Janani Kailasam

(201AIG028)
Page 1

1.What is the role of a leader in change management and in changing the culture of a green
company? GM case

A leader must be ready to take ownership for allowing this culture change to persist and to
begin building the trust and transparency needed to unite the workforce in support of their
customers. A leader must encourage and support continuous and dynamic learning platform
for their employees, favours change help to define an organizational culture that is adaptive.
Rather than fearing criticism for suggesting different directions, employees in this kind of
environment will feel free to express their innovative opinions, leading to higher productivity.
The three characterises of leadership to achieve successful adaptive culture are ability to
influence, a common goal and employees that are willing to work toward the vision. here are
different factors as time, scope and others that should be considered before making the
change. It is crucial for company managers to understand and change the organization
effectively. A leader must know the issue and react immediately to make changes in the
working environment. GM leadership was resistant to reform. With government interference,
GM was forced to undergo drastic changes to survive. In 2009 the company had faced a
bankruptcy and had closed several brands and sold out to china-based company. It again got
his position in market by restructuring and making change in the company. The company
firstly followed bureaucratic management style, Barra changed it to lean management
thinking logically and embraced changes in the work environment. She delegated powers to
managers by having a vision in her mind. She believed team collaboration is important to
achieve change management. She had a logical vision towards change management and
worked for more than three decades. A leader must be ready to face changes and seek
opportunities each day. GM faced a great issue called Ignition recall issue. Being very
resilient she looked it as an opportunity to renew the safety and marked a great sale even
during this crisis and GM regained its popularity in her leadership embarking quality in their
service. To conclude, role of a leader in changing management and culture change is
important and achieved by having forethoughts in long-term and embracing changes in the
organization. A leader must be ready to make effective changes in the strategies being
energetic and proactive. Employees must be encouraged by the leaders to make them realize
their responsibility and accountability for witnessing better productivity from their side.
 Janani Kailasam
(201AIG028)
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2. What is the leadership and management style of Barra?

Following the great issue due to the ignition recall, Barra was forced to issue safety recalls
involving around 30 million vehicles. She implemented new policies that promoted
responsibility, cooperation, and inclusiveness in the workplace. She encouraged employees to
report problems when they seemed incorrect. She always had operational thinking to make
the company remain conscious and pulled the company in right direction. She felt that actions
would speak more than words and worked for proving that. She used transformational
management style that defined to be the change you want to see. By this she had set more
challenging expectations for the employees, collaborated with her subordinates, pulled
employees out of their comfort zone, and maintained the reputation of GM. She focused on
delegating powers to the managers and changed the bureaucratic culture of the company to
lean management. Her goal was to make GM as lean as possible. She changed the company’s
bureaucratic long tradition for dress code and debated for it. She had initiatives for
simplifying the production process. The company was more transparent, and communication
was made easy under her leadership and style of management. Barra immediately set to work,
rationalizing the product line, improving quality and efficiency, and better aligning the
product with customer needs. She also believed in team leadership where team members are
glued together working towards the same goal. It entails how you engage with the employees
and enable them to grow with mutual understanding. Mary Barra believed the following rules
to be remembered by a leader are:

A leader must ask feedbacks from staff and try to comply.

 Use simplified messages

 Know your business
 Lead culture with behaviour
 Treat people with dignity and respect.
 Think logically, win both hearts and minds.
 Never stop learning.
 Janani Kailasam
(201AIG028)
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3. What are the personal characteristics and traits of Barra that contributed to her success?

Mary Barra is humble and collaborative, eager to give credit to her team. She never took
credit all for herself and appreciated individual employee’s work and talent. This down to
earth behaviour made her win both hearts and minds of the employees as well as the
customers. Being humble doesn’t necessarily mean lacking  in self-confidence. Barra always
send forth sense of quiet confidence to people around her that makes anyone want to trust and
admire her. She has abilities to bring order in any kind of chaotic environment which was
proved when she regained the company’s sales even after the bankruptcy and other
commotions. She was extremely passionate and resilient about her dreams and goals. She
perfectly executed her entire career in a distinct way right from education to her job. She was
also sure about goals and her desires, worked hard for it. She has the habit of seeking
opportunities in her day-to-day life. She was so focused on putting efforts rather just
believing. She craves for attaining knowledge and has an unquenchable thirst for it. She is
more precise in details and even more comprehensive making things easier for others that
makes people to wish her presence in all meetings. She is more resilient and thoughtful
individual who has insights for future. Her listening skills and approachability made her a
more interesting leader. She has diverse skill set in many fields like engineering,
administrative etc. These innate characteristics and personal traits of Mary Barra made her
the most desired leaders in this competitive world.

4. Discuss and debate what leadership approach Barra should adopt to lead GM to the next
league in front of electric vehicles?

Mary Barra practices a collaborative, transformational management style, which should pave
path well for her success which of GM. It would be an excellent accomplishment for GM and
therefore the industry to manage in such the simplest way that assembly-line employees.
Involving others in how things are done may be a behavior that is highly desired today in
management and at the board level. General Motors is expanding the number of electric
vehicles it will bring to market by 2025. Barra said 40% of the vehicles GM will offer in the
United States will be battery electric vehicles by the end of 2025. She focuses on growth
strategy and a zero emissions future and the goal is to make GM to be the no 1 seller in
automotive industry. Mary Barra can focus more on financial investments in self driving cars
since the climate is adverse and GM could be one reason for contributing its sustainable
 Janani Kailasam
(201AIG028)
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production to attain SDG-12 goal by 2025. GM could try to improve their competitive
advantages in batteries, manufacturing, and customer experience. GM could improve its
transparency in pricing and accelerate production. She could adopt many growing trends like
virtual reality, AI in her smart cars, new battery innovations etc. Employing more tech-savvy
automobile engineers to the production areas would be a great progress in the smart vehicles
by 2025 initiative.
 Janani Kailasam
(201AIG028)
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References

1. Mary Barra’s Leadership Style: What Can We Learn? | SB

2. GM CEO Mary Barra explains how shrinking the dress code to 2 words reflects her mission
for the company
3. Mary Barra Is Remaking GM’s Culture—And The Company Itself
4. 8 Insights on Leadership from GM CEO Mary Barra and the Wharton People Analytics
Conference - The Wharton School
5. Why Mary Barra Should Be the Norm, Not the Exception
6. https://www.iedp.com/articles/leadership-journeys-mary-barra/
7. https://qz.com/work/1175673/general-motors-ceo-mary-barra-on-her-leadership-style-
and-career/
8. https://fortune.com/2020/09/29/gm-ceo-mary-barra-patience-leadership-inclusivity-
fortune-most-powerful-women-summit/
9. https://www.industryweek.com/leadership/companies-
executives/article/21962100/did-mary-barras-inclusive-leadership-style-propel-her-to-
the-top
10. https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/this-email-from-gm-ceo-mary-barra-is-a-powerful-
lesson-in-how-to-become-more-inclusive.html
11. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/09/gm-ceo-its-my-responsibility-to-drive-change-
after-floyds-death.html
12. https://www.gmsustainability.com/material-topics/fostering-diversity-equity-and-
inclusion.html
Janani Kailasam
(201AIG028)
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