Leadership Styles and Crisis Management in Automobile Firm Report

This report delves into the practical application of leadership principles within an automobile firm facing a crisis stemming from legal issues and subsequent financial difficulties. The analysis begins with a concrete experience of the author, a manufacturing department manager, detailing the implementation of cost-cutting measures that resulted in employee dissatisfaction and potential labor unrest. Through reflective observation, the report examines the emotional and financial impact of these changes on the employees, highlighting their resistance and distress. Abstract conceptualization introduces leadership models, contrasting the management's autocratic approach with the author's transformational leadership style, which emphasized employee engagement and seeking feedback. The report then explores active experimentation, emphasizing the importance of adapting leadership approaches to the specific demands of the situation and the value of effective communication. The conclusion underscores the significance of democratic leadership in resolving conflicts arising from autocratic decisions, advocating for employee involvement in decision-making processes to mitigate resistance and foster a more collaborative work environment.

LEADERS AND LEADERSHIP

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Concrete experience...................................................................................................................3
Reflective observation................................................................................................................3
Abstract conceptualization.........................................................................................................4
Active experimentation..............................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5

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Introduction
Leaders are an important part of business and selection of effective leadership style
helps in managing all other stakeholders. This study is focusing on a situation involving
leadership that has a strong impact on the mind of a leader. All the perspective of that
particular situation is being analyzed and this evaluation c and help in understanding the
experience of leaders in business.
Concrete experience
I have worked as a manufacturing department manager in an automobile firm, which
has faced legal issues for selling faulty car parts last year. This has decreased the reputation
of the firm and created a financial crisis. For managing the situation, the management framed
objectives to reduce operational costs, which impacted on employees' salary and other
benefits. This includes cutting daily wages by 5%, cutting additional bonuses and eliminating
families of employees from medical and insurance facilities. This has created conflict
between employee and management and they resisted the change. They decided to call a
strike, which can impact the firm financially. However, I as a leader described the whole
situation to them that the company is facing and sought ideas from employees regarding
alternative ways to reduce the impact of the financial crisis.
Reflective observation
In the above-mentioned situation, I had felt the situation of employees. They are
earning members of their family and sudden changes in remuneration have forced them to
face financial crisis. The employees were giving their best effort to the company and after the
legal issue, they were asked to compromise in terms of salary. They had failed to secure their

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family member’s health as the company denied to provide medical and insurance facilities to
their family. They were mentally distress and not able to think from the perspective of the
company. Most of them have though to resign from the company to search for a better
employment opportunity that can help them to earn sufficient amount. Being a leader, I have
communicated with them and listened to their problems. It helps me to feel their situation and
the reasons behind their resistance to this sudden change.
Abstract conceptualization
The leaders of management, in this case, has adopted autocratic model, which
explains that leaders can have power and full control over a team. Moreover, this model has
less or no provision of collecting suggestions from followers (Coetsee & Flood, 2017). In this
case, the management should have collected feedback from followers before taking the
decision. Moreover, this behavior has increased resistance and conflict among followers. On
the other hand, I was a leader have adopted transformational leadership to collect suggestions
from employees to bring a change in the firm and eliminate the issue of financial crisis.
Transformational leadership model helps in setting future goals to bring a change (Marshall,
2016). Moreover, democratic model can also be used to describe my behavior in this
conflicting situation as I have engaged them by seeking ideas. If followers are engaged in
decision-making process that increases their satisfaction rate (Herman, 2016).
Understanding these three models has helped me to understand the reason behind the
employees' dissatisfaction. The management of the company has not involved employees in
the process of decision making. As stated by Sweeney, Clarke & Higgs (2019), this aspect
may influence employees to feel that they are not important for the organization. I understood
that I must play the role of a transformational leader in this case to solve this issue. I
understood that autocratic model must be removed from the system to manage employees

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effectively. Leaders must communicate with employees to understand their viewpoints. I
have communicated with them and it has helped me to understand the negative impact of
management's decision on the lifestyle of employees.
Active experimentation
From this exercise, I have learned that leaders need to modify their approach as per
the demands of the situation. I have understood that if a leader respects the opinion of their
subordinates, they can get back respect from their followers. Understanding issues of
followers makes a leader closer to their followers. Sudden changes in the situation can impact
negatively on employers and it causes resistance from their side. I have learned that leaders
must have effective communication skills to solve this kind of issues. Hence, it is clear that
leaders are made as per demand of the situation. They are not born and leadership can be
taught.
Conclusion
From the discussion, it can be said that leadership can occur at all levels of an
organization. The conflicting situation that has occurred due to autocratic decisions of
management can be solved through democratic style of leadership. Resistance increases in
case of autocratic decisions and this conflict can be solved by engaging the followers in
decision-making process.

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Reference list
Coetsee, J., & Flood, P. C. (2017). 8 Leadership models: the future research agenda for HRM.
A Research Agenda for Human Resource Management, 130. Retrieved from:
https://books.google.com/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=Px06DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA130&dq=leadership+models&ots
=GULM0dPaQk&sig=ILAY_A2lX_sgk0V2_EjT0gpImOI
Herman, R. D. (2016). Executive leadership. The Jossey-Bass handbook of nonprofit
leadership and management, 167. Retrieved from:
https://zodml.org/sites/default/files/The_Jossey-
Bass_Handbook_of_Nonprofit_Leadership_and_Management.pdf#page=191
Marshall, R. C. B. (2016). Leadership Models, Processes, and Practices. In Clinical
Informatics Study Guide (pp. 311-341). Springer, Cham. Retrieved from:
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-22753-5_14
Sweeney, A., Clarke, N., & Higgs, M. (2019). Shared leadership in commercial
organizations: A systematic review of definitions, theoretical frameworks and
organizational outcomes. International Journal of Management Reviews, 21(1), 115-
136. Retrieved from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ijmr.12181