Fiorina S Leadership Failure at HP Essay

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Leadership in Context

Carleton Fiorina, who is commonly known as the Carly Fiorina, was one of the most powerful businesswomen in America in the year 2000 as she was employed as the Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard, a technology giant. As a result of being hired by this technological giant, Fiorina became the first woman to lead a Dow 30 company in the United States. She had a tremendous career in leadership as she rose rapidly through the ranks at AT&T and Lucent Technologies before joining Hewlett-Packard (HP). However, Fiorina's helm at HP came to an abrupt end in 2005 when she and other members of the firm's board were fired for their failure as moral persons and moral managers. This situation provides a good case study of leadership in context with regards to elements of leadership, application of leadership theories, and probable reasons for leadership failure.

Elements of Leadership

Generally, effective leadership is important for any organization or institution to be successful with regards to achievement of specific objectives (Sheninger, 2014). The achievement of effective leadership requires application of the various elements of leadership such as modeling, discipline, creativity, insight, and values. While Fiorina's tenure as Chief Executive Officer of HP came to an abrupt end in 2005, there are certain elements of leadership demonstrated in the article. The first element of leadership demonstrated in the article is creativity, which is the capability to create or manifest the future. This is evident in Fiorina's institution of three major changes that transformed HP's organizational culture following her whirlwind tour and examination of the company's facilities. The second leadership element is support, which incorporates visible components like company benefits, organizational structure, and organizational resources. This element is visible in Fiorina's transformation of HP's existing culture by reducing the 83 operating units to 4 units in attempts promote collaboration between the various facilities and segments of the business. Moreover, Fiorina changed the organization's reward metrics by substituting its profit-sharing plan with an incentive program that ensured employees obtained bonuses if the firm realized its financial targets. The other element of leadership in the article is not looking for buy-in, which is considered essential in effective leadership. In this case, effective leaders utilize intrinsic motivation to establish and maintain change and do not consider buy-in as an important part of the process. Carly demonstrated this element through using intrinsic motivation to initiate the three major changes that were geared towards enhancing the firm's operations and profitability. She did not look for buy-in from employees and removed employees who opposed the change initiatives.

Reasons for the Failure of Leadership

Even though the appointment of Carly Fiorina as the CEO of Hewlett-Packard was a welcome change by many employees, it ended up being a wrong decision that contributed to her abrupt sacking because of several factors. One of the reasons for the failure of Carly Fiorina's leadership is her failure as a moral person and a moral manager. The success or failure of a leader is dependent on his/her moral reasoning as well as strategic thinking (Johnson, 2008, p.191). While Fiorina was effective in strategic thinking, she largely failed in moral reasoning, which eventually resulted in the failure of leadership. Actually, she was good at developing and selling her vision but poor at moral reasoning with regards to running daily organizational operations.

Secondly, Carly Fiorina failed because of lack of emotional intelligence, which resulted in increased employee dissatisfaction. As evident in the article, a survey of 8,000 employees showed prevalent unhappiness attributable to poorly implemented decisions and poor communication. These factors were largely fueled by lack of emotional intelligence in relation to compassion, integrity and humility. Despite being described as compassionate by her colleagues at AT&T and Lucent Technologies, Fiorina was seemingly less compassionate during her tenure at HP by creating a distance between her and employees and putting her needs first. In relation to integrity, Fiorina had a tendency of initiating wide policy changes without understanding their impact and made empty promises. In case of failure, Carly blamed the organization's culture and other managers rather than assume personal responsibility. Lack of humility is considered as the single most significant contributor to Carly's failure of leadership. This is primarily because of the significant media attention she enjoyed that was characterized by failure to conduct a realistic self-appraisal, sense of transcendence, and openness to new ideas.

The third reason for the failure of leadership in this article is Fiorina's neglect of employee needs and controlling most organizational items and projects.

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While Carly was a highly motivational speaker, she neglected employee needs, which resulted in increased dissatisfaction and unhappiness. Her neglect of these needs resulted in lack of employee equity during the major reorganization. Moreover, Fiorina under-delegated i.e. she maintained control of many organizational items and projects. For instance, when she transformed one of the company's departments, Fiorina failed to let the department run by itself and maintained control (Stempeldrang, n.d.).

Theories of Leadership Applicable to the Scenario

There are several theories of leadership that are applicable to Carly Fiorina's scenario and could help address her failure in leadership. The first theory that can be applied to the situation is the transactional leadership theory, which focuses on the basic management procedure of managing, organizing, and short-term planning. Transactional leadership theory entails motivating and directing followers or subordinates through appealing to their respective self-interest. In most cases, leaders who utilize transactional leadership theory motivate their followers through a system of incentives or rewards and punishment depending on the achievement of desired objectives and outcomes (Management Study Guide, n.d.). This theory is applicable to the scenario with regards to engagement of employees in the major reorganizations instituted by Fiorina. Carly relied on punishment more than rewards in her engagement with employees and created a distance between herself and the employees since she wanted to be treated different than them. She did not motivate and direct employees on the basis of their own self-interests but relied on her own intrinsic motivation to guide decisions and implement policies and changes.

The second leadership theory applicable to the scenario is charismatic leadership theory in which the leader creates a powerful self-image that his/her followers or subordinates are naturally drawn to him/her. Some of the measures through which charismatic leaders develop this powerful self-image include visible self-sacrifice and taking personal risks and responsibility. Generally, charismatic leaders obtain their power from personality and charm instead of authority or external power. This theory can be applied to the scenario with regards to Carly's source of power and personality. Carly was more concerned with her own self-image instead of the firm's success as she combined remarkable visions with charismatic but demanding and egotistical leadership styles (Mulcahy, 2005, p.10). However, Fiorina took personal risks in instituting major reorganizations to achieve her vision of transforming HP.

How the Theories Address the Visible Leadership Failure

Transactional and charismatic leadership theories have some similarities and differences on how well they address the evident failure of leadership in the article. Transactional and charismatic leadership theories address the failure of leadership by focusing on the relationship between the leader and his/her employees. Transactional leadership theory deal with this failure of leadership through directing and motivating employees by allocating roles and tasks towards the achievement of established goals. In this case, Fiorina will delegate many tasks and resources to respective employees and letting departments run by themselves rather than holding on to them. Similarly, charismatic leadership theory would deal with the failure of leadership by motivating employees and engaging them in the implementation process.

However, these theories differ in how well they address the failure of leadership that is visible in Fiorina's scenario as CEO of HP. In this case, charismatic leadership theory would require placing the needs of the organization above personal needs and desires (Mulcahy, 2005, p.10). The failure of leadership would be addressed by consideration of organizational needs and well-being rather than protecting personal self-image. This implies that Fiorina's situation could be addressed by focusing on handling the needs and objectives of Hewlett-Packard instead of protecting the CEO's self-image given the significant publicity and media attention she enjoyed. On the contrary, transactional leadership theory well addressed the failure of leadership through effective combination of strategic thinking and moral reasoning or effective management of daily operations. In this case, Fiorina would not only focus on strategically guiding the company but also ensures every operation flows smoothly on a daily basis.

In conclusion, Carly Fiorina's tenure provides a significant case study for understanding leadership in context, particularly elements of leadership and how leadership theories are applicable in real world situations. While she demonstrates some essential elements of effective leadership, Fiorina's tenure as Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard came to abrupt end due to poor decision-making, poor implementation, and use of ineffective leadership styles......

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