Business Leadership For Factors of Organization

Question: Describe about the Business Leadership for Factors of Organization. Answer: Introduction Leadership is one aspect that is being considered as the critical success factor of an organization. A good leader and his leadership skills can change the course of the business for the organization. The best thing that all business leaders have common amongst them is their ability to inspire others and bring the best out of them (Chemers, 2014). This is a leadership essay on Ratan Tata, who has been the CEO of Tata Group for more than a decade and currently serving as Emeritus of Tata Sons. Under his leadership, Tata Group has gained some of the greatest achievements in its entire history. His leadership quality serves as an example for budding entrepreneurs and many other business leaders. Overview of Ratan Tata and Tata Group Ratan Tata was born on December 28, 1937 to parents Naval Tata and Sooni Tata. Ratan Tata received his initial education from Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai and Bishop Cotton School, Shimla. He has a degree in structural and architecture design from Cornell University in 1962 and did advanced management program from Harvard Business School in 1975. After receiving the degree from Cornell University, Ratan Tata joined Tata Group and was sent to Jamshedpur to work at Tata Steel (formerly Tata Iron and Steel Company). He was later appointed as a director in command for Nelco and was named the director of Tata Industries in 1981. In 1991 he assumed the position of chairman of Tata Group (Wong-MingJi, 2014). Ratan Tata is described as one of the greatest transformational and democratic leaders of our generation. Under his leadership, Tata Group has witnessed some of the greatest transformation in its business around the w orld. He incorporated the principles and core values of Tata Group in all the companies and subsidiaries under it. He created a single logo for the entire group in 1998. Under his tenure, first indigenously manufactured car was introduced in India (Tata Indica) and Tata Group was listed in New York Stock Exchange in 2004 and made some of the major acquisitions in many industries; to name a few Tata Steel acquired NatSteel of Singapore in 2005 and acquired Corus, an Anglo-Dutch steel company in 2007. Moreover, under his leadership Tata Group purchased Jaguar Land Rover from Ford Motor Company in 2008 and acquired Tetley Group. The vision of Ratan Tata to provide the common people of India with the most affordable car gave birth to conceptualization of Tata Nano at a price of 1 Lakh INR in 2009. In the leadership rein of Ratan Tata, Tata Group ventured into some new businesses such as entertainment and communication services by introducing Tata Sky in 2006 and Tata Docomo under Tata Telecommunications in 2009. The revenues of Tata Group jumped from Rs 10,000 crores to Rs 130,000 crores under his leadership tenure (Dhingra, Gupta Gupta, 2013). Tata Group is known worldwide for its corporate social responsibilities and Ratan Tata is one of the few business leaders who is always concerned with the well being of its employees, that is why the employees of Tata Group are treated with utmost respect and are provided with all the facilities they should deserve. They employees of Tata Steel in Jamshedpur gets the benefit like residential, education as well as medical facilities through the various establishments of Tata Group across the city (Daft, 2014). Leadership Traits Some of the leadership traits that can be linked with Ratan Tata as a leader are mentioned below: Visionary: There is no doubt in saying that Ratan Tata is one of the greatest visionaries of our times and his vision is evident from the business ideas and strategies that he had implemented in some of the businesses of Tata group. For example, in a tough competitive business environment where organizations fails to sustain in the long run by providing a low-cost product with the fear of low profitability, but under such circumstances Ratan Tata took a step ahead of others and created a vision of creating Tata Nano, the most affordable car in the world. Here Ratan Tata was not concerned about the profitability of company, rather he thought about the passing on the benefit of having a car to the low-income groups. Further, taking the example of Tata Docomo, 1paisa per second for a phone call was the brainchild of Ratan Tata which became a benchmark for the telecommunication industry in India when it was introduced and was later followed by the business rivals (Mendenhall Osland, 201 2). Decisive: This quality of Ratan Tata can be justified with the decision of Tata Group when it acquired Jaguar Land Rover from Ford Motors in 2009, during the time when the entire business world was stifled by the global economic recession. It was one of the biggest acquisitions in the automobile industry and the biggest for Tata group after the acquisition of Corus Steel (DuBrin, 2015). Risk Taker: Ratan Tata is a great risk taker and it is evident from some of the bold decision that he had made during his reign as a CEO and Director of Tata Group. Here we can again take the example of Ratan Tata making the decision of acquiring Jaguar Land Rover from Ford Motor Company in 2009 when almost all the businesses were suffering from the aftermath of the global recession and many companies were on the verge of collapse, then Ratan Tata made speculations and bought Jaguar Land Rover and since the acquisition, the company is flourishing (Lussier Achua, 2015). Leadership Behavior Analysis According to leadership behavior, there are three variants of leadership models are apparent in leadership which are democratic, autocratic and laissez faire. Ratan Tata is one of the few business leaders who applies democratic style in his leadership approach because he always encourages his managers from different industry to be a part of decision making process and motivates them to formulate the short and long term strategies for the business and they are treated as an essential stakeholder in the organization (Bryman, 2013). Sometimes Ratan Tata has demonstrated autocratic approach of leadership while he required swift and learned judgments and this is apparent from the way he uncompromisingly induces for audacious international agreements like the international acquirements of some corporate powerhouses like Jaguar Land Rover, Corus and Tetley Group (De Hoogh, Greer Den Hartog, 2015). Ratan Tata often applies laissez-faire style of leadership in his daily routine to develop his leadership. He delegates essential tasks and responsibilities and decision making and he does not interrupt the functioning of the managers in any manner. He may make a extensive strategic evaluation but he does not interrupts in the operational details and issues, thus showing that he completely trusts on his managers and have faith on their decision making capabilities. Further, Ratan Tata emphasizes on having a smooth communication throughout the business structure to ensure every necessary information are availed to concerned person at an appropriate time (Skogstad et al., 2015). Categorization of Ratan Tata on Blake/Mouton Leadership Grid Impoverished Management Low Interest for Production. Low Interest for People. Contributes slightly towards the organization. Doing only adequate to maintain job. Country Club Management Gives Greater Importance to Emotions and Feelings of Employees. Ignores the Production Aspect. Low Competition and Higher Profitability (Garg Jain, 2013). Middle of the Road Average Interest for People and Production. Acceptable Organizational Performance. Works Well Within Informal Groups. Authority/Obedience High Interest towards Production. Low Interest towards People. Oppressive Expects Conformity to Orders. Implments Authority and Power. Team Management Integrates both People and Production. Engages the Workforce. Blake/Mouton Leadership Grid Concern for People Concern for Production 1 1 1 9 5 5 9 1 9 9 Figure: Blake/Mouton Leadership Grid (Source: Garg Jain, 2013) As per Blake/Mouton Leadership Grid, Ratan Tata should be placed in the grid of 9,9 i.e. Team Management because he always seeks to integrate production and people together. He has very high concern regarding his employees. He engages with the team through communication and empowerment. According to Blake and Mouton Leadership Grid this is considered leadership approach (Landis, Hill Harvey, 2014). Role of Communication Ratan Tata engages both in one-to-one communication as well as organization-wide communication. The best example of one-to-one communication of Ratan Tata would be the aftermath of Mumbai terror attacks in which some of its employees were killed. Ratan Tata took the initiative into his hands to reach out the family of the deceased and express his condolences and offer some compensation. The example of his organization-wide communication would be the when Ratan Tata informed the employees of Tata Group about the departure and expressing his concern about the poor performance of Tata Group under the leadership of Cyrus Mistry. Conclusion Leadership is one aspect that is being considered as the critical success factor of an organization. This is a leadership essay on Ratan Tata, who has been the CEO of Tata Group for more than a decade and currently serving as Emeritus of Tata Sons. Under his leadership, Tata Group has gained some of the greatest achievements in its entire history. His leadership quality serves as an example for budding entrepreneurs and many other business leaders. Ratan Tata is one of the few business leaders who applies democratic style in his leadership approach. Sometimes Ratan Tata has demonstrated autocratic approach of leadership while he required swift and learned judgments and this is apparent from the way he uncompromisingly induces for audacious international agreements like the international acquirements of some corporate powerhouses like Jaguar Land Rover, Corus and Tetley Group. Ratan Tata often applies laissez-faire style of leadership in his daily routine to develop his leadership. References Bryman, A. (Ed.). (2013).Leadership and organizations. Routledge. Daft, R. L. 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