Analysis of Tesla's Leadership, Culture, and Organizational Structure

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Tesla's organizational culture, leadership, and human resource management practices. It begins by examining the perceived personality traits of CEO Elon Musk, highlighting his depth of perception, focus, risk tolerance, learning attitude, and future-oriented thinking. The report then delves into Tesla's motivational strategies, including top-down approaches, employee surveys, and programs focused on employee safety and well-being, such as the industrial athlete program. Leadership theories, specifically trait theory and transformational leadership, are applied to describe Elon Musk's leadership style, emphasizing his visionary approach and influence on the company's culture. The organizational structure is analyzed as functional, emphasizing a functional-based hierarchy, centralization of decision-making, and the presence of divisions. The report also addresses Tesla's commitment to diversity, detailing various employee resource groups, training programs, and partnerships aimed at fostering an inclusive environment. Finally, it explores the externally perceived organizational culture at Tesla, including its intense work environment, ambitious targets, and the impact on employee perceptions. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and implications for Tesla's continued success.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
ORGANIZATION CULTURE - TESLA

Perceived personality traits associated with the CEO of Tesla- Mr Elon Musk
The perceived personality traits of Mr. Elon Musk, the CEO of the company Tesla are
stated to be as follows. One of the prime personality trait can be stated to be incredible depth
of perception and focus. In addition, he is always looking for the improvement of his
surroundings and for the future developments. The fact that Musk himself is the co-founder,
CEO, and product designer of Tesla Inc. proves that his hard work and dual role sets the
company standards for the employees as well. The CEO is exceptionally motivated and has
displayed outright motivation even after being exposed to numerous failures in the form of
bankruptcy and others. Hence, an exceptional sense of risk toleration is yet another prime
personality trait of Musk (Business Alligators, 2019). Thus, the sheer motivation is evident
which has led to success for the organization in spite of the numerous challenges. The next
chief personality trait can be stated to be the possession of the learning attitude. One of the
striking fact is that Musk is a self-taught programmer and has a wide knowledge in many
advance level subjects. The constant innovation in his products is evident and has benefitted
the company in terms of the competitive edge. In addition to the above, the key personality
characteristic is the he has a future oriented thinking. The fact that he has selected three core
areas namely the space, clean energy and the internet for his products, are on the lines of
community and planet development as a whole. Thus, he and his company thrived on the idea
that technology can change the world and thereby served the humanity on the said goal. One
of the yet dominant personality trait of Musk is that he works on the ground level and has the
capacity to think at the system level of design. He is very particular about the objectives of
the company and being a connection between the engineers and the demands of the market,
he ensures he lives up to the demand standards.
The motivational activities conducted by the organization Tesla
The present CEO Elon Musk on behalf of the organization Tesla does his best to
keeps the employees motivates as he holds the belief that employees are the key assets of the
company and can aid an organization to reach to heights and long term success. The
company’s motivation strategies work on the principle that the more the employees are
engaged in the organization, the greater the profitability, more productivity combined with
the higher customer engagement within an organization. In addition, the higher engagement

among the teams expose the companies towards lesser risk of employee turnover, safety
issues, and the absenteeism on the part of the employees. Some of the motivational strategies
are listed as follows. A top-down approach is encouraged in the company and thus the people
are got on the board to channelize support at various levels of the entity. The company
engaged a survey namely “Tesla 360”, to get more useful insights about the employees of the
organization (Tesla, 2019a). The survey was conducted on the anonymous basis to allow the
employees to participate in the survey efficiently. The survey enabled the company to plan
their training sessions, videos and the departmental planning actions (Everwise, 2015). In
addition to the above, the departmental managers of the enterprise track progress of the
employees by indulging into efficient communication, workshops and collaborative activities
for the stated goals of the enterprise. In addition to the above, the safety of the employees is
the prime consideration for the company. For instance, the entity established the “industrial
athlete early symptom intervention program” at its Fremont Factory to identify and act on the
safety improvement opportunities (Tesla, 2019a). Further, the employees are motivated
through the employee stock purchase program of the entity, works on the “pay for
performance” principle and the promotions at comparable positions.
Leadership theories best describing the organizations leaders of Tesla
Elon Musk founder of Tesla follows transformational leadership style to run the
organization. The leadership theories that can be applied in this organization are trait theory
and transformational theory. Trait theory describes the characteristics of a leader or the
qualities that differentiate a leader from the followers. Each individual possess some quality
traits that make them a good leader or a bad leader (Bertocci, 2009). Musk always focuses on
long term vision for the Tesla and tries to push their employees towards excellence.
Contingency theory, trait theory and behavioral theory best describes the organization
leaders. Elon Musk is viewed as the one of a visionary and innovatory entrepreneur as he
always believe in setting up the goals that are bigger and influence their employees to
contribute best of their abilities (Dobbs, 2016). Leadership theories are used to understand the
characteristics of individual in order to identify their leadership styles and the way they can
run the organization. The trait of a leader can be understood and analyzed with the help of
trait theory whereas contingency theory and behavioral theory helps in understanding the
leadership style followed by the leader (Mabey & Knights, 2018). Elon musk is seen as the

transformational leader for the Tesla as he changed the environment and culture of Tesla. He
inspires and motivates their employees to do their best and push them to come out of their
comfort zone. Whereas contingency theory developed from the trait theory that includes the
choosing of leadership style on the basis of situation in which a leader lead. Elon msuk
possess following leadership qualities; creativity and innovation, decisiveness, visionary and
team work (Northouse, 2015). These traits of Musk made him a transformation leader and
that leads to Tesla the best organization. In a nutshell, after analyzing and knowing the
leadership traits and style that Elon Musk follows it can be commented that transformational
theory best describes the working of Tesla because all the traits of a transformational leader is
are presented in Elon Musk.
Organizational structure at Tesla
The organizational structure at Tesla is supportive of continuous business growth.
Tesla’s organizational structure can be stated to be as “functional” or “U-form”
organizational structure. The said organization structure comprises of the separate structural
group of employees for engineering, separate structural group for sales and service, and so
on. Thus, the organizational structure of Tesla thrives on the functional based hierarchy,
centralization of the decision making and strategic processes and division based work culture.
The functional based hierarchy is aimed at overseeing the domestic and international
operations and the maintenance of the strict managerial control over the activities of the
enterprise (Meyer, 2018). Thus, the global hierarchy is represented by the following list of
the functional offices namely the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Finance, Global
Sales and Service, Technology, Legal and Engineering. The centralization structure in terms
of the decision making is preferred to exercise the managerial control on the entire
organization. Thus, it must be noted that the heads of the offices of the global hierarchy
located at the central headquarters, are in control of all the business policies and the internal
directions for the company. Thus, a lack of autonomy can be seen in terms of the decision
making for the regional or overseas offices. In addition the overseas operations are also
controlled centrally from the headquarters. Though the company has bifurcated its business
operations of the automotive business in terms of the geographical or other types of divisions.
The two main divisions of the company are firstly the “Automotive Division” and secondly
the “Energy Generation and Storage Division.” The geographical based divisions of the

company are located at United States, China, Norway, and Others. These divisions are meant
to implement different strategies formulated at the head office of the entity. Thus, through the
different divisions there is an ease of implementation of new strategies throughout the various
levels of the organization as well.
Diversity at Tesla
The company as has stated in its “Impact Report 2019,” has a policy of the
recruitment of the employees irrespective of the race, age, national origin, gender expression,
color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability, protected veteran status, or gender identity.
Thus, the protected characteristics under law are very well taken care of at the entity. The
company has established a range of employee resource groups for the encouragement of the
sharing of ideas and maintain the diversity. Some of the groups are the LGBTQ @Tesla,
Black @Tesla, Veterans Taskforce and Women in Tesla, Intersectionality @Tesla, and the
Teslatinos (Tesla, 2019a). The culture of diversity is additionally promoted through the
various training programs on the lines of the anti-discrimination and anti-sexual harassment
principles and the same are to be attended mandatorily by the managers and the employees of
the entity. The entity has additionally entered into partnership with various Public Workforce
Systems in US such as Department of Veteran’s Affairs, Department of Labor, Department of
Social Services, and Department of Education for the training and recruitment of the diverse
talented employees. Additionally there are partnerships build at community level with various
other government agencies as well to aid the seekers of the jobs, implement job training and
education, and being the bridge between the workers and businesses with career services. The
diversity at the factory levels are also evident in the entity. For instance, the Fremont Factory
of the company is characterized by over two third of the employees belonging from the
different cultural background such as American African, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, and others.
Further, the entity has additionally stressed out the importance of the diversity in the code of
ethics which is applicable on the vendors of the entity as well. The diversity in the vendors of
the company can also be seem as the company Tesla is also a participant of the various events
with the certified diverse suppliers which aids the entity in strengthening its diverse vendor
base. Some of the events participated by the entity over the years are the “Small and Diverse
Business Expo of the California Public Utilities Commission”. Some of the other notable
partnerships of the entity on the lines of the diversity are that with the “Women in
Automotive,” “Society of Women Engineers,” and “National Society of Black Engineers,”

and others. In addition it is vital to note that the company has a 100/100 on the Corporate
Equality Index and has been awarded by the prestigious award of “Best Places to Work for
LGBTQ Equality (Tesla, 2019a).”
Externally perceived organizational culture at Tesla
It’s been just over 15 years since the company is in market of the automotive
manufacturing, but has been perceived as a leader in the said business by the virtue of the
intense work culture. The perceived image of the intense work culture, ambitious
organisational and individual targets, and hard work ethics have exposed the entity to a lot of
criticism over the years. However, the said work culture is perceived as attractive and
challenging for the young, driven applicants. As per the data of the survey conducted by a
career service application namely the Handshake, the company Tesla had received more job
and internship applications than any of the rivalries in the year 2016-2017 (Alvarez, 2018).
Thus, the evidence of the young community driven by the transition to sustainable energy is
quite strong. However, the ambitious targets and the demanding hours in Tesla combined
with the performance pressure could be exhausting for some of the workers. The workers and
employees of the entity have often quoted to be found themselves to be down with the intense
work pressure at the company Tesla. One of the yet another significant culture perception
about Tesla is that the company has a loose cultural environment which means that the
employees are given freedom of and are encouraged to be as creative and imaginative as
possible (Fast Company, 2019). However, the same has not benefited the entity much and
therefore structured looseness is suggested for the entity where the balance between
organisational norms and employee creativeness is created.
Human resource policies and practices at Tesla
Human resources management is an important function in any organization,
formulation of human resource practices and policies guides the employee behavior in an
organization. Tesla human resources practices and policies are framed to ensure the
satisfaction of employees in the organization. Tesla mainly focused on employee engagement
and training of employees to retain the best employees. Tesla conducted a “Tesla360” survey

to know the performance of employees and to ensure active participation of employees in the
organization. Tesla provided training programs to their employees and conduct employee
development programs to boost up the creativity level of the employees. The human
resources practices and policies of the organization is based on certain principles that are
constantly innovate, do the impossible, we are all in and think like owners (Briscoe, Tarique,
& Schuler, 2012). Tesla recently fired their hundreds of employees as the main focus of their
human resource policy is to retain and hire the high potential talent that can survive and prove
to be the competitive advantage for the organization. Recruitment and selection policies of
the Tesla is such that they focus on the attracting more potential candidates who are creative
and innovative and for selecting the best candidate according to the job description the
organization follow a selection process which includes various aptitude tests and panel
interviews (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, 2017). Tesla offered competitive wages and
perks to their employees in order to motivate them to give excellence work to the
organization. They review the compensation structure of employees in periodic basis and
amended it as per the need of the situation. The organization follows practices like pay as per
performance and provides lots of big career opportunities for career growth of their
employees. Tesla concentrates on hiring extraordinary talent and with that they ensure that
organization have diverse workforce to operate in different areas. So human resources
practices and policies of Tesla are mainly focused on hiring best talent, providing career
opportunities to their employees, and training and development of them to make their human
resource more competitive in the industry, further the organization also focused on various
employee engagement practices.

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