Table of Contents

Content Page#
Introduction ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2
Behavioral Approach ------------------------------------------------------------------ 2
Ohio State Leadership Studies ---------------------------------------------- 2
Initiating structure --------------------------------------------------- 2
Consideration --------------------------------------------------------- 2
Michigan Leadership studies ------------------------------------------------ 2
Task-Oriented Behavior --------------------------------------------- 2
Relations-oriented behavior ---------------------------------------- 2
A Three-Dimensional Model ------------------------------------------------ 3
Participative Leadership, Delegation, and Empowerment ---------------------- 3
Participation -------------------------------------------------------------------- 3
Delegation ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3
Empowerment ----------------------------------------------------------------- 3
Other theories and Behaviors -------------------------------------------------------- 3
Achievement-Oriented Behavior ------------------------------------------- 3
Supportive ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3
Situational Theory ------------------------------------------------------------ 4
Leadership Member Exchange Theory ------------------------------------ 4
Power ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4
Legitimate Power -------------------------------------------------------------- 4
Reward Power ------------------------------------------------------------------ 4
Expert Power ------------------------------------------------------------------- 4
Information Power ------------------------------------------------------------ 5
Influence Process ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 5
Instrumental Compliance ---------------------------------------------------- 5
Outcome of Power and Influence Process ----------------------------------------- 5
Charismatic Leader -------------------------------------------------------------------- 5
Transactional leadership -------------------------------------------------------------- 5
Conclusion ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5
References ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6






2

Larry Ellison, Oracle
Behavior, Power and Influence

Introduction:

Lawrence Joseph "Larry" Ellison is an American businessman, best known as the co-founder and
chief executive officer of Oracle Corporation, an enterprise software company. In 2014,
Forbes listed him as the third-wealthiest man in America and as the fifth-wealthiest person in the
world, with a fortune of $48 billion. Larry Ellison is a man of mix characteristics and behavior.
The leadership style and behavior of Larry Ellison are as follow:

Behavioral Approach:

Larry Ellison behavior with its employees and subordinates are as follow;

Ohio State Leadership Studies:

1. I nitiating structure: According to this study Larry Ellison shows behavior of Initiating
structure because he always wants best talent and productivity. He wants to compete with
Microsoft and required 100 % results from his employees.

2. Consideration: He shows little consideration toward it employees but when a project was
successfully completed by his employees, he gave a high party to his employees on their
achievement.

Michigan Leadership studies:

According to this theory Larry Ellison exhibits following behavior;

1. Task-Oriented Behavior: Larry Ellison is more task-oriented toward his employees than
relations-oriented. He needs perfect work and sometime he became abused toward his
employees, friends and foes when company decreases its productivity.

2. Relations-oriented behavior: Larry Ellison is little bit supportive and relation-oriented.
But mostly he hired his own friends in the company so that he can easily work with them
in a friendly environment.



3

A Three-Dimensional Model:

According to this model Larry Ellison show more Task-Oriented, little Relations-Oriented and
Change-Oriented Behavior. Change-Oriented behavior is that he always go for quickly
adopting opportunities and theft the ideas of competitors and quickly transform his processes.

Participative Leadership, Delegation, and Empowerment:

Participation:

Larry Ellison is Autocratic Leader. He transformed himself into a driven, disciplined warrior - a
self-styled New Age samurai, when his sales force sell future licenses to employees and failed to
deliver them.

Delegation:

He gets back all authorities from its employees and become harsh leader when his sales force sell
future licenses to employees and failed to deliver them. He delegates power only to his friend
whom he hired in his company.

Empowerment:

Larry Ellison does not believe in empowering employees. He said if company wants to motivate
employees it is needed to bring new human capital management tools rather than empowered
employees. He said human capital is precious asset of company.

Other theories and Behaviors

Achievement-Oriented Behavior:

Mr. Ellison focused on achievements, he always wants best results.

Supportive:

Mr. Ellison always wanted things to be done the way he felt they should be done and seemed to
always know how to respond and what action to take in almost every business-related decision.
So even when a problem arose he always seem to know the proper action to take, demonstrating
almost flawlessly situational theory.

4

Situational Theory:

The situational theory also plays a major role in Larrys success. Situational theory is a
leadership theory in which those in charge choose to adjust their leadership style to match a
particular situation. Mr. Ellison had a strong will that enabled his company to adapt quickly to
the shifting markets demand and sudden competitive threats quicker than more structured
organizations. After taking a big loss in the 1990s, Oracle had to come up with some new
changes and ideas. Mr. Ellison approached this problem by creating a team of software specialist
to come up with new projects.

Leadership Member Exchange Theory

The leadership member exchange theory describes how leaders in groups maintain their position
through a series of exchange agreements with their members. Robert Miner and Edward Oates
were a part of the In group of the organization, because they were two of the men who were
closest to Mr. Ellison. The book expresses Mr. Ellison characteristics as of a cheerleader; by the
way he builds an energetic environment that keeps employees on the job until the products are
completed. After the success of the projects, the inner groups are invited to very elegant, very
expensive parties the other members, who werent as close to Mr. Ellison, were all considered to
be a part of the Out group.

Power

1. Legitimate Power:

Larry Ellison is CEO of company so he has formal authority over work activities.

2. Reward Power:

Larry only rewarded the brightest and most talented people of his organization. This sparked a
strong competitive spirit within his organization.

3. Expert Power:

Larry Ellison has full technical expertise in software development.




5

4. Information Power:

Larry Ellison has complete information about its company and competitors. He is only weak in
handling financial information of company.

Influence Process:

Instrumental Compliance:

Larry Ellison influences his employees by giving direct rewards or punishment for required
action.

Outcome of Power and Influence Process:

Power and Influence process of Larry Ellison is results in compliancein which he influenced the
target persons behavior not their attitude.

Charismatic Leader:

Larry was a charismatic, and has the ability to draw others to them.

Transactional leadership:

Transactional leadership focuses on the foundational management process of controlling,
organizing, and short-term planning. This theory of leadership involves motivation, reward and
punishment as the primary means of getting the follower to obey those in charge. Mr. Ellison
focused on objectives, roles of the organization and the performance of the employees on a daily
basis. Mr. Ellison was an authority compliant leader, who felt that the best way to be effective
was to be directive to his employees, showing them exactly what he wanted. He also kept an
open door policy if employees needed help on difficult projects to ensure that the products that
they produced had little to no bugs in its systems.

Conclusion:

It is concluded that Larry Ellison is a man of mix characteristics he is both task-oriented and
people-oriented. He sometimes used power of his money for his friends. He likes successful
people including Bill Gates. He is an autocratic, transactional and charismatic leader. Outcomes
of his behavior, power and influences include more compliance with little personalization.

6

References:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/oracle/2014/02/12/larry-ellison-talks-talent-teamwork-and-
insanely-great-products/

http://www.itinsideronline.com/Career/larry_ellison%20/#.U5QCPXKSxc4

http://www.thestreet.com/story/10928309/1/larry-ellison-and-the-art-of-war.html

http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Leadership%20and%20Entrepreneurship
/Larry%20Ellison-The%20Source%20of%20Oracle's%20Wisdom-
Leadership%20and%20Entrepreneurship-Case%20StudiesExcp.htm

http://www.success.com/article/from-the-archives-larry-ellison

http://www.swlearning.com/pdfs/chapter/0324156847_2.PDF?q=thomson

http://customerthink.com/6_sales_leadership_lessons_from_larry_ellison/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Ellison