In this case, he realized that it was an issue of the internal affairs of the business and not so much customer service issues. In response, Welch transformed the company through creating fresh action plans for each department, eliminating departments that were not making the market's best products, and creating an internal structure that encouraged employee growth and improvement, moving employees toward becoming leaders within the company. The purpose of the changes was to reform GE into a modern, growing company. The way that Welch was able to do all this was the key: he got rid of all the company's red tape and bureaucracy. Welch knew that in order for the company to thrive, there could only be one leader at the front of the company and one leaders of each respective department. Any red tape that slowed this process down harmed the company. Once he eliminated the red tape, the company thrived and grew.
In Bernard Bass's article "Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations," his descriptions of inspiring leaders are directly in line with the course reading. The bottom line is that the best leaders do more than simply order workers around. Instead, the best leaders work as a team, pulling in people from various departments and "guide" the overall processes. Additionally, a good leader does not take all the credit, but instead gives due credit to all members of the team, further inspiring achievement. It is these characteristics that differentiate the good and bad leaders.
Finally, in Robert House's article, "Culture, Leadership, and Organizations, he found that the amount of force used in a leadership position does differ based on the culture of the business. Again, as emphasized in the reading, a good leader always takes time to carefully consider their words and actions and finds the most agreeable and positive way to make this happen.
Question 4: I agree with the author's position...
In modern business, no one person has the knowledge or skill set to effectively run every facet of a business. This is where a team comes into the picture. When people act as team players, each contributing and the leader aiding in organizing their contributions, each person is using their proper role and feels valued for that role. Additionally, it really is never to early to start building good leadership skills within a company and especially building a solid reputation.
Question 5: This reading was very relevant to me personally. While I may never be the CEO of a large company, I do wish to continually move up and improve my skills within my own company. This reading gave practical examples that I could follow and will begin honing to improve my overall leadership skills and make the most of every opportunity within the company.
The relevance to society is equally as important. There is no excuse for giving those in the spot light so much credit and then diss missing personal responsibility to step up and lead when called upon to do so. While everyone may not have the same skill set, everyone can acquire the basic leadership skills of proper conflict resolution and authoritative disposition.
Works Cited
Badaracco, Joseph L. "Ann Hopkins." Harvard Business School (1991): 1-28. Print.
Bass, Bernard. "Leadership and Performance beyond Expectations." Free Press New York12 (1985): 265-72. Print.
House, Robert J. Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2004. Print.
Kao, John. "Scandinavian Airlines System." Harvard Business School (1993): 1-21. Print.
Wozny, Meg. "GE's Two-Decade Transformation: Jack Welch's Leadership." Harvard Business School (2005): 1-24. Print.
