Leadership Theories at GM and Their Impact to the Organizational Culture

The Gm Culture Crisis
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The Gm Culture Crisis
Introduction
Having earlier focused on organizational culture, it is critical to move deeper and consider how leadership styles influence it. In any organization, leadership styles significantly affect how an organization operates. The techniques also determine the culture that dominates the particular organization. This part examines leadership theories employed at GM and how they impacted the organizational culture.
Leadership Theory
Initially, the management used neglectful management and indecisive leadership styles. Because of the neglectful leadership style, the managers at GM avoided providing leadership to the teams and instead spent all their time focusing on other less essential things (Hancock et al., 2021). While it is always critical for managers to provide an amount of independence, they should avoid checking on their employees. The management did not ensure that employees were supposed to do their duties as far as safety was concerned. For instance, nobody engaged on the ignition switch took responsibility for fixing the problem. The management made decisions but did not stick to them regarding the indecisive leadership style. For instance, the "GM Nod" meant that everyone nodded in agreement to a proposed plan but left the room with no intention to execute the plan. Despite the GM management knowing that the ignition switch problem persisted for 11 years, no one was willing to address the issue. However, after the accident leading to 13 deaths due to the ignition switch, the GM CEO Mary Barra led to a shift in management styles to promptly acting on issues. For instance, the company put measures to ensure the flow of information from the management to employees and vice versa. Further, it developed protocols for combating escalating potential safety issues.
The management was not involved in significant issues concerning safety cars. The management employed a hands-off approach to the matters raised by the workers. Such an approach can lead to reluctance of workers (Dasborough & Scandura, 2021). For instance, there was no sense of urgency to address issues affecting the production of cars. The management cared more about the costs than the safety of passengers. However, the management shifted its approach to one that implemented the proposed plans to enhance safety. The management started acting on feedback given by the workers. Several measures were instituted to ensure that the workers could pass information to the management. For instance, the company instituted a Speak Up for Safety program that encouraged staff members to report potential safety issues faster.
An internal influence leading to the shift in management was the need to ensure accountability and integrity in the organization's leadership. Employees had cited instances where the administration did not listen to safety issues and instead prioritized reducing costs at the expense of safety. The commitment of the management to ensure integrity was critical in pushing the change in leadership style. An external influence was the reputation of the organization to its clients. The sale of GM cars depended mainly on how clients perceived thei...