Leadership Theories and Models General Motors Needs to Reflect

LEADERSHIP
Name
Course
Outline
* INTRODUCTION
* Leadership Introduction – A discussion on the leadership of the topic, some of the aspects, and personal arguments on it.
* Case – A discussion of the case of General Motors as outlined by Willy C. Shih in his article, "The Challenges GM is facing, and the Reasoning behind its plant closures," released on 30th November 2018.
* BODY SECTION
* Leadership Problems faced by GM – A discussion of the challenges that have led to the falling of GM as outlined in the article.
* Leadership Theories – An analysis of the five theories of leadership as outlined by various scholars.
* Problem Analysis – An analysis of the problems by GM looking at them from the perspective of the theories.
* CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
* Conclusion - A discussion of the main points analyzed in the essay
* The closing statement.
* Recommendations – Recommendations o actions GM should take to solve the issues they are facing.
* REFERENCES
* Sources from which the arguments from the paper are drawn.
List of Abbreviations
GM – General Motors
 
Introduction
           Leadership is an art, a skill that is put into action when leading people towards achieving a set objective. Leadership is often mistaken for the positions of power. It isn't the position. It is the act. It is a skill that runs from setting objectives, mobilizing people, and resources towards the achievement of funds to the controlling of activities. Some of the critical skills that make good leadership include; honesty and transparency, excellent communication skills, ability to focus towards achievement of set goals, ability to delegate duties and control activities, and commitment towards the realization of set goals. Many challenges face leadership, with most of them being as a result of the leadership position being held by the wrong people who are not equipped with the necessary skills to fill such positions. For this assignment I identified a case of General Motors, an American automotive company.
Why is General Motors failing?
           General Motors (GM), a company founded in 1908, has been performing very well over the past years. The performance was so good to a point the company had employed almost 200,000 people all over the world, making sales of nearly 9 million automotive n 2010. The company is among the giant vehicle producers around the world. In 2018, it ranked number 10 in the Fortune 500 rankings for most significant corporations in the U.S. regarding the revenue made. The performance can be attributed to the increased demand for cars around the world with each passing day. However, the company has not been performing as good as it once did.
           In 2009, the company was forced to seek bankruptcy protection after it suffered a great revenue reduction. It was bailed out by the U.S. government with a $50 billion grant. The government bailed it due to the positive impact that the company had on society e.g., on matters of employment. In 2018, the company was experiencing the same challenges it experienced in 2009. It was forced to close down five of its factories located in North America, which resulted in the loss of 14,000 jobs to the American population. Washington and American media much criticized the move (Shih, 2018). Despite the repercussions of negative publicity, the move was targeted at ensuring that the company would not face bankruptcy.
           Many questions have been asked as to why the automotive company is failing at such a time when the demand for vehicles is so high. Some of that were stated as the cause for the company failing are; competitions where any companies are supplying the high demand for vehicles around the world. The other reason is a shift in preferences for the taste of cars that people want. People want small and mid-size cars, which is not what GM produces. GM produces larger cars; hence, the demand for their cars has gone down. Another challenge that has dramatically affected the company is where it has been facing challenges in the allocation of resources to the production factories with the shifts in the market. The corporation is having problems determining how to allocate resources since it feels the consumers no longer value them.
           Another major challenge is the company's earlier strategies to deal with issues. In the past, GM has notably used bankruptcy claims as a strategy to renegotiate labor terms and agreements. It is such tendencies that are making it hard for the company to find partners with whom they can deal with. In an article written by Willy on 30th November 2018, he states that GM is failing, and the leadership should develop a strategy to salvage the situation while their cash flow still can support them or else they'll respond when it's too late (Shih, 2018).
Management Problems faced by GM
           From the outside, the problems faced by GM can be viewed as just regular business challenges faced by any other business. Well, that is true; however, from a closer look, it is clear that the company is facing a significant challenge in its leadership. Issues like competition and a decrease in demand are common business issues. However, the inability to deal with such problems is solely due to problems in the leadership of a company. Below is a discussion of the leadership challenges identified in the case of General Motors.
a) Resistance to change
From the case, one of the causes of the reduction of sales for GM is because the tastes and preferences of the market have shifted. The company produces large vehicles while the market wants small and mid-size cars. The company hasn't made any attempts to change its production to satisfy consumer needs (Chuang, et al. 2016). Most companies align their creations with consumer needs and want to increase their sales. Consumer satisfaction is the most excellent way of increasing demand for a company's products. The leadership of GM is resistant to this change; hence, one of the causes as to why the company is failing.
b) Low Employee Morale
The company's leadership has lowered the employees' morale. The laying down of about 14,000 employees can be seen as a significant cause of increased negativity on employees' attitudes. The employees knowing that they may lose their jobs anytime won't be as committed as they were before (Boyd, et al. 2017). Reduction in production can also be seen as a significant cause of the decrease in employees' morale in the company. One of the responsibilities in leadership is to promote the confidence of employees. The administration of the company has dramatically failed in this area.
c) Dishonesty
The company has, on several occasions, taken advantage of or used bankruptcy claims to renegotiate labor terms and terminate dealer agreements. It is a dishonest way of doing business since it reduces the costs that should be incurred while doing such. One of the significant attributes of leadership is honesty (Antonakis, et al. 2017). Lack of honesty has placed the company in a wrong position, especially now where it needs to partner with other dealers in the bid to lift its productivity. The lack of honesty is a significant issue that has been identified in the company's leadership.
d) Inability to deal with challenges to face
Another important attribute to leadership is the ability to make decisions and deal with issues that arise (Bower, et al. 2017). The corporation has dramatically failed in this. Instead of figuring out a way that will increase its sales to avoid laying off workers or changing its productions to be in line with market preferences, the company resulted in closing down five factories. The problem the company is facing is that of the inability by its leadership to deal with challenges like competition and reduction in demand it experienced.
e) Poor Management of resources
Another problem that was identified in the case is where the company was facing a challenge in the allocation of resources (McAteer, 2019). The market shifts contributed to this challenge. The leadership of the company was unable to manage resources and assets well to ensure that there was an adequate flow of production material. Poor Management significantly reduced the productivity of the company.
f) Top Management
The company is headed by a female CEO. Theoretically, this cannot be considered as a cause to the failure of the organization. However, on a closer look it can be seen that most of the challenges experienced started when the company hired a female CEO. The failures can be attributed to gender issues like the lack of respect to the CEO compared to what was accorded to former males’ who occupies the office. Women are perceived as weak by some societies hence why it is seen as a disadvantage for companies to have them as the top bosses.
Leadership Theories
                       The Great Man Theory
It was a theory developed under the argument that leadership is a born trait. It suggests that great leaders are not made (Adams, et al. 2018). The method agrees that sometimes, a person can learn to be a leader, but greatness in leadership comes from traits that are only acquired naturally from birth. Learning in the direction as per this theory helps develop or make aware skills that a person already portrays. The approach was adopted at a time when military leadership was reserved only for men (Fischer, et al. 2017). The argument was that males are made leaders by the way they are created. Scholarly researches on this theory seek to identify some of these leadership characteristics that a person is born with.
           The Trait Theory
The theory is built on the effectiveness of leade...