MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

AWARDED BY NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY

ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION FORM

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Name of Student: Zubair Saleem

Student Registration Number: KL102047

Module Name: Managing and Leading Strategically

Module Number: WEC-MBA-11-0406

Assignment Title: Critical Analysis and Implementation of Leadership theories and Jack Welch's Leadership Style

Submission Due Date: 13 December, 2009

Student’s Electronic Signature: Zubair Saleem

Plagiarism is to be treated seriously. Students caught plagiarizing, can be expelled from the programme

V

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Assignment Form MBA Jan04

1.0 Introduction……………………………………………………………………

2.0 Three Duties of Manufacturer ……………………………………………….

2.1 Consumer Production And Marketing ……………………………………

2.1.1 The Contractual View………………………………………………

2.1.2 The Due Care View…………………………………………………

2.1.3 The Social Cost View………………………………………………

2.2 Marketing Ethics of BD…………………………………………………

3.0 Sole Control, Patents and Monopoly of Becton & Dickinson…………………

3.1 Four Major Principals of Ethics…………………………………………

3.2 Is the Manufacturer Legally, Ethically responsible ………………………

4.0 Who was Responsible for Maryann Rockwood’s Injury…………………….

5.0 GPO’s and B&D’s Monopoly and Ethics …….……………………………..

6.0 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….

7.0 References………………………………………………………………………

EXECUTIVE SUMMPARY

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In different ages of the past we have innovated ideologies, means and methods in almost all

fields which is based on 3 Ps i.e. People, Product and Profit. Leadership to manage, change,

innovate to increase competitiveness, performance and increase in desired outcome is on of those

great ideas which gave us opportunity to be able to motivate, communicate, change, innovate,

manage and lead the teams and groups or societies. The main theme comes to make the followers

able to put their combined effort to gain a competitive edge in today’s global competitive era.

Dr Francis “Jack” Welch Jr. is one of our great leaders of this era who worked in General

Electric for almost 41 years from 1960 to 2001 and remain CEO for 20 last years. He gave his

life to learn, teach and lead the organization and its employees and by increasing others abilities

and combined effort he turned company around almost 10 folds.

Though we have questioned ourselves that what qualities and leadership style he had or he

applied to achieve the desired success. The traits theory and its comparison to Jack Welch’s

leadership Qualities proved that though Trait theory is not highly considered in leadership as a

born leader or great man concept. But Mr Jack Welch increased the and improved his traits

through out his life and career in GE as well as he say’s “When I stop learning something new

and start talking about the past versus the future, I will go”. He focused the past and forecasted

the future while his second competitive trait was “accepting the Reality and Change” through

which he achieved the confidence of his followers and implemented Sig Sigma in GE.

In practical organizations leaders can never base on only the characteristics they have but they

have always tried to change and innovate the new ideas and even changed their leadership style

and behavior to its employees according to difference in situations. Welch believed to learn and

change not only the strategies when needed but he also changed his leadership style according to

the changing situations following the Hersy and Blanchard’s model. Welch’s aim was to move

and push the employees towards Delegating Style of this model which he covered in his 20 years

career as CEO of GE.

Table of Contents

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1.0 Introduction------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 03

2.0 Background of Jack Welch/his Organizations--------------------------------------- 05

3.0 Critical Literature Review Of Leadership Theories--------------------------------- 07

3.1 Traits Or “Great Man” Approach------------------------------------------------ 10

3.2 Situational / Contingency Approach-------------------------------------------- 12

3.2.1 Fred Fiedler’s Contingency Model-------------------------------------- 12

3.2.2 Hersy And Blanchard’s Contingency Model----------------------- 14

4.0 Jack Welch’s Leadership Qualities---------------------------------------------------- 16

5.0 My Opinions on Welch’s Leadership Style------------------------------------------ 19

6.0 Conclusion-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21

7.0 References-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22

1.0 INTRODUCTION

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The people we concern, the organizations we work and the societies we live have always been

changing in past through different ideologies, ways, opportunities and innovations. These

changes in individuals, organizations, and societies have been felt to come from countable

number of persons who understood the ideologies, opportunities and needs of our growth

towards the innovation. These countable persons include all the Prophets (Peace be upon Them),

Hitler, Carl Marx, Lenin, Galileo, Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela, Philip Kotler, Bill Gates,

Jack Welch, Jeff Bezos and many others who understood the human nature, been leaders and

gave new ideologies to innovate. But the most important ideology came in sight from all these

people was that, “Human is one of those creatures who need to be taught and leaded through

physical, mental or psychological means to achieve the combined goal in organizations and

societies”

According to Blagg and Young, “Leading is an ability to navigate in the choppy water of change

and to see the opportunity in every setback”. While American Academy of Achievement (2000)

illustrates that “Trailblazer, Guide, Change Agent, Captain, Coach and many other words used to

characterize the leaders. It further says that leaders may easily be defined as those people who

help shape organizations, events and ultimately lives are called as leaders” but according to AAA

the “secret” or “formula” of leadership remains somewhat a mystery.

Likewise many of other terms described by time to time for the persons who have changed the

thoughts of people, who leaded the individuals, organizations and who ruled the nations left

some questions for every human that “Are leaders born or they become leaders after passing

years struggle?” and “Is there any particular pattern that what should be the personal brand of a

leader, how he should take decisions and how he should react on situations?”

After the whole study I came to conclusion that though one has an ability to survive in England,

he might fail in Africa because of difference in his own bearable conditions. Like wise the

change in difference in situations, change of problems and change of people are those factors

which effects the ability of not only the organization and societies but of a person too who leads

the teams, groups and organization.

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A person who is born as leader should never be failed in any condition but should be able to

solve all the problems even in different conditions. When we talk about two different scenarios

like the decision in politics or textile industry is completely different than decision in Petroleum

well. This reflects us to the thinking that people who lead are not born but they pass through

many of situations

Hughas at el (2009) says “Leadership is everyone’s business”. While Gary Yukl (2005) sites that

Leading is the process of influencing the activities of a group towards the achievement, through

meaningful direction and stepping outside the culture to avail the opportunities.

Jack Welch (2008) says in a video that ability to lead basically comes through the understanding

of the abilities of your own self because all people have same senses but some only know that

which one of their senses is more meaningful.

The leadership is like the same tactic to know what makes u more important for the people to

whom u lead. What of your qualities will your followers like while it varies with changes in

people, culture, atmosphere and situation etc? e.g. People in America might like the person and

follow the one, with 3 peace suit and nice shoes like Dr John Francis “Jack” Welch, Jr (X-CEO

General Electric), as well the person with a very casual and normal dressing like Jeffery Preston

Bezos (CEO Amazon.com). But when we come to Japan people like their CEO in a very rough

and tough personal branding as per their psychology.

The leadership has been reshaped as per continuous innovations in ideas and psychology of work

force and organizations. The difference between the leadership of old era and that of new era is

very clear from the following comparison of Old and new Paradigm intentions of leadership by

NTU, 2009.

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OLD PARADIGM

StabilityControlCompetitionUniformitySelf-centeredHero

NEW PARADIGM

Change/crisis mgt.EmpowermentCollaborationDiversityHigher purposeHumble

2.0 BACKGROUND OF JACK WELCH AND GENERAL ELECTRIC

Dr John Francis “Jack” Welch, Jr also known as “Neutron Jack” was born on 19 th November,

1935 in Salem, Massachusetts, United states. Salem, Massachusetts is a city of Essex county, US

is a residential as well tourist city with mix historical sites and of new age at the edge of

Naumkeag River. John, father of Jack Welch was a Boston &Maine Rialroad conductor while his

mother Grace was a house wife. Jack Welch after his primary education in Salem High School

graduated from University of Massachusetts with Bachelors of Science Chemical Engineering in

1957. Jack Welch received his Masters of Science in Chemical Engineering and then Ph.D from

University of Illinois in 1960.

Jack Welch joined General Electric in 1960 as a “Junior Engineer” at a salary of almost $10,500

while during his job he did a huge accident in the factory and was almost fired but company

intended to let him leave by himself and raised his salary by $1000 only in second year and Jack

was displeased and decided to leave the company but one of the executive Reuben Gutoff, just

two levels up than Jack Welch convinced Welch not to leave the company and fight against the

bureaucracy in the company. Welch was named as “Manager of the Century” by fortune

magazine, 1999.

During the job career of Jack Welch in GE, he invented a new form of plastic named as PPO and

was promoted to General Manage of GE’s plastic factory. He was later promoted to vice

president of GE in 1972, president of GE in 1977 and as Chairman of GE in 1979 as the

youngest Chairman of GE. This was the talent of Jack Welch and his hard work which in his

starting was only known by Reuben Gutoff which later came in sight of whole the world. Jack

Welch was lastly promoted again in just 2 years as the youngest CEO of General Electric. GE

was one of the slow moving companies in and before 1960s but today GE is a dynamically

grown giant of the world. During the 20 years of Jack Welch’s CEO career, he turned the slow

moving company from value of $12 billion to $280 billion. Welch made a record salary of $940

million per annum.

According to H. Hoston (2001) Jack Welch turned the company around in three different stages

during his career as CEO General Electric. He elaborates the first cycle from early 1980s to late

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1980s in which Welch eliminated all the nonperforming business units through judgment of

market performance. In second cycle during late 1980s to mid 1990s he eliminated the non-value

added activities following the Change acceleration Process. While he illustrates the third cycle of

Jack Welch’s leadership in GE from 1995 to 2001 and describes that Welch discovered Six

Sigma in 1995 and studied its implementation in both Motorola and Allied Signal. This third

phase was to eliminate the variations from already lean business operations to gain its highest

possible productivity and performance. In third phase GE achieved operating margins moved

from 13.6% to 18.9%, inventory turned from 5.8% to 8.5%, ratio of plant and equipment

expenditures (Asset Efficiency) moved to 1.0% while EPS (Earnings per share) doubled in 5

years after implementation of Six Sigma.

GE today is working under the saying of Jack Welch that “We bring ideas together, turning the

meetings of our top managers into intellectual orgies”

Though GE is today a world giant but some of the financial experts like Carole A. Symonds have

criticized the Jack Welch’s financial performance in GE. He illustrates that the ROIC (Return on

Invested Capital) did not increased during Welch’s last 10 years career as CEO even Six Sigma

was implemented and remains average 7.0% barely keeping the government bond yield for the

same time period which till now has fallen down to 5.4%. Symonds (2005) illustrates in his

article more clearly through the financial calculations of ROE and Debt to equity ration in which

he shows that the ROE (Return on equity) increased from 20.14% to only 25.22% showing that

how much company earned during last 10 years relating to Equity employed. He further proves

through Debt to Equity Ration which also shows the truth that increased from 3.5:1 to 4.0:1 only

as given below.

Source: Carole A. Symonds, 2005, ‘Jack Welch Missed His Opportunity with GE’ Global

Financial Publishing.Page 7 of 27

3.0 CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW OF LEADERSHIP THEORIES

Many different concepts have been generated through the years of research and a number of

practical scenarios and conditions felt by researchers and leaders within and outside the

organizations. These concepts have been modifying through the passage of time. Though there is

one very common concept in all leaders and researchers that the leader is also based on its

followers and people follow them because of many causes and not one. Like Hitler was followed

because of his powers and cruel nature, Karl Marx was followed due to his humanity loving

nature and many others due to different causes as a whole but when it comes to a practical

organizations, leaders are seemed to have some very important characteristics as given below

with quotes of some Harward Business School faculty members and some others (2001).

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Source: http://www.alumni.hbs.edu/bulletin/2001/february/leader.html

These are some of those important characteristics which a leader must have when dealing with

the teams and organizations. The styles of leadership differ with the difference in organizations’

corporate strategies, situations and conditions. Some of these main leadership styles are as given

below.

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"It is the real work of leadership" says HBS professor Nitin Nohria."Great communicators have an appreciation for positioning" says John Kotter."Your behavior, your action and your decision are also ways of communicating and leaders have to learn how to make it consistent" says David Thomas.

C o m m u n i c a t i o n a s a K e y

Nitin Nohria reflects Winston Churchhill's defeat in Gallipoli during world war I with 100,000 casualities but he took complete responsibility, the setback like this could be paralyzing but he was able to move forward to lead his country to victory in world war II.Jeff Bezos also says "it as one of the key element for a good leader"John Kotter stops to tell hard truth which demoralize the company.

T e l l i n g t h e H a r d t r u t h

Moss Kanter illustrates,"Leaders must wake people out of inertia. They must make them excited to achieve somethig that do not exist yet"Kotter says "Empowerment is also vital to manage change"Kanter observes that personal passion is not enough but your followers must also be believers"Kotters says to make people competitive to have progress in new era.

C o p i n g W i t h C h a n g e

"Knowledge is Power" while Joe Badaracco says "What your employees do is more challenging"David Thomas focuses that "Share knowledge is more important then retaining it"Nitin says "People do not follow your smartness but they prefer the leader who shares and who allows to share"Kotter says "A leader need enough understanding to fashion intelligence strategy"

T h e R o l e O f K n o w l e d g e

Kotter notes that " Like evolution from industrial age to information age, recognition of new opportunities are highly prized"Nohria urges Gandhi " Creativity not always take the most obvious form"Rosabeth illustrates that "If you fail to see the elements, someone else will see them and you will lose the game"David Thomas notes "Leaders must learn from others creativity"

E i n s t e i n i a n B r e a k T h r o u g s

Source: Kurt Lewin at el, 1939

According to Kurt Lewin at el (1939) in autocratic leadership style, leaders take decision without

consulting with others. In democratic leadership style the leaders involve the people in decision

making process although the final decision making may vary with the situations and consensus

of the group. While in Laissez Faire leadership style the involvement of leader minimizes with

empowerment to employees to make their own decision.

In some of the situations leaders need to apply autocratic leadership style like one man show in

which leader don’t rely on others advices and it may be applicable in the situation where leader

can not base on any one, or in the condition if he can not rely on them while democratic

leadership is mostly applied in the normal conditions of an organization and is preferred.

If we go more deep in different practical scenarios and conditions, like if the organization is a

sinking ship and there are chances of liquidity or facing high turnover of employees, then in this

conditions leaders mostly apply autocratic/dictatorship style of leadership rather than democratic

or laissez fair style or team management.

Leaders are termed to be the motivators, change agents and coaches who build the satisfaction in

employees to have the best possible performance and outcome. Or if we look at Vroom’s theory

of motivation, leaders need to enhance the efforts of employees which will improve the

performance and ultimately increase in desired outcome.

E.g. Hughes at el, 2009 sites Polls estimation that “If companies could get 3.7% more work from

each employee, the equivalent of 18 more minutes of work for each eight hours shift, the GDP of

US would swell by $355 billion, twice the total GDP of Greece”

Leadership Traits, Behavior and development

Leader’s behavior development is still a mystery as a whole according to American Academy of

Achievement that what should be the perfect behavior of a leader in different situations and how

it develops to be a good leader. While many of the researchers have worked to find out the most

preferable behavior a leader should have. In a practical organization the leaders role is to change,

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motivate and achieve desired outcome of the work through mind and team building approaches.

But the decision making, leadership style, and leadership techniques are very important to note

while leading any organization.

The psychological study of the leaders is thought to be the old pattern to understand the

leadership qualities while after some researches of Stugdill (1948), Kirkpatrick and Locke

(1991), Ohio States leadership studies, Michigan leadership studies and University of Texas etc,

the researches were done to understand the leadership qualities and their development through

the comparison and studies of different successful leaders.

Here question again rises that what should be focused and what should be examined while

researching the qualities of a leader? Does leadership qualities of a leader are inherited or he/she

transforms his/her behavior and decision making skills through the passage of time? To find out

the answers of these questions for Mr. John Francis “Jack” Welch’s leadership style, here I have

discussed some of those theories and models which are related to the leadership qualities and

leadership style of Jack Welch, during and after the job as a leader and CEO in General Electric.

These theories and models are based on the leadership qualities and leadership styles of Jack

Welch and the style he applied in GE, like situational leadership style, sometimes autocratic and

mostly democratic leadership while keeping the situations, motivational and communication

theories in mind. This does not reflect that Jack Welch does not follow others leadership styles

but more about some related.

3.1 TRAITS OR “GREAT MAN” APPROACH

There are a number of researches made to identify the traits a leader should posses and to answer

that these traits are being inherited or he develops through time. Below given intentions are

termed as some very important intentions a leader must have to lead a team, group or

organization which can also be termed as the basic characteristics of a good leader.

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Source: NTU, Power point Slide #1, 2009

If we have a look of the researches of Stogdill (1948 & 1974), Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991), Mc

Call at el (1983 and J. Neff and James M. Citrin (1999), they have been modifying the concepts

through time and gave different perspectives of traits approach of leadership or concept of “great

man”.

The traits study was early based on psychological focus which turned to the discovery and

comparison of best leaders. Stogdill reviewed more than 100 researches made on personal traits

approach in 1948 which he again modified in 1974. His findings included the discussion on

general intelligence, initiatives, interpersonal skills, self confidence, responsibility driving, and

personal integrity of a leader according to NTU, 2009.

The second study of Stogdill (1974) reflected that there were some negative traits from 1948

study which caused researchers to reject the traits entirely because of situational concept of

leadership over emphasized on situation (contingency) leadership. While the study also says that

there are some traits that increase the probability of leading the followers successfully but this

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Leader

Influence

Intention

Personal Responsibility and

Integirty

Change

Shared Purpose

Followers

narrow downs the situations. These traits include assertive, cooperative, ambitious, energetic,

self confident and persistent etc.

Mc Call and Lombardo research (1983) analyzed the success and failure of a leader and

emphasized on following four primary traits which leaders were found to have.

Source: http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/theories/trait_theory.htm

3.2 SITUATIONAL / CONTINGENCY APPROACH

Contingency approach (also known as situational approach) of leadership is mainly based on the

approach that “there is no one way of leadership and must be tailored to particular situations and

circumstances faced by the organization” Fiedler & Fred, 1967.

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Emotional stability and composure:

Calm, confident and predictable, particularly

when under stress.

Admitting error: Owning up to mistakes,

rather than putting energy into covering up.

Good interpersonal skills: Able to communicate and persuade others without

resort to negative or coercive tactics.

Intellectual breadth: Able to understand a wide range of areas, rather than having a narrow (and narrow-

minded) area of expertise.

According to Paul Hersy (1960) “In general situational style of leadership means to adopt any

leadership style with the requirement of changes in situations”

The contingency or situational leadership style was also thought to be not as much useful as traits

leadership qualities but in 1960s after Paul Hersy it was intended to be more useful and

understandable thought of leadership in which leader changes his style of leadership as per

requirement.

Many of the researchers have been working on situational or contingency leadership style like

Paul Hersy & Ken Blanchard (1969), Fred Fiedler (1964), Victor Room & Yetton (1973), House

B (1996), Kerr & Jemier (1978), and Dessler G. Schemerhorn (2002) while Fiedler and Hersy &

Blanchard’s model of situational theories are more related to Jack Welch’s personal branding as

a leader.

3.2.1 FRED FIEDLER’S CONTINGENCY MODEL

Fred Fiedler in his study found that contingency or situational concept LPC is the first and most

valuable than traits and behavioral concepts of leadership. Least Preferred Co-Worker (LPC) was

thought to be the base of this worker that how a leader perceives the LPC as the most valuable

resource of organization.

Fred Fiedler studied “great man” or trait approach of Carle, the combination of Behavioral

studies of Ohio States (Structure vs Consideration), Structure theory of Woodward, and theory of

Bureaucracy by Weber to give his contingency model.

Fiedler took two main motivational factors in consideration to compare leaders i.e. Task

Motivation and Relational Motivation and asked to score the LPC. The Task Motivated leaders,

who make least score on the scale, found to lead through autocratic style and just were getting

the task done, while the leaders with Relational Motivation took high LPC score who believed in

interpersonal relations and were pleasing others, having loyalty and were accepted.

Fred Fiedler also took three major factors of Leader member Relations, Task Structure, and

Power position to study and compare the leaders as considered below;

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Source: http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/kangfan/tag/le/

Leader Member Relation (LMR)

LMR can be good or bad while with good LMR groups were found to be cohesive and

supportive with high favor of followers and groups with bad LMR were found to be divided and

unsupportive and leaders were not favored by the followers and leaders were found to be in tense

conditions.

Task Structure (TS)

TS also can be high or low in different situations and in high TS the tasks, goals, pathways and

procedures were found to be clear to the group with high favor of followers and found to have

easy measurable outcomes while leaders were in high sit condition. In case of low TS goals,

tasks, procedures and outcomes were found to be not clear to the group members and leaders had

lack of favored by its followers and leaders were in low sit condition.

Leader Power Position (PP)

Leaders with high PP had influence in hiring, firing, rewards allocating and punishment

decisions of the organization having high favor of followers. Leaders with low powers were

holding less and informal powers and had informal influence on hiring, firing, rewarding and

punishment decision and leaders were found to be in lack of favor with low sit condition.

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3.2.2 HERSY AND BLANCHARD’S CONTINGENCY MODEL

Hersy and Blanchard’s model was introduced in 1977 in which the “readiness” of a leader was

seemed to be the basic component of leadership. Hersy and Blanchard suggested that successful

leader must be ready to adjust the leadership style as per situation and two main factors of

followers’ ability and followers’ confidence.

This model also was driven out through the task and relationship factors of behavior of a leader

and introduced four different styles of leadership to best deal with the difference in followers’

maturity levels and situations as given in following two-by-two matrix in contrast of maturity

levels, ability, willingness and confidence of followers.

Source:http://higheredbcs.wiley.com/legacy/college/schermerhorn/0471734608/module16/module16.pdf

Telling Style

With high task and low relationship behavior this style of leadership approaches great deal of

direction to followers and giving them more attention to define the goals and tasks of individuals

and group as a whole. This leadership is used when dealing with new staff or when work is

repetitive, or in condition of time limitation. The situation is termed as unable and unwilling of

followers.

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Selling Style

This style of leadership is used when the task and relationship both of the behaviors are high, in

which most of the direction is given by leader and the followers are being encouraged. This style

is also termed as coaching approach and used in the situation when followers are willing to put

their efforts and are motivated but leader feels lack of maturity, ability and knowledge required

to accomplish the tasks.

Participating Style

This style of leadership with high relationship and low task behavior decision making is shared

between leaders and followers. Leader’s role in this style of leadership is to facilitate and

communicate with high support of leader to its followers with low direction. This style of

leadership is used when followers are capable of doing their tasks but feel unsecure and

unwilling and leader try to communicate to increase their participation and to motivate them to

achieve the combined goal of the group.

Delegating Style

When the relationship and task both behaviors are low in organization then leaders use this style

of leadership. In this leadership style a leader identifies the problems and issues but most of the

responsibilities are being shifted to followers by empowering them. This style is used when

followers are highly competitive and mature.

4.0 JACK WELCH’S LEADERSHIP QUALITIES

Jack Welch as the leader of Century is one of the personality which can be viewed but our

intentions are much more less than him and the way he think and behaves might be far away

from our minds but I have analyzed him on the basis of some theories and whatever I have seen

and learned in my career which might miss a number of points and I believe I might judge him

not as he should be. Some of his characteristics and leadership qualities are as contrasted below;

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Jack Welch and His Personal Traits

The traits of a person can be seen or felt but can only be said positive or negative if you compare

them with others or thoughts of others. The traits theory is though thought to come next to the

situational concept of leadership but it is very important to know that what was the reason which

made Jack Welch to withstand in GE and what were the traits which made him to take the perfect

decision with no place for mistakes.

Jack Welch always tried to learn and motivate to learn and this trait of Welch was not only

motivating but was pleasing to his followers and if they stopped, Welch pushed them. While he

by himself not only served for GE but through out his life was learning and accepting the new

innovations. He completed his Ph.D and then came to job, When Reuban Guttof asked him to

wait by giving him some facts, he accepted which shows that he was not an aggressive person

but even today his behavior shows that he is very nice person with pleasant nature.

He believed in playing while he says “Study whatever you think, you are better in but chose that

job which you like and enjoy”

We are not so sure about his childhood so can not say what he was when he was a child because

his traits can only be compared with that age to see that he had charismatic traits or he

transformed but most of authors believe that he possessed both the Qualities and he was not only

charismatic leader but he transformed and accepted the truth of need of willingness, change and

innovation.

Empowerment Approach of Jack Welch

Jack Welch says in his book “Jack: Straight from the Gut” that, “My main job was developing

talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course,

I had to pull out some weeds, too”

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While during his career also he emphasized to empower the employees and to improve their

talents whose living example is Jaffery R. Immelt who is current and successful CEO of GE after

Jack Welch. This leadership quality reflects the delegating style of leadership through which

Jack Welch believed to empower the people who posses the skills and abilities and are able to

work. Like Jaffery R. Immelt was one of 20 candidates to replace Jack Welch as CEO but Jaffery

was found to be more willing to serve his life for GE which was appreciated by Jack Welch.

He says in a video with HBS “When I stop learning something new and start talking about the

past versus the future, I will go” and the same concept he implemented in GE in which during his

third phase of leadership he studied and implemented Six Sigma while this concept leads us to

the telling style of Hersy and Blanchard’s contingency model. This style of leadership he also

applied in GE and encouraged the employees to learn to attain the competitive edge.

He not only believed to attain the confidence and willingness of his followers but he emphasized

on choosing the right person on right place and at right time as he quoted “If you pick the right

people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier

behind it you almost don’t have to manage them”

Change Agent Approach of Jack Welch

Jack Welch quotes in his book that, “Willingness is strength, even if it means plunging part of

the company into total confusion for a while” and “Change before you have to”

“An initiation is long lasting, and it changes the fundamental nature of organization. Regardless

of the source, I became cheerleader. I followed up on all of them with a passion and a mania that

often veered towards the lunatic fringe”

Intentions Towards Learning Organization

Jack Welch emphasized on learning not only during his career but even after that as he knew that

still not only the employees of General Electric but almost all business personnel and his words

are lesson for them. This is because people are opportunists in nature and they have followed

their leaders.

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Jack Welch was a realistic leader and he motivated his employees towards innovation and he

always tried to achieve the delegating style of leadership given by Hersy and Blanchard as he

says, “I've learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success”.

Though leaders mostly follow the “Carrot and Stick” approach but as we have analyzed Jack

Welch, he only shown them Carrot and tried to hide the stick which was a motivating factor for

his followers. Like He says “Control your own destiny or someone else will” in which also he

mentions to control your destiny but at the same time a hidden stick is there which he is

motivating that he don’t want to apply.

5.0 MY OPINION ABOUT JACK WELCH’S LEADERSHIP STYLE

Before giving any comments on Jack Welch’s personality I would like to share that I worked for

four years in a textile industry and followed by four managers I was the only person in general

shift who had to satisfy them and provide them all the information whenever and wherever they

need. But one of the senior manager who was on top post, he used to take me when he will go

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back and in the Car, he used to ask me some things and I was telling everything that what is

happening with me in the industry. Though he was not giving me any thing but from my heart, I

still respect him. He used to respect the employees though sometimes he got angry but only to

those who were on key posts.

I have seen Jack Welch in the same category and his behavior since his start of career being an

engineer was the same. Though he got angry when was disappointed by the company but he

realized his mistake and did not leave the company but his learning cycle never stopped. During

his 41 years career he covered all those abilities and leadership qualities which a business person

always dreams.

Though some of the authors have criticized him for his less concentration on financial matters

and Jack Welch also says in his book “Straight from The Gut” that “a CEO’s primary social

responsibility is to assure the financial success of a company”. A. Symonds said that “ROIC

remained same during his last 10 years” but I believe that in a practical organization if we

consider and follow money matters, we may never satisfy our employees and I intend that Mr.

Jack Welch also believed so and he emphasized on employee satisfaction more than money.

Though we can never deny that he did not benefited the company as we have seen because of his

leadership, the company achieved the value of $286 billion from $12 billion in just years which

seems to be impossible but “Intentions lead the success and success leads success”

He says that from the People, Product and Profit, a leader must focus on the People and other 2

Ps comes after. I have seen in my career and through the studies that those leaders who are

people oriented, have always made more lean business structure and have faced less problems in

the organization.

Jack Welch also believed and during his first and second phase of his leadership, he eliminated

the non-working and non-value added business units from the organization but he did not kick

the employees out of the organization which shows his intention to go for lean business structure

but though he believed to retain the employees as it would be a de-moralizing and de-motivating

factor.

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Some of the authors also said that Jack Welch did not focus on Quality departments but as he

believed in Six Sigma so we may never deny his intentions towards high achievement of Quality

products with least defects.

His intention towards a learning organization gave him a competitive advantage to achieve the

desired goal by putting whole team effort rather than just managing and controlling his

followers. As he says “An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action

rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage”

6.0 CONCLUSION

Jack Welch can be said confidently as one of the great business leaders of the new era. His vision

to serve for the company was like his life and goal of his life as he says in his quotes “Vision

without action is a dream. Action without vision is simply passing the time. Action with Vision

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is making a positive difference.” While his career, findings and efforts for General Electric

reflect if from his actions and business strategies.

He leaded the organization with passion and his empathically generated lean business

organization while keeping the employers confidence, support and talent improvement in mind.

He determines it as “The team with the best players wins.” And his realistic thinking gave a

competitive edge to the organization and his ideology, traits and behavior today reflects in the

organization. Today GE works as he set the organization on the basis of realistic and competitive

thinking as he quotes “If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.”

His traits shows that he was also a charismatic leader but at the same time he was

transformational leader and followed the situations as he turned the company around in three

different stages as were required under different situations. While his People oriented leadership

is an example for all leaders to understand the value of employees who are the most important

asset of organization and without which organization can never ever succeed. Welch argues “In

the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product and profits.

Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two.”

His leadership gives us lesson to show empathy and admire the employees from our actions like

he said “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more,

you are a leader.”

If we look at his traits, we may not say that he was a born leader because his financial

performance which is being criticized by Symond is an example and shows that a born leader can

not leave any stone unturned while at the same time we may take his approach as more towards

morale and motivation of employees in which sometimes financial matters of an organization

may act as barrier which was in against of his leadership approach.

REFERENCES

Primary Sources

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Carole A. Symonds, 2005, ‘Jack Welch Missed His Opportunity with GE’ Global

Financial Publishing, US.

Daniel Goleman at el. 2001, Primary Leadership: the Hidden Driver of Great

Performance, Harvard Business School Publishing, US.

Fred Fiedler, 1967, A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness, McGraw-Hill, New York.

Jack Welch and Suzy Welch, 2005, Winning, Harper Collin Publishers, New York

Jack Welch, 2001, Straight from the Gut, Warner Books Inc, New York.

Jaffery A. Krames, 2002, The Jack Welch “Lexicon of leadership”, McGraw-Hil, New

York.

James A. Baker at el., 2000, What is A Leader, American Academy of Achievement, US

Joan Symonds, 2005, Financial Expert Challenges Jack Welch and Jaffery Immelt’s

financial performance at GE, Press Release, Newswire, May 20, 2005

Kevin Maney, 2001, What is Leadership: America Shows Amazing Resilience, Press

Release, USA Today, October 30, 2001s

Kurt Lewin, 1939, Patterns of Aggressive Behavior in Experimentally Created Social

Climates, Journal Of Social Psychology.

Matt Murray at el., 2002, GE’s Jack Welch Meets Match in Divorce Court, The wall

street journal, US.

McCall, and Lombardo, 1983, Off the track: Why and how successful executives get

derailed, Greenboro NC, Centre for Creative Leadership.

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NTU, 2009, Handbook of Managing and Leading Strategically, Nottingham Trent

University, Malaysia.

Paul Hersey and Kenneth H. Blanchard, 1988, Management and Organizational

Behavior, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Paul Hersey, 1984, The Situational Leader, Escondido, CA: Center for Leadership

Studies.

Richard Chandler and Jo Ellen Grzyb, 2003, Leadership, Are Leaders Born or Made?,

Impact Factory Publishing, New York .

Robert Slater, 2003, 29 leadership secrets from Jack Welch, 2nd Edition, McGraw-Hill,

New York.

Stogdill, R.M, 1974, Handbook of leadership: A survey of the literature, Free Press, New

York.

US Army, 1973, Military Leadership, US Army Handbook, US.

Secondary Sources

Brian Cronk, 2001, What is A Leader, Article, Online, Retrieved on 2nd December, 2009

from http://clearinghouse.missouriwestern.edu/manuscripts/583.php

Deborah Blagg and Susan Young, Harvard Business Faculty Perspectives, Alumini.HBS, Online, Retrieved 20th November 2009 from http://www.alumni.hbs.edu/bulletin/2001/february/leader.html

Essortment.com, 2007, Styles of Leadership, Online, Retrieved on 10th December, 2009

from http://www.essortment.com/all/leadershipstyle_rrnq.htm

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Intervarsity.org, 2005, What is Leadership, Online, Retrieved on 2nd December, 2009

from http://www.intervarsity.org/chapters/handbooks/chaplead/page/whatisaleader

Kang Fan, January 14, 2009, Leadership is a Function, Article, Online, Retrieved on 1st

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Paggu.com, 2006, Defining Leadership, Online, Retrieved on 22nd November, 2009 from

http://www.paggu.com/entrepreneurship/what-is-leadership-what-are-components-of-

effective-leadership/

Syque, 2002, Leadership Theories, Online, Retrieved on 1st December, 2009 from

http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/theories/trait_theory.htm

Wiley, 2006, Module 16 (Updates) Leadership, Online, Retrieved on 10th December,

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module16/module16.pdf

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