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Jack welch transformational leadership
Jack welch transformational leadership
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Week Eight Journal Submission : Chapter 14
Case Study: Jack Welch
In a classroom where Jack Welch has appeared more than 250 times in the past seventeen years to engage some 15,000 GE managers and executives, something extraordinary happens. The legendary chairman of GE, the take-no-prisoners tough guy who gets results at any cost, becomes human. His slight stutter, a handicap that has bedeviled him since childhood, makes him oddly vulnerable. The students see all of Jack here: the management theorist, strategic thinker, business teacher, and corporate icon who made it to the top despite his working-class background. The fact is no one leaves the room untouched. If leadership is an art, then surely Mr. Welch has proved himself a master painter. Few have personified corporate leadership more dramatically. Fewer still have so consistently delivered on the results of that leadership. For 17 years, while big companies and their chieftains have come and gone, Welch has led GE to one revenue and earnings record after another. What can be inferred from this case study is the fact that Jack Welch does it through sheer force of personality, coupled with an unbridled passion for winning the game of business and a keen attention to details many chieftains would simply overlook. He does it because he encourages near-brutal candor in the meetings he holds to guide the company through each work year. And he does it because, above all else, he’s a fierce believer in the power of his people.
Welch likes to call GE the “grocery store.” The metaphor, however quirky for such a large firm, allows Welch to mentally roll up his sleeves, slip into an apron, and get behind the counter. There, he can get to know every employee and serve every customer.
After being extremely skeptical of quality programs, what’s going on at GE now is Six Sigma. Jack Welch felt that quality programs were too heavy on slogans and to short on results. Yet, Six Sigma is different. A Six Sigma quality level in a company like GE can save a company a great deal of money.
The grocery market is highly competitive. Brookshire’s has found that superior customer service is the key to success. Consumers who are familiar with the Brookshire’s personnel know that they will be greeted with a friendly smile and helpful attitude. Employee meetings and up-beat newsletters from the corporate office are excellent ways of reminding the employees of the significance of making customer satisfaction the most important part of their jobs.
David Dillon has been CEO of the Kroger Co. since 2003 and is the 10th CEO in Kroger’s 130-year history. Joseph B. Hall held the CEO position from 1946 until 1964. Hall started with Kroger as a real estate manager in 1931 and later moved onto merchandising. His accomplishments as CEO was taking Kroger from a collection of 1,430 small, of mom-and-pop style corner stores into a unified chain, introducing advances in private label, product manufacturing and the company’s distinctive blue-and-white logo. Like todays manager, Hall was concerned with developing a close relationship with Kroger’s shoppers. Halls approach to gain the knowledge needed was that he and his fellow executives would actually visit shoppers in their homes to discuss their needs and concerns as part of a program known as “Kroger Calls”. Today Kroger’s CEO can simply utilize data and purchase history stored on a customer’s loyalty card to tailor their marketing strategy (Kroger CEOs, Past and Present, 2012). Halls creation of a modern day supermarket company nearly quadrupled sales to $2.3 billion.
In order to become more technology and marketing driven, one of Immelt’s goal was to encourage employees to be more risk taking. Grant (1996) refers routine as interface pattern between individuals to build specific knowledge and transfer it to the organization. GE changed its previous routines and slowed down the job rotation. GE recruited external marketing leaders that demanded more employment budget. Multi-disciplinary divisions were created as GE aimed to be more customer-oriented, resulting in increase of training budget.
In a firm, management and leadership are important and needed. Leadership and management are similar. Actually, leadership and management are totally different. The leadership would influence the firm. The leader would have difference leadership styles to lead the subordinate.
The challenging process of being a leader worth following is an arduous task. Yet, in the book the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, the fictional leader Katherine seemingly demonstrates it with an effortless ease. She established her position as a leader while standing her ground, and encouraging group engagement. Katherine also showcases high emotional intelligence with well thought out responses. Constant reevaluation of her team leads to astounding team building and development. All of these individual traits enabled her to not just be a great CEO, but a leader. A leader which would propel DecisionTech forward, among its competitors.
Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., McKee, A. (2002). Primal leadership: Realizing the power of emotional intelligence. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.
Mlls, D. Q. (2005). Leadership How to Lead, How to Live. Boston: Harvad Business School Press.
In today’s business environment, corporations must be able to adapt and develop strategies that allow them to remain as competitive as possible within the markets they serve. Leaders within those corporations must be able to fully understand the most effective leadership style required depending on the situation at hand. One style may be effective in one situation while another style may need to be used in another. In this day of environmental dynamism, organizations have had to refocus on organizational capabilities in order to attain a competitive advantage in such an environment. This refocus has led to a break in routines and involves a shift in organizational norms and required knowledge. James Clawson discusses the three levels of leadership in his book entitled “Level Three Leadership: Getting Below the Surface.” This article will discuss some issues that may arise within corporations and what leadership styles may be most effective for differing situations based on Clawson’s text.
This case study demonstrates a young woman leader, Toby Johnson, who used to serve in the military as a pilot and attended Harvard Business School, joined PepsiCo’s Leadership Development Program (LDP), and was working in the management team at the Williamsport plant. She determined to forge ahead, and led the plant to achieve the Level 3 CI and also won the Doolin Award, which the Williamsport plant had never achieved before. The problem that Johnson encounters currently is that if the plant should continue to forge ahead and achieve the ultimate Level 4 CI, which will cost huge amount of money and efforts with the risk of her sudden leave of plant.
Willis, Gary. Certain Trumpets: The Nature Of Leadership. New York , New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
CEO Johnston also has plans to bolster the company’s leadership with the best minds available and also use motivational techniques to invigorate his employees. These ideas show the character of the CEO in enhancing productivity from his work force.
Non-profit organization, corporate society, management by objectives, are all terms being used and taught today and all have something in common. What is it you ask? Peter Drucker. He was the man behind all of these ideas and their growth into what they have become today. He has been titled many things including, “The Man Who Invented Corporate Society” and “the father of management principles”. The article, Drucker (2005), stated that Peter was “hailed by Business Week as “’the most enduring management thinker of our time’” (p. 1).
Founded in 1878 by Thomas Edison, General Electric is nowadays a leading business in electrical generation, distribution and use in America and in the world. The company has been experimenting successful business models since its creation, and its human resources policy has been considered for a century one of the most sophisticated. It consists in a strong focus on human potential through executive development to the top ranks of the firm: this performance based meritocracy has made GE a “CEO factory” for the company and for all corporate America. In 2001, Jeff Immelt, the company’s new leader was faced with the problem of how to keep this talent machine humming.
There are several theories that examine an organization and it’s approach to managing work in an effort to develop efficiency and increase production. Two classical approaches to management are Taylor’s scientific management theory and Weber's bureaucratic management theory. Both men are considered pioneers of in the study of management.
Hawthorne Studies have been subjected to many criticisms. Yet, the evolvement of many of the management theories today would not have come about without the experiments done by Elton Mayo. This essay will cover the various aspects of management that has been refined through the findings of the tests conducted and how improvements were made to aid in the development of organisational behaviour. It will also discuss the various studies and will show how these theories implement Hawthorne studies as the foundation and the basis of the human relations movement. It will also investigate the criticisms that arise within it.