BX3174 - Leadership: A Comparison of Automotive and Retail Industries

This report provides a comparative analysis of leadership styles in the automotive and retail industries, focusing on Ford (automotive) and BWS (retail). The automotive industry is characterized by autocratic leadership, while the retail industry exhibits bureaucratic leadership. The report identifies key issues in both industries, such as employee dissatisfaction and the need for agile decision-making in retail, and the gap between leadership style and employee expectations in the automotive sector. Similarities between the companies include employee dissatisfaction. The report recommends the use of transformational leadership to address these issues and improve employee satisfaction and decision-making processes. The conclusion emphasizes that the current leadership styles lack modernity, and a modified autocratic leadership style, as implemented by Mulally at Ford, can be beneficial. Desklib offers a variety of solved assignments and past papers to aid students in their studies.

Introduction
Leadership is the deciding
factor of an industry for the
success of the businesses
operation. The success and
growth of an industry is
directly related to the
efficiency of the leadership.
Leadership can be of multiple
type, however, efficiency is a
matter of question and
industry specific.
Automotive and Retail industry
is compared in the study. The
organizations selected under
each industry are Ford and
BWS respectively
Industry Background
Retail stores are of high
volume. The products sold
considerably vary and
represents complexity.
Leadership reflected in the
industry is of bureaucratic type.
Work efficiency is high in this
type of leadership.
Automotive industry focuses a
small segment of the society.
Types of produced vehicle by
the industry varies. However,
particular organization focuses
in a single or multiple types.
The target segment thus
remains similar around the
world. The leadership
dominates the industry is of
autocratic type
Leadership
Comparison
Retail (Bureaucratic)
•Bureaucratic Leadership
•Follows prescribed guideline
•Offers little consideration for
well-being of the employees
•Little involvement of the
employees in decision-making
Key Issues
Retail
•Agile decision-making is absent
•Continuous evolution of the retail industry
•Changing Customer Behaviour
•Employee dissatisfaction
Lack of motivation in the bureaucratic
leadership style
Automotive
•Gap between leadership style and the
continuous changing generation of
employees of the industry leading to
employee dissatisfaction
•Companies are partnering for achieving
success that is leading to the loss of control
over the technology
•Technological innovation and customer
demographics, customer habits, and
technological advancement.
•Increasing digital evolution
•Lack of innovative ideas to deal with
current situation
Leadership Comparison –
Organization
BSW
•Bureaucratic leadership
•Helpful in value creation and
operation management
•Employee dissatisfaction
Acknowledgement
The report is the outcome
of the efforts of the
following people
Automotive (Autocratic)
•Autocratic Leadership
•Decision making is restricted
to leaders only
•Low employee satisfaction
•Restricted in flow of ideas
Ford
•Autocratic leadership
•communication flow of vision
•Leadership is communicated
with the employee
•The win-win mindset and
approach in relationship while
partnering with other
companies.
•The strong positivism to
motivate the employees
Result oriented leadership to
attain maximum benefit.
Differences
Bureaucratic leadership of BMS
has negative impact on its
employees and they tend to get
de-motivated.
Whereas the autocratic
leadership of Ford has negative
implication. Mulally is the
decision maker of the company.
No other’s opinion is taken into
account that is crucial for the
current situation of the market.
Moreover, BWS decisions are
ruled out and hardly deviate in
any cases.
L e a d e r s h i p – A c o m p a r a t i v e A n a l y s i s
References
foxbusiness.com. (2017). Alan Mulally and Ford Retrieved 11 October 2017, from
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/01/22/7-practices-alan-mulally-that-helped-ford-pass-competitors.html
woolworthsgroup.com.au. (2017). BWS. Retrieved 11 October 2017, from https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us/our-brands/liquor/BWS
Arumugam, V. C., Mojtahedzadeh, R., & Malarvizhi, C. A. (2011). Critical success factors of total quality management and their impact on performance of Iranian Automotive
Industry. In International conference on innovation, management and service(Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 312-316).
Chemers, M. (2014). An integrative theory of leadership. Psychology Press.
Recommendation
Use of transformational
Leadership for both the
companies
BSW Retails
•Address employee needs and
increase satisfaction
•Communicate their thought to
the followers and consider their
opinion in decision-making
•Employee involvement
•Agile decision making
Ford
•Involvement of employee in
decision-making
•Inclusion of technical team in
the board for accessing
innovative idea
•Inclusion of financial team in
he decision making
Conclusion
The leadership used by both the industry lacks modernity.
However, the modified autocratic leadership style implemented
by Mulally proves to be useful for the company. The
recommended autocratic leadership can improve the
highlighted issues
Similarities
The only similarity that is possible to find between the
leadership of the organizations is the employee dissatisfaction
is present in both the companies.