Why Elon Musk Must Go

Human Resources and Change: Major Responsibilities of HRM The three major roles of human resources management (HRM) are (1) administrative, (2) operational, and (3) strategic. The functions that fall within these roles include: recruiting and selecting hires, orientation, maintaining stable and quality workplace environments, managing employee relations, and training and developing staff. This paper will show how the HRM of the company Tesla, Inc., including the manufacturing, finance, and marketing subsystems are in need of change.

By comparing these subsystems to other successful subsystems, this paper will indicate that Tesla can improve its productivity and increase demand. In that context, the impact of change, stakeholder satisfaction, attracting, developing, and maintaining human resources, internal consistencies, connectivity to the course, and the application of personal Christian worldview will all be addressed.

Subsystems in Need of Change The most major organizational subsystem within Tesla that is in need of change is manufacturing as the company has failed to meet its internal goals of production for several years running (O’Kane, 2018), all while the company’s reputation as a leader in the electric vehicle (EV) market is being eroded by complaints of shoddy manufacturing, bumpers falling off in the rain, battery cells catching fire, and auto pilot failing (Lambert, 2018; Orlove, 2018; Torchinsky, 2018).

Tesla’s manufacturing subsystem is a highly complex system involving AI, robotics, and trained employees both in the manufacturing plant and the Gigafactory where Tesla’s batteries are produced. The need for change within this subsystem is based on the fact that Tesla cannot reach its production goals, as the factory is too reliant on robotics, which were envisioned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk as being the future of auto manufacturing. Musk recently admitted that this overreliance on robotics was an error (Matousek, 2018).

Comparison to Successful Subsystem In comparison to one subsystem at a successful and profitable car company such as Ford, Tesla’s manufacturing subsystem is sub-par. The production line at Tesla needs to be overhauled: the robotics must be replaced with skilled laborers who assemble by hand the more intricate aspects of the assembly line. Ford pioneered the modern day assembly line but not to the total exclusion of human faculties.

Tesla’s Musk, in an effort to market himself and the company as visionary and forward-thinking, attempted to rely wholly upon robotics—and it has cost the company dearly (Hawkins, 2018). Impact of Change The proposed change—retiring the robots on the production line and using a more traditional assembly line concept—would impact the company in numerous ways. First, it would challenge Musk’s reputation as a visionary who can revolutionize the means of production.

Second, it would require a substantial drawdown on Tesla’s capital, as the company is heavily invested in robotics and to admit defeat could scare off speculative investors who bought into Musk’s vision of the company’s production line being the future of auto manufacturing (DeBord, 2018). Most importantly, however, it would right Tesla’s production line and allow the company to reach its production goals by way of traditional assembly line practices.

It would just require investing in human capital rather than in robotics that have proved to be inefficient overall. Stakeholder Satisfaction Tesla has to protect its image and reputation as a leader in the luxury EV market. It has branded itself as the next generation of manufacturing. Thus, to change its manufacturing subsystem would be, in a sense, to admit that the company is not quite as trailblazing as its CEO envisioned.

However, what matters now is that Tesla meet production goals because convertible notes are coming due and Tesla must be able to show a profit in the coming quarters in order to retain investors (SEC, 2018). First, investors must be satisfied. That means Tesla has to start focusing on productivity and less so on visionary tactics. Numbers matter to investors: they don’t care how the cars get made and delivered, just so long as it happens. Second, consumers want delivery.

Many buyers bought into the idea of an affordable Model 3, but have been waiting years to take delivery because of “production Hell” at Tesla (Boudette, 2018). Their demand must be satisfied. Third, executives want better accountability: they are leaving in droves (Hull, 2018) because simple concepts like traditional assembly are lost on Musk. In order to retain good leaders Tesla’s head executive needs to wake up to reality.

Attracting Human Resources Tesla could attract the human resources required to bring about the change by creating the right atmosphere to attract the talent to lead. Right now, Musk is having a very public meltdown and the Board must take action.

Musk spooked investors after appearing on the Joe Rogan podcast and smoking marijuana (Mullen & Shane, 2018)—this just weeks after press releasing via Twitter that he had funding secured to take the company private even though he really did not having any funding whatsoever locked up and was forced to admit as much days later as lawsuits came piling in claiming he was manipulating the company’s stock (Wolverton, 2018).

Cleaning house and getting rid of Musk is a must in order to attract the right talent to address the company’s manufacturing woes. Developing Human Resources Developing human resources required to bring about the change should be based on the strategy of orientation, onboarding and training. Development can be achieved quite easily once the right talent is attracted. HRM would be much better positioned to do its job were it simply allowed to operate in a more traditional environment.

Musk is currently preventing the company from facing reality (Mullen & Shane, 2018). Maintaining Human Resources Maintaining the human resources required to bring about change relies upon the company finding the right motivation to retain its leaders. As Gerhart and Fang (2015) point out, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is crucial to keeping workers satisfied. Workers have to know that they are appreciated—but at Tesla, where even bathroom breaks are barely allowed (Wong, 2018), workers are not motivated to excel because they are not shown crucial motivational support.

Leaders sense this, which is why turnover is so high. Focusing on improving worker morale through application of sufficient intrinsic and extrinsic motivators is needed. Internal Consistency: Attract, Develop, and Maintain a Quality Workforce Mahmood (2015) notes that planning, recruiting and selecting workers who are right for their positions is the most important part of HRM when it comes to developing and maintaining a quality workforce. Attracting the talent, however, may be problematic because Musk has tarnished Tesla’s reputation so badly this year.

For this reason, and for the sake of internal consistency, the Board must fire Musk as CEO. Connectivity to Course HRM depends upon having an effective administration, an effective strategy, and effective operations. Tesla suffers in all three areas. Its manufacturing subsystem suffers as a result. As this course has shown, in order for an organization to succeed, HRM must be able to manage appropriately—but when the CEO is the company’s own worst enemy, all his faults trickle down to impact the firm.

The same thing happened at Enron—and it is now happening at Tesla. Christian Worldview The implications of applying a Christian perspective in how I approach work as a business professional are that I always focus on serving others. Christ is the best example of a servant leader. Servant leadership, according to Nees (2014), is where a leader listens to followers and appreciates what they have to say. He puts their needs first and recognizes that they, not he, will ultimately lead the company to success.

I believe that Christ represented this idea when He appointed Apostles to head His Church. He washed their feet, and sent them out into the world to grow the Church. I would like to serve my company in the same way, by serving my workers. I feel that Tesla should do the same. Conclusion Tesla has the potential to succeed—it just needs to redefine itself.

Instead of marketing the company as a technological revolution in terms of production, Tesla’s CEO should be supporting practical production techniques in order to meet production goals. For this reason, the company’s manufacturing subsystem needs to change. In order to attract talent, the CEO must be replaced as he is hurting the company’s reputation, and a culture of servant leadership should prevail so that leaders will be retained. References Boudette, N. (2018). For Tesla, production hell looks like the reality of the car business.

Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/03/business/tesla-model-3.html DeBord,.