Organizational Behavior Blog: Ford Motor Company's Culture

This assignment comprises three blog posts analyzing organizational behavior concepts through the lens of Ford Motor Company. The first blog examines Ford's organizational culture, challenges, and the application of Handy's Model, recommending strategies for improvement. The second blog delves into contemporary leadership styles, discussing their relevance, challenges, and positive impacts, with Elena Ford as a case study. The third blog focuses on change management, utilizing Lewin's model to analyze the UK automobile industry's problems, particularly Ford's challenges post-Brexit. The assignment incorporates relevant theories, frameworks, and real-world examples to provide a comprehensive understanding of organizational behavior in a practical context. The blogs aim to provide insights into the challenges and opportunities faced by organizations in managing culture, leadership, and change.

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Blog 1
“Can cultures be managed within organizations?”
What is organizational culture?
Culture is the set of values, beliefs, attitude and behavior shared by a group of people in the
society. Organizational culture encompasses values and behaviors that contribute into the society
in which the business is operated (Spencerstuart, 2019). The culture of an organization represents
the policies in which employees are trained and also gives the direction to work at the workplace.
In this blog, we are taking ford motors to discuss about its challenges that it faces while changing
the culture at the workplace. Ford Motors is a multinational automaker company of America.
Ford Motors has high brand image in the market due to its quality or innovative products (Ford,
2019). The company hires the people from different background and performs their performance
appropriately. The main aim of selecting this company or industry is that it faces the challenges
related to the organizational culture.
What are the Challenges Faced by the Ford Motors?
It has been found that Ford Motor faced challenges due to financial crises and organizational
culture. Earlier, the massive nature of organizational culture and the perception towards the
diversity, workplace obstacle is negative due to which the company suffers with the heavy loss.
It also affects the brand image of the company in the market as it breaks down the record of
suffering loss just because of its massive management (Notesmatic, 2017). The company was
follows the culture of disparity between women and minorities in order to compare with the
white men at the workplace. It can be said that the company follows the glass ceiling; the word

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glass ceiling is considered as the cultural norms which describe the discrimination at the
workplace (Lombardo, 2017).
Handy's Model of Organizational Culture
(Source: Toolshero, 2019)
Handy Model of Organizational Culture is a model of organizational culture which is design by
Charles Handy. This model is based on four basic organizational types such as power, task, role
and person. The model is used to analyze the culture of Ford Motors to observe that how the
company follows the culture work at the workplace. It helps to analyze the current situation of
the company in terms of culture.
Power describes the authority to take the decision for the organization. It has been seen that the
Ford Motors follows the decentralization but they have to report to their senior managers or
senior position authorities while taking decision regarding any particular matter. The company
does not distribute the authority to lower level as it creates the many issues. Alan Mulally is the
CEO of Ford Motors that follows the cultural mantra to reconstruct the company. The entire

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senior manager has to organize the meeting once in a week to take the report about work. It is
essential for the executive to take the participation in the meetings. Role defines the
responsibilities of the employee that are allocated as per their capability and interest. Employees
of Ford Motors represent their business and its values by builds the integrity and positive
behavior among workers. The company follows the culture which includes the terms such as
initiative, courage and corporate citizenship. Person is the people who work with the company in
order to support the organization. The employees of Ford Motors follow the initiative, courage
and the citizenship to represent the business in the market. Teamwork is the most important
priority of the company which is also necessary to follow by its employees. Tasks are allocated
to the employees by dividing teams or groups to achieve the targets. The top managers of the
company always distributed the work among the employees to attain target. It has been seen that
the top management take the decision towards the company. Although, the company is trying to
fulfill the target but it has been seen that the company is not flexible in order to perform their
work (Tutor2u, 2019).
What Strategies will recommend to company?
It has been found that the organization changes its culture but still there are some areas where the
leader has to focus to implement the changes to attain high success.

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As discussed above, Ford Motors is not flexible in terms of developing the product just because
of its environment. The company has to provide the training to employees for the purpose of
flexibility as they will do each type of work without any worry. The term interdependence, and
independence are small but they directly impact on the performance of the organization. Alan
Mulally has to implement these approaches in their leadership as it gives the good results and
also it enhances team spirit to perform the work. These approaches in leadership help to manager
the culture in the organization.
Charter Statement
Ford Motor should has the charter statement is “to develop the healthy environment of workplace
to provide the quality of product or services to consumers”.

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Blog-2
“Contemporary Leadership Styles: How relevant are they in today’s changing world?”
What is leadership?
Leadership is a practical skill that an individual have to lead or guide the other individuals or
team or entire organization. Leadership is also a process in which he influences the others to do
the work or support them to do the common task. Traditional leadership theories were mainly
focuses on men leaders and their style to do work. The traditional leadership theories are not
appropriate for knowledge economies. These described the discrimination as these are mostly
masculine theories such as “great man theory, and trait approaches.
(Source: Changing minds, 2019)
Then what are the modern theories of leadership?
For years, men of great stature changed this world for both ways such as positively and
negatively. After the numerous studies, the theories have been made over the years on what
makes one lead and another follow. Earlier leadership theories focused on quality that made the
leader and some of them are based on the claim that the ability of leadership born into us. But a

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majority of modern theories are based on the levels of skill, situational adaptability of the
individual leading. In the modern world, it is also known as the leadership style such as
transformational, transactional, situational and behavioral theories (Mabugat, 2019).
A review and synthesis of theories of leadership revealed that the leadership is both ethical and
effective. People have the different perspective towards the modern theories as some of them
believe that theories developed on skills and some of them believe that these are developed on
the situation of human.
Trouble with the leadership theories
Modern theories are developed with the skill or knowledge in order to implement at the
workplace to attain the success. But there are some trouble arises with the modern leadership
theories as these are also not appropriate for leaders. Nowadays, we are observing that there’s
too much noise in business today and there are various things that grab our attention. It is a fact
that always playing safe is also develop the danger zone. The leader follows the modern
leadership style due to which they always want to plays safe without any worries. But it has been
seen that the status of the organization cannot be maintain by playing safe; it getting worse and
also the organization can lose their edge.
Positive Impact of leadership theories
It is observed that some of the people believe that the modern theories are developed on skills or
knowledge. According to some people, traditional leadership theories do not developed on
knowledge. Being the leader, it is the responsibility of a leader to give equal opportunities to
male and females. According to the modern theories, feminine leaders leave the good remarks in
history. Nowadays, we live in a generation where the women achieve all heights of success

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without any support of the others. Modern leadership theories are also developed on the feminine
leaders that show the positive result in businesses.
What are the challenges faces by the leaders?
In the real world, we are observed that the leaders are still facing challenges by implementing the
western leadership styles. According to me, women leaders enter the market just because of
modern leadership style but they also face the challenges. As per the reviews, it can be said that
the women are still less than men in the corporate world. It means women leaders facing the
more challenge as compare to men leaders. There are some companies in which they give the
opportunities to women at the higher position as a display to build the social image in the world.
They do not give rights to speak, take decision or representation. It can be said that the women
still facing the challenge of inequality (Forbes, 2018). As per the reviews or analysis, it has
found that the modern theories develop the challenges for the leaders such as developing
managerial effectiveness. It is observed that the theories do not focuses on the time management,
decision making, and strategic thinking as it helps to make the work more effective. The leader
faces the challenges due to lack of management and strategic thinking while implementing the
western style of leadership.
Example

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The best example of impact of modern leadership style is Elena Ford. Elena Ford is the vice
president of Ford Motors Company. She handles consumer experiences, establish best practices
to aid ford and it also improves the quality of vehicle. The modern theories give an opportunity
to Elena to show their talent and represent themselves in the world as the vice president of Ford
Motors (Wheels, 2019).
Is it beneficial to develop leadership theories on academic research?
Yes, it is beneficial to develop the leadership theories on the basis of academic research. It is
good for the student as they learn the leadership skills from books, journals and the others. Being
a student, I can easily handle the situations by understanding the theories from academic papers.
In the coming years, it is good to develop the leadership theories on the basis of academic
research (Scirp, 2018)

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Blog-3
“Change Management”
What is Change Management?
Change Management is a collective term for all approaches to prepare, support and help
individuals, teams in making organizational change (Burke, 2017).
Lewin’s change management model
(Source: Hayes, 2018)
It is one of the most popular approaches of change management. This process is divided into the
three stages such as Unfreeze, Changes and Refreeze. Unfreeze refers to the analyses of the
process in which the change is required. After analyzing the changing requirement, it is required
to implementing the changes in business. Changes impact the organization that is why; it is
required to refreeze it with the appropriate manner. And the last stage of change management is
refreeze as the changes directly affects the environment of the organization that is why; it is
necessary to refreeze it or we can also said that it is a reconstruction of an organization
(Fernandez, and Rainey, 2017).

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Problems Face by UK Automobile Industry
By implementing this model on UK automobile industry it is founded that the Ford Motors faces
the challenges after the Brexit. Unfreeze helps to analyze the change which is required for the
country to develop the economy (Winton, 2019). Brexit is the big change in the country due to
which the industries are affected. Automobile Industry is one of the success industries of UK.
Ford Motors is a company that operates under the automobile industry (Finsmes, 2018). As it is a
famous industry of UK due to which the business is affected while Brexit happened in the
country. Automobile is one of industries of UK that affected from Brexit that is why; this
industry is selected for the analyses. We are evaluated that the automobile industry has dropped
by 80% over 3 years, but also volume has fallen 9% after Brexit. It has been seen that the
production forecasts are fallen down by 17% due to which Ford Motors performance will falls
down (Alex de Ruyter, et.al, 2018). The data reflects that the automobile industry is highly
affected due to which it is required to be reconstruct it. During and after Brexit, the automobile
industry is falls down in terms of production, and revenue.
What are the reasons behind problems?
Brexit means UK leaving EU due to which it is named as Brexit. In earlier days, UK and EU are
work together due to which the companies are trade together. Both the countries are trading
together due to which they are grown to become a single market. But it is observed that the
economy of both the countries falls down. During the referendum, most of the countries vote the
Brexit due to which UK has to leave EU (BBC, 2017).

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According to me, Brexit affects the industry that is why; it is essential for the industry to
implement the changes to solve the problems. The agreement between the companies of UK and
EU are breakdown just because of Brexit. Changing the management helps the organization in
solving the problem. Implementing the changes in organization culture also helps to solve the
problem of Automobile industry.
Action Plan
There are numerous strategies that an organization has to implement to solve the problems and
these are:
Automotive company has to implement the good information management policies instead of
contracts to implement changes and mitigate risks. The other recommendation for the company
is that the company should have the strong information governance while contracting with the
other company. It is required for the companies to have the communication and collaboration
between automobile companies to exchange the whole information. These recommendations will
implement successful when the automobile manufacturers focuses on the five areas and these are
single market, customs, talent, regulations, and trade (SMMT, 2019).

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Blog-4
“My Development as a Future Leader”
Most of the professionals develop their own style of leadership according to the needs and
culture of organization. Although, there are lot of people who follows their own leadership style
but there are also some leadership styles that are mentioned in academic research. Each and
every individual requires to have the leadership skills so that they can handle all situation and
requirements. It is also an important for me to learn the leadership skills for bright future. Being
the student, I am always tries to learn leadership skills and ability. The top priority of our
university is leadership skills and to teach these skills our university organizes many fest and
events to make student responsible and motivated to learn the leadership skills. In these events or
activities, there are many times conflicts has been arises in our team just because of different
perceptions. It is essential for us to resolve the conflict among the team just because of effective
work to represent in the classes. Being the team member or leader, I always neglect my
perception and take decision as per the favor of team. These events or activities help to enhance
my leadership skills in the course of MBA. But it is important for me to adopt the specific
leadership style for effective work. It is difficult for me to adopt all leadership style and also
implement them at a point of time.

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I would like to adopt the transactional leadership style in future. Transactional leadership style
refers that the leader has to focus on the team member while taking any decision. Members also
take participations in decision making process in this type of leadership style (Nawaz, and Khan,
2016). Transactional leaders are always focused on instruction, mentorship and training in order
to attain goals. I always follow this leadership style while doing the team work. Team members
of the team always support me to perform my duties effectively and efficiently. I always support
my team members and encourage them to perform their duties appropriately. As I always help
my team members in their work and also motivated them that is why; they always trust my
leadership style without any worry. It is a fact that the member of the team supports the leader to
achieve the goals when the leader motivate or encourage them in decision making process.
There are numerous events or activities in which I have to work in a team so that I will learn
more leadership skills. Work in team or to finish the work in a group help us to understand the
different perception of the people. It also helps me to understand the different situation so that I
can take decision in coming future. I truly perform my all duties and responsibilities towards my
team members by putting all efforts and using all skills or ability. By analyzing my performance,
it is observed that I have to more work on my leadership skills and ability. In the coming future, I
would like to be an effective leader who performs all activities and responsibilities with an

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effective manner. According to my opinion, a good leader is one who performs his duties and
responsibilities effectively. Team work, unity, honesty, motivation and the other effective skills
are the important skills that an effective leader should have in their behavior. Although, I am
learning alot about the leadership skills from the different activities or events which was
organized by university but there are some areas found in which I have to work to learn new
skills or ability. Transactional leadership style will achieve success in the coming future as the
members are encouraged by the leader which is an essential factor. This is best style for me as
per my opinion because my team members always have a similar consent to support me by
performing their duties and responsibilities.

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