ANALYSIS OF LEADERS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS

There are many interpretations in the meaning of leadership, in the old way its getting others to follow, today there are different meanings which has no relation to command and control, but more on the concept of influencing others to work. Many leadership styles had been defined especially after the increasing attention to leaders and their characteristics (Mullins, 2010:373). But that doesnt mean that leaders should stick to one leadership style, the good lea der can change his style to adapt with the current situation where hes required to lead effectively. Ingvar Kamprad is one of the most successful leaders in the last century; hes the founder of IKEA the biggest retailer of home furnishing. According to (Testervn, 2011) IKEA was founded as a pure family business, till now its value is based on the concept of family business. One of the advantages of family business is that employees at all levels feel that they are part of the family, which help boosts their dedication and performance. Kamprad used to trait all employees in the company as theyre part of his family. Kamprad had never been a money wasteful person, he never flied first class, he always choose to fly economic (Farfan, 2011). This is one of Kamprad philosophy that IKEA influenced by, according to (Bernhardt, 2005) all managers and senior executives in IKEA fly economy. Kamprad had inspired the company by his own philosophy, thats what we can call leading by example. He said, If there is such a thing as good leadership, it is to give a good example. That could lead us to say that Ingvar kamprad is a transformational leader, according to Mullins (2010,391) in addition to their charisma, transformational leaders has other components: Intellectual simulation: when leader push his followers to be creative and find new approaches of performance at work. Inspirational motivation: when the leaders behavior provides meaning to the followers. Individual consideration: when the leader gives time to listen to his followers. Idealized influence: the leaders charisma and the respect of his followers.

Kamprad had a special charisma helped him to approach his subordinates and influence them; his behavior at work built the cultural of the company. According to Mullins, (2010) many research studies have met with little success trying to identify common personality of different leaders. However, there are some common traits between different leaders, and so it is possible to identify some of the leadership qualities for successful leaders such as initiative, self-confidence and intelligence.

Ingvar Kamprad had some of these qualities, according to (It started in a shade, 2004) making mistakes was acceptable for Kamprad, he said only those who are asleep make no mistakes so he was a self-confidence leader. By the early time he was establishing his business, furniture dealers in Sweden started pushing suppliers not to give him raw materials, but Kamprad act fast by going to Poland to buy material from there to save his new business of getting meridian, which shows that he was initiative. Another successful leader in the business world is Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple. Jobs was a leader who values creativity, he has been represented by the Financial Times (cited in Mullins, 2010:412) as passionate, charming, inspirational, and abrasive leader. He set very high standards for himself and demand people around him to do the same, this led to disappointment, frustration, and anger for employees who have seen not with the same high standard. In an interview in 1995 Jobs made it clear that he used to get rid of people who couldnt measure up his standards (cited in Mullins, 2010:412), that leads up to say that Steve Jobs had some of the autocratic style of leadership. But the same time Jobs had influences the whole company by his style of leading; he gave example to his subordinates of being creative and innovative. He was involved in whatever it took to bring the company products into being, so he was the media face for launching the new products, his keynotes at any conference was more important that the corporate events. His influencing power had gone much far from his company to influence even the company customers (Mullins, 2010). Jobs was a transformational leader, his charisma that brought him respect of his followers, the fact that was the role model of all his subordinates, and his style of leading by example. As a future leader I need to learn more about each style of leadership to better understand where and when to use each of it.

References: Barbra Fartan (2011) IKEA Founder Ingvar Kamprad Quotations About IKEA Retailing and Management [online] available from <http://retailindustry.about.com/od/retailleaderquotes/a/Ikea-Founder-Ingvar-KampradQuotations-About-Ikea-Retailing-And-Management.htm&gt; [31 March 2012] Ken Bernhardt, 2005. IKEA crafted itself into a cult brand. [online] available fromhttp://robinson.gsu.edu/news/bernhardt/2005/11_25_05.html [25 July 2011] Mullins, L. (2010) 9th edn. Management & Organisational Behaviour. London: Pearson Education Testervn (n. d.) Ingvar Kamprads leadership style [online] available from <http://testervn.hubpages.com/hub/Ingvar-Kamprads-leadership-style&gt; [31 March 2012] The age (2004) It started in a shed [online] available from <http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/14/1089694424455.html&gt; [31 March 2012]