the issue. The delegation aspects come into play with the fact that after the consultative meeting, Mulally promises to delegate the action and meet the respective department heads to solve the problem. He can also be described as authoritative to some degree in the way the meetings are held. Discipline is always maintained as there are no books, blackberries nor are there pre-meetings everything is discussed on board and if anyone starts talking or shows some sort of disrespect to the others, the meetings just stop.

Evaluate Mulallys change methods. Are these effective?

Change methods are the techniques a company uses to accomplish specific purposes. These techniques involve planning, restructuring and also improving existing processes. Mulallys change methods can be described as integrative, where he discovered that for the company to succeed, the company had to sell some of the makes, such as, Jaguar and Landrover to other carmakers to have a uniform production process for one make of a car which was a ford, and through this, the company benefited from economies of scale thus cutting on costs.

Are There Indicators Of The Use Of Evidence-Based Management? Explain.

There are indicators that Mulally used the methods he had applied while in Boeing. For example, the discipline which was maintained during the Thursday meeting was copied from Boeing in which he indicates that while in Boeing, he had removed the posts of vice presidents since they kept on talking thinking they were very important and the same was not encouraged in Ford Company. Since it is indicated that in case instances of disrespect were noted during the meeting, meetings were usually stopped.

How would you assess Mulally on each of the elements of communication openness?

The imparting or the exchange of thoughts from one party to another is referred to as communication. The exchange can be done through speech and signs. Communication openness is an effective tool in decision making.

For a successful communication process, the following elements of communication must interrelate efficiently and effectively and they include sender-receiver, messages, channels, noise, feedback and setting (Harris& Hartman, 2001).

Sender-receiver is the most important basic element because it is the basic concept of a conversation. For Mulally, he is excellent at this element because since he joined Ford Company, he has been holding meetings every Thursday, and during the meetings, he ensures that every executive member presents his or her work in a comfortable environment where consulting is allowed after the meeting.

In relaying the messages, Mulally is also excellent, messages do not have to be verbal and this has been done by speech and also by the use of charts which describe the situations every company department is at. He also uses the best channels in communicating the information in that there are no usually pre-meetings briefing everything is discussed in the presence of all players thus none can argue that he or she was not adequately informed or involved in the decision making process. He hates noisemakers and during the meetings, he ensures that conversations out of the subject are not allowed and also if one makes an utterance which may seem to demean all the other persons character during the meeting can cause the meeting to be stopped.

The feedback process and the settings through which the feedback is relayed are also excellent because if an issue is not solved during the executive meeting, Mulally promises to consult and then hold meetings with the required department to solve the issue.

Reference List

Harris, o. J; & Hartman, J. S. (2001). Organizational Behavior. New York: Cengage Learning.

Heinstrom, J. (2003). Five Personality Dimensions and Their Influence on Information Behavior. Web.

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