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A Description of Oprah’s Business

Essay Instructions:

. Power – Due 18 September 11:59 pm – 20 MARKS – (10% of course grade)

  1. Choose a well-known, international business leader. Describe their business and describe your impressions of them as an individual.
  2. With reference to the six sources of power, analyse the bases of the power of this person.
  3. Describe how they use their power to impact others positively.
  4. Describe how their power may also be used to have a negative impact on others.

Prepare to share your study with the class.  NB. Include references 

Essay Sample Content Preview:

Assignment 2-Forums
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Assignment 2-Forums
Oprah Winfrey is one of the re-known women entrepreneurs globally based on her outstanding leadership skills. She is a role model who has persistent, genuine, and unique as a businesswoman and kind philanthropist. Oprah Winfrey stands out as a successful entrepreneur who has executed numerous business opportunities (Winfrey, 2016). Through her successful ventures, she has earned great fortune resulting in her emergence as one of the most influential entrepreneurs. Despite having encountered challenges as a black female talk show host, Oprah remained determined to accomplish her goals. Over the years, she has built her net worth to 3.1 billion USD through her business ventures. Oprah Winfrey is the epitome of black success as a role model to women from a global perspective.
* A Description of Oprah’s Business
Oprah Winfrey stands out as one of the most successful entrepreneurs through her education efforts, television shows, and book club. Despite being black, she positively impacted American society, contributing to her growth as a business person. Oprah has been successful in the entrepreneurship industry and even owns a television channel, Oprah Winfrey Network. One of the outstanding characters of the entrepreneur is having a positive attitude towards making a positive impact in business while bringing people joy while watching her television shows. She founded Harpo Studios as her production facility that later expanded to Harpo Inc. with 250 full-time employees. Besides, she is the co-founder of Oxygen Media as a cable network for women.
Besides, Winfrey exudes positivity with his energizing and inspirational charisma that has a positive influence on others. Oprah must have realized at a young age that she is responsible for molding her future and started working towards being successful. Although she encountered extreme poverty as a child, she propelled beyond the hard life to become a billionaire with tremendous influence in business. One of the most intriguing aspects about the entrepreneur is her humble background with her mother as a single teenager. Notably, Oprah started as a young black anchor on a local news network to owning her television show. She gained recognition with the reward of becoming a top presenter of a daytime talk show in the United States. Despite being a black female without any exceptional connections, Oprah ignored the norm and ventured into the entertainment industry. Currently, she is one of the wealthy and influential women entrepreneurs globally.
Importantly, Oprah is an ordinary African American who is influential to young entrepreneurs globally. Her talk show has captured the attention of women viewers based on her inspiration. Although Oprah has amassed personal wealth in her various activities, she has remained humble, inspiring many. According to her, the decision to syndicate her television show nationally resulted in her financial freedom. For that reason, her influence in America and across the world is unrivaled. Significantly, Oprah has not been involved in any financial scandals in her career, unlike other billionaires. She has broken several records throughout her career, resulting in her famous shows. Equally, Oprah has attained record-breaking financial milestones, such as emerging as the first African American billionaire in history.
* The bases of power for Oprah
Leaders, such as Oprah Winfrey, greatly influence their followers based on their outstanding accomplishments. Referent power, legitimate power, reward power, informational power, and coercive power are significant sources of power. In the case of Oprah Winfrey, informational power is one of the bases of her influence towards the followers. She has the capability of inspiring her team, executing a vision, and maintaining mass appeal. The leader can lead and guide others towards the accomplishment of set goals. Besides, reward power is an equally relevant basis of power for the leader. Notably, she offers extra incentives and rewards to encourage others to accomplish set goals. Oprah has sponsored most students in education to ensure that they achieve their set goals.
* How Oprah uses power to Influence Others
Oprah Winfrey has established a personal connection with people in America and other parts of the world through her television shows. She began her broadcasting career at a radio station in Nashville while still in high school. Oprah worked in television news in various cities before coming to Chicago to host a morning talk show. According to Malika and Djihane (2018), the Oprah Winfrey show emerged as one of the highest-rated talk shows in television history after its national syndication in 1986. Through the show, she has developed various connections with her audience, especially women. Oprah Winfrey is a producer, entrepreneur, and the first African American woman to become a billionaire. She is one of the partners in Oxygen Media, which is a cable network for women.
Notably, Oprah has made efforts across South Africa in providing leadership and educational opportunities to girls from low-income families. She has awarded numerous grants to organizations supporting women and children’s empowerment through Oprah Winfrey Foundation (Malika & Djihane, 2018). Besides, Oprah supports vulnerable families across the United States and other parts of the world. As part of her philanthropic efforts, she provides millions of dollars towards providing better education for the needy and intelligent kids who have no other means of education. Significantly, the leader has developed schools to educate the education of underserved students internationally. Oprah’s commitment to education led her to create “The Oprah Winfrey Scholars Program” in providing scholarships to students.
* Negative Impact of Oprah’s Power
Oprah is one of the most famous entrepreneurs across the world. Her popularity results from a message of love, support, and empathy in an alienating society. While she is from a humble background, some individuals and organizations alike can use her experience to pay workers low wages with a message that even Oprah started from a humble background. As a result, such workers can encounter stress and uncertainty while coping with stressful events. Besides, some individuals might develop low self-esteem and even suffer from depression if they fail to attain the set objectives like Oprah. Through her television shows, Oprah mirrors the evolution of her life as a recovery model. She encourages viewers to overcome life issues through building self-esteem. Therefore, if they fail to accomplish set objectives like Oprah, they might develop low self-esteem.
2. Organizational Culture and Diversity
a. A description of company culture to create
Organizations have realized the need to employ staff from diverse ethnic backgrounds to enhance overall productivity and realize the set objectives. As a commercial cleaning company manager that employs staff from various ethnic backgrounds, I would wish to create a culture of diversity. Notably, such a culture and inclusion strategy can help the organization attract top talents towards attaining set objectives (Taylor et al., 2019). One of the strategies of creating a diverse culture would be through the hiring process. It would be imperative to assess the existing diversity to pinpoint the current state of the business and monitor future progress. Notably, goal-setting can be one of the most effective ways of enhancing the company's overall performance.
Besides, it would be imperative to embrace flexible working as a way of enhancing diversity. In such a case, employees would have a chance of working towards their personal goals and those of the organization (Dyachkova et al., 2019). In most instances, employees would prefer working in an organization that allows them to work flexibly through their schedules. Importantly, it would be imperative to embrace the use of modern technology, such as conference call providers, cloud-based services, and emails. The strategy would help attract young talents to enhance increased productivity (Dyachkova et al., 2019). Lastly, an open dialogue would be an effective way of improving productivity. Effective exchange of ideas can be critical towards accomplishing the core aim of having a motivated and produ...
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