The Vision Failed1. If you were consulting with the board of directors at HTE, what would you advise them regarding Mr. Barelli’s leadership from a transformational perspective? If I were consulting with the board of directors at High Tech Engineering (HTE), I would advise them to replace Mr.
Barelli as the leader holding the top management position in the company. Since HTE has been run since its incorporation 50 years ago by its owner and founder, a good number of the company’s employees probably have been with them for over a decade. These employees, then, have gotten accustomed to the management style adopted by the owner and founder and the organizational culture upheld by the same. Thus, good leadership at company’s helm has to be intact for it to continually grow.
Good leadership is vital to any company. HTE is no exception, more so at the stage that it was in. As a company in its 50th year, HTE has a lot at stake. Like most other family-owned companies that have been operating for half a century or longer, HTE needed to come up with a move that will ensure its relevance in the manufacturing industry of the present time.
The manufacturing industry is one that has gone through vast developments through the years. It has evolved through huge breakthroughs and setbacks that led to the changes in the industry norms and environment.HTE, hence, needs a new president who will be able to win the same respect, loyalty and cooperation that the employees willingly gave the retired pioneering leader. Only this kind of chief executive will be able to bring the company through a successful transformation as a successful manufacturing company of the 21st century.
2. Did Mr. Barelli have a clear vision for HTE, and was he able to implement it?3. How effective was Mr.
Barelli as a change agent and social architect for HTE?4. What would you tell Mr. Barelli to do differently if he had the chance to return as president of HTE?Transformational leadership is said to bring followers into doing much more than what is normally expected of them (Northhouse, 2004, p. 175).
Casting Shadows at EnronNatural gas supplier… “grew to become the seventh largest company on the Fortune 500. In 2000, the company employed 21,000 people. (p. 28)” Founder and CEO Kenneth Lay “Greed, pride, lack of internal controls, pressure to make quarterly earnings projections, and other factors all played a role in Enron’s collapse.
However, most of the blame must go to the firm’s executives, who failed to meet each of the challenges of leadership described in the chapter: abuse of power, excess privilege, deceit, inconsistent treatment of internal and external constituencies, misplaced and broken loyalties, irresponsibility (p.28-29)”1. Which attitudes and behaviors of Enron’s leaders do you find most offensive? Why?2. Did one shadow caster play a more important role than the others in causing the collapse of Enron? If so, which one and why? “Shadow casters include (a) inner motivation, or ‘monsters,’ (b) faulty decision making caused by errors in thing, groupthink, organizational pressures to violate personal moral codes, and cultural variables, (c) an inactive or overactive moral imagination, (d) ethical ignorance, and (e) ethical flabbiness that comes from a lack of moral exercise.
To address these shadow casters, we need to engage in leadership development aimed at expanding our ethical capacity as leaders.3. How much responsibility should the board of directors assume for what happened at Enron?4. What similarities do you see between what happened at Enron and at other well-known companies accused of ethical wrongdoing?5.
What can be done to prevent future Enrons?6. What leadership lessons do you draw from this case?ReferencesNorthhouse, P. G. (2004).
Leadership Theory and Practice 3rd Edition. California: Sage Publications, Inc.Johnson, C. E.
(2002). Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership: Casting Light or Shadow. California: Sage Publications, Inc.
