PROJECT OBJECTIVE: You are to write an analytical report on one of today’s indus

Question

PROJECT OBJECTIVE:

You are to write an analytical report on one of today’s industry leaders. The focus of your analysis will be to compare the actual experiences of this leader to the textbook definitions and examples of efficient, effective leadership in today’s corporations. You will select one of the leaders featured in the articles listed below. Your selected article may serve as a starting point, but a successful report will show evidence of comprehensive research on the key components of leadership that we explored in our course. Using course terminology and specific examples from your research, your report should reflect the leader’s performance in the context of these topics:

Dimensions of Organizational Culture including attitudes on Globalization, Social Responsibility and Managerial Ethics

Challenges and Opportunities resulting from Change and Innovation

Planning- including Decision-making

Strategic Management addressing SWOT analysis and Corporate and Competitive Strategies

Communication and Motivation

Leadership Style(s)

As you analyze this leader, you should consider the extent to which he or she exemplifies leadership as defined by our course. You should also discuss how his or her performance adds to our understanding of effective leadership.

START WITH ONE OF THESE ARTICLES:

Sara Blakely- Spanx CEO- Shaping Sara Blakeley (December 2015)

http://www.success.com/article/shaping-sara-blakely-meet-the-billionaire-founder-of-spanx

Elon Musk- Tesla CEO- The Transformational Leadership Style of Elon Musk (March 2016)
http://www.boothco.com/360-feedback-resources/leadership-style-of-elon-musk/

Indra Nooyi- PepsiCo CEO- What I’ve Learned From Ten Years Being PepsiCo’s CEO (July 2017)
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leave-crown-garage-what-ive-learned-from-decade-being-indra-nooyi

Mary Barra- GM CEO- Mary Barra is Remaking GM’s Culture
https://www.fastcompany.com/3064064/most-innovative-companies/mary-barra-is-remaking-gms-culture-and-the-company-itself

Angela Ahrendts- Apple VP Retail- What the heck is Angela Ahrendts doing at Apple?(September 2015)
http://fortune.com/2015/09/10/angela-ahrendts-apple/

Tory Burch- Tory Burch Secret To Success: Storytelling (August 2014)
https://www.fastcompany.com/3034283/the-secret-to-tory-burchs-success-storytelling

Jeff Bezos- Amazon CEO- Bezos Is Clear About What Amazon’s Culture Is (August 2015)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bezos-is-clear-about-what-amazons-culture-is-2015-08-26

Eileen Fisher-Founder and President- Eileen Fisher Leverages Employee values (July 2014)
http://www.triplepundit.com/2014/07/eileen-fisher-leverages-employee-values-chart-path-toward-long-term-sustainability/

Mark Parker- Nike CEO Of The Year (January 2015)
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/print-edition/2015/01/30/ceo-of-the-year-an-exclusive-interview-with-nike.html

CONDUCT RESEARCH:

Find evidence from a wide variety of current, accurate, credible sources that illustrate the leader’s performance in the skills and behaviors we studied. Make full use of FIT Library databases.

WRITE IT UP:

Your report should flow logically through the topics, presenting the evidence and examples of the leader’s performance in each of the key components. Each topic should be addressed and substantiated with content that leads the reader to a conclusion on the leadership behaviors displayed by the subject.
FORMAT:

Your points must be substantiated with evidence from a wide variety of sources. All sources, including the textbook, must be properly cited, APA Style.

Maximum number of pages is 5, minimum is 3 (excluding Bibliography). Do not add a Cover Sheet. Acceptable fonts are Ariel, Times New Roman and Verdana; font size 11 or 12; font color black.

Explanation / Answer

Leadership is defined as an organizational behaviour that involves influencing the behaviour of other team members and other staffs to work on the pre determines goals and objectives. Contingency theory states that there is no theory which is permanent, rather a person acts according to the situation. Contemporary theory includes transformational theory of leadership. There are various drivers of innovation like enhancing flexibility, improving quality, cost reduction, and reduction of energy expenditure, and transformational theory helps in it. There are two types of leadership styles, and these are transactional and transformational leadership. Transactional leadership focuses on clarifying the roles of the employees and providing them the instructions. Transformational leadership builds trust among employees, and motivates them to do work by their own, and there are certain behaviours of the transformational leaders like intellectual stimulation, individual consideration, idealized influence, and inspirational motivation.

Steve Jobs is known throughout the world as the former head of Apple, the company that has revolutionized the technology world. Steve Jobs was an ethical leader as he was considered to be the transformational leader who has certain characteristics like intellectual stimulation, individual consideration, idealized influence, and inspirational motivation. He displayed high ethical standards of work. There were some incidents in Apple that led to start following some ethical principles in leadership style. There were ethical leadership training programs that include the following of moral and ethical issues, using mentoring and coaching programs, developing guideposts and frameworks for the ethical dilemmas, and giving the counselling to the employees whenever there is a problem. He had so many strengths that helped in shadowing the failings. According to Steve Jobs, “Whatever strengths I have are just that strengths and have taken care of themselves”. “The way to get better is to fix my things”. He always thought of corporate social responsibility as a leader and implemented it effectively.

References

Baack, D. (2012). Organizational Behaviour (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc..

http://www.forbes.com. (2014). Leadership. Retrieved from http://http://www.forbes.com/sites/jackzenger/2013/08/22/the-big-lesson-about-leadership-from-steve-jobs/

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