Leadership styles Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Leadership styles - Research Paper Example Their ability to perform the aforementioned things relies on the leadership style adopted. Thus, at any time the leader or the manager should employ these styles. An important issue arises and this will be subject in this paper, how are the managers capable of altering their leadership styles (as described in situational leadership theory) to communicate and motivate the employees. There are four leadership styles (the selling or coaching style, the participating or supporting style, the telling or directing style, and the delegating style) and each style will be discussed in detail and applied in the case of General Electric. Specifically, the paper will explore the leadership style of Jeff Immelt, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of General Electric. General Electric is among many companies that have excelled in their leadership styles. The leadership style employed has been used as a benchmark for most organizations and companies. It is noted that the four leadership styles are c rucial for the success or failure of a company. As seen in General Electric case, a leader or a manager can apply all the four leadership styles to steer the organization. However, there is a tendency to use one leadership style more than the others are. General Electric In 1876, in Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Alva Edison opened a laboratory where he could discover the prospects of the dynamo and other electrical tools or devices that he had realized in the exposition. By the year 1890, Edison launched the Edison General Electric Company by merging his various businesses. At the same time, a competitor appeared, the Thomson-Houston Company. Thomson-Houston Company became the principal electrical company through a series of unions or mergers led by Charles A. Coffin (General Electric Company, 2012). As the businesses grew, it became very difficult for either of the company to generate complete electrical installations depending entirely on their own technologies and patents. The t wo companies merged in the year 1892, and the new organization was called the General Electric Company. A number of Edison’s initial business offerings are still a portion of General Electric (GE) today and they include transportation, power transmission, medical equipment, industrial products, and lighting. The initial GE Appliances electric fans were generated at the Ft. Wayne electric works in the early 1890s. Full line of cooking and heating devices was first produced in 1907(General Electric Company, 2012). The GE Aircraft Engines started its operations in 1917 when the United States government started its search for a company that could produce the first airplane booster. Edison’s experiments with plastic filaments for the light bulbs started in 1893 and this led to the creation of the GE Plastics department in 1930. The General Electric leaders over the years have created a diverse portfolio of prominent businesses;a series of dominant company-wide initiatives t hat reduces cost and drives growth; Controllership and financial strength that permit it capitalize on openings through several cycles; and a collection of common values which permit it to face every environment with confidence(General Electric Company, 2012). Analysis The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Model illustrates the relation between the willingness of the followers and leadership style based on relationship and task behaviors of leaders.