General Motors: Bill Mcaleer

GM is described as an organization with a dysfunctional company culture that somehow still manages to have amazing results in its work, on a global scale. The key attributes of GM, were primarily in the changes initiated by Mary Barra after the GM ignition switch recall crisis. Some of those attributes include her willingness to openly acknowledge the undesirable aspects of the GM culture and her efforts to take action towards a resolution. There are also several noticeable strengths and weaknesses within the organization. One of the biggest weaknesses is the company’s repeated inability to acknowledge that, lack of functional culture and leadership are truly the root cause of the company’s issues. Based on my reading I would describe the current behavioral organizational model as a Custodial Model. I chose this model because the managerial orientation is money, employee orientation is security and benefits and performance results are passive cooperation. All of these attributes were described in the reading.

This paper will explain GM’s most pressing challenges. Overcapacity is negatively impacted their financial results, brutal international competition is causing GM to react with target costing strategies, rising fuel prices directly impacts their cash flows and complicates capital budgeting strategies and tactics and their ongoing health care and pension costs continue to color their future earning potential.

This case study analyzes the experiences of Courtland Kelley at General Motors (GM). Courtland Kelley a third generation GM worker put his job on the line by pushing the GM managers and executives to fully respond to the safety issues found while working as a safety inspector at the company. Kelley along with his supervisor Bill McAleer first discovered the issues while auditing GM cars at rail yards across the country, a spot check of vehicles before the cars were cleared to be delivered to the dealers. McAleer was taken off the audit as a result, who subsequently sued the company seeking whistle-blower protection. The case was eventually dismissed by a judge in favor of GM. The judgement only increased Kelley’s

A number of car incidents have been associated with the errors in the ignition switch, which could possibly disable the airbag, the power steering and breaks. Due to this issue at least 13 deaths and numerous injuries have been found (Isidore, 2014) with the General Motors Company. This investigation was given to an engineer in Florida, Mark Hood, to file for a lawsuit against General Motors and to try to figure out what was the cause of these accidents. It was revealed that the tiny metal plunger in the switch was smaller than the original size and needed less force to turn the ignition off (Isidore, 2014).

General Motors (GM) was one of the premier automakers of the world. Firmly planted as the leader of the big three automakers, GM, Ford, and Chrysler, years of success grounded GM as an economic and cultural icon of American business. As the Japanese auto market grew and became more efficient, turning out improved vehicles that the public wanted, GM was becoming a lumbering behemoth of inefficiency and corporate gluttony. Many circumstances contribute to GM’s road to bankruptcy including high legacy costs in union owned contracts, largely poor design, inferior quality, and low productivity.

General Motors (?GM? or ?the company?) has a rich history longer than a century starting with its corporate organization in 1908. Following its organization, GM acquired its first brand, Old Motor Works, which was followed in 1909 by the purchase of Cadillac for $5.5 million. Two years later, GM organized both General Motors Truck to handle sales of GM?s Rapid and Reliance products and General Motors Export Company to handle export sales out of the US. In 1918, GM purchased Chevrolet Motors. In 1926, GM entered Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Egypt, Uruguay and Argentina through the General Motors Export Company. General Motors Truck became the modern GMC in 1943 when GM acquired the assets of Yellow Truck & Coach. In 1945, GM finally established all of its historical core brands (Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac) when the Buick-Oldsmobile-Pontiac Assembly Division, which would be renamed the General Motors Assembly Division in 1965, was formed.

In American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company, Bryce Hoffman conducts over 100 interviews and had access to numerous company documents and personnel. Hoffman notes that prior to Alan Mulally accepting the Chief Executive Officer position, Ford was a venomous culture that had Executive Leadership not being truthful and honest with the Ford family. The backstabbing climate had turned so ugly that executives were placing hidden recording devices in each other’s

Most organizations would find and fix the problems but General Motors when making decisions had committees that showed them what to do. General Motors has been overwhelmed by this issue for many years. Mary Barra fixed this philosophy and helped with this difficult process, by encouraging open communication that led to the proper actions being taken Some people didn’t agree with this plan of action but it is something that is needed to be successful and well-organized in a world that is constantly seeing

This report is about the General Motor’s failed corporate culture over the last decade that led to a serious safety defect in millions of vehicles sold around the world that claimed numerous lives. General Motor’s main challenges were dealing with the recall of 2.6 millions vehicles and acknowledging the accusations of employees. There were opportunities given to General Motor’s members and staffs to stand up, speak up and fix a minor problem back then, but no one took the initiative to study all the possibilities surrounding the ignition switch.

Another previous official, expert Rob Kleinbaum, concurs that GM's insularity might be its most exceedingly bad fizzling. "Of all GM's social issues, [insularity] may be the most devastating as it propagates an internal concentration that oversees its threatening relations with its merchants and providers and, most disturbing, with buyers," he wrote in a persuasive 2009 report, "Retooling GM's Culture," which helped direct the presidential team that dealt with the GM and Chrysler bailouts. "Considerably more attention is given to wondering what the senior leadership will think than to figuring out the right path and trying to make it happen.”

In this case, we are introduced to Carol Matthews, a production manager for World Auto Parts (WAP). Carol is faced with an ethical dilemma of whether or not to tell her boss, Joan Ross, about a workplace safety issue regarding the safety cover of their new Mark 4 gear press and its increased injury rate on its operators. Carol and another production manager, Phil Thomas, have taken notice of the heightened injury rate and have decided that in order for Joan to take action, they both need to inform here individually.

The General Motors (GM) Foundation was fashioned in 1976 with a purpose to support and strengthen communities across the country. However in the past year GM has decided to take the foundation in a new direction renaming it GM Philanthropy and Corporate Giving but the transition will not take place until the end of calendar year 2016 (Cain, 2016). The foundation focuses on donating money to projects in the areas of sustainability, STEM education, safety, and to teamGM Cares which is comprised of employees who give time to volunteer in the communities where GM operates (General motors, 2016). “In the last decade alone, the GM Foundation has provided more than $261 million in grants to American charities, educational organizations and to disaster relief efforts worldwide,” reports the foundation’s parent company, General Motors (General motors, 2016). All funding for the GM Foundation is provided by General Motors unless in cases where the foundation matches donations given by its employees. After recently pushing the foundation to expand its philanthropic reach, General Motors names Jackie Parker as the director, global philanthropy and corporate giving who has the daily tasks of accepting grant applications, selecting which grants fall under the foundation’s purpose, and seeing through all projects that are taken on by the organization (Welch, 2015). Although the Foundation has seen many great successes in recent years this has not always been the case as

During an unrelated meeting with auto safety regulators, GM employees are informed of a fatal 2005 Cobalt crash in which airbags did not deploy. By the end of the year, GM is aware of 10 deadly Cobalt accidents in which airbags failed.

General Motors acted in an unethical and negligent way by choosing not to take action when becoming aware of a fault in their ignition switch of the Chevrolet Cobalt vehicle. This caused the engine and electrical system to shut off if the keys were knocked, and ultimately resulting in multiple deaths due to the airbags not deploying during car accidents.

The buying of automobile companies in GM's early days would soon expand to include more GM purchases and agreements, new lines of parts and gear, and an unprecedented move, on the part of GM executives, to become some of the biggest stockholders in the company. Aligning interests of management with interests of stockholders, GM set a precedent for making leadership accountable in a business where the goal was to provide "a car for every purse and purpose" (www.gm.com/company/corp_info/history/gmhis1910.html).