“There and Back Again -
A Falling Giant’s Tale”

MGMT-591 Leadership in Organizational Behavior

20 April 2013

There and Back Again – A Falling Giant’s Tale

General Motors Corporation (GM) was once a king in the auto industry. Founded in 1897, the small company grew from the fledgling Buick Motor Company to a huge corporation with over twenty different major brands of automobiles to include Chevrolet, Pontiac, GMC, Opel, and Cadillac to name a few. The main factory and office is headquartered in the United States and based out of Detroit, MI. The automobile manufacturing company is broken down into four different segments: GM North America, GM South America, GM Europe, and GM International Operations. Life was good being a part of the GM team and the company flourished into a giant in the auto industry. In 2009, GM faced several growing problems that they could not overcome. As a result, the corporation became involved in one of the country’s biggest and most controversial bankruptcies. GM was facing total shutdown if help was not received. In a move to prevent the loss of thousands of jobs and a very serious blow to the United States already declining economy, the United States Department of Treasury bailed GM out of bankruptcy and acquired all GM assets and liabilities. The freshly formed company emerged as the new General Motors Company (vice General Motors Corporation) and was kept in business. A new head was appointed to the board of directors who, in turn, closed one third of GM’s dealerships in the United States, dropped/shut down over half of its domestic automobile brands, and renegotiated its labor contracts. These actions, while not popular at the time, resulted in the company digging its way out of its financial hole and repaying the government what was owed from the bailout. It currently owns roughly twenty percent of the