Ebay Case Study

Transactional leadership is described as “motivating and directing followers primarily through appealing to their own self-interest” (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2009, p294). When Meg Whitman arrived at eBay, one of her goals was transforming eBay from just an auction shopping center into a larger shopping outlet. To achieve this goals Whitman dealt with statistics and data, and all employees knew that. One of the manager said that when reporting to Whitman, he knew that he had to the numbers, know them and make sure that they were very clear (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2009, p316). Even though there was no underlying punishment stated if goals were not met, employees knew that they had to treat eBay as a wholesale retailer corporation, just like Wal-Mart is. Whitman has also stated that one of the reasons why eBay is successful is because they work harder everyday to make the firm into one of the world’s finest online retailer corporation and by doing that, employees have to be focus on the firm’s goals to achieve. These goals are to attract “more customers and also retain old ones, expanding on the goods traded on the site, spreading eBay to more global markets, making the user experience more fun exciting and easier, and acquiring Internet companies to become a full service retailer” (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2009, p316).

Authentic leadership is described as “individuals, who (1) know and understand themselves, (2) know what they believe and value, and (3) act on their values and beliefs through open and honest communications with subordinates and others” (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2009, p296). Whitman was faced with an authentic leadership when she had to censor some items traded on the site. Whitman banned firearms, alcohol and tobacco; she also banned Nazi items except documents, coins, and copies of historical books after one of her director came back from a trip to Auschwitz and asked her to take all Nazi items off the site. (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2009, p317). For Whitman...