Significance of effective leadership within the 21st century business Assignment

Significance of effective leadership within the 21st century business context - Assignment Example Significance of effective leadership within the 21st century business context It is in this context that various challenges and shortcomings are witnessed in relation to the strategies developed for effective organizational management which further requires greater degree of rationality among the leaders. An illustration of a practical scenario shall be quite helpful to describe the significance and criticality of effective leadership within the 21st century business context. With this concern, this discussion will intend to describe, analyze and subsequently understand the effectiveness of leadership in Ford Motor Company. Notably, the company had to witness serious obstacles recently before the occurrence of 2008 economic crisis when the strategies implemented by the Corporate Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Alan Mulally proved to be quite helpful in redirecting the organization towards a healthier growth. However, the current situation is also not without any challenges for the company which indicates towards the necessity to reconsider the business strategies practiced by the company. Ford is renowned as one of the leading brands in the international automotive industry which is engaged with manufacturing and distributing a wide range of automobiles and accessories. Ford is universally well-known having its manufacturing and distributing branches located all over the world. There are currently altogether nearly 90 manufacturing and distributing plants located in globally. ... Ford also relates with the financial services industry being associated with rendering loan and vehicle insurance facilities to its customers worldwide. Working in such versatile environment, Ford was able to successfully secure a leadership position within the global automotive industry obtaining sustainable profits over the years. However, it had to witness severe crisis situation during the early decade of the 21st century, incurring a record debt in its history depicting a position of financial instability and limited sustainability. Contextually, to rule the market once again and to regain its sustainability, Ford had to overcome number of challenges over the recent decades. In order to overcome such a crisis situation, Ford had to consider drastic changes in its operations being largely focused on its consumer needs and wants. It was during this period, that the organization witnessed a leadership change, where the then newly recruited Corporate Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Alan Mulally implemented drastic financial and managerial strategies which ultimately assisted the organization to recover from the situation. This particular scenario can be regarded as quite illustrative too reflect upon the significance of organizational leadership to secure competitiveness, sustainability and growth of the company in today’s 21st century context (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2009). Being a global and hugely diversified organization, Ford has a large number of primary stakeholders which include customers, suppliers, dealers, employees’ communities and investors or shareholders. Ford has been significantly focused on its brand recognition and reputation amid its stakeholders. For instance, the

Understanding of ethics and ethical understanding of life event or Essay

Understanding of ethics and ethical understanding of life event or life stage and of the ceremony that celebrates it - Essay Example This article highlights the concept of ethics in its simplest possible form. Many people tend to equate ethics with feelings. They believe that being ethical is like following one's feelings. This is however clearly not true because feelings frequently deviate from what is right. On the other hand ethics should not even be identified with religion. It is true that most religions do preach ethics in the purest form. Many believe in supernaturalism i.e good is what god has ordained. However, we must understand that ethics and observation of moral codes of behaviour are as much a duty of a religious person as that of an atheist or someone who is not that religious for that matter. Therefore ethics is clearly not a factor of religion. Ethics is also not the same as following the law. It is true that more often than not laws regulate ethical conduct in a society. However, laws like feelings can deviate from being right. Lastly, ethics is not about doing whatever the society accepts. Accor ding to the theory of cultural relativism good is equivalent to what is acceptable in the society. Cultural relativism exhorts that ethics is not about objectivity and that they vary from place to place and culture to culture. This is partly correct. However; socially approved is not always good for the following reasons. Standards of behaviour in societies frequently deviate from what the right thing to do is. ... Although it was by no means an ethical thing to dowhen we look at it logically through the eyes of reason. Even though cultural relativists may not agree with this statement and argue that female infanticide was the right thing to do in the context of the Arab culture. It was the accepted norm in the society and few dared to challenge it. In addition to this the lack of social consensus on many issues prevents societal acceptability to become an ethical standard. Therefore it is futile to assume that any of the above mentioned sources of ethics can dictate ethical standards. Another approach to determining ethical standards is that of consequentialism. This theory asserts that an action is good or bad because its results are good or bad. Thereby the morality of a certain behaviour or conduct is determined by its results. More simply put the ends justify the means. Consequentialists would consider Robin Hood to be ethical because he was stealing for a good cause. However, there is a catch in this theory. It completely disregards means. Although I believe that means are as important as the ends. If you are collecting money through unfair means and giving it for charity, you are by no means being ethical because your means are wrong. Ethical behaviour should comprise both the right means and the right ends. Only then can conduct be classified as truly ethical and right.( Gensler.H, 1998) Other than this many believe that intuition is the perfect judge of right and wrong. Most moral judgements can be made by relying on one's intuition and that there are certain objective moral truths which are universally acceptable. The basic moral truths are thereby though to be evident to