Theories and Problems of Leadership: Tesla Motors Case Analysis

This report evaluates the role of authentic leadership in Tesla's success, focusing on Elon Musk's leadership style and the application of various leadership theories. It explores transformational and transactional leadership, analyzing their contributions to Tesla's growth and innovation. The report also addresses leadership-related challenges faced by Tesla, such as high repair costs, budget management, market share, and build quality, suggesting potential solutions. Ultimately, the report concludes that Elon Musk's transformational leadership style has positively impacted Tesla's performance and innovation, making it a leading company in the electric vehicle industry. Desklib provides access to a wealth of similar solved assignments and study tools for students.

Authentic Leadership

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................2
TASKS.............................................................................................................................................2
1. Role of leadership in Tesla ....................................................................................................2
2. The contribution of various theories, concepts, practices related to leadership and its
development ...............................................................................................................................3
3. Theoretical contributions to the problems of leadership and its implications .......................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
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INTRODUCTION
This report is going to evaluate the authentic leadership in relation to the success of Tesla by
Elon musk. It further explains the contribution of various theories, concepts and practises related
to leadership with its development. As authentic leadership play a major role in communicating
and formulating the new directions to the organisational goals. This project will help in the
demonstration of the understanding of the significance of the theoretical problems of the
leadership with its implications. This report helps to evaluate the entrepreneurial roles and
leadership styles of Elon Musk in Tesla motors.
TASKS
1. Role of leadership in Tesla
Leadership is directly linked to the culture of organisation which affects efficiency and
productivity at the workplace and helps to direct an organisational resources to improve and
attain the achievement of goals. Leaders are essential when it comes to communicating the
strategic directions which helps in increasing the dedication of employees towards organisational
goals. An effective leader bring out the best of their employees and helps to monitor their
performance and progress so that employees can feel safe and supported in the company's
environment. Tesla has grown as a luxury electric car type with original design. Tesla has
achieved a great success in the automotive and energy solutions field. It has a unique market
approach because of the global presence. Main vision of the company is to create the most
attractive car in the world's transition to electric vehicles. Elon Musk is the CEO of electric car
maker Tesla who follows the transformational leadership style and sometimes the
transactional leadership style. Transformational leaders are passionate, enthusiastic, energetic
and charismatic. As they also focus on the overall development of every member. Musk believes
in personal hard-work and personal transformation and accepting the failures as opportunities to
learn. Transformational leadership is all about developing the new ways to process the operations
of the business which is used in different industries such as education, entertainment, finance,
technology, and politics. It encourages and motivates the team mates to participate in moulding a
successful future of the company.
Whenever the new technology is developed failure will also take place. However, failures
create new opportunities to learn things in the technology. He regularly read two books to
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encourage his employees to keep learning new things daily so they can bring that part of
knowledge to their projects. Tesla has aimed to provide the unique and innovative products to its
customers for which transformational leadership style is best and suitable. All the successful
organisation need good leaders for the success of company. When it comes to good leadership
communication plays a substantial role which is required between the employees and employer.
The motivated employees perform better in the interest of the organisation which brings
productivity and growth in the company. Tesla has divisions in the structure that is hierarchy,
centralisation and division based.
Therefore, Elon Musk follows the transformational leadership and the transactional
leadership style which helps in achieving the short-term goals. Sometimes, it follows the
transactional leadership style as it is used by Elon Musk due to his aggressive approach he
follows to innovate within the company's operations. He's known for his bold nature with an eye
to the future and he pushes himself to the limit in different ways to improve the position and
image of the company in the market. The employees working in the company are directed to
achieve the goals at the priority in return for some rewards and incentives.
2. The contribution of various theories, concepts, practices related to leadership and its
development
The success of a company depends upon the leader and their abilities to motivate the employees
Leadership theories emphasize the behaviours and traits of individual which can help in boosting
the leadership abilities. In a team, leader plays an essential role while considering the various
aspects such as actions, environment, situation and decision making process.
 Transformational theory of leadership- It is process that helps to transform the
individuals and has the ability to motivate the people to improve. Elon Musk believes that
feedback is important for the success he always make time for the team leaders to give
them updates. He also makes sure that his employees take small steps towards reaching
new goals. Musk demands a lot from his management and he also claims that he often
sleeps at Tesla manufacturing plant because he doesn't have time to go home.
There are also disadvantages of Transformational leadership style which are as follows -
◦ It can result into wrong decisions- As the leaders are given authority there can be
chances that leaders can make harsh and abrupt decisions that are not in the best
interests and have negative implications.
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◦ Issues in prioritization- This can be problematic when it comes to motivating and
encouraging the team members, transformational leaders tend to coach only selected
group of people and only preferred individuals are given priority.
Transformational leadership style has its own merits and demerits which have worked in most of
the organisations. This leadership style helps in achieving the desired goal of organisation.
 Transactional theory of leadership-It is also known as the management theory which is
result-focused and hierarchical. It focuses on the role of group performance, supervision
and organisation performance. Sometimes, Tesla follows the transactional leadership
style too as it is used by Elon Musk due to his aggressive approach he follows to innovate
within the company's operations.
The disadvantages of Transformational leadership style are as follows -
◦ It creates more followers- Transformational leadership creates more followers than
leaders because it puts the all responsibilities of leadership in the hands of the team
leaders. It expects from the team members to be follower by offering input to the
productivity process.
◦ Rigid – The rules and regulations can not be changed under working of transactional
leaders. It can be concluded that their emotions will not be considered during the
production process. It places zero value on empathy, as long as the work is being
completed the transactional environment does not care how people feel or think.
They focus on their assignments or assigned tasks only. Whenever someone needs
help, should be re,move from the team.
3. Theoretical contributions to the problems of leadership and its implications
The various problems which are faced by Tesla because of leadership are explained below-
 High repair cost- There are many other companies which are making auto mechanics
but very few are working with Tesla. This creates a problem for company to find
someone who can fix anything with the cars and the mechanics . Leadership can help in
managing the high repair cost issue by tracking and managing inventory. As the main
reason could be having defective spare parts or lack of spare parts in stock. The
management can help in training the team and technicians to keep the maintenance cost
low and know how to detect problems, malfunctions. Moreover, by choosing the right
technology and extending the warranty or insurance period to save.
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 Find it difficult to manage a budget- Tesla has some financial trouble as it finds it
difficult to manage the budget in critical ways and making further plan for expansion.
Leadership management can assist in regular monitoring to maintain a healthy budget
ultimately, this way is the best approach to follow cash flow, catch errors and monitor
variable costs.
 Market share- Other companies are also coming out with their own fully electric
models for affluent eco-drivers. In the main market, company hopes to gain the market
share with producing new and highly competitive models. Lack in leadership qualities of
the management leads to the problem in low market share which also affects the product
standardization and stages of product life cycle. An increase in market share also helps to
widen the customer base for the company with a majority of loyal consumer base.
 Poor build quality- Tesla is facing issues with bad quality issues as many people
reported issues about the paint blemishes and gaps in panels that are not typically seen in
luxury vehicles. Tesla has a lot of things to work on when it comes top build quality and
fix them sooner. Various measures can be adopted to create a quality chart to keep a
check on the quality of products by the leadership management so that this issue can be
resolved. Leadership can help in tracking the mistakes to commit the quality for
manufactures by setting a product's specification.
CONCLUSION
It can be evaluated that Elon musk used the transformational leadership style which created a
positive impact on the performance of the employees and the organisation. The chosen company
has been one of the innovative company in the world due to its way of incorporating new
strategics and techniques that increase the value of organisation. Therefore, it can be concluded
that Elon Musk has a strong team and adopt new, innovative ideas that he executes through the
transformational leadership style.
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REFERENCES
Hallinger, P., 2018. Bringing context out of the shadows of leadership. Educational management
administration & leadership, 46(1), pp.5-24.
Crosby, B.C. and Bryson, J.M., 2018. Why leadership of public leadership research matters: and what to
do about it. Public Management Review, 20(9), pp.1265-1286.
Roe, K., 2020. Leadership: practice and perspectives. Oxford University Press.
Bush, T., Bell, L. and Middlewood, D. eds., 2019. Principles of educational leadership & management.
Sage.
Schedlitzki, D. and Edwards, G., 2021. Studying leadership: Traditional and critical approaches. Sage.
https://www.fingerprintforsuccess.com/blog/elon-musk-leadership-style
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