week-8
Week 4 - Team Project Updates (Group D)
Week 4- Team Project Updates (Group D)
Q.1 Review the organization this Leader was at the top of and assess what the group behavior was like under this Leader (Chapter 9).
Leadership and Groups
The leaders of an organization are individuals who are tasked with the responsibility of providing the organization with direction. These individuals in most cases constitute of the organizational top management like the CEO and CFO of the organization and the organization’s board of directors. Currently, the ratio of men to women in these positions significantly differs with the majority of the positions belonging to men and only a few women managing to maintain these executive positions in the large organizations. For the case of men that have been in business for a long time, they prefer working with individuals whom they completely trust and have gained believe about their loyalty to their course for a long time. A good example of such a leader is Elon Musk.
Elon Musk is one of the most powerful individuals in the world. He is well recognized for his large electronics and motors companies, SpaceX, Telsa and Neutral ink among others. He has an estimated current net worth of 15.2 billion, thus making him among the top 100 richest people in the world. To such a leader, the team of the people who works together with him are those that he has been operating with for a long time. In almost all the organizations that he has established, he has utilized the group members of people whom he has known for long. The majority of the individuals who he has teamed up with, in order to create the many organizations which he is among the founders are men, who had been operating together with him for a long time.
Under his leadership, therefore, a large number of the people who formulate groups under him are those that have gained his trust. It is due to this reason that people who recently gained employment within his organization do not have the chance to manage climbing to the senior management levels. This aspect has also led to many women lacking the ability to attain the executive positions in many of these organizations (Forsyth, 2010).
Q-2 How did teams get implemented in the Leader's organization? Were they successful? What could have been done better?
While examining how teams are implemented by Elon Musk, it is easy to see why he has been a success. Elon Musk has a clear expectation and purpose for his employees. This has led to Elon Musk being responsible for some of the most innovative products we have ever seen.
First, Elon Musk has a production team tasked with focusing all efforts in product quality. He assigns his teams to focus less on marketing, and more on product. They are encouraged to take risks and develop new, even unorthodox ideas. While many companies put a strong focus on the marketing team, Elon Musk focuses resources on a quality marketing team capable of providing internal feedback and thinking outside the box.
Second, the teams inside both Space X and Tesla can be explained as cross functional. The allocation of roles within teams at Tesla for example can be evaluated. In a 2016 article by Fred Lambert, he examines the role of the team designing “autopilot” and why it is so appealing to top level candidates. Quite simply, inventors and innovators rarely get the funded opportunity to see their products tested in a short term feedback loop. This allows them to see their ideas put into real life scenarios. These teams have an extremely rewarding opportunity as a result of this structure. At the same time, the design team is separate. They are tasked with focusing on designing appearance’s that are appealing to the customer. These cross functional teams are combined to form the end result. This is a great way for Elon Musk to utilize employees’ talents to form a better product.
Last, the teams are focused on a collective effort. Whether it is Space X or Tesla, there is a clear purpose. For example, with autopilot, this is a task within a task. The purpose and result should be an appealing vehicle, capable of providing transportation for a customer safely and efficiently. These tasks are part of a greater collective effort. This allows Tesla to obtain experts from every field involved in the process. They are constantly indirectly evaluated by the products being tested. Elon Musk can turn to any one of his teams and know he is receiving feedback from experts in their designated area.
When examining what could have been done better, it is actually a difficult question because the answer can be looked at from two perspectives. Elon Musk is known to “ask the impossible”. Sometimes the teams may fall short of a goal, or have setbacks. This can be seen early on with Space X’s launch failures. Developing reasonable goals may have allowed teams to accomplish measured goals even if it took more time. At the same time however, these task drive innovation and forward thinking, which have led Elon Musk to develop out of the world products.
The teams within Elon Musk’s organizations are successful because they are diverse, have clear purposes, leadership, and proper resources. Elon Musk provides them with unique opportunities in their field of work, and allows for feedback within the organizations. The cross functional teams will continue to be a driving force behind the success of Elon Musk.
References
Forsyth, D. (2010). Group dynamics. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Lambert, F., & Fred Lambert @FredericLambert Fred is the Editor in Chief and Main Writer at Electrek. (2016, February 22). A look at the team of “hardcore” engineers building Tesla’s Autopilot and the exodus that followed its release. Retrieved May 28, 2017, from https://electrek.co/2016/02/22/tesla-autopilot-team-exodus/
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2017). Organizational behavior. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.