Leadership Qualities of GE Leaders: A Comprehensive Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of leadership and management at General Electric (GE), examining the leadership styles of key figures such as Jack Welch, Jeff Immelt, and Henry Lawrence Culp Jr. It explores specific situations where managerial skills and leadership qualities were demonstrated, including the transformational leadership of Welch and the subsequent shifts under Immelt and Culp. The report identifies and analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of these leaders, considering their impact on GE's performance and employee relations. Furthermore, it delves into relevant leadership theories and models, including situational, system, and contingency leadership, to provide a comprehensive understanding of the leadership approaches employed at GE. The report concludes by highlighting the importance of adapting leadership styles to different situations and contexts, offering valuable insights into the evolution of leadership within a major corporation like General Electric. The analysis uses the provided assignment brief to structure the report and references relevant academic sources.

Leadership/General Electric

Table of Contents
Leadership/General Electric............................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..............................................................................................................................3
1. Specific Situations where managerial qualities and leadership skills were demonstrated by
company’s Top Managers............................................................................................................3
2. Identification an Analysis of Strength and Weaknesses of Respective Leaders.....................4
3. Theories and Models of Approach..........................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is the practice of leaders through which company influence and motivate
others which are either followers of leaders and in business context they are employees who are
working for the organisation leaded by the leader. This report includes discussion over leadership
and management attribute of managers and leaders of General Electric.
MAIN BODY
1. Specific Situations where managerial qualities and leadership skills were demonstrated by
company’s Top Managers
Managers and leaders are required to play their role all the time but there are various
situations which are specific and which require leader to show their specific qualities. CEO and
people placed at top position in General Electric have seen many rise and falls in a company
which is more than 100 year old (Wild, 2016). In 1981 Jack Welch was appointed as CEO of
General Electric, in relations with Jack Welch who started his career in General Electric as a
junior chemical engineer and this is very important to consider that Jack Welch had really some
specific qualities and attributes through which he completed his journey from a junior Engineer
to CEO of the company. Jack Welch started his journey as CEO in 1981 at that time market
value of GE was $12 billion which increased to $410 billion when Welch retired from is CSE
position. This shows competence of the CEO and their tactics to convert the company into a
conglomerate with around 600 acquisitions. This shows transformational leadership of Jack
Welch in which leader goes beyond managing day to day operations and craft strategies and
tactics to for taking the company to next level of performance and success.
Another CEO of General Electric Jeff Immelt, who took position of CEO in 2001 and just
after few days terrorist attacks on US. In this two employees were killed and insurance business
of General Electric was cost $600 million. This also affected aircraft engine sector of the
company. In this situation journey of Immelt in General Electric was started at low note. But
leadership style of Jeff Immelt was also transformational as he did not continued practices which
were started by Jack Welch and took decisions to establish General Electric as per his choices.

In relations with leadership of Henry Lawrence it can be said that he the first outsider CEO of
General Electric and as of now actions which have been taken by him shows that he is a
transactional leader.
2. Identification an Analysis of Strength and Weaknesses of Respective Leaders
All the leadership style have their own strength and weaknesses, so the leaders also have
strength and weaknesses. Some of the strength and weaknesses of the leaders of General Electric
are as follows-
As Jack Welch is transformational leader and they are always looking to keep performance at
standard (Arthur and et.al., 2017). Jack Welch all believed in giving frequent reviews to
employees. He always used to keep telling employees about their performance and candid
performance reviews. In his own words a individual does not have any right to be a leader if they
don’t know where people who for leaders stands.
Risk taking is one of the strength of Jack that all the acquisitions which have done by him and
taking company which is worth $12 billion to $410 billion needs that decision maker is taking
huge risk. This proves as one of the strength of transformational leader and was possessed by
Jack Welch.
In cost of his success Jack Welch reduced the number of employees from 6720 in 1995 which
were 24000 in 1980 (Weller and et.al., 2019). This shows that Jack did not considered well being
of people worked for General Electric. This cost of human was relentless push for better
performance, this should not have be this ruthless.
3. Theories and Models of Approach
Situational Leadership
Situational leadership style refers to the style in which leadership style of leader depends
on the developmental and skill level of their employees. This style of leadership suggests that
there are four types of leadership style and differs according to maturity level of employees.
These styles are telling, selling, participating and delegating. These styles of leadership evolve
and changes according to level of maturity increases of the employee (Thompson and Glasø,
2018). Maturity level of employees includes their competence and their willingness to work. In

this telling style of leadership involves taking all the decisions for employees in context of their
work, selling includes that leaders ask from employees about their input in the decisions.
Participating style includes that leaders give support and directions to employees but most of the
responsibilities lie with employees. In delegating leadership style leader delegated the
responsibility to employees.
System Leadership
System leadership is known as leadership in which leader is not a single heroic figure but
those who facilitates the conditions within which other can progress and bring social change. In
this leadership does not depend on any formal designation within organisation and anyone can be
a system leader (Boylan, 2018). Some of the capabilities which are required for system
leadership are ability through which one can see larger system, can foster reflection and focus of
the leader is collective for solving problems.
Contingency Leadership
This theory focus on matching leadership style with situation and success of leadership is
contingent on match with the situation. Important consideration of this style is that there is no
one best style of leadership, and a leader is effective when their style fits with the situation. One
of the most popular theory of contingency leadership has been developed by Fiedler in his theory
he developed a scale which is knows as least preferred co-worker (Bratton, 2020). In this high
LPC score refers that leader is person oriented and relies on personal relationship on the other
hand low LPC score refers that leader is task oriented. On the basis of this leader can find the
right situation.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above report it can be concluded that different leadership style is suitable
in different situations. In this when leader is willing to take the organisation to next level of
success they are required to have transformational leadership characteristics for day to day
management transactional leadership is apt. this report also included some of the styles and
approaches of leadership style.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Arthur, S and et.al., 2017. Jack Welch: The Bridge between Drucker and Goleman. International
Journal of Business and Social Science. 8(3).
Boylan, M., 2018. Enabling adaptive system leadership: Teachers leading professional
development. Educational management administration & leadership. 46(1). pp.86-106.
Bratton, J., 2020. TRAIT, BEHAVIOUR AND CONTINGENCY THEORIES OF
LEADERSHIP. Organizational Leadership. p.125.
Thompson, G. and Glasø, L., 2018. Situational leadership theory: a test from a leader-follower
congruence approach. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
Weller, I and et.al., 2019. Transformational leadership, high-performance work system
consensus, and customer satisfaction. Journal of Management. p.0149206318817605.
Wild, N., 2016. Current leadership development practices: a GE example.