Organization and Behavioral Management

Requirement

Leadership Assignment

Organization and Behavioral Management class

PS: This has to have around 12 peer reviewed article/journals, cited in-text and referenced at the end.

Select a well-known business leader and analyze him or her. Under three distinct headings, answer the following questions that will help guide your analysis: (1) Leader Identification: What traits does this leader possess that contribute to his/her successes and/or failures as a leader? What effective and/or ineffective behaviors does this leader engage in? Which contemporary theories of/approaches to leadership are most applicable to this leader? (2) Influencing Followers: What approaches does and/or should this leader use to influence followers? (3) Leadership across Organizational Contexts: How does/should this individual lead across organizational contexts? Discuss specific examples and consider how different contingency approaches to leadership play a role in successfully leading across contexts. Use references from books and journal articles to support all of the sections of your discussion. Cite your references within your discussion and include the full citations for your references on your Reference page at the end of your document, following the APA Guidelines

Solution

ABSTRACT

This leadership assignment has identified Indira Nooyi, PepsiCo CEO, as one of the most successful business leaders in the world today and tried to analyse her style of leadership from various aspects. It has tried to throw light on three broad aspects of leadership, namely leadership traits, influencing followers and leadership across organizational contexts. It also elicits some specific examples where Indira Nooyi has excelled in organizational context and propelled the growth of PepsiCo.

INTRODUCTION

Business environment in today’s globalized world has become highly volatile and complex. Sound management principles alone are not enough to cope with this increased uncertainty and changing business ecosystem. Corporations need to seek out people with leadership qualities to emerge successful in long-term. Leadership is not as esoteric or mystical as the popular perception is, but proper guidance, nurturing and career exposure can develop leaders in an organization at different hierarchies (Zaleznik, 1992).
This assignment tries to elucidate the success of one such celebrated business leader of today Indira Krishnamurthy Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo. Indira has done wonders as CEO of PepsiCo and elevated her company as the second largest food and beverage business in the world. This assignment will discuss in greater detail the various aspects of her leadership style (Kotter, 1995).

Do you need strategic management and policy assignment help? The experts of Allassignmenthelp.com can provide you with high-quality management assignment help at a very affordable price. We have a team of professional writers who can understand your requirements and write you the best paper on the foundation of financial management.

LEADER IDENTIFICATION

Indira Nooyi has always emphasized the need for developing a sustainable business that cares for the society and humankind. Optimized use of water and energy increases the efficiency of any corporation but she has gone one-step ahead and called for developing products which takes into concern the health of consumers. This vision of creating healthy products for its consumers will help PepsiCo in the future to retain its profitability as world leader in food and beverage industry (Conger, 2009).
As businesses continue to struggle with fewer resources it has become imperative to have crafty negotiation skills to lead an organization. Indira Nooyi over the years has emerged as a tough negotiator which can be seen while striking the deals for Tropicana and Quaker Oats which has done wonders for PepsiCo (Ackerman, 1989).
As a great leader, one has to have strong sense of purpose, instinct and direction. Nooyi in several occasions has demonstrated such strategic intuition while guiding PepsiCo through tough times. One such strategic decision was to spin off the restaurant chain business of PepsiCo which after 5 years turned out to be successful thereby boosting the organization’s revenue from $24 Billion to $33 Billion (Rooke, 2005).

Indira Nooyi demonstrates a supportive leadership behaviour in whatever decisions she is a part of, the reasons may be widespread from she being from Asian culture or being a woman. She strongly believes in the growth and prosperity of her employees as ultimately it is the human capital that is going to generate profit for the organization in future. She has imbibed a culture of equality in her organization which is shown by the higher number of woman employees in PepsiCo after Nooyi becoming the CEO. She believes in the fact that if her employees are not satisfied how can she service the customers successfully which has worked pretty well for PepsiCo (Digman, 1990).

She is also a charismatic leader which is illustrated in several occasions of her journey as CEO of PepsiCo. At the very first year of her CEO career she befriended her competitor Michael D. White and kept him in PepsiCo who acted as the backbone of the company for the years to come. In such numerous occasions Nooyi demonstrated the ability to bring together talented people and nurture them in the organization (Mintzberg, 1990)

Indira Nooyi’s style of leadership can be explained with a mix of two contemporary theories of situational leadership and democratic leadership styles. 

  • Situational Leadership - During her tenure as CEO she has demonstrated qualities like supporting, coaching, delegating and directing as needed. She motivates her employees by maintaining a healthy relationship with them like writing letters to their parents and thanking them for the good work of their children. She has charted out a vision of developing healthy food and snacks for consumers to remain relevant for future and sustain the profitability for PepsiCo. She has immense task oriented attitude that elevates the benchmark for every employee in the organization (Livingstone, 2003).

  • Democratic Leadership - Indira’s democratic nature of leadership can be seen in her effort to listen to every voice in the corporation and then weigh on the advice and suggestions. All the final and important decisions are taken by her after judging on the merit of all the options available, this demonstrates her assertiveness and sense of purpose (Kirsch, 1985).

Place Order For A Top Grade Assignment Now

We have some amazing discount offers running for the students

Place Your Order

INFLUENCING FOLLOWERS

Indira Nooyi has unique ways of shaping her leadership among followers whom she moulds as per the situation demands. She is someone who is not afraid to get her hands dirty if need be, she makes frequent visits to grass root levels of PepsiCo work and keeps herself apprised of everything happening in the organization. She has always emphasized on the 5-C’s of leadership to influence her employees. They are courage, competency, communication skills, confidence and compass that has helped her to guide and lead her followers both in times of failure and prosperity.
Sometimes it is seen that Indira leads by example to motivate and influence her employees. She sets such high standards of work for herself that everyone in the company automatically develops a work oriented attitude (Howei, 1982).
Again in times of change management it is seen that she tries to bring people into confidence before initiating any process change. It is this culture of collective action that has propelled the growth of PepsiCo for so many years (Heifetz, 2001).

LEADERSHIP ACROSS ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXTS

Indira Nooyi heads PepsiCo, a company in the food and beverage industry which is inherently fragmented and commoditized. There is very little point of differentiation among the brands presently available in the market and there is fierce competition among them in terms of marketing and advertisement. In order to hold on to market leader position it has to constantly evolve and innovate in terms of product and value it delivers to the customer. Nooyi has proved since inception that she stood up to expectations overcoming all the obstacles and impediments coming her way. She has evolved PepsiCo as an innovative and responsible organization in her tenure to cope with market volatility and uncertainty. Through her various strategic decisions to takeover Tropicana and Quaker Oats to creating a corporate slogan for PepsiCo like “Performance with purpose” has taken her organization to places in the food and beverage market. Indira has increased focus onto the value adding businesses of PepsiCo while divesting others which has helped in consolidating the core competencies of her corporation (Goleman, 1998).

CONCLUSION

Food Industry is marred with health issues like obesity and other diseases. In this context the contribution of big corporates to develop a healthy lifestyle for its consumers and society as a whole is imperative. PepsiCo’s futuristic vision under the charismatic leadership of Indira Nooyi to develop sustainable brands for future and “Go green” initiatives will definitely help in creating a better world for future generations. Indira Nooyi being at the helm of PepsiCo is expected to continuously evolve and innovate PepsiCo brands which will create value for both its customers and the organization as a whole. Indira has shown the way forward for future CEOs how to remain ethically relevant while at the same time to generate profit for the organization (Goffee, 2000).

References

  • 1.    Ackerman, P. (1989). Motivation and cognitive abilities: An Integrative Aptitude-Treatment Interaction Approach to Skill Acquisition. Journal of Applied Psychology , 74, 657-690.

  • 2.    Conger, J. (2009). The necessary art of persuasion. Harvard Business Review .

  • 3.    Digman, J. (1990). Personality Structure: Emergence of the Five-Factor Model. Annual Review of Psychology , 41, 417-440.

  • 4.    Drucker, P. F. (1999). Managing Oneself. Harvard Business Review .

  • 5.    Drucker, P. F. (2004). What makes an effective executive. Harvard Business Review .

  • 6.    Goffee, R. (2000). Why should anyone be led by you? Harvard Business Review .

  • 7.    Goleman, D. (1998). What makes a leader? Harvard Business Review .

  • 8.    Heifetz, R. (2001). The work of leadership. Harvard Business Review .

  • 9.    Howei, P. (1982). Locus of Control and Maintenance of Behavioral Therapy. British Journal ofClinical Psychology , 25 (I), 65-66.

  • 10.    Kirsch, I. (1985). Self-Efficacy and Expectancy: Old Wine With New Labels. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 44, 824-830.

  • 11.    Kotter, J. (1995). Leading the Change. Harvard Business Review .

  • 12.    Livingstone, J. S. (2003). Pygmalion in Management. Harvard Business Review .

  • 13.    Mintzberg, H. (1990). The Manager's Job: Folklore and Fact. Harvard Business Review .

  • 14.    Rooke, D. (2005). 7 Transformations of Leadership. Harvard Business Review .

  • 15.    Zaleznik, A. (1992). Managers and Leaders: Are they different? Harvard Business Review .

Get Quality Assignment Without Paying Upfront

Hire World's #1 Assignment Help Company

Place Your Order