topic analysis democratic leadership style of henry ford

This research is conducted with a view to find out how Henry Ford was so successfuland what his leadership style is.. It starts with Henry Ford’s early achievements andthen moves to exam

FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY

HO CHI MINH CITY CAMPUS

-**** -MIDTERM THESIS ANALYSIS OF HENRY FORD’S LEADERSHIP

Lecturer: Dr Nguyễn Thị Minh Hà

Team 9

1. Nguyễn Thị Quỳnh Như

2. Bùi Thị Thu Hiền

3. Nguyễn Đặng Vy Khanh

4. Ngô Tuấn Kiệt

5. Vũ Thị Thu Hiền

6. Trần Ngọc Mai

7. Nông Thế Duy Hoan

Ho Chi Minh City

TABLE OF CONTENT

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 2

1.1 Research objectives 2

1.2 Research purposes 3

1.3 Contribution 3

1.4 Report’s Structure 3

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 5

2.1 Literature review of leadership style 5

2.1.1 Authoritarian or Autocratic Leadership 5

2.1.2 Democratic or Participative Leadership 5

2.1.3 Laissez-faire or Delegative Leadership 6

2.1.4 Charismatic Leadership 6

2.1.5 Servant Leadership 7

2.2 Research questions 7

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 8

3.1 Methodology 8

3.2 Henry Ford’s background 9

3.2.1 Henry Ford’s early years 9

3.2.2 Henry Ford’s marriage and family 10

3.2.3 Henry Ford’s career 10

3.2.4 Labor philosophy 11

3.3 Ford Motor Business 14

CHAPTER 4: FINDING AND ANALYSIS 18

4.1 Leadership philosophies of Henry Ford 18

4.1.1 The ultimate goal is not to make money 18

4.1.2 Employees should be respected 18

4.2 Style of leadership 18

4.2.1 Henry Ford's Democratic Leadership style 19

4.2.2 Henry Ford's Autocratic Leadership style 20

4.2.3 Transformational leadership 21

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION & SUGGESTION 23

5.1 Conclusion 23

REFERENCE 24

This research is conducted with a view to find out how Henry Ford was so successfuland what his leadership style is It starts with Henry Ford’s early achievements andthen moves to examine his leadership style This research will also present some of thecharacteristics that define Henry Ford as a leader Henry Ford is a visionary leader whowas able to predict the future and venture into developing technology in the nextdecade Despite Henry Ford's successes, he still has challenges to face like any otherleader with regard to a variety of factors in a fast-changing world, which leads to quite

a bit of controversy surrounding Henry Ford’s leadership Therefore, in the end,the study will summarize the main findings through financial performance and otherkey observations, as well as offer some recommendations for him

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Globalization has led to increasing demand for leadership This is not onlyevident in the professional world, but also in the rise of small-scale entrepreneurship.Developing a strong set of leadership skills not only aids you on your path but alsohelps you advance in your career, whether that may be as a manager or entrepreneur.Leadership is hardly a new topic, but it's becoming increasingly more important witheach passing day - something that organizations are realizing as well

1.1 Research objectives

The capacity to influence, encourage, guide, and direct people to attain theirgoals is referred to as leadership Leaders are not a single activity, but rather acollection of acts that occur in sequence Successful leaders collaborate withsubordinates and colleagues to develop visions and plans that serve as the tools toachieve organizational goals

As the globe enters the twenty-first century, it comes with numerous significantworldwide developments Humanity has experienced the rapid growth of informationtechnology, the current scientific engineering revolution, and notable changes in theidea of human-human connections in social relations, where the role of people is morehighly valued than ever

Thus, in the new framework of global growth, in which Vietnam requiresintegration, basic needs have been established via changes in technology, training, andinnovative thinking in leadership and management Future leaders and managers musthave a more realistic picture of the value they provide to the organizations they manage.They will have to draw on the greatest human resources (talent, wisdom, andenthusiasm) available to them To do this, the leader needs to wield a powerful weapon

in the form of a leadership style A reasonable leadership style is one in which theleader addresses a variety of demands

Henry Ford, the dominant figure of the twentieth century, combines twopersonality qualities that are typically recognized in leaders A unique, far-reaching

car Then there's the obsessive attention to detail that drives others insane in the pursuit

of creating a product that is flawless

Henry Ford altered the world, yet he was scarcely known throughout his first 40years A long enough period of time for the development of both human andmechanical talents to establish the groundwork for the massive Ford AutomobileCompany We chose the topic "Analysis democratic leadership style of Henry Ford"

1.2 Research purposes

On the basis of capturing and analyzing the source of the materials about HenryFord's democratic leadership style, the topic of the essay is intended to:

- First, comprehend the leadership-style rationale of Henry Ford;

- Second, examine the current situation and evaluate Henry Ford's leadership style;

- Finally, there are a number of recommended measures to improve Henry Ford's efficiency

1.3 Contribution

American industrialist and business magnate, Henry Ford was well-known as thefounder of the famous Ford Motor Company While he was also recognized as the chiefdeveloper of the Assembly Line Technique of mass production, Henry Ford was reveredfor his modern ideologies and leadership skills By Understanding Henry Ford’sLeadership style and culture, we will gain more knowledge about how to become a

leader, improve one’s career prospects, and a recommendation of an effective leadership

style from a respectful leader

- Chapter 3: Research & methodology

- Chapter 4: Research results and evaluation

- Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendation

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 2.1 Literature review of leadership style

2.1.1 Authoritarian or Autocratic Leadership

Authoritarian leaders tend to offer structure and guidance to their organizationwithout seeking other perspectives; they seldom use outside information to makechoices, instead of relying only on their own convictions (The Economic Times, 2019).They expect their group to accomplish precisely what they tell them to do and to fulfillthe goals they set for them (Lorinkova, Pearsall, and Sims, 2013) Kanter (2004)discovers that directed leaders may supervise the creative process by managing,monitoring, directing, and employing hierarchical influence This leadership style can

be effective in environments that have the following characteristics: the nature of thetask requires clear and rapid judgments (The Economic Times, 2019) or the work itselfdoes not require any creativity) Nowadays, in an increasingly innovative world, thisleadership style is losing favor owing to its rugged nature and slow rate of change.Ford was a totalitarian boss who never let his staff participate in decision-making According to Long (2017), one of the characteristics of an autocratic boss issubordinates' doubt Ford lacked trust in his staff He was curious about what the staffwas up to both inside and outside the office Ford's arrogance caused him to lose muchexperienced personnel who aided the company's growth One of the benefits of having

an autocratic boss is that they are dedicated to their dreams According to Naile andSelesho (2014), authoritarian leaders participate in the day-to-day operations of anorganization to guarantee their legitimacy as planned Ford was adamant aboutproducing automobiles that were affordable to middle-class buyers He turned downinvestors' desire to produce high-end autos for the wealthy (Long 2017) Ford saw noneed to target the wealthy, who made up a small fraction of the American population

2.1.2 Democratic or Participative Leadership

The choice under the participatory leadership style can be affected by themembers of the group, but the final decision is still with the leader; this is referred to as

"shared influence in decision making" (Somech, 2006) The democratic leader mayboost the adoration and participation of their group to the leader through the procedure

of voting or discussing ideas with their personnel (Dirks and Ferrin, 2002) Apart fromthe fact that the final decision remains in the hands of the leader, there is an issuederiving from democratic leadership that may develop amongst group membersthroughout the invention phase (Yan, 2011) We can't dispute that group discussion anddebate, which can often lead to group conflict, can boost creativity and the growth ofnew ideas (Frischer, 1993; Nijstad and De Dreu, 2002)

2.1.3 Laissez-faire or Delegative Leadership

Laissez-faire, which translates as "let’s do" in French, is a leadership stylethat encourages individuals to freely share ideas and make their own decisions whileholding the leader to a minimum of responsibilities This leadership style may bedefined as "abdicates obligations in order to avoid making choices" (Chelte et al.,2007) The leader is often involved in decision-making and avoids feedback (Zareen,Razzaq, and Mujtaba, 2014) This leadership style necessitates that its members bespecialists in a given subject or a highly competent group; otherwise, this leadershipstyle might lead to less competitive and motivating situations for the group whencompared to other leadership styles (Zareen, Razzaq, and Mujtaba, 2014)

2.1.4 Charismatic Leadership

In summary, charismatic leaders are individuals who are not just goodcommunicators and orally articulate, but who can also interact with their followers on adeep, emotional level (Drevitch, 2012) Charismatic leadership is thought to be morefocused on the leaders themselves than on the technique or procedure when compared

to other leadership styles (STU Online, 2014) Charismatic executives prefer to offertheir personnel emotional support rather than directing them to specific duties As aresult, the charismatic leader should have considerable power over his or her audience(STU Online, 2014)

2.1.5 Servant Leadership

Servant leadership is a style that must primarily address the needs of otherGreenleaf employees (1977) This leadership style's duties included empowering andgrowing individuals through demonstrating humility, genuineness, interpersonalacceptance, and stewardship, as well as providing guidance (van Dierendonck, 2010)

As a result, the goal of leadership is to meet the requirements and create the conditionsfor each member of the group to reach their full potential

2.2 Research questions

1/ What exactly was Henry Ford's leadership style(s)?

2/ How did Ford's background shape his career path and leadership style?

3/ How did Ford's decision to introduce the nine-to-five workday and pay employees 5dollars a day reflect his leadership style?

4/ What was the aforementioned decision's impact?

5/ Should his leadership style be emulated and applied in any industry or businessnowadays?

6/ What should today’s leaders do to maximize their firm’s profit while retaining talented and experienced staff?

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Methodology

The study uses observational research methodologies and seeks to demonstrate acause-and-effect link between two variables, which are often qualitative in nature.Causation may be established in observation research if one or more variables change

in a systematic fashion over time and those changes can be seen in real-world contexts.Observation research is qualitative since it examines data from several perspectivesrather than depending just on quantitative data Many hypotheses are developed throughobservation research and the use of various data collection methods, including surveys,interviews, and physical observations of individuals or events When other proceduresare unfeasible, observation research comes in handy

Data acquired through observation are included in the study process in anobservation research project Experiments and samples generated through surveys andinterviews can be used to collect data The data gathered by qualitative researchers isone of the most significant components of their study, and it has a direct impact on theresults The quality of work generated by an observation research approach isdetermined by the quality of the data

Observation study may be used in any setting where people interact with oneanother in a social framework Observational research methods have traditionally beenutilized predominantly in the social and behavioral sciences, where they have beenextensively used, most notably in anthropology, medicine, and sociology Scholars whouse these approaches to analyze politics have been at the vanguard of political science'squantitative revolution since the 1990s; yet, scholars who use these methods to examinesociety and culture continue to dominate social science publications Unlike many otherresearch methods, the observation research method is not limited to a single field ofstudy This is due to the fact that there are so many distinct fields of study Thisapproach is commonly used in the subjects stated above, but it may also be used in thestudy of business, humanities, environmental studies, and macroeconomics It can beused to research governmental policies or private businesses

The observation research technique is the most often used way of data collectionand may be applied to any circumstance that does not entail running tests The mostimportant stage in conducting an observational research study is precisely identifyinghow the various variables are connected Identifying fundamental causal processes anddefining when and how they occur is a common effort in this field The purpose of anobservational research study is to find out what happens under various settings.

3.2 Henry Ford’s background

3.2.1 Henry Ford’s early years

Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863, on a farm in Greenfield Township (nearDetroit, Michigan) His father, William Ford (1826-1905), was born in County Cork,Ireland, of a family originally from western England, who were among migrants toIreland as the English created plantations His mother, Mary Litogot Ford (1839-1876),was born in Michigan; she was the youngest child of Belgian immigrants; her parents

died when Mary was a child and she was adopted by neighbors, the O’Herns Henry

Ford's siblings include Margaret Ford (1867- 1938); Jane Ford (1868-1945); William Ford (1871- 1917) and Robert Ford (1873-1934)

His father gave Henry a pocket watch in his early teens At fifteen, Forddismantled and reassembled the timepieces of friends and neighbors dozens of times,gaining the reputation of a watch repairman At twenty, Ford walked four miles to theirEpiscopal church every Sunday Ford was devastated when his mother died in 1876 Hisfather expected him to eventually take over the family farm but Henry despised farmwork He told his father, “I never had any particular love for the farm - it was themother on the farm I loved.” In 1879, he left home to work as an apprenticemachinist in the city of Detroit, first with James F Flower & Bros., and later with theDetroit Dry Dock Co In 1882, he returned to Dearborn to work on a family farm, where

he became adept at operating the Westinghouse portable steam engine He was laterhired by Westinghouse company to service their steam engine

3.2.2 Henry Ford’s marriage and family

Ford married Clara Ala Bryant (1865-1950) in the year 1888 and supportedhimself by farming and running a sawmill They had a single child: Edsel Bryant Ford(1893-1943)

3.2.3 Henry Ford’s career

In 1891, Ford became an engineer with the Edison illuminating company Afterhis promotion to Chief Engineer in 1893, he had enough time and money to devoteattention to his personal experiments on gasoline engines After continuousexperiments, Ford created a self-propelled vehicle in 1896, which he called the FordQuadricycle He took it for a test drive on June 4 After several test drives, hebrainstormed ways to improve the vehicle Also in 1896, Ford attended a meeting ofEdison executives, where he was introduced to Thomas Edison Edison approved ofFord’s automobile experimentation; encouraged by him, Ford designed and built asecond vehicle, completing it in 1899 The Detroit automobile company wasestablished on August 5, 1899, as a result of Ford's resignation from Edison and thecapital provided by Detroit lumber baron William H Murphy Ford, however, did notlike the quality and price of the automobiles that the company produced With nosuccess, the company was dissolved in 1901

With the help of C Harold Wills, Ford designed, built, and successfully raced a horsepower automobile in October 1901 With this achievement, Murphy and differentinvestors in the Detroit vehicle organization shaped the Henry Ford Company on November

26-30, 1901, with Ford as a boss specialist Notwithstanding, Murphy acquired Henry M.Leland as an expert Subsequently, Ford left the organization bearing his name in 1902.With Ford out of the picture, Murphy renamed the organization the Cadillac AutomobileCompany In response, Malcomson brought in another group of investors and convinced theDodge Brothers to accept a portion of the new company Passage and Malcomson werereincorporated as the Ford Motor Company on June 16,103, with $28,000 capital The firstfinancial backers included Ford and Malcomson, the Dodge siblings, Malcomson's uncleJohn S Dark, Horace Rackham, and James Couzens In a recently planned vehicle, Ford

Clair, traveling 1 mile (1.6 km) in 39.4 seconds, setting another land speed record at91.3 miles each hour (147 km/h) Persuaded by this achievement, the race driverBarney Oldfield, who named this new Ford model "999" out of appreciation for ahustling train of the day, took the vehicle around the nation, spreading the word aboutthe Ford brand all through the United States.

3.2.4 Labor philosophy

Henry Ford was a pioneer of “welfare capitalism”, designed to improve a lot of

his workers and especially to reduce the heavy turnover that had many departmentshiring 300 men per year to fill 100 slots Efficiency meant hiring and keeping the bestworkers Ford announced his $5-per-day program on January 5, 1914 The progressiveprogram required a raise in the least every day pay from $2.34 to $5 for qualifyinglaborers It additionally set a new, diminished week's worth of work, albeit thesubtleties fluctuate in various records Passage and Crowther in 1922 portrayed it as six8-hour days, allowing a 48-hour week, while in 1926 they depicted it as five 8-hourdays, allowing a 40-hour week (Obviously, the program began with Saturdays astypical working days, and in a little while it was changed to a three-day weekend.) Fordsays that with this deliberate change, work turnover in his plants went from immense to

so little that he quit trying to quantify it

When Ford started the 40-hour workweek and a minimum wage, he wascriticized by other industrialists and by Wall Street He demonstrated, in any case, thatpaying individuals more would empower Ford laborers to bear the cost of the vehiclesthey were creating and be great for the economy Ford clarified the adjustment of part

of the "Wages" section of My Life and Work, He marked the expanded pay as sharing rather than compensation The benefit-sharing was proposed to representativeswho had worked at the organization for a very long time or more, and, critically, ledtheir lives in a way of which Ford's "Social Department" endorsed They disapproved ofweighty drinking, betting, and what could today be designated "miscreant fathers" TheSocial Department utilized 50 agents, in addition to helping staff to keep up withrepresentative norms; a huge level of laborers had the option to fit the bill for this

benefit-"benefit sharing."

Ford’s incursion into his employees’ private lives was highly controversial, and

he soon backed off from the most intrusive aspects When he composed his 1922 diary,

he talked about the Social Department and of the private circumstances for benefitpartaking in the past tense and conceded that "paternalism is not welcome in theindustry Government assistance work that consists of getting into representatives'private worries is outdated Men need direction and men need assistance, regularlyunique assistance; and this should be delivered for the wellbeing of tolerability.However, the expansive functional arrangement of speculation and investment will domore to the cement industry and fortify association than will any friendly workoutwardly Without changing the standard we have changed the strategy for installment

Ford astonished the world in 1914 by offering a $5 per day wage, which morethan doubled the rate of most of his workers (Utilizing the shopper cost record, thiswas identical to $111.10 each day in 2008 dollars.) The move demonstrated verybeneficial; rather than the steady turnover of representatives, the best mechanics inDetroit ran to Ford, getting their human resources skills, raising efficiency, andbringing down preparing costs For referred to it as "compensation intention." Theorganization's utilization of vertical mix additionally demonstrated fruitful when Fordconstructed a huge industrial facility that took in unrefined components and transportedout completed autos

In addition to boosting compensation for his employees, Ford instituted a new,shorter workday in 1926 The decision was taken in 1922 when Ford and Crowtherdefined it as six 8-hour days for a 48-hour week, but it was published in 1926 as five 8-hour days for a 40-hour week The program appears to have begun with Saturday beingrecognized as a workday before becoming a day off later The Ford Motor Company'sproduction workers transitioned to a five-day, 40-hour workweek on May 1, 1926, withthe company's office staff following suit in August Ford chose to increase productivity