Leadership and Change Management

Assignment
Leadership and Change Management (MGT505)

1.
Nissan was already under a huge debt and sincerely required help with a renewed model of
management or collaboration. When Ghosn was officially appointed for the CEO at Nissan,
the first thing he did was to get a detailed overview of the recent condition of the company by
deploying cross-functional teams. It revealed that there were multiple areas that needed to be
refigured and re-establish. The sense of urgency was established when Ghosn used this crisis
of bankruptcy in a common platform of collective effort. He decided to reduce a number of
production plants which would eventually cause termination of jobs for more than 21000
Nissan employees, almost 14% of the production capacity of Nissan (Sudiantha et. al.,2017).
Working in a Japanese automaker firm, Ghosn understood that cultural amalgamation is
something that needs to be implemented in order to evoke a willingness to embrace a change
within the employee culture. He started with meeting the important team members and
discussed about ideas and approaches that can be taken. He also tactfully used the Yamaichi
bankruptcy story to make people aware that life employment is something that is not possible
anymore in Nissan and all of the involved parties have to successfully carry out their job to
save the company.
He used the information collected from the cross-functional teams and made the employees
aware that a simplification of production is imperative at this moment. He also sold
subsidiaries and offered good early retirement plan, opportunities for part time jobs to make
them understand the situation and act immediately without panicking.
2.
In this case, the best leadership theory that can be considered fit for describing Ghosn’s
approach in making change within the company structure is Transformational Leadership
style. One single attribute of Transformational leadership which is very prominent in case of
Ghosn’s leadership style is that he has been constantly accommodating the other teams of the
company to evaluate the crisis. He not only deployed a cross-functional team but also hired
Shiro Nakamura to get involved in car designs that can be more appealing to potential

customers (Toma et. al.,2016). Transformational leaders are always keen for collaborations
and employment motivation which Ghosn did by providing financial support/benefit and
encouragement to the factory employees and the designers. He also took an unexpected
approach by closing off production plan in order to increase quality. transformative
leadership was embraced by Ghosn to manage the transition scenario and the context is best
suited for the overall and general view of a program-oriented approach to change
management and can be a core aspect in effective change management preparation for
Nissan.
3.
Despite all the doubts that initially prevailed while Ghosn was appointed as CEO , he
managed to create a change vision in the internal structure of the company and success.
The Kotter’s 8-step change model talks about creating a vision of change in an organizational
atmosphere. Despite all the doubts that initially prevailed while Ghosn was appointed as
CEO, he managed to create a change vision in the internal structure of the company and
successfully established a shared vision.
The traits and skills that actually helped him garner the support and bring about the change
includes –
Culturally transcended leadership: He was totally devoid of any cultural bias and always tried
to put the employees and organizational agenda ahead of himself and his priorities.
Interpersonal Skills: Ghosn turned out to be an expert intermediator between the two
companies- Nissan and Renault. He not only interacted with the employees but also
encouraged the designers and even convinced Shiro Nakamura to design cars for Nissan as
well (Bird, 2019).
Clear Vision: Ghosn was sincere enough to first evaluate the industry and then implementing
plans according to the need. He introduced a cross functional team for a better understanding
of the crisis, recruited a new designer and also regulated the company owned-dealership by
10% for increasing efficacy. He was even intelligent enough to not reveal the necessary
organizational changes that are going to happen since it had a probability to garner criticism
(Osland et. al.,2019). He thus invested on four fundamental objectives to carry out the