MGT502 Organizational Behavior

a. Is Tesla’s structure appropriate? Does it support, facilitate achievement of its objectives?

b. Is Tesla’s culture appropriate? Does it support, facilities achievement of its objectives?

c. Are the structure and culture compatible? Do they reinforce, complement each other?

2: Analyse Tesla’s Leadership
a. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Tesla’s leadership. Although Elon Musk is Clearly relevant, don’t focus exclusively on him.

Introduction

In the current business state of affairs, organizational culture, structure and the leadership approach determines the effectiveness and competiveness of the organizations. This is due to the reason that these characteristics help the business organizations in having the internal competitiveness to face the external difficulties. Thus, it is well applicable for Tesla also due to the fact that they are operating in highly competitive industry with the challenge of continuous process of innovation and technological advancements (Young and Ghoshal 2016). Tesla is one of the late entrants in the global automotive market but has made a mark due to their distinctive product offerings. In addition, Tesla is also known for their distinctive business approach different from what the conventional automakers follow.

This essay will discuss about the effectiveness of the organizational structure and culture of Tesla and how their leadership approach is helping in attaining their business goals. In addition, the strengths and weaknesses of the leadership style of Tesla will also be discussed in this essay.

Appropriateness of organizational structure of Tesla

It is reported that Tesla is having favorable approach of organizational structure in place with having their major concentration towards business growth. It is also being reported that organizational structure of Tesla is enabling them in having strong and effective managerial control over the business. According to Tran and Tian (2013), one of the major characteristics of the organizational structure of Tesla is functional structure. This is enabling them to have hierarchies based on different organizational functions. Thus, employees having expertise sales and marketing profile are working in the respective departments. It is helping Tesla in leveraging the skills and expertise of the employees to the fullest. On the other hand, the objective of Tesla of maintaining the satisfaction level of the employees can also be maintained.

It is also being stated that organizational structure of Tesla is highly centralized in nature in regards to their global business. According to O’Reilly and Tushman (2013), centralization of the organizational structure of Tesla is helping them in having the major control with the top level management over their global business. As per the authors, Tesla is relatively small company compared to other automakers and they are still in nascent stage. Thus, they need strict control and involvement of the top level management over the business operation, which can be achieved by means of centralization. The business objective of Tesla of achieving organizational excellence can be achieved by means of unified control of the top level management. Thus, from the above evaluation, it can be concluded that organizational structure of Tesla is appropriate and is helping in achieving the business objectives of them.

Appropriateness of organizational culture of Tesla

It is identified that Tesla follows innovative problem solving organizational culture in their internal management. According to Basadur, Gelade and Basadur (2014), the major elements of the organizational culture of Tesla are promoting innovation, coordination and efficiency. The authors have also stated that with the help of this approach of organizational culture of Tesla, their level of emergence of innovative ideas is also more. As discussed earlier, the innovative concentration of Tesla is getting achieved by the means of this cultural approach. In addition, the elements of coordination and cooperation in their organizational culture are also enabling Tesla to have the highest level of productivity from the side of the internal stakeholders.

In addition, it is also identified that one of the major business objectives of Tesla is to have employees with highest level of engagement, loyalty and organizational citizenship in the workplace. In accordance to that, employees are being motivated to think as the owner of the company. According to Ghorbanhosseini (2013), this approach of organizational culture of Tesla is helping them in having the highest level of engagement from the side of the employees. This is due to the reason that if the employees can be motivated to think as an owner rather than as an employee, then they will have more organizational citizenship in their workplace. In addition, the employees will try to come up with more innovative ideas, which is further enhancing the competencies of Tesla.

However, on the other hand, there are some drawbacks also being detected in the organizational culture of Tesla. As per Buschgens, Bausch and Balkin (2013), one of the major drawbacks for organizational culture of Tesla is pressure on the employees. This is due to the fact that the organizational culture of Tesla is more focused on the emergence of innovation from the side of the employees and thus they are expected to continuously come up with innovative ideas. This is creating added pressure on the employees. In addition, the authors have also stated that this will affect the organizational objective of Tesla of having engaged and satisfied customers in the workplace.

Compatibility of organizational structure and culture

Compatibility between the organizational structure and culture is important for Tesla as well as other organizations. This is due to the reason that effectiveness of organizational culture will determine the efficiency of structure in the organization. According to Janicijevic (2013), organizational structure of Tesla is designed in the way that it will have employees with right skills and expertise in the right departments. On the other hand, organizational culture of Tesla is concentrating on engaging the employees. Thus, both the elements are helping in increasing the satisfaction and productivity level of the employees. Thus, it can be concluded that both the organizational culture and structure of Tesla are reinforcing each other.

On the other hand, it is stated by Wiewiora et al. (2013) that organizational structure of Tesla is unified and centralized in nature and flexible culture is being maintained. Hence, the flexible organizational culture is helping Tesla in having employees with independency and expertise to solve problems by own. This is further eliminating the need for having any middle level managers as intermediaries and complementing the centralized structure in the organization. In addition, it is stated by Denison, Nieminen and Kotrba (2014) that the objectives of the organizational structure and culture of Tesla are same and similar. This is due to the fact that organizational structure of Tesla is concentrated towards achieving the highest efficiency from the side of the employees and so does their organizational culture. It is also being stated by the authors that innovation is also the common objective of both the organizational culture and structure of Tesla. This is denoting that both these factors are quite compatible with the business and strategic objectives of Tesla and they both are reinforcing and complementing each other.

Evaluation of the leadership of Tesla

Leadership principles of Tesla are highly influences by the personal charisma of their CEO Elon Musk. This is mainly due to the transformational style of leadership by Musk. However, still it should be noted that the leadership approach of Tesla is not consists of Musk only but the entire top level management (Anderson and November 2013). It is identified that leadership approach or style being followed in the company is more flexible and casual compared to what is being followed in other global firms. It is identified that leadership management of Tesla does not believes in holding corporate meetings citing bureaucracy and rigidity. However, it should also be noted that even though the leadership approach of Tesla is praised worldwide and draws huge attention, still there are number of limitations being identified. One of the major weaknesses of leadership of Tesla is overdependence on Elon Musk (Gloor 2017). It can be identified in various instances that Musk is only getting the limelight with other board members are kept in dark. This denotes an autocratic approach in the organization and among the external stakeholders. In addition, it is also being identified that in major cases, principles set by Musk are being accepted as the organizational principles of Tesla. Thus, the coordination in the top level management is less.

However, still there are few advantages also being identified for the leadership of Tesla. One of the major advantages is flexibility. This is helping Tesla in having their innovative approach running. On the other hand, the flexibility in the leadership approach of Tesla is also helping the top level managers in involving with the employees directly. This is resolving the internal issues effectively (Setili 2015). On the other hand, employees are also engaged and motivated in their workplace due to the flexible attitude of the leadership role of Tesla.

Conclusion

Thus, this can be concluded that organizational culture, structure and leadership approach of Tesla are well effective and efficient. In this essay, all these factors are being critically analyzed. It is identified that organizational culture and structure of Tesla are compatible to each other and they are helping in achieving the organizational objectives of them. In addition, the effectiveness of the leadership roles in Tesla is also being critically analyzed along with identifying the positive and negative factors of it. This can also be concluded that Tesla is having effective and ideal internal elements, which are further helping them in gaining competencies.

Reference

Anderson, C. and November, F., 2013. The shared genius of Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. Fortune, December, 9.

Basadur, M., Gelade, G. and Basadur, T., 2014. Creative problem-solving process styles, cognitive work demands, and organizational adaptability. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 50(1), pp.80-115.

Büschgens, T., Bausch, A. and Balkin, D.B., 2013. Organizational culture and innovation: A meta?analytic review. Journal of product innovation management, 30(4), pp.763-781.

Denison, D., Nieminen, L. and Kotrba, L., 2014. Diagnosing organizational cultures: A conceptual and empirical review of culture effectiveness surveys. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 23(1), pp.145-161.

Ghorbanhosseini, M., 2013. The effect of organizational culture, teamwork and organizational development on organizational commitment: The mediating role of human capital. Tehnicki vjesnik, 20(6), pp.1019-1025.

Gloor, P.A., 2017. Swarm leadership and the collective mind: Using collaborative innovation networks to build a better business. Emerald Publishing Limited.

Jani?ijevi?, N., 2013. The mutual impact of organizational culture and structure. Economic annals, 58(198), pp.35-60.

O'Reilly III, C.A. and Tushman, M.L., 2013. Organizational ambidexterity: Past, present, and future. Academy of management Perspectives, 27(4), pp.324-338.

Setili, A., 2015. Does Your Leadership Style Destroy Agility... or Supercharge It?. Leader to Leader, 2015(78), pp.56-61.

Tran, Q. and Tian, Y., 2013. Organizational structure: Influencing factors and impact on a firm. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 3(2), p.229.

Wiewiora, A., Trigunarsyah, B., Murphy, G. and Coffey, V., 2013. Organizational culture and willingness to share knowledge: A competing values perspective in Australian context. International Journal of Project Management, 31(8), pp.1163-1174.

Young, C. and Ghoshal, S., 2016. Organization theory and the multinational corporation. Springer.