Blue Sky

Final Blue Sky

Management and Leadership

Question 1

In the past, Blue Sky leadership led from an autocratic leadership style. An autocratic leadership is similar to a dictatorship where only one person has the authority over the followers or workers. The autocratic leader decisions are to be taken as the final authority and should never be questioned. This leader plans out all of the companies agenda and demands that subordinates work according to their rules. The former CEO but still remained the Board Chairman, Max Blue, believed that meeting was not necessary therefore planning was considered a wasted of time. None of his employees seem to question his authority. This leadership style led to very passive employees at Blue Sky because they were unable to make decision caused them to lack passion about their jobs.

Although the past CEO leadership style was autocratic, there were several different leadership styles among the various departments. The structure of the organization was divided in to the CEO, VP of the division, director of marketing, CFO, and the regional directors, who were consider upper management level. With the regional directors being younger and being with the Blue Sky for relatively a short period of time, they were more aggressive wanting to expand different product lines and clientele. However, the younger regional directors were presented with many challenges from the older managers that were mainly in vice presidents roles. These managers wanted to continue to operate under their passive approach due to them having been accustomed to Max Blue leadership style.

The current CEO, Willis, is more of a collaborative leader. A collaborative leader takes a different approach essentially suggesting that the most effective way to guide an organization, process, or project is through inclusion and consensus of the whole team. When Willis tried to establish a collaborative relationship, it was not easy because people have different...