Elon Musk is well-known for maintaining a higher position inside Tesla Motors. As a leader in such a corporation, he is expected to demonstrate a variety of inner qualities that will influence others in order to reach established goals. Elon Musk will be evaluated based on his approaches and ethical leadership styles in Tesla Motors over the years (Chen, 2015, p.1). Being a good leader but not being ethical will not help a firm succeed. This essay is going to focus on and analyze different leadership approaches, theories and give recommendations on how Elon Musk can govern diverse situations in the organization to enhance the interpersonal relationship and positive vibes in the employees. In addition, it will focus on three main facets of leadership ethics.
Transformational Leadership Theory and Other Relevant Sources
Transformational leadership theory explains the notion of transforming instead of transacting. Transformation and transaction may be needed, however, the focus needs to be on the mutual motivation that translates individuals to leader and leaders, into ethical agents. This relationship created deepens the workflow of leaders and their followers, and it has to include morality (Liu, Zhu and Yang, 2010, p.200). A detailed transformational leadership structure must include a venerated behavior, motivation that inspires, intellectual encouragement, and tributes that are idealized (Avolio, Bruce and Francis, 2013, p.27).
Tesla is the most celebrated company as echoed by many of its former employees. However, the mush brilliance in the company was scary to most of the ex-employees (Musk, 2006). Tesla and Space X are two different companies that share a chief executive, Elon Musk. These companies have an ambitious technology and they have always had billion-dollar evaluations. Elon Musk is a self-made billionaire who founded PayPal and Zip2. He currently chairs SolarCity Energy Company. This man has to be remembered for his works and success for the years coming. However, measures that he uses to ensure sustainability in his companies are what making working with him to be frustrating (Krupp and Schoemaker, 2014).
Elon Musk is an opinionated leader making his companies be blessed and at the same time cursed. A good leader is persuasive and this makes sure that instructions are followed to the later and they stretch to the possibilities. Persuasion normally comes with an expression of strong sentiments. This trait is seen back in history in some leaders like Churchill and Mandela. Elon has pure ambitions and he normally steps ahead in things done. While people view a thing as a failure, he conceives it as working. This is actually what makes Elon be an opinionated leader. Opinionated leaders are normally loved by some people, hated by a fraction of the population but you can never find them being ignored.
The one problem with opinionated leaders is that even the most intelligent people that they have fail to do the right things. In addition, they normally fear to change the course of an action due to fear of being belittled. The hallmark of inventive thinking begins with being able to accept changes, being open and adapt to the change of actions. Following and committing to a path simply because you issued it does not guarantee success. Smart companies are willing to change the course of their original plan/idea. Resolution and persuasiveness are seen as skills in strong leaders, besides, they should exhibit innovation by being open-minded and accepting any relevant change. Elon Musk employees would follow him despite his plans being wrong, at the end, they were the ones who ended up being frustrated (Kent, 2013).
Focusing on Steve Jobs, he was fiercely opinionated, charismatic and abrasive to who did not agree with his ideas. However, sometimes he used to change his mind making him be fiercely opinionated. A leader must be humble enough to confess that what they want to be done is not right. Every human being despite their positions is prone to make serious mistakes that need corrections. Steve Jobs was humble enough to change his mind that made apple to be and is still successful. Not only did the strong will in apple ensured its success, but the company accepting change in the opposite direction made it thrive.
There is humiliation normally associated with leaders who change their previous direction. Yet, most of the successful people seen are the ones who were able to accept, embrace, and adapt to change. If many companies had not changed their way of thinking or their business models then they would not have created an impact today. What is needed is open-minded individuals and bosses that will strongly execute change. Leaders do not have to be intolerable to ensure there is change but to value inventiveness.
According to transformational leadership theory, a leader should always nurture an environment that encourages the followers to be inventive and challenge the existing conditions (Avolio, Bruce and Francis, 2013, p.27). The best way in which followers can improve an organization is when they are allowed to imagine relevant things that can benefit both their self and the company. Elon Musk preference of micromanaging his firms and every business aspect promote an indirect leadership failure. By doing so, there is space left for idea interpretation.
Transformational Leadership
Each organization emphasizes the concept of leadership when they are training their managers. Transformational leadership involves a mutual commitment between the leaders and its followers. The basic elements that underlie transformational leadership are;
Idealized Influence
Transformational leaders are role models and they portray a personality that is charismatic. Their personality influences their followers and they want to become/ resemble their leader’s characteristics (Sadeghi and Pihie, 2012, p.3). The risks that a transformational leader takes, following values and ethical principles ensure that their follower's ideas are influenced. Through the concept of idealized influence, trust is built between the leaders and the followers, this, in turn, develops into confidence.
Inspirational Motivation
Followers get an inspirational motivation when their leader inspire their confidence, enthusiasm and assure them a sense of belonging. A transformational leader must express his/her vision, communication prospects to the employees, and demonstrate a commitment to the company’s goals. For this aspect to be successful, the leader should be good in communicating both verbally and in writing. The messages should be precise, clear and passed on in an authoritative manner (Neider and Schriesheim, 2014). Other traits that are required are enthusiasm, optimism, and a positive mind.
Intellectual Stimulation
Creativity and autonomy among the employees are valued in transformational leadership. Mutual support is shown when the leader involves the staff in making decisions and vice versa. This, in a way, stimulates the participant's efforts to be creative and innovative thus bringing a quick solution (DaSilva, Janezic and Hisrich, 2012, p.84). At this juncture, the leader is able to challenge assumptions and beseech for ideas from employees without criticism. A transformational leader helps to change the way followers reason and handle their toughest problems (Wang et al., 2011, p.230). The vision conveyed by the leader helps the organization employees to view things in a bigger picture, therefore, making their efforts successful
Individualized Consideration
Each follower has a diverse consideration that specifies his or her desires. In a business setting, some employers may be motivated by money while others by a change of the business operations. Transformational leadership recognizes the element of personalized considerations. It is the duty of the leader to determine what inspires each person.
The leadership in Musk’s companies are pseudo transformational. There is no degree of self-empowerment since they rely on a one-person idea. Actually, the employees are over depending on Musk’s ideas that make them be frustrated and bored. The characteristics in Musk’s companies resemble that of an authoritarian leadership and the leader upholds himself making the others to feel inferior (Zhang, Lin and Fong, 2012, p.370). One instance in which Musk made his employee feel frustrated is when the project allocated was canceled after he devoted a hundred hours a week to work on it. Many of the ex-employees loved to work in Musk’s companies but they would never dare go back there to work in unfair conditions (Sutton, 2010). It is the duty of transformational leaders to institute moral values and standards that are ethical to their followers.
Advice
Personal Perspective
From a personal perspective, Musk should change the way he handles his employees and the processes in his environment. As a chief executive officer, he is already a manager and he has many responsibilities for the organization (Jones and Jones, 2010). Employees in any business setting are the ones who make the visions of the company to become a reality and as a manager; it is their responsibility to ensure that they govern efficiently. Besides being an effective manager, it is advised that the employees should not be harassed to work extra harder. Forcing your workers to work in unfavorable conditions breeds anger, frustration, and treachery (Sutton, 2010). On the other hand, being too soft on them leads to the creation of bad habits such as laziness and absenteeism. It is the sole responsibility of the manager to seek what best fits the employees so as to come with the right management tool. However, some ways are totally wrong and unethical when handling employees.
Elon Musk should be consistent with his management styles so as to avoid complaints from the employees. Instead of micromanaging, he should be rewarding the good deeds of the employees and discourage the appearance of bad behavior. In this manner, the working teams will be levels ahead. This means that each and every view will be seen to have some degree of sense and therefore considered (Hershatter and Epstein, 2010, p.211).
How a manager communicates with his/her team dictates their ultimate success. Tesla and other Musk’s companies are successful however in many instances Musk failed to relay the right information. Some of the engineers became frustrated when they did voluminous works that were later rejected. When instructions are being relayed, a manager should strive for clarity, precision, and thoroughness. This applies to both written and verbal communication. Clarity, precision, and thoroughness are the major facets of communication and they keep the working team at bay.
The Tesla organization should have functioned as a team earlier. If a manager wants the company to fair on well, then the employees should work as a team. Each idea of the people involved should be considered as well. When goals are set for an individual then there will be
limited mentality. When goals are set for a team, then they do not become isolated, instead, they become focused and get inspired to work together (Richter, Dawson and West, 2011, p.2750). Success in an organization should be shared and therefore each participant should be rewarded. This is supposed to be done through trophies, bonuses, or vocal recognition. This makes the intended recipient feel good and encourages others to work hard. A manager who is a leader should set a good example for his/her followers, if you lose your temper easily, then the others will do so. They should consider that each worker has unique preferences. There are some areas which employees are weak and areas they perform well. Above all, managers are supposed to remain transparent to issues concerning the organization (Hershatter and Epstein, 2010, p.211).
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Organizational Perspective
From an organizational perspective, it all has to do with leadership and the ethical practices that the leader imposes to the followers. As a transformational leader, Elon Musk ought to gain a solid understanding of various things such as project management, managing the workers, organizational skills, and monitoring of performance. Most leaders think of ethics as something that deals with personal conscience. Such leaders are quick in judgment and describing their worker's wrongdoings. Actually, an individual misdeed has to do with the company and at the same time destroys the company’s image. Ethics has nothing to do with how the company is managed but it has everything that has to do with management.
Elon Musk leadership style should favor everybody in the company and at the same time be ethical. It should make everybody think freely. He should be observant about complains and challenges that occur in Tesla which will make him gain more understanding. Understanding the intricacies from a personal level helps the employees get empowerment due to the centred approach that is employed in the organization. Elon Musk focus should be on his employees, they should be involved in decision-making and innovation that will, in turn, promote the company’s success (Karamitsios, 2013). Ethics in an organization express the organizational values to its staff irrespective of the business laws. Leaders such as Musk should learn not to be opposed and embrace any change that is coming. With that, everybody in the organization feels recognized. If Elon follows the advice given to him by his followers, then he will be considered a more ethical leader (Rahim, 2010.
The management approaches and the leadership style that has been used in this paper cannot hinder the resolution of Musk’s organizational issues. Transformational leadership is not only about the leader, but also about the groups involved (Grant, 2012, p.460). There is the creation of a mutual relationship in which the leaders and the followers come to agree on decision-making issues, creativeness, and inventiveness. The transformational leader, who acts as the role model to the people always makes sure that everything he does is perfect thus evading criticism. Transformational leaders humble themselves, which is unlike Musk. Being able to accept changes can make him the best leader. Something good about accepting to change in the opposite direction is that time and money wastage is reduced. Furthermore, in the process of being corrected, the leader can acquire better innovative ideas. Elon lacks empathy towards his employees and discourages others opinions (Bessen, 2014, p.13). The workers in Musk’s company are always frustrated making them leave the company and leave negative reviews. In many instances, Elon has harassed and fired his workers, I think this was in an attempt to scare the remaining workers who were opposing his views. Elon should adopt a culture where he questions his employees from time to time, and hear from them what suits them best. A leader who gets complains and views of the employees get to understand their struggles, in the end; he motivates and rewards them for their efforts. It is advised that Elon should use the situational approach in his companies with aim of creating a better relationship with his employees. If the employees see their leader is caring, they will become more committed and willing to go an extra mile in their duties. The authoritarian leadership style used in Tesla cannot solve the resolution issues.
In general, Musk fails to demonstrate good leadership in his companies. He is a manager who in the next ends ignores how ethical leadership can create a mutual relationship with his followers. I think Elon having numerous businesses and inventions have made him be what he is. He is liked by many has made him be egocentric and deem the advice given to him by his juniors as inferior.
In conclusion, Elon Musk should be a transformational leader despite his success and fame. Because the public likes him for his inventions, he should respect and motivate his employees too because they are his drivers for success. His projects and duties should always be carried out ethically. The major ethical challenge that Elon has is his failure to recognize and uphold others ideas. Many corporations are successful because their leaders accepted to move in the opposite direction. Elon Musk should focus on teamwork and everything will go on well with his employees (West, 2012).
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