Case Study: Ibuka and Morita's Leadership and Sony's Development

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the leadership competencies of Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita, the founders of Sony, and their contributions to the company's success. It examines their unique blend of innovation, marketing savvy, and emotional governance, which helped establish Sony as a global organization. The report identifies Ibuka as a practical visionary and Morita as a media-focused communicator, highlighting their complementary skills and charismatic leadership qualities. It also explores how their confidence, determination, and positive communication styles contributed to Sony's competitive advantage. Furthermore, the report delves into the elements of transformational leadership, including intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, inspirational motivation, and idealized influence, demonstrating how these principles were embodied by Ibuka and Morita in managing and growing Sony. The conclusion emphasizes their innovative activities and consistent product development as key factors in Sony's success.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Answer to Question 1.................................................................................................................2
Answer to Question 2.................................................................................................................4
Answer to Question 3.................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The report helps in the overall analysis of the different leadership competencies of
Ibuka and Morita. Furthermore, the different reasons are required to be analysed of Ibuka and
Morita becoming the charismatic leaders. The different elements of the transformational
leadership are required to be identified effectively which will be helpful in managing the
different activities of the transformational leadership in an effective manner which will be
helpful in analysing the case study effectively.
Answer to Question 1
There are different kinds of leadership competencies of Ibuka and Morita which are
required to be analysed in an effective manner in order to understand and analyse their
contributions towards the preparation of Sony Company (Bolman and Deal 2017). In order to
understand Sony, this is essential to understand the leadership competencies of both of the
partners and founders. Even though both of the leaders are gone now and they are not among
us, this can be identified that the contribution, executive type of dynasty and emotional
governance helped in establishing model for Sony in the present scenario (Heifetz and Linsky
2017).
Both the leaders tried to complement one another with proper and unique blend of the
innovation of the product along with marketing savvy. These helped them in forming a
company which eventually grew in one of the global organizations in the present scenario.
Firstly, this can be identified that Ibuka was one of the practical visionaries who had the
proper knowledge of analysing the proper usage of the different products and services in the
day to day life. Moreover, Ibuka tried to inspire the different engineers working in the

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organization with proper sense of innovation which encouraged them in working with more
motivation.
Ibuka tried in fostering exciting kind of work atmosphere along with corporate culture
which is open-minded in nature and this helped him in managing the different activities
effectively. Ibuka tried to create a proper and satisfied work environment which helped in
managing the different activities in an efficient manner. The main aspect of Ibuka was to
provide proper job satisfaction to the different employees along with having the desire to
create dynamic and fun kind of work environment which is helpful in managing the overall
efficiency in an appropriate manner.
On the other hand, Morita who was the other founder of Sony, this can be analysed
that there are different other leadership competencies which was different from Ibuka. Morita
was less and emotional engineer and he was an amateur and there were no such mistakes
made by him while performing the different activities in the organization. Morita loved the
gadgetry aspect as Morita was much more concerned relating to the media which too played a
major role in managing the different activities in an effective manner. Ibuka and Morita, both
the founders of Sony were potential kinds of communicators which helped them in managing
the different activities efficiently (Li and Karam 2017).
From the above leadership competencies of Ibuka and Morita, this can be analysed
that both of them were passionate about the different kinds of activities which were
performed by them and this helped them in gaining competitive advantage in the market
effectively. Ibuka was the paradigmatic leader of the post-Japan-War. Akio Morita was one
of the visionaries and he tried to expand the organization across the entire world with the
partnership of Ibuka. He was the epitome of innovation wherein he tried to innovate the

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different kinds of aspects which helped the company in reaching to new and greater heights
effectively.
Answer to Question 2
There are different kinds of qualities of the charismatic leaders which are helpful in
managing the organization in an effective manner. The communication, confidence, listening
skills along with the positive body language are the different aspects of the charismatic
leaders which helps the organization in performing successfully without much issues. The
charismatic leaders try to make the status quo better and this helps them in managing the
different aspects and activities in an effective manner. From the above case study scenario,
this can be analysed that both Morita and Ibuka are the one who tried in forming partnership
and there were different complementary skills (Meuser et al. 2016).
Furthermore, in the case study this can be seen that both of them contributed to the
unique spirit of Sony by taking the overall Japanese Company in the usual directions for the
time, creating the different products rather than copying the Western technology. Ibuka was
mainly focused on the overall development of the different kinds of new products and
technologies. Both of them tried to motivate the different individuals in which this will be
helpful in managing the overall efficiency of the firm in an appropriate manner (Storey,
2016).
Both the partners had the confidence which helped them in managing the overall
effectiveness of the firm in a positive and appropriate manner (Teiwes 2017). Akio Morita
had proper technical skills and this enabled him in analysing the potential new markets which
was a characteristics of genius inventor and this was the major charismatic skill of the leader
in managing the different activities in an appropriate manner.

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Moreover, Morita is the charismatic leader as this can be seen that he is determined in
nature in establishing the Sony Brand. The determination is the other skill which has helped
in managing the overall effectiveness of the company (Menges et al. 2015). The positive
body language of both the partners helped them in managing the different activities of Sony
and this helped in managing the different activities in a dynamic manner. Morita tries to think
of the situation wherein he tried to decide upon the course of action along with analysing the
matter which will be beneficial for managing the overall scenario in an efficient manner.
On the other hand, Ibuka was the other founder and partner of Morita who tried to
solve the different issues related to handling of the different practical matters in an effective
manner. Ibuka was too organized and communication skills was strong in managing the
different kinds of activities of the Sony and this helped them in making the overall venture
successful (Shamir, Arthur and House2018). However, as a leader, there was lack of warmth
in Morita and this affected the energy level, however on the other hand, Ibuka had the proper
leadership and proper level of energy which made a good combination in completing the
venture successfully without much issues in a proper manner (Sy, Horton and Riggio 2018).
From the above scenario, this can be analysed that both the leaders were charismatic
leaders as the communication skills, determination towards completion of the project along
with positive sense of completion of the project are the different aspects which were helpful
for them in making the venture of Sony successful and they made profit from the same as
well.
Answer to Question 3
There are different kinds of elements of the transformational leadership which are
required to be considered in an effective manner in order to make the leadership effective in
nature. The elements are discussed as follows:

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Intellectual Stimulation- This is one of major advocacies of the transformational
leadership wherein the leaders have to analyse and encounter the current culture of the
organization (Tourish 2014). This will help them in finding different ways which help them
in determining the different techniques in improving the practices along with the different
procedures of the organization in an effective manner. The transformational leaders try to
analyse the situation and identify the different roles of the employees in fostering creativity
which will increase the different new avenues for learning in an effective manner.
Individualized Consideration- The transformational leaders tries to create open
communication aspect among the different employees in the organization within the different
teams working in the organization (Renz 2016). This is helpful in providing proper feedback
to the different individuals regarding the different issues faced by them and the suggestions
are being considered more effectively as well. Furthermore, the individualized consideration
will be assisting in providing all the employees with the similar kind of voice and all the
problems are provided with equal importance as well.
Inspirational Motivation- The different transformational leaders have the proper
quality of proper communication of the different goals along with delegation of the different
tasks among the different employees working in the organizations. Furthermore, this has been
noticed that the different transformational leaders have the enthusiasm in themselves which
will be providing them with catering the different needs of the teams in an effective manner
as these plays as a motivation in managing the different tasks effectively and with proper
motivation (Fairhurst and Connaughton 2014).
Idealised Influence- This is the last element of the transformational leadership style
wherein this can be seen that the different transformational kinds of leaders do not lead by
any kind of coercion or the command which is pre-determined in nature. The faith and trust

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of the different members in the organization are required to improve their overall productivity
in an effective manner. The idealised kind of influence plays a major role which will be
beneficial for the overall success of the firm and gain more competitive advantage in
comparison to the other leaders.
Conclusion
Therefore, this can be concluded that both Ibuka and Morita were the different kinds
of charismatic leaders. Both of them tried to perform the different kinds of innovative
activities which helped them in managing the different activities in an efficient manner.
Morita implemented the different kinds of innovation techniques which helped them in taking
the company to greater heights. The development of the product along with innovation have
been trying to be consistent and this helped in managing the different activities in an efficient
and positive manner.

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References
Bolman, L.G. and Deal, T.E., 2017. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and
leadership. John Wiley & Sons.
Fairhurst, G.T. and Connaughton, S.L., 2014. Leadership: A communicative
perspective. Leadership, 10(1), pp.7-35.
Heifetz, R. and Linsky, M., 2017. Leadership on the Line, With a New Preface: Staying Alive
Through the Dangers of Change. Harvard Business Press.
Li, M. and Karam, E.P., 2017. Empirical study of Charismatic Leadership and Financial
Performance. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2017, No. 1, p. 16792).
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Menges, J.I., Kilduff, M., Kern, S. and Bruch, H., 2015. The awestruck effect: Followers
suppress emotion expression in response to charismatic but not individually considerate
leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 26(4), pp.626-640.
Meuser, J.D., Gardner, W.L., Dinh, J.E., Hu, J., Liden, R.C. and Lord, R.G., 2016. A network
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Renz, D.O., 2016. The Jossey-Bass handbook of nonprofit leadership and management. John
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Shamir, B., Arthur, M.B. and House, R.J., 2018. The rhetoric of charismatic leadership: A
theoretical extension, a case study, and implications for research. In Leadership Now:
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Storey, J., 2016. Changing theories of leadership and leadership development. In Leadership
in Organizations (pp. 33-58). Routledge.
Sy, T., Horton, C. and Riggio, R., 2018. Charismatic leadership: Eliciting and channeling
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Teiwes, F.C., 2017. Leadership, legitimacy, and conflict in China: From a charismatic Mao to
the politics of succession. Routledge.
Tourish, D., 2014. Leadership, more or less? A processual, communication perspective on the
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