Abstract
In seeking success, Ford Motor Company entrusts the services of Alan Mulally, as the CEO. Having worked for Boeing, Mulally appears ready for this task as he embarks on undertaking a thorough research at Ford immediately he arrives, in order to study and formulate the best strategy for the company. As Ford Company is geared towards success, Mulally’s style of leadership is analyzed, as well as his personality dimension elements. The methods Mulally introduces at Ford are evaluated for effectiveness, while seeking for evidence of evidence based management at Ford. Furthermore, Mulally’s elements of communication openness are analyzed.
Ford Motor Company, in attempts to succeed in the competitive motor industry, have entrusted the services of Alan Mulally as its CEO. Ford Company has been on the verge of collapsing due to decreased sales and heightened levels of competition, and Alan Mulally is expected to turn the company around. This paper discusses Mulally’s personality using the big five personality dimensions and how these dimensions have influenced his leadership at Ford. It also discusses Mulally’s style of leadership while evaluating the effectiveness of his methods of change. In the case study, this work will seek evidence of the utilization of evidence-based management. Finally, the paper assesses Mulally regarding the elements of communication openness.
The big five dimensions
Individuals portray different personality traits. The major five dimensions include; Openness: This personality features such traits as insight and imagination.
Conscientiousness: This trait features such traits as heightened thoughtfulness levels, high-quality impulse management and goal oriented behaviors.
Extraversion: This features such traits as assertiveness, sociability, talkativeness, excitability and heightened levels of emotional expressiveness.
Neuroticism: This personality features such traits as sadness, emotional instability, moodiness, anxiety and irritability.
Agreeableness: This personality exhibits such traits as affection, altruism, trust and kindness (Barrick and Mount 1).
Mulally, in exhibiting goal oriented behaviors, convinces Bill Ford to sell off Land Rover, Aston Martin, and Jaguar to India’s motor company Tata (Taylor III). This exhibits strategic leadership since Mulally is aware, at this time that the market for these cars is present. Heightened thoughtfulness levels are evident in the way Mulally decides to seek $23 billion in loans against the assets of the motor company (Taylor III).
This way, Ford Motor Company, can get the required financial assistance necessary to conduct its financial needs. Mulally understands the predicament the company can experience by trying to operate without enough financial resources. It is a challenge trying to compete with active competitors at a time when Ford Company attempts to reel from the effects of a recession and decreased sales. Conscientiousness trait is evident in the way Mulally is willing to say no to the government loans after Ford Motor Company experiences decreased sales between 2008-2009. Mulally is also determined to see the revival of the Taurus, the brand that Ford Company had phased out. This objective is achieved in a short time, and the Taurus is already in showrooms (Taylor III).
Mulally’s style of leadership
According to Boone and Kurtz (269), there are several leadership styles exhibited by individuals. They include autocratic, free reign, and democratic. Autocratic leadership revolves around the leader giving directions without consulting the people involved by his decision. In organizations, autocratic leaders arrive at decisions without consulting the subordinates about the intended decisions and their effects.
Hence, after communicating these decisions to the subordinates, autocratic leaders expect their directives to be followed without scrutiny or questioning. Under democratic leadership, the workforce is involved in the process of making decisions according to Boone and Kurtz (270).
Democratic leaders see no problem in delegating tasks, seeking suggestions from employees and even encouraging the workforce to participate. Free reign leaders advocate for minimal supervision by entrusting the subordinates with the task of making most of the decisions (Boone and Kurtz 270).
Effectiveness of Mulally’s change methods
One of the changes advocated by Mulally is to ensure Ford Company starts to sell such small cars as Focus and Fiesta. This would be a shift from such previous vehicles as the Mustang and pickup trucks. Mulally believes that the American people are ready for small efficient cars, which would be used to get Ford Company out of the financial predicament. Mulally is convinced that; the fewer the cars, the better economies of scale Ford would enjoy, and hence augmented profitability (Taylor III). These change methods by Mulally have an increased probability of succeeding since he is involving all departments in the process. It would be quite challenging trying to achieve success alone, but by involving all departments in the process of formulating decisions, Mulally is instilling team work in the work place. With teamwork, cohesion is built as the subordinates work together in order to attain the organization’s objectives collectively (Tohidi 3024). Additionally, according to Barrick and Mount (5), Mulally’s personal trait can easily achieve the desired results at Ford. These authors argue that; since conscientiousness personality dimension is associated with hard work, persistence, responsibility, goal oriented behaviors, heightened thoughtfulness levels and high-quality impulse management, the methods are effective. The traits in the personality dimension are vital for success in an organization and; therefore, the methods utilized by Mulally are effective since he will ensure they are implemented.
Evidence Based Management
This involves formulating decisions regarding employee management, organizations, or teams by utilizing such meticulous, sensible and overt sources of information as practitioner expertise and judgment, scientific evidence, stakeholder values and organizational facts, characteristics and merits (Shillabeer, Buss, and Rouseau 120). From this analysis, there is evidence showing that Mulally utilized evidence based management while making decisions regarding Ford Company. From the case study, it is evident that Mulally gathered all the information regarding the company like a student who was cramming for an examination (546). This study involved holding interviews with consultants, employees and analysts of the Ford. The findings from Mulally’s study of Ford Company is extensive since they fill five binders.
This information is substantial in aiding the making of informed decisions regarding the company. It is through these findings that Mulally devises ways to formulate a working strategy for Ford Motor Company. All this information can be regarding as organizational facts as is entrenched in evidence based management. His decisions have to be guided by his experience at Boeing, where he worked prior to coming to Ford Company, and the facts that he holds in the five binders. Evidence based management would be hard to implement without having concrete information at the leader’s disposal. These organizational facts help Mulally convince Bill Ford on the need to sell off such vehicles as Land Rover, Aston Martin and Jaguar to India’s motor company, Tata (Taylor III).
Evidence based management also appears to have been utilized by Mulally as evidenced in his strategies regarding the revival of the Ford brand. Mulally advocates for the revival of the Ford brand by; competing in all segments of the market with products carefully designed; marketing fewer products; and becoming the best company in offering of quality, safe, valuable and fuel efficient vehicles (Taylor III). This way, Mulally is convinced to attract additional customers in the USA, who are willing to spend more of their financial resources to use Ford products, compared to competitors’ products. These views have to be arrived at by implementation of evidence from such previous roles as served at Boeing.
Through the research Mulally conducts at Ford, he is willing to instill discipline to the managers so as to ensure they are geared towards achieving the required goals and objectives. Since Mulally has already gathered the evidence required to assist in the attainment of the organizational goals and objectives, he has to follow up on the strategy so as to ensure performance is at par. Performance management is utilized to ensure the formulated strategy is followed, and this is evident when Mulally indicates that he has to meet with any manager who have not attained the desired results in the respective department (Taylor III).
Practitioner expertise and judgment is evident in the way Mulally implements his decisions by allowing all departments to be involved in the process, and the way he monitors operations as they progress. The monitoring of operations by use of 280 performance charts is not a small achievement, bearing in mind the different areas of responsibilities involved in the motor vehicle company (Taylor III). There are such areas as dealer relationships, design, manufacturing and assembly among others, all of which have to portray signs of success for the set objectives to be attainable. Thus, to monitor progress of operations using 280 performance charts requires advanced expertise and professionalism.
Mulally is capable of carrying out his roles and monitoring the progress of these operations using the provided charts, which proves that he is a highly experienced professional. Mulally also has advanced expertise in management from his former roles at Boeing, and that expertise proves useful at Ford Company.
Mulally and Elements of Communication Openness
In communication openness, there are four elements; trust, transmission of message, goals and agendas (Hellriegel and Slocum 334). For success to be achieved in leadership, communication should not be hindered in its flow from the leader to the subordinates. Regarding Ford Motor Company, success is vital since the company is struggling with financial constraints, poor sales and the effects of the recession.
Therefore, if Mulally is determined to succeed as the leader, he has to ensure the message he sends to the subordinates is not distorted so as to change the company from a loss making company to a profit making organization.
Mulally appears to perform excellently, as far as, the elements of communication openness are concerned. This is because; from the time he arrives at Ford, he is determined to ensure there are no secrets. This he does by ensuring all departments are involved and are present during the decision formulation processes (Taylor III). When holding his meetings, Mulally ensures all people are aware of the challenges at hand and he even encourages them to try on his strategies so as to ensure the organization achieves the intended goals and objectives. During his first time at the meetings, Mulally finds out that the IT and the human resource managers were not attending the meetings. He ensures this is changed by making sure they attend prospective meetings without fail (Taylor III). He also encourages his subordinates to be trusted by observing honesty. This is evident when he introduces color codes for the reports. When all managers arrive at the first meeting with green codes representing good, he teaches them to be honesty to ensure emerging problems are diagnosed early and measures taken for their solutions (Taylor III).
Mulally is open and ensures his messages are clear. During his meetings, he ensures all involved parties understand what is expected of them in order to achieve the desired objectives. He also explains the charts to people well enough, without the people having to stand too close to the charts (Taylor III). This shows that his message transmission is good. He does not believe in secrets and this is evident in the way he analyses the progression of the operations. Mulally ensures Ford’s board of directors receives a similar subset of data and thus ensuring there are no secrets harbored in the company. The involvement of everybody in the progress of the company and the intended goals is reason enough to show that Mulally does well in the elements of communication openness. Goals and agendas of the company are brought to the limelight and Mulally encourages the subordinates in making the achievement of the goals and objectives a success. The fact that people want Mulally to lead them is reason enough to show that they understand him and, one way of understanding a leader is through the way he communicates to the subordinates.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Ford Motor Company is determined to turn around through the assistance of Alan Mulally. Having managed Boeing Mulally is also determined to ensure Ford Company achieves the desired success. His leadership style is democratic and with a conscientiousness personality dimension; thus ready to propel Ford Company to success.
In his management process, Mulally appears to utilize evidence based management having taken his time to conduct a thorough research of Ford Company, just like a student who is cramming for an examination. This reveals the expertise and professionalism inherent in Mulally.
Therefore, his change methods are effective due to his willingness and determination to achieve change, especially through his conscientiousness personality dimension. Finally, Mulally appears to perform amicably, as far as, the elements of effective communication in openness are concerned. He succeeds in promoting trust, easy transmission of messages, goals and agendas.
Works Cited
Barrick, Murray R, and Michael, Mount. “The big five personality dimensions and job performance: a meta-analysis.” Personnel Psychology 44.1 (1991): 1-26. Print.
Boone, Louis E, and David Kurtz. Contemporary Business 2010 Update. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2009. Print.
Hellriegel, Don, and John, Slocum. Organizational Behavior. Mason: Cengage Learning, 2007. Print.
Shillabeer, Anna, Terry, Buss, and Dennis, Rouseau. Evidence-Based public management: practices, issues, and prospects. New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc, 2011. Print.
Taylor III, Alex. Fixing up Ford. CNN Money, 12 May 2009. Web. 13 Dec 2012. < >
Tohidi, Hamid, and Mohammad Jafar T. “Modeling and analysis of productivity teamwork based on information technology.” International Journal of Production Research 44.15 (2006): 3023-3031. Print.
