Bob Stoffel, the current CEO of UPS, has begun to create a new “greener” vision for his fortune 500 company. In the midst of many organizations converting to more “green” and environmentally friendly ways to operate, Stoffel is coming up with a new plan to make UPS the model company in the multi-international package shipping industry. Bob feels with the support and mentoring of many external technology experts he will be able to turn UPS into a more environmentally friendly and sustainable company, despite the company consisting of 100,000 trucks and 550 planes.
He started this project off just experimenting with just about every green technology on the market and now he is beginning to reduce UPS’s carbon emissions by millions of tons of waste per year. In this particular case Bob is experiencing a situation in which his actions are impacting the leaders, followers, and the situation at UPS. Stoffel’s leadership approach for this particular case and event can best be described in the path goal theory. Stoffel expects a great amount of effort from his subordinates(followers) to impact the overall performance of the company in hopes of obtaining a sustainable competitive advantage in the industry.
Stoffel must motivate all internal components of UPS to stay focused on making UPS a greener company, but he must remove any obstacles his followers face along the way. Bob must be able to get his leaders and followers together on the new strategies that will help obtain the new vision of what the situation should become. Stoffel has set out clear, defined goals for his subordinates to follow along the path to become a more sustainable and environmentally friendly company. The subordinates have a high external locus of control in this situation as the outside competitors are competing to become more environmentally friendly as well. All of these characteristics and UPS’s already well established company, require an achievement oriented style of leadership. UPS has always help high standards and expectations for the company as they have always been able to excel. Now they are going down a path they have never ventured do before, do you think Bob Stoffel will be able to make UPS a more environmentally friendly and “greener” company?
http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/16/news/companies/csuite_ups_bob_stoffel.fortune/index.htm
Post by: Sean Gremillion
I do not see Stoffel having a problem with telling employees about making UPS a "greener" company. The norm for today is to make companies "greener". Certain cars, food, and machines are being made to be more environmentally friendly. Thus, I am not convinced Path-Goal Theory is the leadership theory Stoffel is using. I believe Authentic Leadership is what Stoffel is using. Since Stoffel is the leader of the UPS, he is communicating to his employees the vision and future plans of UPS. The employees need to see the authenticity in Stoffel to believe in where UPS is going.
ReplyDeletePosted by: Aaron Barton
I think that this leader will be able to make UPS greener. They are a very reputable company and have the potential to do big projects. I also think that by using a participative leadership style, he will be able to get the ideas from others and really make an impact on the company. In this case I think that the main subordinate characteristics is their perception of their own ability to perform a task. If the subordinates think that their impact can help the company and the earth, they will want to participate and do what they can. By having the leader be clear about their expectations, it will make it easier on the subordinates to succeed.
ReplyDelete--Posted by Devan Pritchett
I agree with Devan that Stoffel will succeed at making UPS a greener and more envirnomentally friendly company. I also agree that according to the path-goal theory, some form of participative leadership may be beneficial. However, as originally stated, UPS is already a very successsful company. Many of their employees are highly committed and competent. Therefore, achievement oriented leadership behavior is best because it provides challenging and complex task characteristics. It also keeps UPS on top in the industry by remaining fresh and innovative.
ReplyDeletePosted By: Christine Burklin
I agree with Christine on the suggestion that Stoffel should use an achievement oriented leadership behavior. Since UPS is already a successful company, giving challenges to employees will help fulfill their needs to excel and meet their high expectations. The task of creating a new “greener” vision for the organization is a complex characteristic because they are a company that uses 100,000 trucks and 550 planes. They seem to contradict each other. The task is also challenging because UPS wants to be the model company for this new change in the multi-international package shipping industry. Therefore, this task is unclear to perform since no one in the industry has done it as well as UPS plans to do it.
ReplyDeletePosted by: Genise Logston