Leadership Style in the Organization - Personal Statement Example

Leadership Style Q.1: Background Gary Kelly serves as the CEO of Southwest Airlines Company and he has been among the corporate leaders who have made the company successful. Kelly began his career as a controller when he joined the company in 1986 and later worked as a chief financial officer at the Southwest Airlines in 1989 up to 2001. Kelly also worked in Southwest airline industry as the vice president finance and later as the executive before his appointments as the vice chairman and CEO of the corporation in 2004 (Mouawad, 2010). Kelly assumed his leadership t role as a chairman of the business in the midst of May 2008 and two months later as business executive (Mouawad, 2010). Kelly is currently working as the presidents and CEO of the company and he has made Southwest Airline a profitable company. This is because he employs unique leadership styles and strategies; thus, he has made the company the most admirable corporation globally. Q.2: Leadership Styles and Philosophy Gary employs unique leadership styles that have enabled the Southwest Airlines to become competitive in the global airline industries. Effective communication is one of the considerable leadership styles employed in the corporation and this aligns with the shared culture. Northouse (2004) point out that communication is the significant element for solving organizational conflicts; thus creating organizational success. This is because it breaks language barrier and conflicts that might arise in a multicultural business environment. Southwest Airline industry has diverse customers from different parts of the globe; thus, communication is the key aspect in the company. Secondly, the CEO also employees effective teamwork and this is aligned with the organizational culture. Although Kelly encourages collaboration, he also encourages self-reliance in a working environment; however, the CEO has heavily relied on teamwork because it is through this strategy that the company has been able to improve their productivity. The philosophy behind Kelly’s leadership style is based on the company mission of delivering high qualities services to customers with a sense of warmth, personal pride, corporate spirit and friendliness. The business is also committed to offer their workforce a steady or secure working atmosphere with equal learning opportunities and personal growth. Innovativeness and creativity are also encouraged in order to advance the competence of the business. Therefore, all workforces are offered the same respect, compassionate attitude and high level of concern within the business as they are expected to share outwardly with southwest clients efficiently. Q. 3: The CEO’s Personal and Organizational Values The CEO’s values focuses on designing an effective working environment, which comprises of people enjoying their works and having fun, as well as, getting the work done efficiently. Kelly has created an effective working organisation starting from corporate culture to an effective working environment. Kreitner and Kinicki (2010) argue that a successful organisation should employ effective leadership strategies and values vital for enabling the corporate to increase performance level. Moreover, Kelly also brings his personality and sense of humor at work, as well as, effective organizational values, which shapes the organizational behaviors desired for achieving the mission or the objectives of the company successfully. The organizational behaviors include honesty in work, treating employees fairly and equally, being open-mindedness, communicating effective across the departments, creativeness, and being independence. The concern for others and employees are among the effective organizational values that the company currently encourages employees to maintain and also treat others with companionate and respect. Q.4: Ethical Behavior within the Organization For the past decades, the Southwest airline industry has made significant attempts of publicizing the corporate identity through their effective work ethics. This is through firmly entrenching the company as the most satisfactorily company for customers and communicating effectively with customers have tended to be the main aspects for the company’s success. This has been made by the top management where Kelly plays significant roles of employing this customer relationship attitude and unique work ethic. Kelly attempts to align three significant things in the company with the corporate mission and objectives. One of them is the focus on people and this has been one of his aspects since he began to work as the CEO in 2004 and later the chairman in 2008. The focus on people is among the ethical behaviors that are likely to influence customers to the company; thus contributing to increased performance level (Subba and Kumar, 2010). Secondly, Kelly focuses on customer services and this is through offering customers the high qualities services, as well as, treating customers as the king in the market. Employees are trained on ethical behaviors that will enable them to handle customers well and offer them services that satisfy their demanding needs. Lastly, the low cost is also another aspect that has enabled the company to be a competitive company. Kelly employs effective low cost leadership approach of providing customers better and affordable prices; thus enabling the company to not only maintains their clients but also influences new customers to the industry. Q.5: Strength and weakness One of the strengths is that the company aligns their mission with the corporate culture and it is one of the aspects that have enabled the company to reap huge profits. Kelly takes into consideration cultural aspects and understands that cultures are dissimilar, takes time to change, as well as, challenging. This has enabled the corporate to influence diverse culture through careful and thoughtful engagement; hence influencing customers from diverse cultures (Argyris, 2010). Secondly, the company cares and motivates employees very well because they understand that employees’ satisfaction contributes to better organizational performance. Therefore, the company offers effective training activities in order to enable employees to increase their innovative and working skills. Lastly, the industry is also built only a low cost strategy because of low fares frequents flights and also expansion of the industry to new cites; thus enabling them to achieve many customers. However, one of the weaknesses of the company is that the high fuel prices that resulted in 2008 during the economic crisis have hindered the growth of the company. Despite being a low cost industry, the challenge is as to whether the company will sustain its singular operating styles because of weak strategic development. The company operates in a high competitive market and the use of low cost will also impact the profits due to increased prices for fuel. Secondly, there is lack of established alliances and this exerts huge strain on the corporate to maintain its position or sustain a competitive advantage in the global competitive market, and lastly, fully valued share prices also hinder the company from achieving their stated goals effectively. Q. 6. Quality That Has Contributed to the CEO’s Success Kelly’s exceptional conceptual and human leadership skills have contributed to his success as the chief executive offer in the Southwest Airline industry. This is because Kelly has one distinctive management skills of cultural preservation of the Southwest airline industry (Mouawad, 2010). Cultural preservation is one of the qualities that have enable Kelly to increase the organizational performance. This is because he clearly understands the significant of keeping the corporate culture in a multinational company. This is because the organisation operates in varied environment where there are diverse cultural groups; thus understanding both internal and external cultural aspects is vital. This is one of the effective management qualities that have enabled the company to sustain their business in the global competitive market. Armstrong and Stephens (2005) argue that a successful leader should employ effective management skills vital for creating organizational change. Kelly employs strong culture, which is also be packed with effective work ethic and the company also celebrates varied cultural events while preserving the culture of the airline industry. This has enabled the company to move through the 1990s until when they implemented a low cost strategy and it also preserves the corporate culture up to the present. Q.7: Ways Communication, Collaboration, Power and Politics Influence Organizational Dynamics Communication and collaboration dynamics influences a group in the organisation because it is through effective communication that an effective decision can be reached faster or effectively. Collaborative approaches to understanding effective organizational performance emphasizes on a shared responsibility and consensus team building through effective communication. This approaches to foster better and enhanced decision making through effective communication process among the team members or collaborative groups in order to reach a shared or common goal successfully. For instance, the CEO of Southwest airline industry employ effective communication approaches while working as a team and this has enabled the company to increase their performance. Power and politics dynamics also influences the office political process, political behaviors, as well as, political interruptions in the organization; Subba and Kumar (2010) noted that open seeking for power and politics is highly seen as a sign for bad management. Argyris (2010) also addressed the issue of power struggle in the organisation by arguing that struggle for power contributes to poor organizational performance. Struggle for power is influenced by poor political or management behavior and this may impact the organizational change. The strategies and influence tactics, as well as, behavioral outcomes, resistance to change and change management can impact the organizational performance. However, the Southwest airline industry employs effective process of electing their leaders in the corporate; thus minimising conflicts that may arise due to struggle for power and politics. References Armstrong, M., & Stephens, T. (2005). A handbook of management and leadership: A guide to managing for results. London and Sterling, VA: Kogan Page. Argyris, C. (2010). Organizational traps: Leadership, culture, organizational design. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kreitner, R., & Kinicki, A. (2010). Organizational behavior. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Mouawad, J (November 20, 2010)."Southwest Airlines Relies on Strategy That Built It”, NYTimes.com." Retrieved on June 11, 2013 from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/business/21south.html?pagewanted=all Northouse, P. G. (2004). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage. Subba, R. P., & Kumar, V. T. (2010). Management: Theory and practice : text & cases. Mumbai [India: Himalaya Pub. House. Read More