Operational Efficiency Through Leadership at General Motors

This essay delves into the people and organizational management practices at General Motors (GM), examining the impact of leadership on employee behavior and performance. It critically discusses the significance of organizational structure and culture on operational efficiency, highlighting GM's agile structure and decentralized centralization strategy. The role of personality and values on work-life outcomes at GM is explored, alongside the importance of employee motivation. Leadership styles, such as those of Mary Barra and Dan Ammann, are analyzed using Fiedler's Contingency Model and the Leader-Member Exchange theory. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of charismatic leadership and a strong corporate culture in driving employee engagement and organizational success at General Motors. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering study tools and resources for students.

Running head: PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONAL MANAGEMENT
People and Organizational Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Assessing the impact of leadership on employee behavior and performance:................................3
Critical discussion on the significance of organizational structure and culture on the operational
efficiency: .......................................................................................................................................6
Discussing the role of personality and value on the work and life outcome of General Motors:. 13
Role of motivation on employee behavior and performance:.......................................................19
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................25
References:....................................................................................................................................31

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Introduction:
Extreme uncertainty in the market is acting as a driving force behind the companies to
rethink about their business process. This, in turn is putting extreme pressure on the companies
to restructure their business process in the attainment of their predetermined goals and
objectives. Kitchin (2017) commented that as the employees are solely responsible for improving
organizational process, it is imperative to assess their attitude and behavior towards the
workplace. There lies the significance of studying organizational behavior (OB). Organizational
behavior can be considered as the study of values and perception of the individual and group of
employees towards workplace. Effective organizational structure plays a significant role in
running an organization in a consistent manner.
According to Moerdyk et al. (2015) it is the prime responsibility of the managers of
corporate entities to study organizational behavior as it supports them to understand the attitude
of human resources in a better way. One of the greatest advantages of studying OB is that it
helps in generating motivation among the human resources. Clay-Williams and Braithwaite
(2015) highlighted that as believe and perception of the employees are different from each other,
studying OB can help them to apply appropriate motivational technique as per the nature of the
human resources.
Present paper will put forth the discussion of the management of people and organization
in the context of General Motors. This is one of the largest American multinational vehicle
manufacturers. This is currently operating their business in more than 30 countries across the
world. The total number of staffs of the company is 180,000 and as per the official report, the net
income of the company during 2017 is US$ -3.864 billion (Gm.com. 2018). Agile organizational

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structure is being followed in General Motors, which is helping them to support the effort of the
staffs towards improving the organizational performance. Therefore, this organization has been
chosen in order to show how effective organizational behavior is supporting the company to be
the giant in the automobile industry.
Assessing the impact of leadership on employee behavior and performance:
Rapid development of globalization, technological advancement along with the inclusion
of free market process are playing a pivotal role in amplifying the competition in the global
level. This is also increasing the work stress on the companies. Renz (2016) stated that as they
the employees are the key factor in attaining success from business, effective leadership is
gaining extreme importance in terms of leading the employees towards proper direction.
Leadership can be defined as the process of guiding and leading individual as well as a certain
group of employees towards proper direction and thereby enable them to work with utmost
proficiency. As discussed by Bolden (2016) leadership is one of the most significant factors
towards amplifying the experience of the employees towards workplace.
Good leadership is highly imperative for introducing motivational factors for the
employees which is the key of strengthening work related commitment among them. There lies
the success factors of General Motor (GM) as the company is extremely committed to improve
motivation among the staffs by practicing proficient leadership. For instance, Mary T. Barra- the
CEO of GM is considered as one of the greatest leaders who has introduced zero crashes as well
as zero emission with the intention of making a healthier planet. Barra is highly focused on
improving the durability of the products. Under her democratic style of leadership, effective
training and development session has been introduced for the sake of enabling the staffs to adapt
high-end technology. In addition, Dan Ammann- the president of General Motors, is another

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greatest leader of the organization. He is responsible for controlling the core business operation
of General Motor across the global level. Multiple strategies have been implemented by him in
order to strengthen the inner capability of the company and thereby improve its financial stability
(Gm.com. 2018).
Proactive leadership acts as a confidence boosting factor in an organization which is
highly significant of accelerating productivity of the company. Goetsch and Davis (2014)
observed that leaders such as Mary T. Barra and Dan Ammann play a major role in improving
the level of confidence among the employees of GM by providing them with multiple working
options and supporting them to run a self-directed team. Therefore, the leaders of General
Motors is holding a great style in order to create mission and vision among the staffs. As per the
Fiedler's Contingency Model of leadership, the style of leaders must be aligned with the
situation. This model has been developed during 1960 with the intention of showing the fact that
the trait of the leaders is the crucial factor in determining a group effectiveness. Fiedler has
developed a scale of least preferred coworker in order to indicate the behavior among the staffs
(Balon 2014).
Figure 1: Fiedler’s LPC Scale
(Source: Balon 2014)
As per this scale, the leaders with higher score are extremely interested towards
maintaining healthy relationship with the subordinates while the leaders with lower scale are
highly task oriented. There are several situational factor which according to Fiedler are major

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factor in determining the durability of leadership. Buil et al. (2018) showed that Leader-
member relation is defined as the extent to which the group members of GM trust the leader
and follow his guidance. Position power is another vital factor, through which the leaders can
exercise their power in terms of guiding the staffs towards proper direction. One of the greatest
advantages of this framework is that it supports in exploring the best manager. As the
contemporary business environment is extremely volatile, flexibility in General Motors is very
much needed in adapting different situation. There lies the benefits of this model which highlight
leadership trait in accordance with different situation. However, Anitha (2014) argued by saying
that this model has been criticized due to the discussion of leaders with low LPC score. If any
company will find low LPC score within a leader, then it will immediate that leaders. Therefore,
there is no basis of discussion of the leaders. Contrarily, Buil et al. (2018) showed that this model
supports the managers along with the leaders to apply best tool, which can improve the group
performance.
According to the leader-member exchange theory, it is imperative to maintain healthy
relationship in between leaders and the members in order to lead them towards proper direction.
This theory focuses on maintaining vertical relationship in between the leaders and the group of
employees, which is the key of enabling the staffs to understand their roles and responsibilities.
In the context of General Motors, the staffs are being encouraged to run their self-directed team,
which acts as a greatest motivational factor for the staffs. This I the reason, for which the rate of
employee turnover is quite lower for the organization. In addition, the higher authority of GM is
highly committed towards providing reward among the employees based on the performance.
With the assistance of leader-member exchange theory, GM is becoming able to generate better

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job attitude among the staffs. The way, through which the leaders of General Motors behave with
the staffs is one of the most significant factors in influencing the performance of the employees.
Trait, behavior and activity of a leader is a major factor in motivating a workforce. There
lies the importance of Charismatic Leadership which shades light on the fact that charming and
persuading characteristic of the leaders is highly significant factor in inspiring the subordinates.
As per the discussion of Herrmann and Felfe (2014) it can be said that this is the way, through
which emotional responses of the followers can also be triggered. Charismatic leadership is the
ability to boost motivation among the staffs and enable them to perform their assigned task with
utmost proficiency. Charismatic leaders demonstrate the level of willingness among the staffs to
take responsibility which is the key of achieving organizational goal and objectives.
Effective leadership style of GM is one greatest strength, with the assistance of which
they are getting immense success throughout the world. The enigmatic personality of Mary
Barra- the CEO and chairman of the company is playing a pivotal role in the way of amplifying
their inner functionality. She is extremely intended towards maintaining transparency with the
staffs and providing them with necessary information to the staffs for the sake of helping them to
understand their roles and responsibility. Mary Barra beliefs that allowing employees the
decision making process acts as a motivational factor by stimulating a sense of empowerment
among them (Forbes.com. 2018). At the same time, Barra also beliefs that the leaders hold the
responsibility of creating strong corporate culture which can generate positive behavior among
the staffs.

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Critical discussion on the significance of organizational structure and culture
on the operational efficiency:
Organizational structure is one of the most important factors in running the internal
functionality of a company in a systematic manner. The structure of an organization is
responsible for setting the hierarchy of responsibility along with multiple communication level
within an organization. Therefore, organizational structure must be set up in such a manner
which can help in improving its productivity (Narman et al. 2016). The productivity of human
resources is largely dependent on the organizational structure. Therefore, incompetency within
the managerial structure can hamper the coordination between different departments which in
turn can affect the productivity. According to the observation of Horch (2018) effective
organizational structure can act as a significant tool, through which strong business related
decision can be initiated. In addition to that, proper organizational structure also results in
smooth flow of information throughout the organization. This is the way, through which an
effective channel of communication can be initiated which is very much needed to keep every
department informed about business process. Contrarily, negative organizational structure can
breakdown the level of communication in the organization (Alvesson 2016). Departmentalization
by product is one of the most significant strategy, followed by GM. This strategy supports the
individual department of the organization in accordance with their work, which is being
controlled by the senior management. Decentralized centralization strategy is being followed by
General Motors with the intention of buying a particular raw material from one particular
industry. This is the way, through which they are becoming able to handle their raw materials in
global level. Division of workers in accordance with their skill and ability is one of the greatest
strategies, followed in GM. The workers are being assembled in accordance with their

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responsibility are any kind of pressure is not being put on them to work beyond their areas of
expertise. This acts as a motivational factor for the workers. A strict chain of command is being
followed throughout GM. However, as the contemporary business scenario is becoming highly
knowledge based, the notion of chain of command has become obsolete. Therefore, GM should
avoid following chain of command as it may create problem for them to generate positive
attitude among the staffs. With the assistance of this organizational structure, the functionality of
different departments can be synchronized appropriately in order to get desired outcome.
The ideas of employees are one of the most significant factors towards attaining success
from business. Thus healthy and effective organizational structure can have a firm impact on
supporting the staffs to generate innovative ideas. Promoting desired growth is also a crucial
outcome of strong and proactive organizational structure (Raman et al. 2014). Therefore, agile
structure of GM has been designed in such a manner which can help in aligning the growth along
with productivity of the company. This is the way, through which structural improvement can
also be carried out. There are multiple types of organizational structure which can influence as
well as affect the consistency of its inner functionality. This type of organizational culture helps
in addressing the issues in a timely manner. With the assistance of this organizational culture,
GM is becoming able to attain competitive advantage, through drastic innovation and healthy
relationship with the stakeholders. The senior management of GM is highly committed towards
aligning their goal and objective with that of the culture, in order to gain desired result. Through
this culture, freedom and opportunity are being offered among the staffs of General Motors for
the sake of promoting their career.
Simple organizational structure is defined as a default operating system which deals
with aligning the decision making process with that of the owners. This is a flat organizational

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structure which serves the upper management with the ability to run the operational process
effectively. Su et al. (2018) showed that one of the greatest strength of this simple organizational
structure is that it makes it easy for the higher authority to have prompt control over the internal
process. This is the way, through which the employees of General Motors can interact directly
with the employers and thereby place their issues and grievances. Thus, the owners can take
decision accordingly to generate positive attitude among the staffs. With the assistance of this
simple organizational structure, the owners can take quick decision. However this structure has
been criticized on the ground that this structure increases work pressure on the owners as well as
the higher authority. Murray (2014) contended by saying that this structure creates restriction for
the other department to take any quick decision as it is extremely owner-oriented. This restricts
the staffs of General Motors to solve any critical issues without the approval of the owner.
In order to overcome the drawbacks of simple organizational structure, functional
organizational structure has been has been introduced in order to organize different activities of a
company around specific areas. This structure deals with process of standardization which is
very much needed in making necessary business related decision in a systematic manner.
According to Gupta (2017) this structure states the fact that the employees must be aligned
within a group in accordance with their skills and competencies which results in consistency in
different functional unit such as marketing department, HR department, and finance department.
One of the greatest advantages of this organizational structure is that it supports in high level of
specialization.
With the assistance of work specialization strategy, the employees of GM are becoming
able to work in accordance with their skills and competency level. This is also acting as a driving
for the employees take strong action to strengthen their inner skill and competency and thereby

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promote sustainable growth in their career. This is the mode being followed in GM for
strengthening the productivity of the entire organization and so strengthen its position in the
market. Increasing skill is also acting as a motivational factor for the employees to work in a
dynamic workplace. Still, Dubey and Singhal (2016) argued by saying that poor coordination
and lack of communication across different functional units is the greatest disadvantage of this
type of organizational structure. This can hinder the speed of decision making process.
Additionally, this is a bureaucratic organizational structure which may lower the accountability
of functional units to each other.
Organizational structure is basically a framework which deals with different roles and
responsibilities of the individual department. Davies and Brown (2014) commented that as the
product is the core factor in attaining success from business, product-based organizational
structure is needed to be followed. This can be considered as the way of stressing individual
operational units for improving their efficiency. This is the way, through which the dedication
for improving the product line can also be generated among each of the functional unit. This
products-based organizational structure makes it easy for the companies to be flexible in the
highly volatile business environment. Thom and Wenger (2016) argued on the ground that lack
of consistency is the greatest disadvantage of this structure. As different functional unit works by
their own, this can prohibit the company to achieve predetermined goals and objectives.
Matrix organizational structure is the critical factor towards maintaining consistency in
between different department. Through this structure, the relationship in between different
department can be established as a matrix by avoiding merely the traditional hierarchy. This
structure helps in balancing between different functional units of an organization (Al Saifi 2015).
The strategy of two different chain of common is being followed in this type of organization.

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One of the major positive aspects of this organizational structure is that it helps in sharing highly
skilled human resources in between different functional units which is extremely important for
the sake of acquiring long term success from business (Collins 2017). Open communication is
the major factor of this organizational structure which supports in ensuring smooth flow of skill
throughout the organization without any kind of obstruction. This results in extremely integrated
and dynamic organization (Zhu 2015).
The structure of an organization plays a significant role in making the human resource
skillful and knowledgeable. There lies the significance of matrix organizational structure, which
is being followed in General Motors. With the assistance of this structure, GM is becoming able
to n put the staffs of General Motors in such an environment, which facilitates in learning and
thereby provide the staffs with the opportunity to satisfy their career goal. In addition to that,
Willis (2017) opined that matrix organizational structure is also creating a strong pool of
resources for GM which is very much needed to promote sustainable growth of business.
Though, there are multiple managers in the matrix organizational structure which can hamper the
bottom line. This structure can also accelerate work related stress on the staffs which can
generate a negative vive among them (Shields et al. 2015).
As this structure is dynamic in both form and function, this can result in lack of stability
in the entire business process. This can also increase the psychological stress among the staffs.
Due to the rapid fluctuation of function, a conflict can be raised in the organization which can
affect its performance. Furthermore, matrix organizational structure does not deal with clear and
concise guideline related to the roles and responsibility of the employees. Thus can also raise
conflict inside the workplace which can hamper operational efficiency. Still, one of the major
advantages of this organizational structure is that it helps in designing the process in such a