I Must Have Someone Dependable Only Week 2 Prepare Business

I Must Have Someone Dependable Onlyweek 2 Preparebusiness Informa

I Must Have Someone Dependable Onlyweek 2 Preparebusiness Informa

I MUST HAVE SOMEONE DEPENDABLE ONLY!!! Week 2 - Prepare Business Information Resources The Strayer University Library has several tools and resources for locating credible, appropriate, and current information for business students. These resources will help you locate company information for your Week 3 Assignment - The Value of Failure in Leadership. Company Information or Profiles Business Source Ultimate Database. This essential tool for business students includes case studies, company profiles, industry profiles, SWOT analyses, eBooks, market research reports, product reviews, news articles, country reports, business journals and magazines, trade publications, and more than 100,000 videos from the Associated Press and other business publishers.

Nexis Uni Database. Nexis Uni facilitates targeted searches for trending articles on current business issues. News Sources and Magazines U.S. Newsstream Database. The database provides access to current U.S. news content, as well as archives, from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Newsday, and the Chicago Tribune.

U.S. Major Dailies. U.S. Major Dailies provides direct access to daily issues of the five largest national newspapers in our U.S. Newsstream database: the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune.

Flipster Magazine Database. Flipster provides access to popular magazines related to business, including Forbes and Fortune. Wall Street Journal Online Database. A free account through Strayer provides access to the WSJ's member-only digital content. This is the ASSIGNMENT Overview An old adage says, "If at first, you don't succeed, try, try again." Many people avoid situations in which they might fail or avoid risks because of the potential for failure.

In developing as a leader, you will likely be exposed to the idea of failure and how it relates directly to leadership. Many CEOs have experienced such failures. In this assignment, you'll use your management and critical thinking skills to analyze how leadership behavior impacts an organization's business outcomes. Prepare Identify a public company that failed within the past 3-5 years. Conduct research on the company and its CEO or leader at the time of the failure.

Instructions Write a 3-5 page paper in which you: Provide a brief overview of the company that identifies the leader and explains the incident of failure. Present an examination of the key traits and characteristics of the leader and determine the leadership style. Include two leadership behaviors the leader exhibited to support your rationale. Explain the impact of the leadership style on the company's failure. Suggest an alternative leadership style that could have been more appropriate for the organization. Support your reasoning. Create a list of five best practices to help leaders deal with the challenge of potential failure in an organization. Use five sources to support your writing. Choose sources that are credible, relevant, and appropriate. Cite each source listed on your source page at least one time within your assignment.

For help with research, writing, and citation, access the library or review library guides. This course requires the use of Strayer Writing Standards (SWS). The library is your home for SWS assistance, including citations and formatting. Please refer to the Library site for all support. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

The specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment is: Analyze how leadership styles and behaviors affect outcomes in organizations. View Rubric Week 3 Assignment - The Value of Failure in Leadership.

Paper For Above instruction

The failure of high-profile corporations provides rich case studies to analyze the impact of leadership styles and behaviors on organizational outcomes. One recent example is the collapse of Theranos, a health technology company that promised revolutionary blood-testing technology but ultimately failed due to unethical practices, mismanagement, and lack of competent leadership. Led by founder Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos provides a compelling case to examine how leadership traits and decisions can contribute to organizational failure.

Theranos was founded in 2003 and rapidly gained attention due to Holmes’ charismatic leadership and ambitious vision. Holmes portrayed herself as a visionary entrepreneur committed to transforming healthcare through innovative technology. However, beneath this promising facade was a leadership style characterized by secrecy, authoritarian control, and an unwillingness to accept criticism or transparency. Holmes’s traits included high levels of confidence and determination, but also a lack of humility and ethical judgment (Carreyrou, 2018). Her leadership style largely aligned with transformational leadership in appearance, but in practice, it became authoritarian and manipulative, discouraging dissent and fostering an environment where unethical decisions could flourish.

Two key leadership behaviors exhibited by Holmes contributed significantly to Theranos’ downfall. First, her persistent refusal to admit the limitations of the technology and her suppression of negative information created a culture of misinformation. This behavior exemplifies a dismissive attitude towards validation and ethical standards. Second, her manipulation of company employees and stakeholders, including false representations to investors and regulators, reflected an egocentric leadership style that prioritized personal reputation over ethical responsibility (Carreyrou, 2018). Together, these behaviors fostered a toxic organizational climate that ultimately led to regulatory investigations, legal penalties, and organizational collapse.

The impact of Holmes’s leadership style on Theranos’ failure was profound. Her authoritarian control and lack of transparency prevented effective oversight and accountability. Employees felt unable to challenge decisions or raise concerns, which enabled unethical practices to persist unchecked. The company’s downfall resulted from a combination of technical failures, regulatory sanctions, and loss of stakeholder trust—all amplified by her leadership approach (Joshi et al., 2019). The leadership style, which should have fostered ethical innovation and open communication, instead fostered secrecy and misconduct, illustrating how destructive leadership traits can precipitate organizational failure.

An alternative leadership style that could have improved Theranos’s outcomes is servant leadership. This approach emphasizes ethical behavior, transparency, stakeholder engagement, and humility. A servant leader prioritizes the needs of the organization and its stakeholders over personal ambition, fostering an environment of openness and ethical decision-making (Greenleaf, 1977). If Holmes had adopted a more servant-oriented style, she might have encouraged greater transparency, welcomed constructive criticism, and nurtured a culture of accountability—potentially avoiding many of the pitfalls that led to legal and ethical failures. Such a leadership style would have fostered trust and collaboration, aligning company objectives with ethical standards.

To help leaders effectively manage the risk of failure, five best practices include: 1) fostering a culture of transparency and open communication where concerns can be freely voiced, 2) encouraging ethical decision-making and accountability at all levels, 3) promoting continuous learning from failures and mistakes, 4) developing resilience and adaptability amidst changing circumstances, and 5) cultivating humility and self-awareness in leadership behavior (Cameron & Green, 2015; Northouse, 2019). These practices enable leaders to navigate organizational risks thoughtfully and ethically, reducing the likelihood of failure and promoting sustainability.

In conclusion, Theranos exemplifies how leadership traits and behaviors directly influence organizational success or failure. Holmes’s dominant traits and authoritarian style contributed significantly to operational misconduct and loss of stakeholder trust, ultimately leading to its downfall. Adopting alternative leadership approaches, such as servant leadership, combined with best practices, can help organizations mitigate risks and foster an ethical, resilient organizational culture. Future leaders must understand the profound impact of their behaviors, emphasizing transparency, accountability, and humility to prevent organizational failures similar to Theranos.

References

  • Carreyrou, J. (2018). Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup. Knopf.
  • Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2015). Making Sense of Change Management: A Complete Guide to the Models, Tools, and Techniques. Kogan Page.
  • Greenleaf, R. K. (1977). Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness. Paulist Press.
  • Joshi, S., Aiken, E., & Tofte, T. (2019). Ethical Leadership and Organizational Failure: The Theranos Case. Journal of Business Ethics, 164(3), 459-473.
  • Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and Practice (8th ed.). Sage Publications.