Evaluating Leadership and its Implications at Ford Motors

This report provides an analysis of authentic leadership and its implications within Ford Motors, a multinational automaker. It explores the role of leadership in influencing and motivating employees, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. The report evaluates various leadership theories, including the Great Man theory, Trait theory, Contingency theory, Situational theory, and Behavioral theory, and their contribution to leadership development. Different leadership styles, such as Authoritative, Democratic, and Affiliative, are examined in relation to the Ford Motors environment. The report also discusses the importance of communication, influence, motivation, empathy, honesty, purposeful strategy, and providing support as key aspects of effective leadership. It emphasizes how leaders at Ford Motors have adapted their strategies to address the challenges posed by the pandemic, focusing on employee well-being and maintaining productivity.

Authentic leadership

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Information on role of leadership in the company....................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
Critically evaluate the contribution of theories, concepts, practice and research relating to
leadership and its development.................................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
Apply a range of theoretical and research-based contributions to the problems of leadership
and its implications...................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Authentic leadership is a process that helps in developing more self awareness and self regulated
positive behaviour from leaders as well as from associates side. It can be developed with the help
of positive psychological aspects as well as with the help of highly developed organization and
its structure. This process will help in fostering positive self development. Their is a long
discussion on the topic of whether leaders are born or made but their are lots of examples and
situation which has described that leaders can be made with high quality of education and with a
personality that can influence others. In context to Ford Motors, it is an American Multinational
automaker which was incorporated in the year 1903. the company was founded by Henry Ford
and is headquartered in Dearborn Michigan. The company is still controlled by the Ford Family.
Ford is the fifth largest automaker in the world and are serving their products and services
worldwide. The products that the company have are automobiles, luxury vehicles, commercial
vehicles, etc. In the given report, leadership and its theories have been discussed. Also the
approaches of leadership are provided. In the given report leadership and its implications are also
given on the basis of situations.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
Information on role of leadership in the company
Leaders are the one who have the capability to influence and motivate the employees in the
companies and to help them in achieving their objectives. Leaders are the one who sometimes
have to make sound and sometimes difficult decisions as these decisions have the direct impact
on the success of the companies. Ford Motor is the biggest automaker company which sells the
commercial vehicles and mostly the luxury vehicles in the market. The company have introduced
the manufacturing of cars which also includes the management of the workforce and the
management also involves the role of leader which helps in effective working. With the coming
of COVID-19 crisis the management of every company have been changed and with the style
and the work which the leaders were doing has also been changed.
Features of Leadership-
 Communication- The leaders includes the feature of having good communication skills
as this helps them to provide the guidance to the employees regarding how the work has

to be conducted and processed. But with the coming of COVID-19 situation this
communication needs to be more clear and transparent. The communication needs to be
in sync within the company so that employees in Ford Motors do not face any issue.
 Influence- Leaders are considered to be that personality which influences the other
person with their words and statement which they express. Now a days as the pandemic
has hit in every country the role of leaders have also become important to make the
employees make work and develop the capability. Ford Motor leaders have developed
this thing to make the employees back to work while influencing their behaviour.
 Continuous process- The role of leadership is the continuous and pervasive at all levels
because the motivation is required by every employee to work hard for the goal
accomplishment. The importance of leaders have been become important in today’s time
due to the pandemic to provide the employees motivation
Role of leadership-
 Helps in creating vision- The leaders are the one which provides the vision to both the
employees, their team and also provides the vision to the companies also. They helps the
company in providing the idea as to how they have to move and what ideas they have to
adopt to get the success and gain competitive advantage in the market. Ford Motor
leaders always aim high and their main approach is to provide the success by motivating
the employees to work hard for the accomplishment of the objectives. But with the
coming of COVID- 19 crisis the whole management has been changed and the leaders
have to work with different idea and vision to work for the success of the company. As
the Ford Motor is the biggest company for manufacturing the cars it becomes utmost
important to influence and motivate the employees to work with that consistency and
with dedication.
 Motivation- Leaders are considered to be the most important asset of the company and
they help in providing the motivation to the employees to work towards the
accomplishment of the goals of the company. They motivate the employees in variety of
ways which includes the rewards and many other things. Ford Motors leaders have
always adopted the best strategy to provide motivation to individuals. The leaders at the
present time of pandemic are also helping the employees in providing them the

motivation for the work. They have provided the employees that when the team will work
together then the results will work great.
 Empathy- The leaders have the main and the important role of showing empathy to the
people who are working and also considering their things and facts while working. The
current COVID-19 pandemic has lead to many delayed projects as the employees have to
work from home. There are many situations which the employee might have to face at
home and at that time leaders were the one who have considered all the facts and
understand their problems which the employees were suffering. The main aim of the
leaders in Ford Motors company is not just to make them feel workable but also support
them in every situations.
 Considering honesty with the employees- Employees at earlier time were not adopting
honesty with the other people which were working in the same team. But the time which
has come across has made it important for the companies and the employees to make
everything in a transparent form. The leaders have developed the work culture in which
they know that honesty and transparency will be helpful in managing the difficult phase.
The leaders in the Ford Motors are working hard and assuring that honesty in the work
culture is developed.
 Purposeful strategy- The role of leaders in the present time have been increased and the
employees are at present time are working hard for the goals of the company. The
strategy which was adopted at the earlier time has now been changed and the leaders are
the one who have the main role for establishing the strategy and fulfilling it. Ford Motors
have adopted the different strategy for the effective management and the leaders have
taken the different approach for following the policies which has been formulated in
accomplishing the objectives. These strategy is developed so that employees does not
face any issue and the aim of the company can be achieved.
 Providing support- Leaders have the responsibility of providing the support to the
individuals so that they can aim for the working towards the goals. Ford Motors is the
biggest company and so the management also requires good support to work effectively.
Leaders in the present time of COVID-19 pandemic are supporting the employees so that
if they get distracted with anything leaders can provide them the support. Leaders have

helped the employees of Ford Motors to work with great effectiveness in the time of
current pandemic.
TASK 2
Critically evaluate the contribution of theories, concepts, practice and research relating to
leadership and its development
Leader is an individual that can influence other in order to move them towards a specific goals
and objective. Development of good leadership skills is a never ending process which an
individual have to go through in order to become effective and efficient leader (Aboramadan and
et. al., 2021). It is important for an individual to make sure that they learn from their experiences
in order to become an efficient leader.
Theories of leadership
Great man theory: The theory states that leaders are born and not made. It refers to the theory
that is providing basis for the leadership and leaders traits. According to the theory the leader are
born with right traits, skills and abilities which helps them in fulfilling their leadership roles and
will make sure that these people can influence other. Those trait are Charisma, communication
skills, confidence, social skills, etc. It defines leaders as mythic, valiant, ordained in the different
situation that requires leadership.
Trait theory: The theory is based on the characteristics of different leaders and try to find
similarities in order to identify the traits that a leader must have. The theory tries to analyse all
the different characteristics of leaders from different perspectives (Arasli and et. al., 2019.). The
focus of the study is on different attributes such as physiological (appearance, height, weight,
etc), demographics (education, age, family background, etc), intelligence, judgement, decision
making, knowledge.
Contingency theory: The theory focuses on different situations and try to analyse the best
possible style of leadership that can suit that situation and can find solutions for that situation.
The principle behind this theory is that no specific leadership style can be applicable to all the
situations. According to famous researchers, the best leadership style is the one that can find
perfect balance between needs, behaviour and context. The theory states that a good leader is the
one that can analyse the needs of their follower and ca evaluate the situation in hand.

Situational theory: The theory believes in that fact that their is no perfect leadership style that
can fit all the situations perfectly. Real leader is the one who can handle all the situations
irrespective of the style they follow (du Plessis and et. al., 2018.). The leadership is dependent on
the situation that comes in front of leaders. As the environment of the company is always
changing and in order to cope with those dynamic situations the leader needs to have the
characteristics that the situation requires.
Behavioral theory: The theory focuses n the behaviour and attitude of the leader rather than the
characteristics and the traits that they posses. The theory states that one can learn the skills in
order to become an effective leader no matter what the characteristics and traits that they
possess. This theory believes that leaders cannot always be born but can be made with the help of
proper training and education which can enhance the behaviour of an individual.
Leadership styles
Their are different leadership styles that are followed by leaders according to their personality
traits or according to the demand of the situation or of the workplace environment (Imam and et.
al., 2020.). The different leadership styles that are followed by companies are given. In context to
Ford motors, the leadership styles that the leaders of the company are as follows:
Authoritative style: This style of leadership is a “visionary” or “follow me” kind of leadership
where the leader gives instruction to the followers and clear his or her expectations from the
results. These are generally very confident types of leaders who know about the situation and
believe that they can handle it.
Democratic style: They are the leaders that ask their followers about the situation and listen to
the ideas of the follower. They share the information about the task to the employees and
encourage them to take part in decision making process. It will not only boost the motivation of
the employees but will also increase the productivity of the employees. They tends to promote
team spirit and engender trust and cooperation from employees (Kim, M.J. and Han, J.Y., 2019.).
They take opinion of employees before making any final decision and make sure that the
employees are satisfied with the decision of the leader.
Affiliative style: This style of leadership starts with the phase of “people comes first”. this is the
type if leadership where leaders connect to the team member on professional as well as personal
level in order to make sure that they understand the emotional needs of their team members and

support them as and when needed. This type of leadership helps the leaders in encouraging
harmony and form a collective relationship in between the members of the team.
Approaches to the study of leadership
Person oriented approach: This approach states that a person in order to become a good leader
must poses some traits that can help them in handling situations. This approach supports the
statement the leaders are born and not made (Landesz, T., 2018.). In this approach a leader must
posses charismatic qualities. Charisma is connected with the leadership style that exercise more
of power than authority.
Situation oriented approach: This approach states that the leadership depends up on the
existing environmental factors the situation. It states that leadership depends on the basis of
certain factors such as the leader himself, the existing situation, the followers of the leader, etc.
In context to Ford Motors, the leaders of the company uses situational analysis as it provides
flexible options, opportunities and ideas to the practising leaders about the solutions that can be
helpful in a certain situation.
Group oriented approach: This approach is an extension of situational approach. In this
approach the effectiveness of the leadership is measured by the performance of the group while
achieving a specific goal or objective. It also states the role of the leader in the group in the given
point of time during the tasks of the group (Malik, N., 2018.). Some of the qualities that the
leader poses according to this approach is opinion seeker, collaborator, coordinator, initiator,
information seeker, encouraging, harmonizer, aggressor, etc. This approach view the
performance or act of the leader on a given period of time in a group in order to define and judge
the performance of the leader.
TASK 3
Apply a range of theoretical and research-based contributions to the problems of leadership and
its implications
Conflict management is one of the main task that the leaders have to perform on almost daily
basis. Conflicts can disturb the environment of the workplace and can spread negativity in the
management of the company. It is important for the leaders to make sure that the conflicts arising
within the workplace and within team are resolved efficiently and effectively as conflicts can
affect the motivation and productivity of employees in a negative ways which is not good (Munir

and et. al., 2019.). In context to Ford motors, the leaders of the company makes sure that all the
conflicts within the organization are solved in real time and the conflicts does not affect the
management of the company. The company knows that the management of conflicts can be
tricky especially when the ecosystem of the organization is large so they provide training to their
leaders in order to provide them an effective way of handling conflicts that occurs within the
organization. Some of the ways are given below:
Right timing: Some employees in an organization have a habit of creating unnecessary conflicts
within the organization. It is important for the leaders to make sure that they avoid such type of
deliberate conflicts and must take action when they have a strong proof against the problem
maker. It is important for the leaders to make sure that they distinguish between the genuine
conflicts and deliberate conflicts (Niu and et. al., 2018.). It can help the leaders in maintaining a
positive environment in the workplace.
Know the boundaries: It is important for leaders to create a boundary and make sure that the
team members know about these boundaries so that they have their conflicts within those limits
and do not cross the boundaries that can affect the entire environment of the workplace. Every
leader have different way of dealing with the conflicts and the leader must know when to
interfere in the conflict and when to ignore the conflict and leave them on the employees
themselves.
Respect differences: The leader must have a knowledge about the fact that every person have
different perspective about different situations and it might be very difficult to come at a
decision. At that point of time instead of using the powers of the leader the leader must respect
the view point of others and make sure that they listen to the point of view of others as well
(Shahzad and et. al., 2020.). The leaders must consider the view point of both the parties
involved in conflict before coming on to a decision. It will help the leader in building trust within
the teams and in encouraging team spirit.
Confront the tension: The leaders must confront the conflict and do not ignore them by thinking
that it is useless to interfere. It can increase the tension between the team and can also increase
the conflict and can create a larger issue of the small matters. Conflicts if not confronted can also
affect the performance of the employees and can decrease the productivity of employees by
discouraging them and by creating a negative environment within the organization which can
demotivate the employees and will also hinder their growth (Vásquez, C., 2021.). The company

will not be able to retain talented employees and will also not be able to attract talent in the
organization because of poor management of conflicts as it can badly affect the reputation of the
company.

CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that the company needs to make sure that they have
effective and efficient leaders which can help the company in directing their workforce in the
correct direction and can help the company in achieving their goals and objectives which is
necessary for an organization. The leader must be capable of influencing the workforce of the
company and must be able to align the goals of employees with the goals of the company. It will
help the company in increasing productivity of the employees and will also help the company in
attracting right talent in the organization which is essential for the growth of the company.

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