week-8
Week 2 - Team Project Updates (Group D) 5
Week 2 - Team Project Updates (Group D)
Question 1. Do An Assessment Of The Employee Satisfaction In One Of The Organizations Led By The Leader According To Chapter Three.
According to the chapter, the leaders are responsible for the assessment of job satisfaction among the employees. The leaders face the challenges of determining ways through which they can improve job satisfaction among the employees for the business to stay competitive. Organizational leaders have a significant role in assessing the employee job satisfaction to improve the performance of the employees (Mathieu, 2014). The managers improve the employee job satisfaction through various methods. First, they provide a positive working environment for the employees. A motivating working environment can enhance job satisfaction within the employees. Secondly, the leaders provide rewards and recognition to the performing employees. Recognition and reward are both significant in creating motivation and morale of the employees. The leaders accomplish this by simply having a small celebration to motivate the employees and increase their job satisfaction.
Third, the leaders improve the job satisfaction by engaging the employees in important events such as the decision-making process. For example, Sony Electronics Company involves its employees in the sharing of ideas to improve the brand. After the assessment, the managers also develop the employee skills and their potentials through training and development programs (Mathieu, 2014). Training equips the employees that may be lagging behind with the necessary skills and ability to improve the employee performance as well as that of the organization. Finally, the leaders improve the job satisfaction through the assessment and evaluation of the job satisfaction among the employees. Continuous assessment is essential in developing the skills of the employees and therefore their performance at work. The assessment measures the employee progress, therefore, determining the gaps that need further improvement.
Question: 2 .Assess the "mood" of this Leader and also assess the level of Emotional Intelligence of the Leader especially applying the analysis on pages 1-9 - 113 of the textbook. (Chapter 4)
Assessment of the "Mood" Of This Leader and the Level of Emotional Intelligence of the Leader
According to chapter four, the manager has the emotional leadership skills and emotional intelligence while interacting with the employees. Emotional leadership is the practice that leaders utilize to leverage the employees to a common objective, to improve the performance of the organization (McCleskey, 2014). An emotional approach is an important method of leveraging the employees towards realizing the organizational goals and objectives. The leader here uses positive mood to influence the employees in a positive way. The manager in question is a charismatic type of a leader as he transmits his emotions to the employees through a concept known as "emotional contagion."
The leader also uses a group effective tone while addressing a group of employees. Organizations with leaders that have positive mood have good reputation and performance than those whose leaders' tones are negative. The processes such as cooperation, teamwork, and strategy task greatly depend on the mood of the leaders. Expressing the attitudes publicly would reflect on the employees as the employees react to the moods cognitively. Robust emotional leadership is influenced by the emotional intelligence of the manager.
Emotional intelligence is the capacity to assess, observe and manage one's emotions and those of the employees. The leader uses the elements of emotional intelligence namely social awareness, self-management, relationship management and self-awareness (Goleman, 2013). Self-management is the ability of a leader to control his or her emotions in an honest way making sure not to let the employees realize that that something could be bothering them. Self-awareness is the capability of a leader to understand his or her emotions and maintain confidence regardless of the weaknesses that he or she may have. Social awareness comprises of empathy towards the employees and organizational perception. Finally, relationship management is used be leaders when managing big groups. The manager uses all the four elements successfully to resolve conflicts and increase the organizational performance.
Question- 3
Big Five Personality Model to the Leader. Assess how much if any of the Dark Triad
BIG FIVE PERSONALITY MODEL:
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Emotional Stability
Openness to Experience
We will now examine the Big Five Personality Model in association with Elon Musk. The five areas can demonstrate or predict behavior at work. In addition to the Big Five Personality Model, we will also examine if the Dark Triad applies to Elon Musk.
Elon Musk would probably not be considered an extrovert. He is a self innovator who as able to use his mind to generate extremely unique ideas and strategies. Musk is also not known for being a polished public speaker, considering this would most likely be a skill of an extrovert, he does not fall into this category. At the same time however, he does have one major trait of an extrovert, which is assertiveness. Musk was told time and time again that many of his endeavors such as Tesla and SpaceX would fail, but Musk was assertive in saying they would be a success. This takes a strong personality, and Musk certainly has one. Agreeableness is something that can be positive and negative. From a leadership standpoint, an assertive leader can be an effective leader. Elon Musk is known to be incredibly optimistic and determined in projects. He is known to “stay the course” and does not believe that problems cannot be solved. This strong mind has allowed Elon Musk to continue to develop new ideas in the face of doubt and adversity. Conscientiousness is a trait that Musk displays without a doubt. Elon Musk is incredibly persistent as the idea of SpaceX and Tesla were expected my many to be a failure. In fact, SpaceX at one time was admittedly (by Musk) a near failure in its early years after repeated failed launches. Being persistent, strategies developed to increase investment and research saved SpaceX. This conscientiousness to be persistent, and dependable and doing what he said he will, made both Tesla and SpaceX iconic due to the end result. According to an article in exploringmarkets.com, Elon Musk is even said to always invest in his new ideas, because he does not expect others to invest in something he is not willing to himself. These out of the ordinary ideas faced extreme criticism but Elon Musk pushed forward. Emotional Stability is extremely important in an organization; it directly relates to job performance and is essential for successful leaders and managers. Elon Musk’s consistent positive attitude and optimism is something he is known for. He always stays focused on the goal regardless of setbacks. He is someone who enjoys innovation, and claims to put 80 to 100 hours per week. Setbacks in the workplace are something every employee faces at some point, and only those who can learn from these setbacks can maximize the chance of success. Using failure as an opportunity to learn is something Elon Musk has mastered. This reflects his emotional stability. The most compatible trait with Elon Musk is Openness to Experience. His ideas of space development (SpaceX) and Tesla are products that offer a completely new experience for consumers. This is also someone who was born in South Africa, and came to the United States due to business opportunities. Elon Musk, by action, has demonstrated an openness to experience. This, of all the traits, reflects his success because this trait alone has allowed him to enter areas of business that were seen as very high risk. He is willing to push the boundaries and limits for himself, as well as the products his companies offer.
Regarding the Dark Triad, I would say Elon Musk does have some traits of Machiavellianism. For Musk, it is said that failure can be an option. With SpaceX for example, it took multiple attempts at launches before success. On one hand this is persistence and commitment, but it can also be viewed as risky and only being focused on the end result. I do however think Elon Musk’s determination is actually viewed in a positive light, because it is not manipulative by nature. He actually sees his ideas as beneficial for the world, and this shows empathy. I think overall the Dark Triad (Machiavellianism, Narcissism, Pyschopathy) do not apply to Elon Musk. Even referring to Machiavellianism, his small comparisons can also be viewed in a positive light
When examining the Big Five Personality Traits, we have found that Elon Musk has some of these desirable traits. Some of these traits have been key in his success in the modern business world. The traits reflect his behavior, help us understand his personality, and help paint a better overall picture of Elon Musk.
Question 4
Read and apply from the DeVry library the following article- Narcissistic Leaders: The Incredible Pros, the Inevitable Cons. Authors: Maccoby, Michael (Chapter 5)
“Michael Maccoby is a psychoanalyst, anthropologist and author; he is internationally recognized as an expert on leadership. Dr. Maccoby is president of The Maccoby Group in Washington, DC and is an Associate Fellow of the Saïd Business School, Oxford University. For more than 35 years, Dr. Maccoby has been coach and consultant to all kind of leaders in the
World Bank, universities, unions, corporations, and the State and Commerce Departments of the U.S. Government and the U.S. Army. He has worked in 36 countries in the Americas, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East”. (Dr. Michael Maccoby Biography, March 2013)
“Dr. Maccoby’s article “Narcissistic Leaders: the Incredible Pros, the Inevitable Cons”, January, 2000 has won a McKinsey Award, which recognizes the two best Harvard Business Review articles published each year. It was the basis for the book, The Productive Narcissist: The Promise and Peril of Visionary Leadership, published in 2003. In 2007, Harvard Business School Press published the paperback with a new introduction, re-titled Narcissistic Leaders: Who Succeeds and Who Fails”. (Dr. Michael Maccoby Biography, March 2013)
Dr. Maccoby as a psychoanalyst tend to see and analyze leaders and CEOs personalities types thru Sigmund Freud’s personalities types. Freud acknowledged that there are different variability of personalities, Freud identified three main kinds of personalities: erotic, obsessive, and narcissistic. Most people have components of the main three types. Erotic: not in sexual terms, but whom is loving and being loved is most essential. This personality type is very productive, are developers, enablers and helpers at work. They are supportive and caring; but they evade conflict and like others to dependent on them. Freud sees them as outer-directed people. Obsessive: are self-reliant, conscientious and inner-directed. They like to create and keep order as well as resolve conflict. They also communicate very effectively and focus on improvement (self, values and morals), productively they are excellent mentors and team players. Unproductively, they are rule-bound bureaucrats. The last type is narcissists. Narcissists: are independent, like to be admired, vision oriented, like to learn everything about everything that involve their companies and its products, have the tendency to isolate themselves; are also innovators, business driven, love gain power, control and glory. Productively, are experts in their
businesses, extreme workers (workaholic), always posing criticalquestions? (Michael Maccoby, 2000)
Elon musk is a South African born, now he lives in Bel-Air California USA. He is an inventor, Explorer and Engineer. Musk did all his higher education studies between Canada and United States. Musk is an entrepreneur and a truly visionary; and is a founder/co-founder of several companies such as Tesla motors, SpaceX, Zip2, X.com. He also is the CEO of some of the mentioned companies and SolaCity, he is a true believer of clean energy. His wealth is estimated around $16 Billion. In his personal life, he had been married a couple of time and has six children with his first wife all boys. (Bogdan, J. 2017. Elon Musk. Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia)
Due to Musk achievements in life and personality type, Elon Musk fall into the Sigmund Freud’s personality types, as a Narcissists. Musk’s personality profile exposes his obvious productive narcissistic abilities that shaped his vision worldwide. Musk is independent, vision oriented, business driven, like to be admire, workaholic, controlling among other characteristic of a narcissistic personality type. He also has some trace of the erotic and obsessive type of personalities.
Agreeing with Dr. Maccoby, narcissism can be extremely useful and moreover necessary. Productive narcissists have the bravery of been business oriented and often are catalysts of societal changes and transformations. Elon Musk fit the profile of been in the productive category of narcissism. Musk is always working to help humanity by keeping a clean environment which the case of Tesla Motors and SolarCity companies that he help to develop and build. His technological innovation and interests have an impact in social changes, ethical issues and in the business sectors, which is an indicator of his productive narcissistic personality type. Musk’s personal and professional life has his own daemons that he fight for the good of been a productive narcissistic leadership and the greater good of mankind.
In applying Dr.Maccoby’s of Fromm’s 4th Personality type, the marketing personality. Elon Musk is more on the productive type due to his expertise in quality progression, commitment tostrategic people in business partnerships and projects developments when marketing and selling himself to others.
“More and more large corporations are getting into bed with narcissists. They are finding that there is no substitute for narcissistic leaders in an age of innovation”. (Michael Maccoby, 2000)
Question 5
Apply the criteria on Creative Behavior to the Leader. How does the "Choosing to Lie" box on page 178 apply?
The criteria of creative behavior has four steps: Problem formulation, information gathering, idea generation, and idea evaluation. Elon Musk is an extremely innovative and creative individual. He believes in working hard and long hours. He states if you work 100 hours per week and a competitor works 50 hours per week, you will accomplish twice as much in one year (Musk, 2014).
Elon is very good at thinking creatively to solve problems. Elon says that if you look at something and say that product will never become popular because it’s too expensive. This starts the creative process starting with problem formulation. The problem has been identified as an expensive product, so costly to produce that little to no research or funds are being put into improving the availability of the product. The product is then broken down by what components make up the product and the market value of each individual component also called information gathering. Each component is closely scrutinized to During the idea generation stage, alternative and substitute components are explored that will produce the same effect in a cheaper way. The final ideas that pass standards will then be evaluated for feasibility and output success. Elon’s vision and ability to streamline products such as rocket components that previously hadn’t been engineered since the 1960’s has earned him titles such as “the Henry Ford of rockets (Chafkin, 2014).”
Regarding ethics and business, Elon Musk supports being as ethical as possible as well as delivering the best and most innovative product possible. He is humble enough to accept and share that he has failed before and that he has been wrong many times before. “Your goal is to be less wrong (Musk, 2014).” Musk goes out of his way to ensure his decisions remain morally and ethically sound not only for himself, but for his businesses and his shareholders. He believes in “ethical standards, values, and moral convictions (Padgett, 2015),” which is a notoriously difficult statement regarding public perception of modern businesspeople. Elon does not lie to himself about the realities of his companies, or to his shareholders. Musk also says he wishes that his friends would tell him when he is wrong instead of just letting him do what he thinks is the best way. Honesty is what he desires, not withholding, and as people can get blinded by their own thoughts, having a friend to provide a different perspective is something that Elon greatly values (Musk, 2014).
References
Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2013). Primal leadership: Unleashing the power of emotional intelligence. Harvard Business Press.
Mathieu, C., Neumann, C. S., Hare, R. D., & Babiak, P. (2014). A dark side of leadership: Corporate psychopathy and its influence on employee well-being and job satisfaction. Personality and Individual Differences, 59, 83-88.
McCleskey, J. (2014). Emotional intelligence and leadership: A review of the progress, controversy, and criticism. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 22(1), 76-93
10 brilliant quotes from Elon Musk about business, and his love for America. (n.d.). Retrieved May 13, 2017, from http://www.exploringmarkets.com/2014/03/10-brilliant-quotes-from-elon-musk.html
Hollingham, R. (2012, June 12). BBC - Future - How SpaceX learned from Nasa's successes – and failures. Retrieved May 13, 2017, from http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120611-learning-from-pioneers-mistakes
Musk, Elon. Nov 30, 2014. Elon Musk - Work ethics, Principles, Attitude, Failure - Pearls of Advice. Retrieved May 14, 2017 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU7W7qe2R0A
Chafkin, Max. Jun 10, 2014. Elon Musk: How I Became The Real 'Iron Man'. Retrieved May 14, 2017 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh45igK4Esw
Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2013). Primal leadership: Unleashing the power of emotional intelligence. Harvard Business Press.
Maccoby, M. (2000). Narcissistic Leaders. (cover story). Harvard Business Review, 78(1),
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