Organizational Change at Ford Company

Introduction

Organizational change will involve applying the techniques that will improve managerial processes and production in an organization. Companies have weak areas that they need to strengthen; hence, proposing pertinent transformational strategies should help cure the areas of concern. Ford Company is known for its production capabilities in the automotive sector. However, the organization has identified the need for organizational change. This paper highlights the needed change in the organization, discusses the leadership styles, and rationale, and recommends and examines a viable leadership model.

Needed Change in the Organization

The Ford Company has done well in the automotive manufacturing sector throughout the years. However, a shift toward a customer-centred strategy is required. Personnel and other relevant parties in this situation must be made aware of the transitional process. Communication models in the company are among the factors that need improvement to enhance customers’ happiness. Given that there is workforce opposition to transformation, leadership-employee communication has to be enhanced. Making sure that every employee understands the company’s objective of creating smart cars for a smart future and rising to the top of the global trust rankings is crucial. It is also critical to promote collaboration among staff members and the utilization of their creative thinking to produce unique concepts that advance the mission. To ensure that clients know how dedicated the firm is, keep them updated on the organization’s development toward achieving the vision. The business should create programs that reward and incentivize staff members for delivering exceptional client service.

The Leadership Styles and Rationale.

This paper recommends the adoption of a transformation leadership model to help support transitional processes in the organization. Transformational leadership is one of the theories applied to organizational change. According to Ford et al. (2022), organizations need to develop sustainable and solid change rather than pushing for mere change. Organizations need to define and evaluate the barriers hindering change, expectations, and commitment to the transition process (Ford et al., 2022). This approach might encourage an atmosphere that is favourable to development and transformation given the necessity of innovation and adaptability to technological advancements. The application of trait theory to forecast a leader’s efficacy is limited to the workplace.

On the other hand, servant leadership involves empowering teammates to do their best work solidifies the concept. Servant leaders stress and embody the servant duty in their relationships with their subordinates (Eva et al., 2019). Thus, success is guaranteed as long as the team’s leader recognizes and supports the team’s capacity to meet corporate objectives. To build collaboration and motivate teammates to accomplish corporate goals, servant leaders employ persuasive strategies and impact.

In addition, democratic leadership is a type of participation leadership where stakeholders participate more actively in the procedure of making decisions. Workers get together to talk about problems and find solutions while allowing everyone to have a voice in choices. This leadership model positively impacts employees’ confidence and interpersonal engagements (Hilton et al., 2021). Self-efficacy is a measure of stakeholders’ and workers’ trust in the corporation’s operations. By using effective methods, this will raise their productivity and help them accomplish their goals. Provide an interesting and sociable workplace where staff members may cooperate to improve the company.

Transformational leadership is recommended to influence organizational change at Ford Company. The organization adopts a customer-centric approach as its transformational strategy, which needs concerted efforts since its effectiveness depends on external feedback. By utilizing cutting-edge technology like artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide individualized client experiences, Ford Company may improve its customer-centric strategy.

How It Supports Sustainable Organizational Success

According to Luu & Phan (2020), transformational leadership has the potential to foster sustainable prosperity by motivating staff members to consistently pursue excellence and creative thinking. This approach pushes workers to go above and beyond the call of duty, creating a culture of constant innovation and adaptation that is essential for long-term viability in the quickly evolving corporate landscape. Transformational leadership will ensure the management develops the strategies that will help achieve their targets to their customer-centric approach and have a positive impact in the market.

How It Integrates the Organization’s Mission and Vision

Ford Company’s mission and vision integrate developing a better world through smart innovations in the automobile sector. Fostering a culture of creativity and invention is another way to incorporate the goal of constant innovation and improvement. It will help the company provide a supportive environment and resources, which embraces which embrace ideation and opportunities to experiment with new approaches (Axon, 2020). In addition, Ford Company has identified a customer-centric approach as an area that needs redevelopment. This purpose may be integrated by a transformative leader who encourages staff members to always look for ways to provide superior customer service. By nurturing talent, fostering innovation, and aligning efforts with the company’s mission and vision, transformational leadership can propel Ford towards its goals of sustainable growth, customer satisfaction, and positive societal impact (Luu & Phan, 2020). Ford Company can leverage and exploit opportunities displayed via transformational leadership to promote sustainable development and competitive advantage.

How It Will Increase Value for Stakeholders

Through promoting performance and innovation, transformational leadership may raise value for stakeholders. Workers feel compelled to give their all to accomplish corporate goals using transformational leadership (Luu & Phan, 2020). This leadership model can result in greater corporate performance and increased value for shareholders by motivating staff to surpass their objectives (Axon, 2020). Encouraging innovation may result in the creation of fresh, enhanced goods and amenities, adding value for consumers. Stakeholders should anticipate better goods and offerings, higher client contentment levels, and eventually higher returns for shareholders as a consequence.

Conclusion

This paper has examined the needed change at Ford Company. It has alluded that among the different leadership styles, the transformation model will help improve the organisational approaches to enhance the efficiency of its customer-centric approach. To promote effectiveness and efficiency and to give workers a feeling of ownership over the change process, it is imperative to recognize and remove change-related roadblocks.

References

Axon, S. (2020). The socio-cultural dimensions of community-based sustainability: Implications for transformational change. Journal of Cleaner Production, 266, 121933. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121933

Eva, N., Robin, M., Sendjaya, S., Van Dierendonck, D., & Liden, R. C. (2019). Servant leadership: A systematic review and call for future research. The Leadership Quarterly, 30(1), 111-132. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984317307774

Ford, J. K., Riley, S. J., Van Fossen, J. A., & Pomeranz, E. F. (2022). Exploring transformational change in a state wildlife agency. Human Dimensions of Wildlife, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/10871209.2022.2029979

Ford, J., Ford, L., & Polin, B. (2021). Leadership in the Implementation of Change: Functions, Sources, and Requisite Variety. Journal of Change Management, 21(1), 87–119. and online. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697017.2021.1861697

Hilton, S. K., Arkorful, H., & Martins, A. (2021). Democratic leadership and organizational performance: the moderating effect of contingent reward. Management Research Review, 44(7), 1042-1058. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/MRR-04-2020-0237/full/html

Luu, D. T., & Phan, H. V. (2020). The Effects of Transformational Leadership and Job Satisfaction on Commitment to Organisational Change: A Three-Component Model Extension Approach. The South East Asian Journal of Management, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.21002/seam.v14i1.11585