Effective Leadership and Management Strategies at General Electric

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership and management practices at General Electric (GE). It begins by defining leadership and management, highlighting their significance in organizational success. The report then delves into GE's context, examining its history and diverse product lines. A key focus is the application of various leadership theories, including trait theory, behavioral theories, contingency theory, charismatic leadership, and transformational leadership, within GE. The report explores the effectiveness of GE's selection and training programs, especially the transformational leadership approach. It also discusses how GE leaders set vision, manage employees, and motivate them to achieve objectives. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings, emphasizing the importance of effective leadership and management in driving GE's success, considering its global presence and diverse operations.

LEADERSHIP AND
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
P1 Analysis of concepts of leadership and management............................................................3
P2 Different leadership theories..................................................................................................5
P3 Effectiveness of leadership in selection and training program at General Electric...............8
P4 Contextualization of the selection and training program.....................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Leadership and management are key aspects of every organization. They should be
implemented efficiently within the company to organize, direct, control activities and employees.
Leadership is defined as the ability of a leader to set a vision for company as well as for
employees also and effectively controlling and coordinating activities to achieve vision as soon
as possible. Leader also resolves conflicts and problem which occur to company and employees.
Management is ability of manager to efficiently oversee all activities of organization and
manages employees proficiently. General Electric is a multinational American Corporation
which was founded in 1892 with its headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts (Bolden, 2016). This
company was founded by great scientist who is known as Thomas Edison and other founders are
J.P Morgan, Edwin Houston etc. Different products are manufactured by this company and those
are – aircraft engines, electrical and electronic equipment, oil and gas, financial and industrial
products. This company deals in mainly sector also and those are aviation, health care,
transportation, energy connection and lighting, power renewable energy, oil and gas etc. This
assignment will mainly focus on leadership and management at General Electric Company and
also describes various concepts of the same. Effectiveness of GE’S selection and leadership
development program will also be mentioned in this project. Various leadership theories which
are applied in the company will also be discussed.
P1 Analysis of concepts of leadership and management
Leadership is a process of defining objectives and measures in influential manner to
make others and organization more coordinating and cooperating. An effective leader is the one
who have strong willpower and desire to change others and require efforts such as knowledge,
skill, experience, etc. Though leadership is acquired via learning but some traits are needed to
influence others such as values, beliefs and attitude (Lunenburg, 2011). These traits help in
inspiring others to do well in certain things. Also, these things never come easily, as they require
years of practice and experience. Good leaders always posses a learning attitude in order to
improve them, time after time.
Directors of General Electric tend to set up target for their employees in terms of product
manufacturing with respect to company’s operation. This help in achieving goals and objectives

by the means of followers that true leaders have. Using this leadership strategy, revenue will be
improved and new clients will get associate with company. This process is uncertain and brings
change in organization.
Now, considering managers which are again an important aspect in business are mainly
responsible for getting things done by others (Nkomo, 2011). They provide their supervision in
handling respective job roles of each and every employee. Sometimes managers act on behalf of
leaders. Their job is to set objectives for organization, addresses activities to director and
shareholders and maintains corporate values while dealing business customers. They make
people act for accomplishing desired goals and objectives with the help of resources that are
available to them.
Being manager of one of the departments in General Electric will focus upon achieving
target which are put up by leaders and manage staff to get fitted into plan and acquiring it. As per
management hierarchy, responsibilities and role of manager varies in the company.
Management do contain leadership as one of its functions. Those functions are planning,
organizing, staffing, leading or directing and control. Both roles, manager and leader, requires
human interaction and effective communication. For example, board of General Electric include
more leadership tasks such creating vision and plans for company whereas management at every
department is responsible for determining tasks.
Purpose of General Electric is to provide effective products and services to its people
such as defense electronics, communications and engineering. Company is well known for
delivering effective, efficient and affordable electronics goods to its consumers. Objective of
company is to provide full range of specialized electronic items that can be used in health and
medical sector, education sector, defense sector and many more (Avolio and Yammarino, 2013).
To achieve these objectives it is important to have effective management and leadership skills
that can help to overcome problematic situations and will deliver excellent services to customers.
Skills required for such purpose are problem solving and decision making, delegation,
communication, planning and management.
These basic skills are responsible for to construct more advance practices for
management and leadership. The only time problem arises is due to lack of basic knowledge a

leader or manager may have. Certain qualities are gained when leaders and managers have
sufficient knowledge and skills such as developing vision for company, managing employees
using effective communication and motivating them to achieve what is planned.
Management process includes planning and budgeting, organizing and staffing and
controlling. It also has tactics for problem solving. Though leadership process is uncertain in
nature, purpose of management process is to reduce that uncertainty and leads to stability in the
company.
Leadership is about influencing behavior of someone and management is to plan and
achieve an objective (Fletcher and Arnold, 2011). Managers tackle large group of people and
lead them in accomplishment of work assigned whereas leaders act as a utility and are separate
entity than management. General Electric is in success because it has both, a strong leader and
manager that inspire and control teams towards success of organization. Also, they manage
honesty and integrity in work premises thus making workforce more competent.
P2 Different leadership theories.
Leadership theories are important as they define the structure of an organization. It helps
leaders to guide their employees efficiently. There are different theories such as Trait Theory,
Behavioral Theories, Contingency Theory, Charismatic Leadership and Transformation
Leadership which can be applied within the company.
Trait theory- This theory is concerned with different characteristics of a leader. A trait of
a leader decides whether he is efficient or not (Goetsch and Davis, 2014). Different characters
include social characteristics, physiological (appearance, height and weight), personality, self
confidence, task related characters.
Behavioral theory- this theory mainly studies about behavior of a leader. Good behavior
of leader influences everybody working in organization. It also impact positive impact on
employees and make them motivated towards their work and also a good leader make effective
strategies to achieve business goals.
Contingency theory- This theory mainly states that, proficient leaders should know how
to control and handle a situation. This is very important for a leader as problem can arise anytime

because it is uncertain and how efficiently a leader can tackle that situation is considered under
this theory.
Charismatic Leadership- This theory studies about charm and persuasiveness of a leader.
With great confidence and charm, leader influence their team members and admires them to
follow their footsteps (Voon, 2011). This type of leader knows how to manage their staff as well
as their strategies to achieve the best for company.
Transformation Leadership- In this theory, leader inspire their members to decide on their
own and implement them at the time of operating. It helps employees to achieve extraordinarily
things. Leaders support all decision and opinions made by employees and guide and support
them whenever they require.
Above were some leadership theories which identify different nature of a leader and how
they influence others with their charm and personality because leaders are the one on which
employee believes and learn how to become a good leader. Below is Transformation Leadership
which is described in detail:
As described above, leadership is quality of a leader which influence and motivate others
to perform better in their respective task so that they can achieve organization goals and
objective effectively. In transformation leadership style, leader work with their members in order
to achieve different tasks. Leader helps them by providing them with necessary resources and
guidance which can benefit employees while performing their tasks and at the time of decision
making. This theory serves high motivation and inspiration level in followers and they work with
great enthusiasm. This theory enables leader and team member to come colder and work
together. Leader assigns more responsibility and ownership of work on his members so that they
can learn more about how to decide and work under pressure. These help in confidence building
and development of sub-ordinates. Leaders give different challenges to members so that they can
work with more efficiency. It also increases interest and limits of employees in performing that
particular task.
To become a successful transformation leader, they should have some unique
characteristics such as, they should be able to set a clear vision for the company to achieve and
inspire others to work in the direction of accomplishing it. It sets up a purpose for a team and

encourages them to reach the end. At the time of setting vision, leader should critically analyze
their environment, company’s strengths and weaknesses and various threats and opportunities so
that they can prepare a perfect plan for company to achieve maximum outputs and profits and
guide efficiently to their employees (Giacalone and Rosenfeld, 2013). Good guidance makes
effective completion of desired goals. Motivation and encouraging employees at work can be
very good for the company as it encourages their will power to perform better in their tasks and
to earn more and more profits for company
This style of leadership should be implemented in all organization so that employees can
feel that their ideas and opinions matters to leaders and company as well. It gives a sense of
security in back of the mind of employees. This help in retaining employees as they believe in
their superiors and company. For better performance, leader should talk about their vision
frequently with their members and link it to employee’s tasks and tell them about their
contribution in achieving the vision (Weiss and Tappen, 2014). Leaders are well known about
the fact that performance can be enhanced only by encouraging employees at every step. For
motivation, company can provide best performer with rewards and benefits, it not only motivate
that particular person but also encourages other to work hard in their respective activities.
Under this style, leader appoints different responsibilities to their staff members so that
they can learn how to make effective decisions and how to work in extreme conditions.
Company should provide equal opportunities to every employee to come ahead and give their
innovative ideas and opinions to their leaders or to company. Transformation leaders have
unique qualities such as; they are visionary, risk takers, inspiring, motivating, and have a
charismatic appeal in their appearance. To bring changes in organization they must exhibit
following four factors:
Intellectual stimulation: In this, leader motivates their staff members to come up with
new and innovative ideas for company. They prefer their ideas while formulating strategies and
guide them whenever there is any mistake done by employee. They never criticize anyone in
front of others as they don’t believe in blaming part. They sometime discard old strategies set
employees is they think they are irrelevant to the company.

Inspirational motivation: It is an important component of this leadership style. Promoting
company’s vision, mission and set value to its members are foundation of transformation
leadership. In this, leader continuously inspires their employees and makes them efficient to
work in a better way (Donate and Pablo, 2015). They provide them with different challenges and
tasks, which increases will power of employees to complete particular tasks. Team member and
leader work together optimistically to foster the spirit of team work.
Individualized consideration: Here, leader act as a mentor or supervisor to their
employees and provide them with rewards and benefits for their innovative ideas and creativity.
Different employees are considered differently according to their talents and skills. They are
encouraged to take decision and leaders help them to give all possible support at the time of
decision making.
Idealized influence: Leader acts as a role model to its followers and is effective when he
is efficient enough in its working. Leaders often prefer their followers needs over their own and
sometime sacrifices their personal profits for them. They always influence to achieve
organizational goal in effective manner.
This type of leadership leads to high job satisfaction level for employees and also
enhances their skills, talent and knowledge (Fletcher and Arnold, 2011). Proficient leader
support their staff members at every step and guide them with recent information. They also
provide them with suitable materials which can be required by employees at the time of decision
making. Employee learns about how to make good decisions for company, how to work in a
team with other member and how to implement suitable decisions in different situation. It
improves employee efficiency in performing particular tasks and also enhances company
profitability and productivity. With talented work force, company can achieve their set goals and
objectives.
P3 Effectiveness of leadership in selection and training program at General
Electric.
Leadership gives a proper shape to an organization. It promotes discipline within the
company and also enables working according to standards. General Electric is a leading
company under which a large number of employees are working. For effectively managing

employees in such a big company, proper management is required. Management involves
coordination and managing people and business activities for effective accomplishment of
company’s goals and objectives. It’s important for General Electric Managers to formulate
effective strategies so that they can manage their activities and staff efficiently. As described
above, there are different leadership theories which are used in the organization to make it more
proficient. Leader should enhance effectiveness of leadership theories at certain interval of time
for better functioning and productivity (Fletcher, Arnold and Molyneux, 2012). GE is a global
American Company who requires proficient leaders which can implement effective strategies
and different styles to achieve long term goals of the company. This company was primarily
operating only in electrical and since then it has diversified their business to other sectors such as
health care, finances, television production, aircraft engines etc. This has been achieved with the
hard work of leaders, managers and other staff members which has made this company so
successful. Accomplishing such a reputation requires diverse management of team concerned to
different departments. Leaders generate new ideas for making their production more innovative
and new for customers. They also involve others employees to participate in decision making by
providing their ideas and opinions in front of their superiors.
At General Electric, people are hired on the basis of their talent and skills. Company
organizes orientation program for them so that new joiners get comfortable in new environment
of company. These type of activities help new candidates to know about their responsibilities
towards their job and company (Grant, 2012). Leader of GE supports every employee at every
step and take care that each employee is satisfied or not. They also make sure that employee’s
needs and requirements are fulfilled. Employees are considered as pillars of organization and
they are the main reason for its success as they work hard to make it possible. If any employee is
unable to perform their work properly, then managers provide them with necessary training
activities to enhance their skills and knowledge. It helps employees to perform their work with
more efficiency. Training is very essential parameter to give knowledge and physical training of
a particular task to those employees who are in need of it. In General electric also, managers
provide training to employees who are inefficient to complete a task with higher efficiency. They
organize certain training activities for them and also guides and tell them about how to perform a
particular task. These types of activities build confidence level in employees and improve their
motivation. After training, they perform that task with more confidence and with higher

efficiency. Training is given to those employees also who are already present in the company.
Sometime, existing employee fails to operate well in some conditions due to lack of recent
knowledge about procedure and equipment (Noruzy, 2013). Proper training procedures can
improve their knowledge level and skills. This will ultimately lead to more accuracy and
efficiency in their work.
General Electric uses some of leadership program within organization to make their
operation more effective. From that program, first is Human Resources Leadership Program
(HRLP), this is a two year program which provide great opportunities to leaders to experience
high class leadership training and influence decision making. This program mainly consist of
three, eight month assignments within human resources functions and also provide opportunity
for cross functional experience. It mainly focuses on training which is concerned to leadership,
HR and business related. In this program, employees who have some year experience in HR and
have master agree in business or human resource, have excellent communication and soft skills
and are flexible and adaptable to dynamic changes are eligible for this particular program.
Second program is Experienced Commercial Leadership Program (ECLP), it prepares
candidates to get experience of leadership and marketing roles in one of GE’s business
(Birasnav, 2014). It give great opportunities to individuals to get world class commercial and
leadership training so that they can become a part of global network of marketing and sales
leaders. It allows candidates to work with senior executives to learn about sales, leadership skills
etc. Eligible individuals should have some years of experience in commercial, have excellent
communication skills and analytical skills and they should be flexible and adaptable to changes.
Third program is Communications Leadership Development Program (CLDP), it is a
challenging and rotational program which focuses on enhancing the development of top potential
communication and public reaction talent. This program is designed to create a link between
leadership roles across GE. These help employees to connect with General Electric and gain
valuable experience in leadership and business. Candidate criteria for this program is that, they
should have post graduation degree in English, journalism, media, communication, digital media,
public relation, advertising and marketing (Mills and Smith, 2011). They should have some year
of work experience in business and should posses’ extraordinary interpersonal, communication
and leadership skills with great flexibility and adaptability.

General Electric provides different program for employees to get high class training and get
connected with such a leading brand. Superiors ensures that employees are getting desired
training form them. These types of program build self confidence in employee; by this they can
face difficult challenges of the world. Program shapes their personality so efficiently by which
they can go anywhere and in any company of the world. The selection of employees is based on
their skills and abilities to perform particular tasks. At GE, it is necessary to select talented and
technical people for company which can enhance their revenue and profitability. Sometime, the
company shifts talented professionals from their present position to higher position and
sometime they hire form outside of the premises (Easterby, Smith and Lyles, 2011). Selection of
new candidates enables fresh ideas and opinions which can help company to increase their
current profits. This can be done if leaders are strict in following their standards and procedures.
By implementing different leadership theories such as contingency, situational, trait, behavioral,
charismatic theory, etc. within company to make it more effective. For proper management and
leadership, superiors have to constantly oversee the work done by employees and guide them to
make it more effective. Proficient leader act as role model for their employees and they follow
their footsteps and learn many things which are important for them in future.
P4 Contextualization of the selection and training program
From above discussion, it is clear that recruitment and selection programs are important
for General Electric as it ensures new talent to join the company and put their efforts in
achieving company's goals and objectives. GE is a leading brand which has a great reputation in
market and in the minds of candidates. It is necessary for company to organize effective selection
and training programs to hire best talents from pool of candidates. They offer great opportunities
for new candidates to join such a reputed and well established company (Noruzy, 2013). By
working in such a company, enhances the confidence level of employees and they work in a
better manner. To fill a position available in a company can be done through two source i,e.,
internal sources and external sources. Company can hire people for internal source like present
employee, employee referrals, former employees and previous applicants. In present employees,
promotion an transfer take place among employees which are currently operating in the
company. It is done when a person deserves to get a higher post due to his talents and skills
within organization. In employee referrals, existing employees refer their family members,

friends, relatives to company as a deserving candidate for a particular job. Company can also
hire talented people from outside the organization through external sources which include
employment exchange, advertisements, campus recruitment, deputation, advertisements,
employment agencies, etc. Employment exchange are useful while hiring blue and white collar
personnel as well as technical workers. In employment agencies, some agencies register suitable
candidates for particular jobs and company can directly contact them to get appropriate
candidate. Advertisements help in attracting candidates for hiring for a particular job position in
company.
Various training programs are organized by General Electric company to make their
employees more efficient and talented. Name of some training programs are Human Resources
Leadership Program (HRLP), Experienced Commercial Leadership Program (ECLP) and
Communications Leadership Development Program (CLDP) which has been already discussed
above. These program offer great opportunities for existing and as well as for new candidates to
get wold class training in leadership, marketing, business, finance, communication and other soft
skills, etc. Proper training boosts up morale and confidence level and from that confidence they
are able to face all challenges coming to them. They also increase their efficiency and make them
compatible for different jobs. They also learn about various leadership styles which they can
implement in their company once they become a leader. These programs help them to become an
proficient leader which have all desired factors to be a leader in future. General Electric also
provide training to those employees who are operating in technical sectors like aviation,
electrical, health care sector, etc. In these sectors, employees should be highly efficient with their
skills and talents to perform their work smoothly. As it require high qualification and skills of
employees to work accurately (López and Nicolás, 2011). In aviation sector, candidate should
know about parts of aircraft, their functioning and other necessary things. Same is with health
care sector, candidates should know about all pharmacy part and with diagnosis part. They
should be very accurate because it is directly related to life of a person. Necessary training
sessions can be given to those employees who will operate in these sectors in future. With the
help of audio- visuals aid, practical experimentation and theoretical description can help
employees to understand better about their responsibilities toward their job. Managers should
formulate effective training program and organize them at regular interval to increase efficiency
of their employees.