Leadership at BMW Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Leadership at BMW - Essay Example While charismatic leaders are achievement-oriented visionaries who, by virtue of their characteristic aura and excellent communication, inspire their followers, and are also capable of taking a calculated risk, noncharismatic leaders are knowledgeable, confident and analytical. Unlike democratic leaders who believe in participative management style and encourage the involvement of subordinates in the decision-making process, autocratic leaders tend to use the power of their position to impose their verdict on subordinates. Leaders are seen as enablers when they inspire and empower subordinates, and controllers when they manipulate subordinates. These two contrasting styles can be correlated to some extent to autocratic and democratic styles. Finally, transactional leaders are those who incentivize the performance of employees and transformational leaders are motivators who aim at enriching the subordinates. In compliance with the German laws concerning publicly listed organizations, BMW has a supervisory board and a board of management (BOM). The BOM has six members who are led by the Chairman, Board of Management Dr. - Ing. Norbert Reithofer. The supervisory board consists of ten representatives of shareholders as well as employees (BMW-website-a, 2009). The chairman of the supervisory board is appointed by the Quandts and BMW employees comprise half of the board. The organizational structure of BMW is team oriented. The organization employs interrelated and multi-skilled work teams. Being a top-notch automobile company, BMW has institutionalized the concept of high-performance work groups which are self-organized.