IBM Leadership University of Phoenix

COM/530 COMMUNICATIONS FOR ACCOUNTANTS August 27, 2012
Mark Durand IBM’s operations consist of two major components, technological research and development, and consulting services. “Its core values are dedication to every client’s success, innovation that matters, for our company and for the world, and trust and personal responsibility in all relationships.” (Palamisano, 2003) Taking both major operations into account, the leadership style employed can greatly influence the alignment of these values with its practices. In every organization, the utilization of the concepts outlined in transformational leadership, where leaders, “inspire followers to transcend their self-interest for the good of the organization,” and the Socialized Charismatic Leadership Theory, “leadership that conveys other centered (not self-centered) values by leaders who model ethical conduct,” (Robbins and Judge, 2011) would provide significant benefits to the organization. These theories however require the sole conviction of the individual. They are not necessarily an actionable theory of leadership in that every member of an organization should at all times be demonstrating the characteristics stated above. Of the actionable leadership theories, much good can come from employing the Path Goal Theory which says that “it’s the leader’s job to provide followers with the information, support, or other resources necessary to achieve their goals.”(Robbins and Judge, 2011) By specifically providing the followers with all the necessary and relevant materials, the level of uncertainty amongst the followers is decreased and thus the discrepancies between what is intended and what the follower produced may also be reduced. Unfortunately, a company such as IBM cannot use this theory