Elon Musk

Ethics

Definition:
 Ethics is a branch of philosophy which considers questions about morality, what is
right and what is wrong, and how people should behave.
 Unethical behaviour is inconsistent with ethical norms, values and beliefs.

Unethical behaviours:
 Musk often used Twitter as his platform to mislead the market.
 He was charged for securities fraud because his tweet had no basis in fact, and
mislead the markets, causing share prices of Tesla to move.
 He also tweeted that Tesla would make around 500,000 cars in 2019. He did not
receive approval from Tesla before publishing this tweet.
 Musk often tweeted Tesla’s finances, production numbers without Tesla’s approval.

Causes of unethical behaviour:

Personal factors:
 Musk holds high expectations of himself.
 Musk can take big ideas and turn them into big products. He might have had the big
idea to use Twitter as a mean to benefit him. For example, since he is seen as a figure
with deep insights of Tesla, he could use Twitter as a tool to talk about Tesla’s
information to the public to positively affect share prices to benefit him. For
example, his tweets can increase the share prices of Tesla, and hence benefitting him
as a shareholder.

Structural factors:
 Musk’s manic energy and hands-on approach mean that employees love him, fear
him and give up their lives for him. So employees do not dare to stop Musk from
doing unethical behaviours such as sharing Tesla’s information without approval of
the company because they are afraid of Musk.
 Musk also has reward and authority power, so he can dismiss any employees that
disrupt his plans. Employees do not stop Musk from doing unethical practices.

Consequences of unethical behaviour:

 Musk and Tesla’s reputation was damaged. When Tesla rejected the SEC’s proposal
that Musk be barred from assuming the role of officer or director of a public
company as Musk threatened to resign, Tesla’s stock reduced in value by 14 percent
the following day.
 Musk also had to relinquish his title as the Chairman of Tesla for three years and pay
a personal $20 million fine.
 If Musk were found in contempt and violated further, he would have to report his
Twitter use and to pay a series of progressively higher fines.
Recommendation:
 Punishment to unethical behaviours must act accordingly (awareness itself is not
enough).
 Tesla must punish the ones who act unethically as a whole, so employees will also
stop Musk from acting unethically.
 Employees should have more courage to stand up and voice out resistance towards
any forms of unethical behaviours.
 Employees and leaders should have more moral awareness with higher sensitivity to
ethical issues.
 Employees and leaders must be more educated on the consequences they might
face from doing unethical practices.
 Code of Ethics can be improved and strengthened.
 Encourage more upward communication so unethical practices can be more likely to
be spotted, prevented or stopped.
Organisational Culture:
What is Culture?
 Shared understandings or meanings about the organisation, its purpose, its members
and how they should behave
Identifying the culture Examples
Observable symbols
Physical Layout
Communication patterns
Stories
Practices and behaviours
Values, assumptions,
feelings and beliefs
 Company logo
 Space X had gloss epoxy over the concrete floor, white
colour scheme designed to make the space seem clean
and cheerful. Desk were interspersed with machinery,
so the ivy-league educated scientists and engineers
were mixed in with the welders and machinists
building hardware.
 Employees who sometimes made suggestions about
potential design flaws were ignored.
 If employees spoke up or suggesting Elon Musk wasn’t
100%, it was the ‘kiss of death’.
 “If you told him that you made a particular choice
because ‘it was the standard way things had always
been done,’ he’d kick you out of the meeting fast. He’d
say, ‘I never want to hear that phrase again. What we
have to do is f*king hard and half-assing things won’t
be tolerated.’”
 When an employee missed a company event to be
present for the birth of his child, Musk allegedly
notified him via email, “I am extremely disappointed.
You need to figure out where your priorities are. We’re
changing the world and changing history, and you
either commit or you don’t.”
 Another employee was overheard by Musk venting
about how he had lost his glasses and never had time
to go collect it. Afterwards, Musk booked him and
appointment but paid for the Lasik eye surgery.
 12-hours days, six day work weeks were the norm,
with many working even longer than that.
 Employees were demanded to work on Saturdays and
Sundays and sleep under their desks till tasks were
completed.
 Questioning musk is prohibited because Vice-
Presidents didn’t want anyone to piss off Elon. Some
senior executives went out of their way to exclude
those who resisted Musk’s ideas.
 “There are way easier places to work, but nobody ever
changed the world on 40 hours a week.”
 “Elon can be very demanding, but he’ll make sure all
 the obstacles in your way are removed”.
 “If you said something wrong or made one mistake or
rubbed him the wrong way, he would decided you’re
an idiot and there was nothing that could change his
mind”.
 Those who were not ‘management’ felt that they were
not seen as assets to the company.
 The engineers often fumed when Musk claimed credit
in the press for designing SpaceX or Tesla products
almost singlehandedly.
 “The best part working for Tesla is they hired really
good people most of the time, and if you’re not really
good, you get let go. You have to believe in what
you’re doing in those buildings or you’re not going to
have a spot tomorrow.”

Approach Theory Evidence

Integrationist  Uniform culture Uber’s culture was reinforced in their
 A single, uniform human resource management
strong culture is practices, including hiring and
better performance management.
 Culture influences  Must cultural fit -> must be
its effectiveness able commit for long hours.
 Provides a Employees should be able to
common set of work on Saturdays and
values to enable Sundays and sleep under their
members to work desks till tasks were
together; reduces completed.
need for formal  The ‘no questioning Musk’
rules culture. “If someone
 Culture is questioned the merits of
reproduced; Musk’s approach, Musk would
organisation is contact the person’s manager
stable and ask for the individual to
 Culture enables be re-assigned to another
the organisation to project, terminated, or no
survive in the longer be invited to the
environment in meetings.” Therefore,
which it operates employees who don’t fit in
this culture gets excluded or
potentially dismissed.
 Musk personally recruited
“young, male over achievers”
who were “extremely hard-
working”.
 Advantages:
 Elon Musk could ensure all
the employees were on the
same page as them. The
shared vision can perhaps
lead them to lead to his goals
quicker.
 Some employees liked the
camaraderie that this culture
fostered. “The best part
working for Tesla is they hired
really good people most of
the time, and if you’re not
really good, you get let go”.

Disadvantages:
 Strong culture = hard to
change
 Employees had to follow
Musk’s philosophy that
“nobody ever changed the
world on 40 hours a week”
and hence work for very long
hours. This may reduce
productivity of employees as
employees are burnt out.
 Musk’s managerial style did
not suit all employees. During
the production of the Model 3
at Tesla, approximately 36
vice presidents and other
high-profile staff left the
company.
Differentiationist  Organisation is a  Dominant culture is seen
cluster of sub- where they must follow
cultures related to Musk’s vision.
particular  Sub-cultures:
challenge, task, Had functional departments such as
responsibility of a finance, engineering, manufacturing,
unit or group human resources and
 Consensus is found communications.
not at
organisational level The culture at management and
but in sub-cultures outside management were different.
 Relations among Employees who were not
sub-cultures can ‘management’ felt that they were not
 be seen as assets to the company.
complementary, Different functional departments
conflicting or have their own department heads,
independent where Musk dealt with
 Boundary between manufacturing processes. As
“inside” and different departments have different
“outside” is leaders, the creation of sub-cultures
permeable is inevitable. As different
departments communicate and work
together, boundary between “inside”
and “outside” the subculture is
permeable.

Weaknesses:
 Conflicting priorities between
different departments and
everyone is not on the same
page.
 As Musk personally favoured
the manufacturing process,
the manufacturing process
might have had more power
than others because Musk
was leading the team.
Critical  Looks at how  Musk’s culture of prioritising
employees are work over personal life meant
affected employees had to strong
 Focuses on the commitment. When an
way in which employee missed a company
power is event to be present for the
embedded in birth of his child, Musk
culture allegedly emailed “I am
 Especially extremely disappointed. You
interested in how need to figure out where your
strong culture is a priorities are. We’re changing
way to control the world and changing
employees history, and you either
commit or you don’t”. Musk
can control employees via this
culture to have employees
very committed to work.
 Furthermore it was the ‘kiss of
death’ to suggest Musk wasn’t
100% correct. This culture
meant that employees were
controlled to agree with Musk
all the time. Therefore,
 employees would do things in
a way Musk favours.
 Promotion of sycophants due
to HRM practices, therefore,
the decision-making power is
always in the hands of the
Musk.

Communication:
Communic Application of theory to identify & Recommendations Adv/Disadv
ation Explain the problems (using the theory)
Theories
Functional The functional approach is the way of Musk’s message Advantages of
Perspectiv understanding organizational was overloaded and Functional
e communication by describing what could’ve used a Theories
messages do and how they move
through organizations. Organization is communication
mode that could ·It assumes a
seen as rational information
processing system. Communications deliver his message logical approach
takes place when one is consciously shortly. For to
conveying a message. The process example, a short communication.
starts when sender intentionally message on the ·This
encodes message and transmits the perspective
message through channel to receiver
bulletin board may
allows managers
and then receiver decodes the be enough to get
to identify key
message. Communication means his message across aspects of the
messages and meanings are “passed to employees. communication
on” and it is completed when the
recipient received the same content
process where
that the sender wants to give. things can go
Functional perspective on wrong.
communication suggests a rational ·A simplistic
and linear effect in communication and
that goes through the organization. If straightforward
a manager has a problem with way to
organizational communication, it is understand and
because the message was no well- manage
designed or not transmitted properly. communication
in organizations,
1. Function: which helps
Musk sent an email his employees managers to
defining the use of corporate design different
jargon. Musk felt acronyms were ways of
used excessively at SpaceX and communicating
new employees would have a hard their intended
time learning all the jargons at messages. For
SpaceX. He also felt that it was example, they
also hard on employees to can make
remembering the definition of all decisions on
the jargons. The function of the choosing the
message is organising. He was appropriate
getting people to do things in how network/channel/
direction/informa
he thinks a corporate should
tion load.
operate like and he was indirectly
establishing rules to prevent Disadvantages
employees from making up too of Functional
much acronyms. Theories

2. Network ·It assumes too

The network is formal because it is much rationality
an email from the CEO to all the and risk
 employees.
simplicity.
3. Channel Therefore, it does
 E-mail with low richness, not acknowledge
high spontaneity and and address the
moderate time complexities
commitment to all the inherent in
organizational
employees.
communication.
·Communicatio
4. Direction
n can take place
The direction of this message is intentionally or
downward because it is from the unintentionally,
CEO to his subordinates. even without
deliberately
5. Frequency and Load creating and
The messaged was overloaded passing on a
because there was too much message.
information to deliver the
message from Musk. The message ·Meanings are
had too much excessive details. not “passed on”
but rather
“shared”; we
interact based on
these shared
meanings.
·Communicatio
n has effects far
beyond the
receiver getting
the “what” of my
message.

Meaning- The meaning-centered approach is the Musk could have

centred way of understanding organizational used a
Perspectiv communication by discovering how developmental
organizational reality is generated
e through human interaction. The metaphor instead
approach describes organization because it could
communication as the process for facilitate a culture
generating shared realities that where employees
become organizing, decision, making, can talk about
sense making, influence and culture. opinions and
It states that everything in the
organization communicates a
differences instead
message, and therefore, shared of a top-down
meanings are created as people culture. This is more
interact. Communication is the motivating to the
organization. employees to
commit even
How does communication shape stronger to work as
organising and decision making? they will feel more
 Musk did not like it when involved.
employees gave out Employees will also
suggestions that he wasn’t feel like they are
100% correct. “If you told being developed.
him that you made a This will have a
particular choice because better effect on the
‘it was the standard way productivity and
things had always been feelings of the
done,’ he’d kick you out of employees.
the meeting fast”. If
someone questioned the
merits of Musk’s approach,
Musk would contact the
person’s manager and ask
for the individual to be re-
assigned to another
project, terminated, or no
longer be invited to the
meetings. The lack of
upward communication
meant Musk can disinvite
people to the decision-
making arena.

How does the communication

shape power and influence?
 Musk’s authority is not
challenged or questioned
as employees do not speak
upward.
 Musk remains to hold
strong decision-making
power.

How does the communication

shape culture and socialisation?
 The mostly top-down
communication shows the
single, dominant culture of
Tesla. As employees are
reluctant to
communication upward to
raise concerns or question
authority, Musk is able to
keep a single dominant
 culture ongoing and
unchanged.

Metaphor:
Musk said, “We’re changing the
world and changing history”. This
is a transformational metaphor
that legitimises how he desired his
employees to commit strongly and
prioritise work. The reason of why
his practice of demanding his
employees to priorities work over
personal matters seemed
reasonable as it is because it can
liberate and recreate the industry
Tesla operates in.