Critical Evaluation of Leadership Styles: Boeing Case Study

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership styles, specifically focusing on ethical, authentic, and distributed leadership, using the Boeing company as a case study. The introduction establishes the importance of leadership and sets the stage for an examination of these three leadership styles. The main body delves into the characteristics, strengths, and challenges associated with each style, providing real-world examples. The report then critically evaluates the leadership style employed by Boeing, particularly in the context of the 737 MAX aircraft crisis. This evaluation includes an assessment of the positive and negative elements of the leadership approach, how the situation was handled, and stakeholder perspectives. The report concludes with recommendations for Boeing to improve its leadership practices, emphasizing the need for employee training and adherence to safety standards. The report aims to offer insights into effective leadership strategies and their impact on organizational performance and reputation.

LEADING BUSINESS
ORGANISATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
A. Succinct of Ethical, Authentic and Distributed Leadership...................................................1
B. Critically evaluate the Leadership style used in the Boeing...................................................3
C. Recommendation....................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is a practical skill of a person that includes the ability to lead and guide other
people, teams and overall organization. Leadership most important part of organization and
success of organization is depended on leadership of company. This report is based on case study
of Boeing Aerospace company. Boing is a multinational organization established in year 1916 by
William Boeing. This report is providing succinct of ethical, authentic and distributed leadership
along with leadership styles and various challenges faced by ;person in company. A brief review
is provided on Boeing company which is based on 737 max Aircraft Crash. Broad range of
leadership strategies will be explained in study. Different motivational theories are explained for
leader to maximise potential of organization in market.
MAIN BODY
A. Succinct of Ethical, Authentic and Distributed Leadership
Ethical Leadership
Ethical can be explained as style of leadership and management that includes ethics while
making decisions, setting Goals and boundaries with in working of organization. By making
decisions and developing ideas that are based on core ethical values in organization help the
leadership to inspired employees to do same finally in order to create positive and productive
working Environment. For example Starbucks is considered as one of the most ethical
organization around the globe (Hairon and Goh, 2015). CEO of company Mr. Kevin R. Johnson
has shown best example of what does ethical leadership means. Actions of Starbucks includes
moral values. There were to black guys were sitting in store and waiting for their friend and one
of them asked the staff member to use the wash room. After this one of staff member asked them
to leave store and on denial they called the cops in store to arrest and hauled for suspicious of
trespassing. As CEO of company got this information company has immediately file an apology
on twitter and apart from this Mr. Kevin R. Johanson has personally released a statement later
and called this incident as reprehensible outcome and also expressed deepest apology to the men
who were arrested. He also asked them to pay compensation and doing whatever to make the
things right.
On next day a video was uploaded on official website of Starbucks to make apology to
those men who were arrested at Starbucks store and also the person who called the cops is no
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longer working in Starbucks store (Leroy, and et.al., 2015). CEO has also made a statement in
which he made an apology to the people of Philadelphia by saying “this is not what we are going
to be. Kevin johnson went as far as saying that he hoped to meet the two men in person to offer
face to face apology. This is how he present an example of ethical leadership in front of all word.
Challenges
There are different challenges in ethical leadership style that are-
1. consistency is main challenge in this leadership style (Hoch and et.al., 2018). There are
different rules in organization which are made for efficient working. This leadership style
is not suitable to follow rules.
2. In policy designing it is big trouble to put ethical consideration and company profit
together,
Authentic Leadership
It can be taken as approach to lead a organization or team through honest relationship that
is build on ethical base, with co-workers or team members who give value to the input. It is all
about truthfulness in leadership style. Person who follows authentic leadership style are positive
people and believe in openness.
Google incorporation is a good example of company that follows authentic leadership.
Main concept is about creating positive and effective relationship with company employees
which is based on honesty and truthfulness. Google has provided different example of their
leadership style by taking employee friendly action in company . Leaders of google are always
looking for innovation and changes that are good for employees and leaded by honesty, integrity.
Best things in leadership of google are good employee awareness, lead organization with heart,
co-working, good, transparency and consistency. All this qualities are important for organization
to make the leadership of company efficient employee friendly to create a positive environment
in organization.
Challenges
1. it is difficult for leader to say no to employees sometimes.
2. Decision making is quit difficult in this leadership style.
3. Showing weaknesses can reduce the effectiveness of leader in companny.
Distributed Leadership
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Distributed leadership style is concerned with practices of leadership not on roles and
responsibilities (Regan, Laschinger, and Wong, 2016). This equates with shared, collective and
extended leadership strategy that leads top improve capacity of employees and their tendency to
accept change. This leadership practice is based on mobilising leadership which is depended on
expertise of people in organization.
Facebook is one of the well known organization that works on the distributed leadership
which is designed as per the expertise of people in organization. This leadership style is too good
for creativity and innovation in organization practices. Facebook is known for innovation and
creativity and it also important for company because is key for their success. Leader of Facebook
is Mark Zuckerberg and he believes in distributed leadership because they want to provide best
experience to employees and users by offering more creativity in work (Harris and DeFlaminis,
2016). Power based on expertise allows the employees to be more creative on work place to
generate better output with good working environment.
Challenges
1. Cooperation is big problem in this leadership style because power is distributed and
mobile due to expertise of different people.
2. Balancing control and autonomy is difficult in distributed leadership.
3. Collaboration is also difficult in this type of organization because people develops
tendency to work alone.
4. High interruption also exist in this leadership style.
B. Critically evaluate the Leadership style used in the Boeing
Leadership Style used by Muilenburg
Ethical leadership was the style which was used by Muilenburg in leading operation of
business at Boeing. The Way Dennis has faced and defended the situation of accident has shown
many symptoms of a Ethical leadership. Dennis has shown the trust on employee of Boeing by
saying that Boeing is having the best pool of employee who can overcome the issue faced by an
organization and will serve the quality for which Boeing is well known. Dennis has also taken
initiative by own to improve quality of services offered by Boeing, initiative is the big trait of
Ethical leadership. Dennis has also shown the sympathy toward family member of all people
who have met with an accident (Bedi, Alpaslan, and Green, 2016).
Positive element of Leadership Style
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Ethical Leadership has helped Boeing to build good working environment in
organization, as all an employee in an organization feel comfortable to interact with each other as
there is a good séance of trust among an employee and management of Boeing. Ethical leaders
also has created inclusive environment in an organization, in which opinion of all employee in an
organization is heard but and decision was taken by Dennis (Hoch and et.al., 2018). Ethical
leadership has helped Boeing in following the rules and regulation of the country which has
eventually helped them in building the good goodwill of an organization in market.
Negative element of Leadership Style
Ethical leadership has increased cost of organization as pursuing ethical leader requires to
develop, implement, and maintain a compliance program which meets the mission and vision.
This process has increased cost of an organization. Ethical leadership also over depends on
ability of Dennis to make decision in an organization as ethical leadership ask the good efforts
from Dennis side to influence the work of other in Boeing. As a result all the decision in an
organization is taken by the Dennis only which has slow down the decision making in an
organization.
Situation Dealing
Dennis and Boeing has very comfortably dealt with the aftermath of accident by
publishing the report which explains the reason of accident and Dennis has also shown the way
through which Boeing will be overcoming the same. This will help Boeing in retaining the loyal
customer of Boeing. Dennis has also shown Trust on employee of an organization which will
help Boeing in retaining their employee in tough time also employee are the one who are most
uncertain in calamity situation (Hoch and et.al., 2018). Brand value of Dennis will be adversely
affected by the accident and the report of government as report shows that the Dennis was having
idea of the accident before hand itself. As engineer has warned Dennis in past about the default
but as Dennis was more focused toward the investment and the expansion he has overlooked the
warning given by the engineer in an organization. Government report also shows that Dennis has
reduce the cost of training to reduce the overall cost of the company, this will also go against the
image of great leader of Dennis.
Stake holder view
Their will be mixed perception or the view of the stakeholder toward the way Dennis has
dealt with the situation. Employee and competitor are two category of the stakeholder who will
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be happy about the way Dennis has dealt with the situation as Dennis has shown the trust on
employee of organization by saying “Our team is determined to keep improving on safety in
partnership with the global aerospace industry and broader community”. Competitor will be
happy because they can use the different marketing policy to attract loyal customer of the Boeing
toward their brand as customer of Boeing are uncertain about safety of Boeing aircraft. Investor
and Shareholder are category of the stakeholder who will be most affected by accident and
dealing as it has affected goodwill of Boeing in market and as this category of stakeholder used
to have a monetary interest in an organization functioning, they have to suffer the loss for the
same (Shapiro and Stefkovich, 2016). Government will be another stakeholder who will be
unhappy with the way Dennis has dealt with situation as the government report shows that
Boeing was not working the safety benchmark and this has resulted in loosing the life of many
citizen of country. All the stakeholder will be having different point of view and perception as all
employee used to have different sort of the influence power and interest in functioning of an
organization. This can be better understand with the help of the Stakeholder mapping.
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Reflection
In my thought Dennis should carry on with the position offered by the Boeing, as at the
time of the change Boeing will love to have a leader who have proper idea about the functioning
of an organization. So that change can be implement smoothly in an organization. Carry on with
the position will also help Dennis to prove the worth of the leadership in front of the world,
which will eventually help the Dennis in building the brand value again.
C. Recommendation
As the report of the Government suggest that there are many default in functioning of
Boeing and which has played very crucial role in occurrence of the accident. Boeing has to make
following changes in their functioning.
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Il
lustration 1: Stakeholder mapping
(Source: Stakeholder Mapping, 2018)

Boeing has to make sure that all employee in an organization used to get the training on
regular basis so that they are updated with all sort of the skills and technique to dealt with the
challenges which will be faced in future. As the report of the Government suggest that Boeing
was only giving training to employee who are in specific need of the same, so that cost of the
company can be reduce. As the company is looking to bring changes in an organization
functioning Dennis has to make sure that the proper training is given to all employee in an
organization. This will help Boeing in building the good working environment in an organization
for an employee to work (Regan, Laschinger, and Wong, 2016). This will be not that easy for
the Boeing to implement the change in an organization so the company has to make sure that
proper communication about the benefit of training should be given to all employee in an
organization.
Boeing has to make sure that they take one step at the time in an organization, as the
report suggest that Boeing was focusing more toward the expansion and growth of organization
by investing heavily in market. It has eventually shifted that focused of an organization from the
sole motive of offering the quality of the service to the customer in market. Now Boeing has to
make sure that they are more focused toward the primary activity of an organization. Also for
doing that Dennis has to make sure that there is proper delegation of the work and responsibility
in an organization, so that all an employee have the clarity of mind in an organization (Leroy,
and et.al., 2015). Dennis also has to give the power to the other personal in an organisation to
make a decision as it will help an organization in quicker decision making which will eventually
help an organization in focusing more toward basic goal of the business that is to provide the
best quality of the service to the consumer in market. This change can be applied in Boeing with
the help of proper planning and implementation of work in proper chain.
Another and the most important change which need to be brought by the Boeing in an
organization is that they have to make sure that all the activity which is performed in an
organization is performed in the safe environment. As report released by Government said that
“South Carolina factory, which produces the 787 Dream liner, has been plagued by shoddy
production and weak oversight that have threatened to compromise safety”. The company has to
make sure that the operation of an organization is performed under the proper safety as per the
employment legislation law of the UK (Leroy, and et.al., 2015). The law suggest that it is the
employer responsibility to give the safe environment to the employee of an organization to work
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and also has to make sure that there are safety equipment available for all employee who are
working in the manufacturing sector of the organization. Organization also has to make sure that
employee of the organization is having the proper knowledge about the safety criteria they need
to performed in the process of manufacturing (Shapiro and Stefkovich, 2016).
For applying the following recommendation in an organization, Boeing has to make sure
that proper communication and the trust factor is maintain in the organization so that all the
interested party be happy with the change and help organization in implementing the same.
CONCLUSION
This report is concluding importance of different leadership practices and styles to
improve performance of organization in target market. The case study of 737 Max also has been
evaluated to find problem in leadership style of CEO of Boeing company. Various perspectives
of leadership and motivation techniques has been evaluated to conclude better leadership action
for Boeing CEO. Change management strategies and practices has been evaluated to improve
workplace culture and environment.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Bedi, A., Alpaslan, C. M. and Green, S., 2016. A meta-analytic review of ethical leadership
outcomes and moderators. Journal of Business Ethics. 139(3). pp.517-536.
Freeman, R. E., 2016. Ethical leadership and creating value for stakeholders. In Business ethics:
New challenges for business schools and corporate leaders (pp. 94-109). Routledge.
Hairon, S. and Goh, J. W., 2015. Pursuing the elusive construct of distributed leadership: Is the
search over?. Educational Management Administration & Leadership. 43(5). pp.693-
718.
Harris, A. and DeFlaminis, J., 2016. Distributed leadership in practice: Evidence,
misconceptions and possibilities. Management in Education. 30(4). pp.141-146.
Hoch, J. E. and et.al., 2018. Do ethical, authentic, and servant leadership explain variance above
and beyond transformational leadership? A meta-analysis. Journal of
Management. 44(2). pp.501-529.
Leroy, H. and et.al., 2015. Authentic leadership, authentic followership, basic need satisfaction,
and work role performance: A cross-level study. Journal of management. 41(6).
pp.1677-1697.
Regan, S., Laschinger, H. K. and Wong, C. A., 2016. The influence of empowerment, authentic
leadership, and professional practice environments on nurses’ perceived
interprofessional collaboration. Journal of nursing management. 24(1). pp.E54-E61.
Shah, C. and Gupta, A., 2018. Training and its impact on organization
effectiveness. Sankalpa. 8(1). pp.94-102.
Shapiro, J. P. and Stefkovich, J. A., 2016. Ethical leadership and decision making in education:
Applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. Routledge.
Stakeholder Mapping. 2018 .[ONINE]. Available
through:<https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Stakeholder-analysis-matrix_fig1_328169572>.
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