- 11/02/2013
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
The article of Diane Brady touches the problem of management style of Jeff Immelt and about the management of General Electrics. Can GE still be successful with this management concept?
My answer is yes. And I will try to prove my opinion.
General Electric is known not only as a business giant, but as the company that developed one of the world’s best leadership programs. Despite that experience GE is actively being studied by other companies, yet none was able to achieve results that left the company in the development of leadership qualities in employees.
Well-known program leadership began after the Harvard Business School assessed the activities of the 20 leaders of major American companies, which were trained for leadership in GE. Comparing the performance of the annual profit, the value of the shares of companies before and after training for managers, scientists came to the impressive results: 17 managers from 20 companies managed to increase earnings by an average of 1,1 billion USD. Agree, this is one of the best examples of evaluating the effectiveness of the training program on leadership.
“We do not want to lose employees, so make every effort to provide them with opportunities for development” – says Jeffrey Bucklew, the development manager of leading cadres of GE. “Compared with other companies, we are very open to new opportunities, and, if the ambitions of our employees exceeded our real possibilities, we are always honest about it.” (Diane Brady, 2010)
When “stars”, that is the most successful staff management, leave, the company sees it as a chance to find and discover talents among the rest of the staff.
A key factor in the success of the program of leadership development at GE is the operating system designed specifically for this purpose. It is used for many years and all managers of the company like it and think it is the best: for example, General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt spends 30% of their time on leadership development. The company operates a large HR-organization, head of the development and implementation of training programs.
And so GE has about 200 employees worldwide in managerial positions, their responsibilities include management of the enterprises of different levels. All of them have been training for leaders, designed to General Electric, most managers have spent on their education, a total of about a year of work. Program participants are selected at the annual meeting “Session C”, where the special assessment examines the makings and leadership skills of staff. Selection of candidates is the responsibility of HR-department. But business leaders also have the opportunity to monitor the process of selection and training.
Each year in April Immelt together with the senior vice president of HR John Lynch (John Lynch) and Head of Training and Development Susan Peters (Susan Peters) attend about 20 events taking place within the framework of «Session C», and then conduct a video conference, discussing all the results, the pros and cons. Upon completion of all training programs provide employees Immelt report, which focuses on the knowledge that they have received and about where they are going to apply this knowledge.
This leadership program General Electric sees as one of the key success factors. But what is a factor in the success and effectiveness of the program? It is not only a brilliant designs used by GE in training, although their role is, of course, can not be minimized. Significant role in the success plays an attitude of the leaders themselves to learning. Staff working in the company, sees learning not as of forced labor, as is often the case, but as an opportunity to grow professionally. As for that opportunity, as mentioned above, the company provides it to virtually all comers.
A lot of people blame the company and it’s management for the great recession. According to market analysts, GE “lost its aura of greatness”. By early spring, the corporation’s stock price fell by 75% compared with the pre-crisis times, the international rating agencies have been deprived of its highest credit rating of “AAA”, dropping it on one step, and Moody’s – even on two.
However, some observers note the fact that GE still struggling with the crisis much more successfully by most U.S. and European large corporations. Of course, General Electric has faced numerous problems, whose solution is difficult unfavorable conditions in the global market, but generally responds to the situation quite adequately and correctly. And nevertheless now practically all companies in the USA is in great depression, despite of the style of management they have.
So, despite all the disputes and argues about the GE management concept, if it really brings good result to the company, and so many people find this concept very successful – then it has a right to be used.
Works cited:
1. Diane Brady. “Can GE still manage?”. Business Week, April 15, 2010
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