Successful CEOs
The closing
case highlights the work habits of several highly successful leaders. While
each has an unique way of approach his or her job, the case points out the
keys: ability to function with minimal sleep, dedication to exercise to keep
the energy level up, ability to take in vast amounts of information, and the
ability to use many sources of information.
There are a
variety of different essays that can be derived from the reading, our
discussion, your research and the case at the end of the chapter.
However, each essay should begin with a thesis statement couched in the first
paragraph, and should employ your answers to the questions at the end of the
case to support the original thesis in the succeeding paragraphs. The
final paragraph of the essay should incorporate your general argument to
restate the thesis.
It is assumed that at this time all students are now comfortable in their
ability to create an effective thesis statement.
Some of the possible responses to the questions at the end of the case are:
Case
Question 1: Which bases of power are used by the leaders cited in this article?
The bases
of leader power given in the text are: legitimate power, reward power, coercive
power, referent power, and expert power. All the leaders mentioned in the case
have legitimate power: Carlos Ghosn, Howard Schultz, Vera Wang, Jane Friedman,
and Hank Paulson are all CEOs of the organizations, while Bill Gates is the
co-founder of Microsoft. The others in the case hold senior management
positions. They also, thus, have reward power and coercive power in their ability
to determine what others below them get. Keeping on top of the information flow
in the organization also gives them expert power.
Case Question 2: Which examples of
leader behavior described in this article seem to best fit with job-centered
leader behavior? Which are most like employee-centered leader behavior?
Examples of
job-centered leadership would very likely be Marissa Meyer while most of the
examples indicate employee-centered leadership. Thus, Bill Gates puts enormous
emphasis in holding on to good talent, Schultz visits at least 25 stores each
week, Hank Paulson personally visits business schools to recruit.
Interestingly, Marissa Meyer holds regular office hours to meet with employees
indicating that she exhibits employee-centered leadership also.
Case Question 3: Do the leaders
cited in this article exhibit the elements of charismatic leadership? Explain.
It
is
difficult to say if any of the leaders mentioned in the case exhibit
charismatic leadership because we are not given that information.
Students would have to find out more about these leaders (the link in
the
box below tells us more about Carlos Ghosn, for example) in order to
find out
their leadership style.
Management
Update: BusinessWeek Online (www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_40/b3902020.htm)
presents an interesting interview with Carlos Ghosn. It describes Ghosn’s
leadership style and also documents how he turned Nissan around.
If you would like to learn more about the essay format
please visit the "Guide to Grammar and Writing" on the "Links"
page of this site.
