Leadership Behavior Theory
With the growing concentrate on the behaviorism in psychology during 1930s, more and more research occurred in leadership behavior (George Manning, 2007). “Behavior leadership theories assume that there are distinctive actions that effective leaders take” (Kent Curtis, 2007). There is an assessment named Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) which is known by others being developed by Ralph Stogdill and others at Ohio State University (William J, 2007). This questionnaire separated the leader’s behavior in to two dimensions which are Initiating structure and Showing Consideration. The former means the leader mostly will consider the relationship between themselves and their staff. The later means the leader would like to develop trust, respect, support, and friendship with subordinates. (George Manning, 2007)
This paper will analyze the activities of Michael Dell by leadership trait theory because this theory is the basic theory of leadership even it is just focus on personality according to Zaccaro (2007).
George Manning (2007) argued that there are 10 qualities that mark a leader and help influence the leadership process which are vision, ability, enthusiasm, stability, concern for others, self-confidence, persistence, vitality, charisma, and integrity. He explained that a good vision is the basic requirement for a leader due to that a good vision can enable the leader recognize what happened and what should do.
3. Practical Section: Michael Dell
First of all Michael Dell was born on February 25th, 1965 in Houston Texas. The way his story sounds reads like a business fairytale. He attended the University of Texas, he had nothing but an idea on his mind no way to fulfill it no money to fund it. He wanted to become a Doctor or to own his own little business his preference was an electronic store but like any other college student he had no money. One day he was sitting in his bedroom in his parent’s house, with an apple computer he got to thinking about the purchase of computers and that there was always a middleman and the extra cost of accessories. He started to take apart the Apple Computer to get acquainted to the heart of the computers. Then it dawned on him that he can sell computers directly to the customer without the unnecessary middleman so he can keep the production cost low.
Accordingly, Dell sold PCs to customers directly and it also started to take phone orders. Michael Dell said his company was the first PC manufacturer who sold product to customers directly. Going direct has become the core competency of Dell Computer Corporation. Besides, Dell begun to change the way of store which is they created big-box computer stores. It means Dell will reduce lots of cost than other competitors. This simple ways will change Dell’s future. (Ram, 1997)
Michael Dell had created a strategy which is the objective of Dell: to gain more profit. They needed to find a way to achieve this objective. He said when Dell move into the server field, “in the mid-1990s, our competitors’ services, while good product, were onerously and unjustifiably priced to subsidize other less profitable parts of their business. What emerged was an incredible opportunity to disable our competitor’s ability to gouge the market, while at the same time to grow our business in servers. This strategy was first evident when Dell took a look at all the PC retailers out there and decided to avoid them. My goal has always been to make sure that everyone at Dell feel they are a part of something great- perhaps something even greater than themselves.” Michael
Dell is a CEO who knows how to delegate, and that means he relies on getting the best possible people in his organization. (Schlesinger, 2002)
Michael Dell says: “I am often asked how we manage to maintain the attitude of a challenger, even as we continue to grow at record speeds. Culture is, by far, one of the most enigmatic facets of management that I have encountered. It is also one of the most important. Once a reporter asked me which of our competitors represented the biggest threat to Dell. I said the greatest threat to Dell wouldn’t come from a competitor. It would come from our people.” (Aldrich, 1990)
To achieve a good business growth, Dell has been segmented in different parts. Michael Dell is quoted at 1000ventures.com as saying, “Pay attention to what your best people are achieving, and build an infrastructure that rewards mastery. The best way to keep the most talent people is to allow their jobs to change with them.” (Glancey, 1998)
Dell’s innovation mostly relies on its partners. It helped Dell reduce cost and made him more nimbly. In terms of Dell’ own tech innovation, Michael Dell says the most important thing is to keep the research and development (R&D) cost down. He also said “Unlike many of our competitors, we actually had an option: to buy components from the specialists, leveraging the investments they had already made and allowing us to focus on what we did best- designing and delivering solutions and systems directly to customers.” (Johannison, 2000)
Dell grew rapidly due to its vision of the market. Michael Dell says: “Planning is one of those areas where experience counts as much as intellect. When you’re trying to grow a new business, it’s hard to anticipate the ups and downs of business cycles that you’ve actually never experienced before.” (Jones, 2003)
“Dell has grown fast enough to make it clear that you cannot expect to do everything yourself. In the end, you have to delegate responsibility”, Michael Dell says: “For any company to succeed, it’s critical for top management to share power successfully. You have to be focused on achieving goals for the organization, not on accumulating power for yourself.” What he said is true that he had made Kevin Rollins to be CEO after his words. (Gibb, 1999)
However, global finance crisis brought problems to Dell. When Dell CEO Michael S. Dell and President Kevin B. Rollins met privately in the fall of 2001, they felt confident that the company was recovering from the global crash in PC sales. Their own personal performances, however, was another matter. Internal interviews revealed that subordinates thought Dell was impersonal and emotionally detached, while Rollins was seen as autocratic and antagonistic. Few felt strong loyalty to the company's leaders. Worse, the discontent was spreading: A survey taken over the summer, following the company's first-ever mass layoffs, found that half of Dell Inc.'s employees would leave if they got the chance. (Bloomberg Business week, 2003)
4. Analysis
To summarize, Michael Dell is a good leader according to the 10 qualities argued by George Manning (2007). Michael Dell can meet some of them indicated by the former section, and the qualities are vision, ability, stability, concern for others, Self-confidence, persistence and Charisma. However, Michael Dell did not do better in the aspects of enthusiasm. The reasons are as follows.
On one hand, Michael Dell is good at leadership in terms of meeting many qualities.
“A vision of what could and should be is a basic force that enables the leader to recognize what must be done and to do it.” (George Manning, 2007) Vision inspires others and causes the leader to accept the duties of leadership, whether pleasant or unpleasant according to Kent Curtis (2007). Michael Dell has a good plan for his company which led to Dell’s growth, and he said even if you can’t chart exactly where you are going to be going, it is important to chart your road as much as you can. For example, at the beginning of the development of Dell, he recognized that the retailer will cut a lot of money. Therefore, he does direct marketing later and this was proved by its success. (Steven Holzner, 2006)
A leader should have the ability to do the job in his field argued by Ray Henschen (2007). It is useful if the leader can do job well or has done the job before (Larry Hitch, 2007). Employees seldom respect the individual who constantly must rely on others when making decisions, giving guidance or solving problems (Michael Koshuta, 2007). As mentioned before, it is pretty obvious that Michael Dell was a superb techie and he knows his computers inside out (Steven Holzner, 2006).
“At the heart of caring leadership is concern for others” argued by Bruce K (2007). The leader must not look down on others or treat them as machines- replaceable and interchangeable. The leader must be sincerely and deeply concerned about the welfare of people (George Manning, 2007). Michael Dell said that mobilize the people around a common goal. Help them to feel a part of something genuine, special and important, and you will inspire real passion and loyalty. He believes that his company’s continued success lies in teamwork and the opportunity of each of his team members learning, developing and growing. Due to this, people who thrive at Dell are results oriented self- reliant and driven to lead according to Steven Holzner (2006).
“Confidence in one’s ability gives the leader inner strength to overcome difficult tasks” according to George Manning (2007). If leaders lack self-confidence, people may question their authority and may even disobey orders. Researchers at the Center for Creative Leadership have found that successful leaders remain calm and confident even during intense situation (Bob Caplon, 2007). As mentioned before, when Dell’s father let him give up his computer business, he argued that he will compete with IBM.
Moreover, He achieved this goal after several years which indicate that not only he has the confidence but also he has the quality of persistence. “The leader must have drive and determination to stick with difficult tasks until they are completed” according to Niccolo Machiavelli (2007). Leaders from Walt
Disney to Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s, have shown the importance of persistence for business success (Mark Berry, 2007).Dell’s success has left many competitors behind. IBM is out of the PC business. Gateway has seen its stock nearly crash. Compaq sold itself to HP (Steven Holzner, 2006).
On the other hand, Michael Dell is not very good at integrity defined as “the most important quality of leadership is integrity, understand as honesty, strength of character, and courage” by George Manning (2007). Integrity leads to trust, and trust leads to respect, loyalty, and ultimately, action. (Mike Carrell, 2007). Michael Dell acknowledged that he is hugely shy and that it sometimes made him seem aloof and unapproachable when half of Dell Inc.'s employees would leave if they got the chance. (Bloomberg Business week, 2003)
The principal pathway to enhance entrepreneurial leadership and the important way to enhance leadership is by learning, not only from the books but also through practice. For entrepreneurs the work that they did involves numerous and varied, such as decision-making, operation and management, political, economic. All of these, Dell did very well, Therefore his success will live on for generations to come. Overall, Michael Dell knew what made his company work and what made it agile. In terms of the analysis before, Michael Dell can be a good leader with a good leadership.
Conclusions
This paper has analyzed the activities of Michael Dell to evaluate if he meets the theory of leadership. To conclude, according to the ten critical qualities recommended by George Manning (2007), Michael Dell is a good leader with a good leadership. He had no formal business training and only limited informal business education in the academic sense. But he had an almost genetic predisposition to sales. However, he is not very good at integrity indicated by the former analysis.
On one hand, Michael Dell is a good leader due to he have the qualities of vision, ability, stability, concern for others, Self-confidence, persistence and Charisma. For example, Michael Dell always has a plan before doing the business. Besides, he has a good self- confidence which is indicated when he was young. That is he believed he will have the ability to beat IBM who is a strong computer company at that time (Steven Holzner, 2006). Moreover, Michael Bell has the ability in his business area. It is pretty obvious that Michael Dell was a superb techie and he knows his computers inside out (Steven Holzner, 2006)
On the other hand, Michael Dell is not a perfect leader with leadership according to that he is not good at integrity. George Washington (2007) argued “it is trust coming from integrity that is needed for leading people from the boardroom, to the shop floor, to the battlefield”. In terms of the finance crises, in the year 2003, Michael Dell did not gain his staffs’ trust which lead to more of his staffs wanting to leave Dell. However, he recognized his mistake and acknowledged his mistake (Bloomberg Business week, 2003).
Overall, Michael Dell is a good leader with a valley leadership competency. He meets most qualities recommended by George Manning (2007). This essay might have carried out an investigation in depth about the other theories such as leadership behavior theory and leadership contingency theory to evaluate If Michael Dell is a good leader on the area of leadership if time was enough.
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