Jack Ma Leadership and Performance - Literature review Example

Organizational Leadership and Performance Student Name Professor’s Name Date Abstract Leadership skills are progressive and they are conveyed differently depending on the circumstances at hand. Different leaders display different leadership traits depending on the circumstances present at the work environment. The success of an organization greatly depends on the leadership models exhibited by the leaders of a company. Successful organizations are governed by leaders with good leadership traits. Examples of organizations which have been successful include Google, Alibaba, Microsoft, Toyota, IBM and FedEx. These organizations have been successful because of good leadership. This essay will examine the organizational leadership traits of Jack Ma the founder of Alibaba Company in China. It will begin by providing a brief history on Jack Ma as well as explain the different types of leadership that can be practiced by leaders in an organizations. Additionally, the leadership role of Jack Ma will be evaluated. Through this evaluation the paper is going to identify what type of leadership Jack Ma uses in the governance of Alibaba Company and its Human Resource. Further the paper will identify how Jack’s leadership influences the organizational performance of Alibaba. Through this analysis, this essay will discuss the importance of leadership and communication styles as well as evaluate if Jack’s leadership style is effective in managing Alibaba in a global environment. Consequently the paper will conclude by providing a brief summary on the discussion. KEYWORDS: Organizational Leadership, Leadership Style, Organizational performance, Globalisation. Introduction Jack Ma is currently the Executive Chairman of Alibaba Company. He is the head founder of Alibaba Group Company that was founded in 1999 and has been the CEO of the Company for almost a decade until 2010 when he resigned and took the role of Executive Chairman (IACMR, 2013). His main responsibilities while running the company has been on strategic and development management. Over the past years Jack Ma has been keen on implementing business policies that shape the organizational business and human resource cultures. Since the creation of Alibaba Company, Jack Ma has led the company towards success by growing it from 18 people to over 4000 employees in China alone and 24, 000 people globally and 25 business units in e-commerce. In occupying different positions in the company, Jack has been able to understand different ways to govern and run Alibaba Company. Additionally, Jack uses his background as an English teacher in the recruiting and selection process of new employees at Alibaba Company. His profession as a teacher has played a big role in his outstanding leadership qualities as he affirms that the experiences he gained as a teacher has enabled him to mentor and motivate new talents at Alibaba Company (IACMR, 2013). According to Bass (1990) there are different kinds of leadership styles, and as a result the kind of leadership style adopted goes a long way in breeding the behaviours of others. Goleman (2000) highlights six leadership styles that organizational leaders tend to adopt. These include; coercive, authoritative, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting and coaching leadership styles. Authoritative leadership focuses on personal attributes and charismatic nature to motivate their workforce and improve performance in an organization. These kind of leaders use authority to motivate their HR system by instilling their ideals and values which represent their objectives and goals for the future of a company. Nonetheless, authoritative leadership is believed to be effective in organizational performance as it forms an emotional bond between employees and their leaders, hence transformational leaders are able to use this bond to enhance employee commitment and foster trust. Affliative style of leadership focuses on building relationships between leaders and employees by promoting harmony and fostering communication (Goleman, 2000). Jin (2010) argues that this kind of leadership incorporates “empathy, compassion, sensitivity, relationship building, and innovation”. Additionally, organizational leaders encourage employees to take part in decision making hence fosters power sharing (Aldoory & Toth, 2004). Through this, leaders promote democracy in the work environment, thus bringing about democratic leadership. Goleman (2000) affirms that democratic leadership fosters consensus through team work, participation and collaboration in organizational activities. Coercive leadership style integrates the elements of conditional reinforcement of an individual based on their efforts in organizational development. In some instances this leadership style aims at instilling fear among the employees so as to get the required performance. It tends to demotivate workers who derive pleasure from positive results, as they feel that they are not well appreciated (Goleman, 2000). According to Goleman (2000) in some organizations, leaders outline what is expected of its employees, their roles within an organization and what amount of effort and skills is required to achieve organizational goals. This kind of leadership style has some similarities with pacesetting leadership style. According to Goleman (2000) in pacesetting leadership style, leaders tend to set high standards for their employees to achieve and require them to do as they direct them to. As a result employee performance will be measured according to their efforts in achieving organizational goals and will be rewarded for their efforts. Jack Ma’s charismatic nature has translated into his leadership style, as he closely works with his employees in decision making as well as motivating them. In his management of Alibaba Company, Jack Ma has mainly adopted the authoritative, coaching and democratic leadership styles in running the company. As an authoritative leader, Jack Ma has founded a strong corporate culture that has mainly acted as the backbone of the management philosophies at Alibaba Company (IACMR, 2013). According to Goleman (2000) authoritative leaders are able to motivate their employees towards achieving organizational objectives by openly introducing workers to the vision and future aspirations of a company. In order to achieve maximum employee participation and organization performance, communication lines between the leaders and employees of an organization must be transparent. Despite being authoritative, Jack Ma embraced some democracy in his management. Democracy is well enjoyed at Alibaba Company, whereby employees are given room to take part in decision making. Jack Ma affirms that he is the source of the organization’s culture and principles but at the same time he provides room for his employees and departmental managers to make decisions on how the company can be run (IACMR, 2013). Grunig (1992) asserts that this kind of power handed to the employees, is symmetrical and aims at improving individual performance since the leaders team up to enable each person whose part of the organization to have some sort of power. According to Parker & Price (1994) for an employee to feel like they are in control, a leader must be able to entrust them with some power in decision making which allows them be decisive while working. Jack Ma democratic leadership style is reflected in the corporate culture practiced at Alibaba Company (IACMR, 2013). The corporate culture embodies four vital principles namely; openness, transparency, sharing, and responsibility. According to Jack Ma articulating and practising these principles within Alibaba Company, has enabled the company to succeed in an ecommerce business which mainly relies on the internet. Jack Ma further argues that the current technological advancements has made the internet to be more transparent, thus the four principals practiced at Alibaba Company correlate with the business environment of its markets and activities (IACMR, 2013). This has empowered the company and its employees to gain a better understanding of the market structure, the customers and competitive nature, therefore allowing it to compete favourably with reputable ecommerce companies such as Amazon.com and eBay. Fombrun & Van Riel (2004) further affirm that communicating a company’s vision to the employees gives an organization a competitive advantage over its rivals. Additionally, by implementing coaching leadership style, Jack has managed to offer both emotional and physical support to his employees through coaching and nurturing employees’ positive attitudes in sustaining the company’s reputation and values. According to IACMR (2013), Jack Ma is committed to nurturing competent and committed employees so as to promote the culture, vision and mission of Alibaba Company. According to Messick & Kramer (2004) the effectiveness of an organizational leadership structure and culture is reflected on the level of success achieved by an organization. Evidently the values and norms instilled in an organization also provide an overview of the principles and beliefs of the founder of a company (Barnett et al., 2006). Jack Ma borrows his management philosophies from the tenets of being a teacher. In his interview Jack affirms that he has maintained a strong organization which continues to thrive well in the market through a powerful and consistent corporate culture. Jack Ma’s management philosophy is well aligned with Alibaba’s Company philosophy that “is designed to embody the vision of a large group of management partners. This structure is our solution for preserving the culture shaped by our founders while at the same time accounting for the fact that founders will inevitably retire from the company" (www.alibaba.com). Glantz (2002) affirm that organizational leadership and culture are closely interrelated since they create a link between an organization activities and its leaders thus shaping a company. Consequently as the internal and external dynamics of an organization change, its culture evolves which in turn influences leadership roles and decision making. A good leader should familiarise themselves with these two types of leadership roles and know when one is applicable as opposed to the other (Vera & Crosan, 2004). Goleman (2000) further affirms that if a leader is able to master at least four arts of leading, he or she is likely to prosper in managing the workforce and the organization. Having several leadership aspects enables a leader to be flexible in any environment as they are able to switch them up in need be so as to suit the current situation. According to Glantz (2002) identifying an effective leadership style is a determining factor that impacts the HR system of an organization since it influences how an individual within an organization will participate in maximizing on their efforts, talents and resources. Therefore, a leader’s capability in allocating, mobilizing and utilizing resources as a means to promote effective organizational performance largely depends on the leadership style adopted. Nonetheless, leadership styles will determine the kind of attitudes and level of motivation that workers will have in achieving an organization’s goals (Avolio, 1999). Messick and Kramer (2004) argue that the intensity with which an individual exhibits his or her leadership skills reflects on the current situation or environment in which the person has found themselves. Goleman (2000) affirm that this environmental characteristic drives leaders to switch from one leadership style to another. Therefore leadership styles of an organization will directly determine how successful a company is going to be in any given environment. Leadership style is a major motivating factor that influences the interests and commitments of the workforce within an organization. Hence it is important for managers to identify a leadership style which they are comfortable with and will ultimately contribute to the positive performance of an organization. The ability of a leader to inspire and motivate their employees, promotes job satisfaction, organizational commitment and loyalty. This is evident in the running of Alibaba Company, Jack Ma has been successful in maintaining loyalty among his employees and motivating new talents within the organization. As a result the company has managed to introduce new creations in the field of e-commerce. For instance in 2002, the company managed to come up with a competitive brand, TaoBao, which effectively competes with eBay in the Chinese market. Nonetheless, Alibaba Company continues to achieve a great deal of success by publicly trading its share locally and globally. For example in 2007 the company was able to participate in the Hong Kong stoke Exchange Market while in 2014 it took part in the New York Stock Exchange Market. The success of an organization in any given environment heavily depends on the effectiveness of the leadership style as well as the organizational culture. However it is also important to note that organizational culture and practices are built or implemented bearing in mind the social factors that make the consumer base and the human resource. For example companies in the East operate differently as compared to those in the West (Hall, 1976). According to Porter (1990) the cultural practices of a people in a given nation greatly influences the management and decision making process of a company. This is because these cultural and social norms are translated to certain business practices such as employment contracts and policies as well as work ethics and organizational responsibility to the society. It is therefore important for companies going global to clearly familiarise itself with the norms and business practices in a foreign country. As it is evident Alibaba is a Chinese company that is fostered in China thus most of the practices within the company is assumed to have been influenced by the cultural practices of the Chinese people. According to IACMR (2013) Jack Ma has adopted the Chinese culture as part of his philosophical management while at the same time Jack continues to adopt a western mind set in creating a more sustainable and consistent corporate culture. Notably one can say that Jack Ma has merged two ways of managing Alibaba Company by borrowing from two diverse cultural backgrounds. He argues that over the past decade, he analysed and learnt lessons from critically evaluating how companies in America and Japan managed their employees and organizations (IACMR, 2013). According to Hofstede’s (1983) model ‘Dimension of Culture’, it is important for leaders looking to go global to familiarise themselves with the impacts that a foreign culture is going to have on their management system. Evidently, Alibaba Company is likely to succeed in a global environment. This is because as the leader of the company Jack Ma has been able to show that his company can learn from foreign cultures and use these lessons to implement policies that are favourable for the organization, its employees and consumers without necessarily having to conform to new cultures. This is evident in a global context whereby Alibaba Company has already established itself in foreign lands such as India, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. This shows that with the success that Alibaba is enjoying in these foreign states, Jack Ma’s leadership can sustain the growth and development of Alibaba Company in a global context. It is evident that culture and social practices of a foreign nation directly participate in the implementation of organizational policies and ethic codes that will govern the human resources of a company. Nonetheless if Jack Ma wishes to establish another Alibaba branch in another country, in order for the company to prosper, the management team will be required to be outsourced from the destination country. According to Harvey et al. (2009) employing locals to work for a multinational company is important because these employees have three important skills that a company will need to succeed in that country. They include: a diverse understanding of the locals, an extensive understanding of what consumers want in that area and have an upper hand as they are familiar with the work environment there. Through learning of the business patterns and cultural dimensions in a foreign nation, Alibaba Company has been successful in foreign countries globally. Additionally, Hofstede (1983) affirm that when managers are able to understand the tenets of the dimensions of culture, an organization is in a better position to lead the human resource and sustain a corporate culture that is tailored for the company to thrive in that environment. The skills portrayed by Jack Ma in his leadership styles, by closely working with his employees, shows that Alibaba does not have a hard time going global or performing exceptionally in a global context. By closely working with the new employees in a foreign country, Jack Ma is likely to establish an organizational structure that will be sufficient for the employees, the organization and consumers. According to Vera & Crosan (2009) a good leader can control their environment and organizational culture and implement it to suit their organizational goals. The relationship between culture and leadership, empowers a leader to implement corporate practices that will be effective in supporting organizational growth and development. Thus strengthening the vision, mission, values and practices that are expressed within the corporate culture (Goleman, 2000). Conclusion In conclusion, the success of Alibaba Company has been dependent on its leadership. Leadership plays a very critical part in enhancing employee and organizational performance. The type of leadership styles implemented by a leader influences employee behaviour, attitude and performance at work. Evidently a leader should have at least two or more leadership styles to govern their organization. Therefore leaders need to implement leadership styles and tools that are relevant to an organizational management and employee skills. It is evident from the assessment of Jack Ma’s leadership attributes that he adopts more than one leadership style. Jack mainly focuses on nurturing new talents and motivating his workers to perform and work towards the organizational goals. Additionally, despite being authoritative, he also exercises democracy to some extent. It is important to note that one leadership style may work well in one organization but may not be effective in another. Leadership styles are progressive and change depending on the current situation. As a result leaders tend to switch from one leadership style to another in order to respond to their surroundings. For instance the growth of firms and organizations across the globe has led to the change of leadership styles due to the fact that different cultures influence the policies and management practices of an organization. Evidently globalisation has greatly contributed to the diverse nature of leadership roles and styles. References Aldoory, L. & Toth, E. (2004). 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