CHAPTER I
Introduction
1.1 Purpose and objective of the report
The purpose of this report is to fulfill the individual assignment of Fundamentals of Management that requires us to explain the definition of manager, definition of managerial roles by Henry Mintzberg, introduction to the company and manager that we chose and how the manager has fulfilled the managerial roles proposed by Henry Mintzberg. The company that I chose is Tesla and the CEO is Elon Musk. This report is made for education purpose and I hope that this can be useful in the future.
1.2 Introduction to the company
Tesla is an American multinational corporation that produces or specializes in electric vehicles, energy storage and solar panel manufacturing based in Palo Alto, California (Tesla Inc, n.d). Tesla was founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, both who are engineers that wanted to prove driving electric vehicles can be better than driving gasoline cars. In 2008, Tesla produced their first automobile with lithium-ion battery cells and the first production EV with a range greater than 320 km per charge. In 2012, Tesla began shipping their Model S sedan which has become the best car in its class in every category. In 2015, Tesla expanded its product by launching Model X and by 2017, Tesla launched the Model 3. Tesla production passed 300,000 vehicles in February 2018. Tesla also produced a unique set of energy solutions, such as Powerwall, Powerpack and Solar Roof that allows homeowners or businesses to manage renewable energy generation, storage and consumption. Tesla main manufacturing facility is at Tesla Factory in Fremont California (Tesla, n.d).
1.3 Introduction to the manager of the company
Elon Musk is an American entrepreneur who co-founded Tesla Motors in 2003 and becomes its CEO and product architect. Before he is a CEO of Tesla, he also founded X.com in 1999 and SpaceX in 2002. Musk become a multimillionaire in his late 20s when he sold his start-up company (Elon Musk Biography, n.d). Elon Musk is also a founder of OpenAI and The Boring Company. Musk stated that his goals are to change the world and humanity by reducing global warming through sustainable energy production and reducing the human extinction by establishing a human colony on Mars (Elon Musk, n.d). Elon Musk has succeeded in building an all-electric car in this era. Proven in 2008 when the company launched its Model S sedan by raising $226 million and was honored as the 2013 Car of the Year by Motor Trend magazine. In over 10 years, Musk keep launching his ideas by producing different types of electric car and energy solution product (Elon Musk Biography, n.d).
CHAPTER II
CONTENT
2.1 Definition of manager
Manager is someone who oversee and coordinates the work of others people in one organization in order for the organization can accomplish their goal. In every organization, there must be a manager so that the goals of the organization can be accomplished. Managers can be classified into three levels.
1. First-line manager: Manager who coordinates directly the work of non-managerial employee.
2. Middle manager: Manager who coordinates and oversee the work of first-line manager. The middle manager also controls the flow of information between top manager and first-line manager.
3. Top manager: Manager who in charge of making decisions that will affect the whole organization and making plans and goals for the organization in the future.
2.2 Definition of Henry Mintzberg’s managerial roles
Henry Mintzberg is a Canadian management expert that introduced the managerial roles in a practical way for us to learn. There are three managerial roles that he introduced.
1. Interpersonal roles: Interpersonal roles is a role that requires a manager to deal with other people or to communicate with other people. The role can be behalf of the company or within the company. The example of this roles is:
Figurehead: A head of a department that is an exemplary role model. Usually he is the one who attends business dinners, receptions and celebrating anniversaries.
Leader: As a leader, they motivate the staff so that the working environment can be positive.
Liason: A liason is someone who negotiate with other people on the behalf of the company.
2. Informational roles: This managerial role control how the information flows in an organization. The manager knows how the information is being collected and also decided what information should be kept or shared internally or externally. The examples are:
Monitor: As a monitor the manager collect all information whether internally or externally about the organization. The manager also in charge of arranging, analyzing and assessing the information so that he can easily identify problems and identify changes.
Disseminator: As a disseminator, a manager transfers the information he has to the employee within the company.
Spokesman: As a spokesman, a manager represents the company and he communicates to the outside world.
3. Decisional roles: This role expect the managers to make decisions that affect the whole organization. The managers also analyze the decisions that he make for the organization. The examples are:
Entrepreneur: As an entrepreneur, the manager design what choices he wants to make and make strategies. As well as be responsible in any changes he makes.
Disturbance handler: As a disturbance handler, the manager is expected to handle the problems or operational breakdown in the organization. He is expected to has the solution for the problem.
Resource allocator: As a resource allocator, the manager is expected to handle how does he spend his resources for the organization benefit.
Negotiator: As a negotiator, the manager participates in negotiation with the other company and also represents the interests of the company. For example, it can be negotiation of the employee salary.
2.3 Manager Accomplishment
Interpersonal roles
Elon Musk is a CEO of a big company, Tesla. Interpersonal roles require manager to communicate with other people and Elon Musk shows that he fulfill this role. Firstly, Musk plans to increase their producing from 2,000 to 6,000 vehicles per week and from this Musk send an extraordinary email to his employees to motivates them. He praises and commend his employee by thanking them when they’ve achieved the goals he set up for. In the email, Musk concludes an encouragement, thanking the people at Tesla for accomplishing miracles every day (Bariso 2018). In one interview, Musk stated that as a leader he wants to motivate and inspire his team by reducing the noise in the work and help remove blockers. He inspires his employees by motivating them to succeed and making them feel like they are the part of larger team and that they are needed (Umoh 2017).
Secondly, Musk represents the company to negotiate to the outside world. Negotiating means getting the best of your opponent. In 2014, Tesla announced plans to build its first massive battery plant. But Tesla did not build its factory down the road from Palo Alto headquarters. They took the show on the road asking for $500 million on cash but the result a bidding war among several states and Nevada coughing up $1.3 billion in transferrable tax credits and various other tax abatements over 20 years to win the largest incentives package in Nevada’s history. Musk has proved so adept landing incentives that states now compete to give him money (Claiborne 2017).
Informational roles
In this role, Elon Musk imply something that he believes is beneficial for the company. Musk encourage their employee to ditch the traditional way of communication in most companies uses, which messages always flow through managers because he thinks it fails to serve the company. He stated that anyone in Tesla should email or talk directly to the person they think is the fastest way to solve a problem for the benefit of the whole company. Musk believe that poor communication can set everyone back and fails to serve the company (Kane 2017).
Furthermore, as a manager Musk took the role to become a spokesman and delivers information to the outside world about launching their Tesla Model 3 car. Musk using the social media, Twitter to announced some specifications and price for the newly awaited car he’s going to launch the Tesla Model 3 (Cole 2018).
Decisional roles
Elon musk has been making decisions ever since he become the CEO of Tesla, which is 10 years ago. In the latest news, it is revealed that Tesla has failed missing the company production goals pretty consistently. The company made just 2,000 Model 3s in the first headquarter missing its goal of 2,500 units. Musk taking a route by aiming high by adjusting their internal target to 6,000 even though their official goal is 5,000 units. This way the company will be able to meet its official goal even if it cannot meet its ambitious one.
Musk command an accountability by not letting anyone off the hook for hitting the target without any relevance excuses. Moreover, Musk tells the employee to not use acronym or nonsense words for the company software, processes and systems because he doesn’t want people at Tesla to memorize glossary when using Tesla (Ryan 2018).
CHAPTER III
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are three different types of manager. First is first-line manager or we can call it as supervisor because their task is to oversee and coordinates directly the work of the nonmanagerial employees. Second is the middle manager, they are the one who become the bridge of communication between the top manager and the first line manager and they also coordinate and oversee the work of the first line manager. Third is the top manager, they are the one who makes decisions that will affect the whole organization and they are responsible for the problems in an organization.
There are three types of managerial roles for a manager in an organization to fulfill. First, interpersonal role is a role that requires communication with other people. From what I’ve explained above, Elon Musk has fulfilled the interpersonal role by motivating his employee in his company and always thanking his employees. He represents the company, Tesla to negotiate in the outside world too. Second, informational role is a role that control the flows of information in an organization. As a CEO of a big company, Musk represents the company by announcing their plans for their new product to the outside world in Twitter. He also controls the flow of information by asking their employee to not practicing the ‘command of chain’ but to directly tell information to someone in the company they think can help with the problem. Third, decisional role is a role for a manager to make decisions that can affect the whole organization. Musk has fulfilled this role making a decision to increase their goal production in the company to be more productive.
Lastly, there are some roles that a manager in an organization has to do. As a CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk has proven to fulfill the managerial roles that are required for a manager to do.
From what I can conclude, Musk has done a great job being the CEO of Tesla.
References
About Tesla n.d, Tesla, viewed 25 June 2018, https://www.tesla.com/about .
Bariso, J 2018, Elon Musk Just Sent an Extraordinary Email to Tesla Employees, Inc, viewed 25 June 2018, https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/elon-musk-just-sent-an-extraordinary-email-to-tesla-employees.html .
Claiborne, M 2017, How Elon Musk Secured Billions From One Investor We All Have Access To, Inc, viewed 25 June 2018, https://www.inc.com/monique-claiborne/how-elon-musk-secured-billions-from-one-investor-w.html .
Cole, A 2018, Elon Musk announces Tesla Model 3 AWD, performance Model 3 specs, Green Car Reports, viewed 25 june 2018, https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1116810_elon-musk-announces-tesla-model-3-awd-model-3-performance-specs .
Elon Musk Biography n.d, BIOGRAPHY, viewed 25 June 2018, https://www.biography.com/people/elon-musk-20837159 .
‘Elon Musk’, Wikipedia, Wiki article, 20 June 2018, viewed 25 June 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk .
Kane, L 2017, In internal Tesla memo, Elon Musk says the way most company communicate is ‘incredibly dumb’, BUSINESS INSIDER MALAYSIA, viewed 25 June 2018, https://www.businessinsider.my/tesla-elon-musk-how-to-communicate-2017-8/?r=US&IR=T .
Ryan, K 2018, Elon Musk to Tesla Employees: Start Walking Out of Meetings, and Cut the Jargon, Inc, viewed 25 June 2018, https://www.inc.com/kevin-j-ryan/elon-musk-email-to-tesla-employees-productivity-tips.html .
‘Tesla, Inc’, Wikipedia, Wiki article, 24 June 2018, viewed 25 June 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla,_Inc. .
Umoh, R 2017, The tactics self-made billionaire Elon Musk uses to motivate his teams, MAKE IT, viewed 25 June 2018, https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/05/2-major-ways-executives-like-elon-musk-are-trying-to-stop-you-from-quitting.html .