Lesson 1: Leadership, Management, and Culture

Read “David Neeleman Reinvents Airlines,” on page 26 of your text. After reading this case and conducting additional research (at least two (2) journal articles), discuss the following.

Part A Do you think that David Neeleman best meets the definition of a manager or a leader? List and discuss three (3) reasons for your answer and provide three (3) examples of how David Neeleman does not fit the alternate definition.

Part B What are the key elements of JetBlue’s culture?

Part C What role does the leader play in the development and maintenance of the culture?

Leadership, Management and Culture

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PART A

Leadership is a complicated process which has one primary objective of steering an organization towards achieving all its set goals. The executive is the main engine driving the whole process by directing, guiding and influencing the behaviors of all the employees towards the main course depending on the prevailing situation. It’s vital to notice that, leadership process can only be complete when a manager has successfully induced confidence and morale to work on the subordinates. To this point, it’s already clear that leadership can only be effective when there is a thriving group work between different individuals, and thus its right to say that David Neeleman’s behaviors best meet those of a leader.

There are many reasons which help in supporting David Neeleman to be a good leader for the organizations he served. His main aim in leadership was to ensure that the business offers high customer satisfaction to all their customers. He also insisted on a consistent interaction between the senior employees and junior employees, to help in reminding the whole management on the primary objectives of the business. He also championed for a good working environment for all the employees. Customer satisfaction greatly helps a company in maintaining its customers while also attracting new customers and keeping them tied to the services offered. Consistent interaction between the senior employees and junior employees ensures a smooth run for the business by limiting unnecessary interruptions such as strikes and boycotts. The good working environment for the employees gives them a peace of mind which in turn boosts their morale and performance in the workplace.

Many examples are proving that David was not a bad leader. In Azul, his management style was to treat the employees well to ensure that the employees also, in turn, treated the customers well. This is excellent leadership since all the crucial stakeholders of the business are well taken care of and hence making them feel like valuable members of the company. He was obsessed with staying in touch with both customers and employees; a great leadership skill since it helped him maintain a strategic position of receiving reliable feedback from the customers. He was open to accepting constructive challenges from the colleagues; good leadership skill since he welcomes everyone’s ideas on board to help in effectively steering the business towards achieving all its set goals.

PART B

JetBlue was founded on objectives which all revolved around ensuring great humanity in the air travel business as illustrated by (Humphries, 2017). Due to this, the company’s founders came up with a culture of crewmembers which functioned based on five key elements, namely; safety, caring, fun, passion and integrity. Crewmember culture brings together an intern and a CEO on the same table, to ensure the customers receive the best service. Everyone working in the company feels individually responsible for serving the company in any level; for example, a senior leader is expected to at times wear gloves and join the junior employees in picking litters in the planes. In trying to ensure maximum interaction between the employees, the executive team’s office is all the same in size as those of the directors; and the offices are open plan to ensure transparency and accountability in all the operations from top to bottom.

PART C

Leaders play a crucial role in the development and maintenance of a company’s culture, from the planning stage to implementation. The leaders are responsible for the full success of a culture, and they, therefore, have to conduct a feasibility study to determine all the necessary resources required for the culture to be fully implemented by the organization as illustrated by (Gleeson, 2019). For a culture to succeed, the first resource will be the human resource which includes the employees; the leaders must have to examine the kind of staff at hand to determine the possibility of employing new staff depending on the required skills. Employees must be trained with time to ensure they are aware of what it takes to uphold the organizational new culture; training means incurring more expenses. Leadership will, therefore, play an essential role in making tough decisions on who to fire and who to retain.

Leaders are responsible for any negative impact that may arise upon implementing a new culture in an organization. They, therefore, try to foresee the present and future effects of culture on the employees, customers and the business as a whole. The business world is always very fragile as it keeps on changing from time to time, so the leaders have to ensure that their culture will remain relevant and useful for a long time. If a culture loses its value after a short time, the business will lose customers to competitors who have embraced appropriate cultures as per the customers prevailing tastes and preference.

References

Humphries, D. (2017). “Culture is the DNA of the Company—An Interview with JetBlue’s SVP of Talent, Rachel McCarthy. http://blog.indeed.com/2017/08/08/culture-is-dna-company-interview-jetblue/

Gleeson, B. (2019). The Leader’s Role In Culture Design And Management. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brentgleeson/2019/02/01/the-leaders-role-in-culture-design-and-management/#15c26c433a79