Ford Motor Company

Based on the Big Five personality dimensions, I believe Mulally exhibits the characteristics of several of these dimensions. He is emotionally stable, in that he seemed very secure and calm when he dealt with the employees, even though he spoke very frankly about things. Mulally was also very conscientious in the way he carried himself and directed the work processes by way of the plans he developed. A third dimension that Mulally exhibited is that of openness. He showed this dimension through his innovative idea of creating plastic cards with the company's four goals on one side and the company definition on the other (Hellriegal & Slocum 2010, p544). This allowed him to share his vision and expectations with the employees, who had to be on board with him in order to make Ford successful.

Mulally's emotional stability, conscientiousness and openness positively influenced his leadership at Ford. First, because of his conscientiousness, Mulally made notes, talked to employees and studied the Ford company before he arrived to become familiar with how it operated. This detailed process allowed him to develop a strategic plan that would guide his decision-making. Since Mulally was totally new to the auto industry, he knew that he had to educate himself sufficiently to win the respect of Ford's employees and guide the much needed financial turnaround. His emotional stability also influenced his leadership positively in that it allowed him to remain calm and state his plans assertively without feeling intimidated by the employees who knew much more about the company than he did. His openness was a key factor in changing the status quo at Ford. It was apparent that the strategies the company was using were not effective in getting market share and profits. The combination of these three dimensions made Mulally a very strong, well respected leader whom all employees wanted to follow. These dimensions allowed the employees to believe in his plans and work cooperatively in carrying them out.

I think Mulally's primary leadership style is selling. He used the information he gathered through his initial study of the company and interviews with employees to develop a strategy which he clearly communicated to all departments. He fosters ongoing communication by getting frequent updates on accomplishments, having weekly meetings, and sharing his goals and expectations through use of the two-sided cards. His color-coding process helped employees build confidence in their work and motivated them to do good work. He gave employees general, not specific, directions, such as "find a way" to do something (Hellriegal & Slocum 2010, p544). He did not micromanage the work processes; he simply let the employees do their work with the expectation that the goals would be met.

Mulally employed several methods to bring about the change at the Ford Company. The first, and perhaps most important method, was the development of a plan with specific goals identified. Taking on any project without a plan can create confusion, mistakes and ultimately failure of the effort. Next, he created ways to share goals and expectations with employees, devised a process to help employees meet the goals, and then put a management system in place that would ensure the company would reach the goals (Hellriegal & Slocum 2010, p543). For any change to happen the people who have to carry it out must not only be informed, but engaged in the process. Mulally also got frequent updates and met weekly