The Ethics of Leadership

The Ethics of Leadership

LaToya Holbrook

Organizational Behavior

Stephanie Gonzaga

September 16, 2013

Robert Nardelli leadership skills, cost and quality at Home Depot amazed me for such a big corporation. According to CNN Money.com (2007), Robert Nardelli was criticized for his management style and his $210 million severance package after stepping down from the number one home improvement retailer. Home Depot currently operates 2,127 stores in the United States. Almost immediately after Home Depot snared Nardelli, he embarked on an aggressive plan to centralize control. He neglected the touchy-feely stuff, enthusiasm of his people, a sense of humility before his board, the care of his shareholders. He was maniacal about goals, objectivity, accomplishments within the boundaries of the values of the company. He invested heavily in technology. Mr. Nardelli joined Home Depot in 2000 after being CEO at GE. According to Latimer Learning (2007) for the first five years Home Depots financial sales increased, which suggested the company’s leadership roles had changed and someone had implemented new things to try in the company. Nardelli adapted a leadership style called Imperial management style, where a person purely is focused on numbers and not the communication, well-being and/or the happiness of the customers. Nardelli’s leadership style can be described as being task oriented and directive. Nardelli was more concerned with bringing in the money and less concerned with keeping the employees happy and with jobs. The employees are the lifeline and the blood of a successful company, which Nardelli did not think was true. Having a person not meet the goals of what was set meant to him that they were not leadership material and were not home depot material and could not stay employed. Full time employees who had been employed had been laid off an replaced with GE employees to help Nardelli implement the things he did at GE helping...