Essay on Elon Musk (Stile of Leadership) PDF

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Essay on leadership style of Elon Musk...

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FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES INDIVIDUAL COURSEWORK COVERSHEET Coursework Details Module Name and Code (please check front of module handbook)

Leadership MAN3149

Coursework Title

Case Study: Management of Organisational Issues

Date of Submission

12th December 2017

Word Count

2484

Student Details Student Name Programme

International Hospitality Management

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Leadership

“Essay on Leadership Style of Elon Musk”

Word Count: 2484

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Furnham (2005, p.566) argues that the “fundamental task of a leader is to build and maintain a high performing team”. However, in the today’s environment of uncertainty and change it raises the question of how leaders can become successful with the complexity of decisions and trade-offs they will have to make. This essay will analyse charismatic leadership prevalent in Elon Musk’s practice and the liabilities of this leadership style from an ethical perspective. Recommendations will be provided to advise how Musk could have managed the organisational issues. Finally, the author’s leadership abilities will be assessed to evaluate how emotional intelligence and participative leadership would have aided to resolve the situations that Musk failed to manage well. Charismatic leaders are active innovators and entrepreneurs (Conger & Kanungo, 1998), which are the characteristics that can be referred to Elon Musk. Weber (1947) defines charisma as a personality attribute that gives a person supernatural or exceptional powers. House (1977) recognises traits associated with charismatic leadership, such as a tendency to dominate, a strong conviction to the leader’s own believes, a need to influence others, and high self-confidence. It can be argued that Musk possesses these characteristics by being able to oversee many day-to-day operations of his companies, hiring sufficient number of personnel himself, and sometimes undertaking task obligations of other employees (Vance, 2015). As a charismatic leader Musk communicates high performance expectations to the employees. With an emphasis on the collective good and better future, Musk transforms the nature of work by making the company’s goals appear more heroic and meaningful – a trait of charismatic leaders (Bryman et al., 2011). Musk formulates the goal of Tesla as “to exit the fossil fuels era as soon as possible and move to a sustainable energy future” (Yonseienglish, 2016). Similarly, he articulates his mission statement as “to strive for greater collective enlightenment” (Vance, 2015, p.24). Also, Conger & Kanungo (1998) stress the ability of authentic leaders to make followers see their organisational tasks as inseparable from their own self-concepts. For example, Musk sets a deadline and asks employees if they can do the impossible. “And if you say yes, you are not working hard because he [Musk] told you. You are working hard for yourself. You have signed up to do your own work,” a former engineer at SpaceX comments (Vance, 2015, p.233). Nevertheless, many employees state that regardless of the distinctive amount of work they do for the company, quite often they receive no feedback or acknowledgement from their leader upon achieving the set targets (Vance, 2015). Similarly, Shea & Howell (1999) found that employees perform better regardless of situational variables such as task feedback when being exposed to a charismatic leader. Since the evidence from Musk leadership behaviour demonstrates the lack of connection between followers’ values and action, it supports a “dual” theory of charismatic leadership introduced by Boal & Bryson (1988). The theory discusses two types of charismatics visionary and crisis-induced leaders. While visionary charismatics influence followers’ selfconcepts and intrinsic rewards, the latter restore the action-outcome linkage along with a sense of control in followers. Musk can be categorised as a crisis-induced charismatic, since existing resources are often inadequate to achieve the goals he sets. For example, after several trips to Russia and unsuccessful attempts to buy a missile, being on the plane from Moscow Musk decided he could build a rocket himself (Bloomberg, 2015). It illustrates the ability to use unconventional means to exceed the goals set, and how an occurrence of crisis guides the leader’s actions. The fact that SpaceX was the first commercial company to deliver cargo to the International Space Station demonstrates exceptional vision and abilities of Elon Musk (Vance, 2015). Similarly, Trice & Beyer

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(1993) identify extraordinary gifts, presence in crisis, ability to present radical solutions, and transcendent powers as attributes of charismatic leaders. Moreover, Bass (1988) argues that charisma inspires employees during turbulent times. The third failure of a rocket launch could have destructed the whole organisation internally if Musk did not come up with a new plan and radical solutions promptly, which empowered already exhausted employees and made them follow the leader no matter what. Eventually, the crisis resulted in a successful launch of the rocket in a record period (Vance, 2015). Likewise, the exceptional performance of SpaceX employees corresponds with the findings of Rivera (1994) who found that employees’ task achievement rate is highest under the crisis-induced leader. Furthermore, Conger & Kanugo (1998) argue that sensitivity to environmental context is one of the behaviour components of charismatic leaders. Musk demonstrates comprehensive assessment of the environments in which his businesses operate by constantly learning, closely working with engineers to gain an indepth knowledge of a particular industry, which eventually enables to resolve the problems on his own and come up with alternative ideas (Vance, 2015). Elon promotes passionate advocacy and takes a great amount of personal risk by investing all his money to save the companies, demonstrating such qualities of charismatic leaders as trustworthiness and expertise (Conger & Kanungo, 1998). As a result, such traits of charismatic leaders as the exemplary acts of heroism, unconventional practices, promotion of personal power based on expertise and innovativeness (Yukl, 2010) make Musk one of the most admired leaders of all times (Morris, 2016). However, there is a negative side of charismatic leadership that can be observed in the leadership style of Musk. Conger & Kanugo (1998) argue that charismatic leaders can be prone to extreme narcissism, the dark side of which is the leader’s exaggerated behaviours and lost touch with reality. When Musk claimed that he had designed the Falcon rocket himself, it negatively affected the morale and productivity of the engineering department (Gromov, 2017). Additionally, employees accuse Musk of ignoring the viewpoints of others. Hence, a disagreement between Musk and other cofounders of PayPal resulted in Musk being fired (Weinbeiger, 2017). Negative charismatics tend to emphasise a devotion to themselves over their mission. For instance, Musk often takes on a lot of communications departments’ work of Tesla and SpaceX himself, when he disagrees with the decisions made (Vance, 2015). Such controlling management style puts employees under constant pressure and reduces commitment within the team (Ejimabo, 2015). Another example is Musk firing his loyal assistant after she asked to be considered for compensation. After that Musk offered her a paid vacation and took over her job for that period; later Musk acknowledged her of being fired, as he did not need her anymore (Vance, 2015, p.341). Therefore, Musk’s strategy to influence his employees is based on control, rather than empowerment, leading to the discussion of ethical underpinnings of his actions. Yukl (2010) argues that such traits as high narcissism and a personalised power orientation facilitate unethical leadership. When looking at the ethical aspect of Musk leadership style, it is crucial to distinguish what the leader says in public from the actual influence his actions have on followers and stakeholders. Whereas the statements a leader makes shape his public perception, the latter determines whether the leader acts in a truly ethical way (Downe et al., 2016). On one hand, Musk’s announcements promote humanity and his willingness to change the world for the better future (TED, 2017). On the other hand, there is a different side of his management and leadership style within the

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organisations. Howell & Avolio (1992) argue that unethical charismatics use power in dominant and authoritarian ways to manipulate others for their own purposes. One former employee says that people who worked for Musk were “used for a specific purpose until exhausted and discarded” (Vance, 2015, p.340). The incident when Musk denied that he had criticized an employee for missing work to witness his childbirth raises uncertainty and demonstrates a one-way communication style, insensitiveness, and unresponsiveness to followers’ needs, which are characteristic of unethical leaders (Blair et al., 2017). Therefore, it may be stated that Musk adept at managing his public impression and presents his actions more feasible and appealing than they are in reality, which corresponds to moral standards of unethical charismatics (Bryman et al., 2011). Moreover, Musk lacks the ability to respect others, and he is intolerant of opposing points of view. Musk sees his personal vision as the only way for his companies to succeed, demonstrating the inability to accept stakeholders’ opinions and criticism and unwillingness to involve any other parties in the decision-making process, which represents attributes of unethical leaders (Blair et al., 2017). Nevertheless, employees perceive such abusive behaviour as part of the Mars agenda and remain loyal out of respect for their leader’s drive and mission (Vance, 2015). Likewise, Yukl (2010) argues that followers’ belief in the necessity of a strong position power of the leader facilitates unethical leadership. Whereas leader-follower relationship is central to ethical leadership (Ho & Lin, 2016), Musk lacks responsiveness to the interests and desires of his followers. Therefore, the evidence shows that Musk does not act in a way that is coherent with the organisation’s values and beliefs, which should be the core responsibility of an ethical leader (Stefkovich & Begley, 2007). However, the positive side of narcissism may facilitate productivity and overall business performance (Wales et al ., 2013). Hence, it can be argued that the success of Tesla and SpaceX has been earned at the expense of harsh treatment of employees and the culture of the organisations. Therefore, it is crucial to discuss other concepts of leadership, which may help to manage the tradeoffs of Musk leadership style. From a personal perspective, Musk should pay more attention to developing the level of Emotional Intelligence (EI) - the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions in the self and others (McCleskey, 2014). According to Goleman (1995), there are five components of EI, including self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. First of all, Musk needs to realise the negative effect of his authoritarian style, and change his approach of undertaking responsibilities of other people and changing their work without any discussion. Eventually, it can prevent the confusion among employees and conflicts within the organisations. Secondly, Musk should improve his selfregulation and learn how to control his emotions, so that the verbal abuse of employees is prevented. Moreover, Musk needs to understand that his employees may have capabilities different from his own and not everyone can keep up with his pace. For instance, Musk should be more careful with setting overly optimistic deadlines for the workers, so that the delays in production would not affect the customers who paid for the product. Also, by showing empathy to his followers, Musk could learn to consider other people’s needs and address their emotions sufficiently. As a result, it would lead to increased productivity and commitment within the organisations, as well as decrease employees’ turnover rate. From an organisational viewpoint, Musk leadership practices can be criticised from the perspective of style approach, which focuses on the behaviour of the leader (Northouse, 2013). According to the Leadership Grid introduced by Blake and McCanse (1991), which is used to define the leader’s unique set of assumptions to achieve organisation purpose

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by identifying the relationship between the leader’s concern for production and people. The evidence from the analysis of Musk’s behaviour places his leadership style in the “authority-compliance” corner of the Grid, meaning the leader’s high concern for production and low concern for employees. The disadvantage of this approach is the underlying assumption of an inherent contradiction between the two, thus necessarily sacrifice. To change his management style Musk should strive moving towards a “team management” style with high concern for production and high concern for people. Such practice would enable to balance the inputs in terms unethical treatment of staff and the outputs of the productivity and effectiveness of the organisations. A “team management” style can be achieved through telling others what Musk is trying to do, providing feedback to his employees and paying attention to their thoughts and critique. In terms of conflict solving, Musk should confront and work the conflict through, rather than suppressing it. Also, incorporating sound ideas of employees and developing skills of active listening can be advised to improve the quality of decision-making. As a result, even greater productivity can be achieved through rethinking the basic assumptions about how to work with others. Tests and questionnaires have been used as tools to assess the author’s personal abilities and management style. Firstly, a test by Global Leadership Foundation (2014) has enabled to identify the level of the author’s EI as high. Therefore, the author’s sufficient degree of the EI clusters including self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness, and relationship management could help to balance the flaws of Musk’s leadership style that initiated unethical practices. With the improved ability of self-awareness Musk would be able to recognise the impact of his emotions on the relationships and the performance of staff, as well as to critically reflect on himself. A self-management capability would enable Elon to keep disruptive emotions and impulses under control. The empathy component of the social-awareness cluster would facilitate Musk’s concern and understanding of others. Finally, the relationship management ability would help Musk to become better in conflict management, and improve teamwork and collaboration within the organisations. Secondly, a questionnaire based on Lewin’s Leadership Styles framework has aided to determine the author’s leadership style as participative (Mind Tools, 2017). Participative leadership involves efforts by a leader to encourage and facilitate participation by others in making important decisions (Yukl, 2010). Therefore, by implementing participative management approach Musk could rely more on the talented employees he had hired and involve them in decisions making processes. As a result, the quality of decisions within the organisations could be increased with the flow of extra knowledge and information. Furthermore, a movement from the autocratic decision style toward participate procedures in departments, such as communications, would facilitate commitment within the team. Additionally, by using participative management style Musk would facilitate conflict resolution and empowerment of employees. Finally, such practices would increase followers’ satisfaction with the decision process, perceived dignity and respect of their leader (Yukl, 2010). Based on the analysis of Musk leadership style, it can be concluded that the adoption of charismatic leadership style is reflected in the leader’s ability to successfully manage multiple businesses in the different industries. Being an inspirational leader, Musk also demonstrated liabilities of his charismatic leadership style such as narcissism, which lead to unethical practices. Due to a low level of EI and “authority-compliance” management style, Musk was not able to achieve the balance between simultaneous management of different companies and individualised consideration of the employees. The adoption of “team management” leadership style and increasing the level of EI were advised to

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eliminate the disregard of opposing viewpoints, lack of empathy, verbal abuse of employees, and disruptive management style. Additionally, the reflection on the author’s leadership style was undertaken, and determined that participative leadership style would facilitate the resolution of the issues that Musk confronted, and further benefit the organisational performance.

References

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Bass, B.M. (1988) “The inspirational processes of leadership”, Journal of Management Development, vol. 5, pp.21-31. Blair, C., Helland, K. & Walton, B. (2017) "Leaders behaving badly: the relationship between narcissism and unethical leadership", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 38 (2), pp.333-346. Blake, R.R. & McCanse, A.A. (1991) Leadership Dilemmas - Grid Solutions, Houston: Gulf Publishing Company. Bloomberg (2015) Elon Musk’s Space Dream Almost Killed Tesla. [Online] Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-elon-musk-spacex/ Accessed: 7th December 2017. Boal, K.B. & Bryson, J.M. (1988) Charisma...