R.G. LeTourneau (part 3)

Chapter 14 Concept: Organizational Culture
Like most organizations born from the minds of incredibly charismatic leaders, LeTourneau Technologies retains much of it's founders personality in the form of organizational culture. Robbins discusses the beginning of a culture and the influence of the founder rather bluntly (pg 233):
“Because the founders have the original idea, they also typically have biases on how to get the idea fulfilled. The organization's culture results from the interaction between the founders' biases and assumptions and what the original members learn subsequently from their own experiences.”
The culture that is born is then passed on through generations of employees based on a reward system; people who fit the “mold” are promoted those who don't, leave. LeTourneau Technologies to this day values the things that were important to it's founder even though the company has changed hands multiple times.
Chapter 13 Concept: Innovation Strategy
True to the characteristics of its founder, LeTourneau Technologies' strategy in every area was and continues to be innovation. The company has always been a front-runner in bringing new products to market. Many of it's products were decades ahead of their time, including the electric drive wheel (Casteel, 1998). This concept was developed in the 1950's and is still considered the best, most efficient and effective method of moving large equipment (letourneau-inc.com, bio).
Although an innovation strategy produces new and exciting products, it has a considerable amount of risk associated with it. Robbins states that innovators require flexibility (pg 225) which is what LeTourneau Technologies continually strove for. Innovation is such an indispensable part of their business that their website lists it twice in its description of the company:
“The LeTourneau Technologies, Inc.™ (LTI) companies include some of the world’s leading innovators in manufacturing, design, and implementation of systems and equipment for mining, oil and gas drilling, offshore, power control and distribution, and forestry. … What in the world does LTI stand for? Innovation; advancements in technology that improve and optimize how you do business today and tomorrow.” (letourneau-inc.com, about)
One example that clearly illustrates how LeTourneau and his organization in turn, revolutionized manufacturing as a whole was the advent of welding as a means of original assembly. Welding began as more of a repair process for machines which were damaged, but LeTourneau saw this as an opportunity to improve strength in his machines and reduces cost of drilling holes and adding fasteners (LeTourneau, pg72). A quick survey of manufacturing today would yield very few manufacturers who do not implement welding in some fashion or another.
Chapter 16 Concept: Process Re-engineering

LeTourneau personally questioned all assumptions. What is the best way to manufacture a particular machine? How can I better stimulate thinking about God's plan for salvation? Is tithing 10% always biblical? Why can't I use rubber tires on earthmoving equipment?

These (and many other) questions were asked by LeTourneau which resulted in different answers than others in the similar environments. As mentioned above, LeTourneau Technologies decided that welding was the best method to manufacture many machines. To stimulate thinking about our eternal destiny, LeTourneau hired Chaplins for his manufacturing plant and gave biblical training during working hours away from the production line (LeTourneau, pg242). Near the end of LeTourneau's life he was “tithing” 90% of his income to ministry of spreading the Gospel. And the rubber tires, that is what made LeTourneau the largest earthmoving equipment supplier in World War II, supplying more than 70% of equipment to the allies (letourneau-inc.com, bio).


Sources Sited:



Casteel, Kyran. "Longview legend." World Mining Equipment 22.n8 (Oct 1998): 24(2). General OneFile. Gale. CORBAN COLLEGE. 21 Oct. 2009

LeTourneau, R.G.(1967) Mover of Men and Mountains, Autobiography. Prentice-Hall.

(bio) http://www.letourneau-inc.com/about/RG_bio.htm

(about) http://www.letourneautechnologies.com/about/index.htm

National Defense 85.568 (March 2001): 7. General OneFile. Gale. CORBAN COLLEGE. 21 Oct. 2009

Robbins, S.P. (2005). Essentials of Organizational Behavior - 8th Edition. Pearson - Prentice Hall.

Self Assesment- Orginizational Preferences

This week I took several assessments:
III.A.1 What type of organizational structure do I prefer?....37
III.A.3 How good am I at giving performance feedback?.....4/4
III.B.1 What is the right organizational culture for me?.....21
III.B.2 How committed am I to my organization?....3.6
III.B.4 How motivated am I to manage?....23
III.C.1 How well do I respond to turbulent change?....86
III.C.3 Am I burned out?.....2.23
I was interested to see the results of “III.B.2 How committed am I to my organization?” especially in comparison to how my wife would answer the same questions. There was no surprise here, I scored pretty low: 3.6. When my wife answered the questions she actually scored me a bit lower (though not much): 2.33. I had anticipated her scoring me lower than I scored myself, because she tends to be my sounding board. She gets the negative aspects of my job to a greater extent than the positives. I should probably spend some time talking about what I like too.

Sadly, this assessment got me thinking about what I appreciated about my job, and what I didn't. Unfortunately, aside from the people I work with, the only positive is that I don't typically work more than 50hrs. Now I am on a quest to find other aspects that I enjoy so that I do not become dissatisfied and discontent.

R.G. LeTourneau (part 2)

LeTourneau was at the head in nearly every group with which he was involved. Weather the group was his business, leader in his home church, President of the Christian Businessmen Association, President of the International Gideon Society or even Husband and father of four (www.letourneau-inc.com). He is what we all would consider a natural born leader. His passions were broad; from manufacturing large equipment to spreading the Gospel everywhere he went. In fact spreading the Gospel by some accounts forced him to sell his earthmoving company to Westinghouse (National Defense, 2001).

Chapter 9 Concept: Selective Perception

This selective perception may have been a major contributor to the Westinghouse sale of his earthmoving business. According to LeTourneau he was supporting a ministry of his church with but it was his opinion against the IRS. This was what appeared to be a huge setback. Westinghouse took over his debt to the government in exchange for removing LeTourneau from competition in the earthmoving business. However, with the profits he earned from the sale he devoted his attention to a new revolutionary propulsion system (LeTourneau, pg257).

Chapter 10 Concept: Charismatic Leadership

Robbins (pg166) describes the charismatic leader as one who “by force of their personal abilities they transform their followers by raising the sense of importance and value of their tasks.” LeTourneau had this ability. He could inspire everyone he met to “get on board” and accomplish the task, no matter how unrealistic is seemed at the start.

One of the unrealistic challenges LeTourneau commanded was the purchase of the steel mills near his facility and outright steel mill creation at other sites. The challenge for LeTourneau was getting the right materials for the demanding applications like building 150 ton loaders. When he was a consumer of materials, he was often at the whim of his suppliers getting the right size material and even the right formulation of steel (Casteel, 1998). Think of how much steel goes into building a machine capable of scooping 150 tons of dirt in a single scoop. 150 tons is 300,000 pounds, in a single scoop! What was LeTourneau's solution? Let us mill our own steel, then we can have what we need when we need it.

This was a hard plan to sell to the plant managers and finance guys who know nothing about making steel. But, because of LeTourneau's charisma he sold the idea to his team and made it a reality.

Chapter 11 Concept: Formal Power

As the natural leader, he was always at the top. This gave LeTourneau formal power. As the Owner of the company, Chief Designer and CEO, he got his way. This type of power was mostly displayed on the engineering and design side of the business. He was always thinking “outside the box”. In fact most of his competitors referred to his ideas as “crazy” (Casteel, 1998). The ideas were so far outside the box that his formal power was utilized to force his engineering staff to “just try it” (LeTourneau, pg257).


Sources Sited:



Casteel, Kyran. "Longview legend." World Mining Equipment 22.n8 (Oct 1998): 24(2). General OneFile. Gale. CORBAN COLLEGE. 21 Oct. 2009

LeTourneau, R.G.(1967) Mover of Men and Mountains, Autobiography. Prentice-Hall.

http://www.letourneau-inc.com/about/RG_bio.htm

National Defense 85.568 (March 2001): 7. General OneFile. Gale. CORBAN COLLEGE. 21 Oct. 2009

Robbins, S.P. (2005). Essentials of Organizational Behavior - 8th Edition. Pearson - Prentice Hall.

Self Assesment- Leadership

So far this week I have taken five assessments:
II.B.1 What's your leadership style?
II.B.5 How good am I at disciplining others?
II.C.3 How good am I at playing politics?
IV.E.1 What's my attitude toward working in groups?
IV.E.4 Am I an ethical leader?

I asked my wife to complete the “politics” assessment as if she were me. Apparently she views me as more political than I do; she scored a 111 out of 126. I scored only slightly lower at 102, still highly capable of “gaining support and trust of others within the organization to further my agenda” (Pearson).

I would like to discuss the results of II.B.1, What's your leadership style. This assessment rates both my perspective toward the task and the other people in the group. I rated a “9” in both categories. This score in the task importance indicates that I have a low priority on getting the job done. The “9” score for people oriented is actually high. So my natural bent is toward pleasing people or making sure we can work together in harmony to the detriment of accomplishing the task.

I basically agree with the results of the assessment, however some of the specific questions got me thinking about my attitudes relating to group work and where I can improve. Since I have an aversion to lower priority on the task, I must remember that I was hired to accomplish the task. That is my employers main priority, so I must ensure I am working diligently whenever possible to complete the work that needs to be done.

R.G. LeTourneau

I have selected R. G. LeTourneau for this exercise. LeTourneau was a prolific inventor in the earthmoving industry. His machines represented nearly 70 percent of the earthmoving equipment and Engineering vehicles used during World War II, and he was responsible for nearly 300 patents.

Chapter 3 Concept: Risk Propensity

Risk propensity defines the willingness of individuals to take chances. Those whom have a high risk propensity are able to make decisions quickly and typically with less information. LeTourneau spent his life with very little aversion to risk. This was necessary as an inventor and ground-breaker in many areas of manufacturing and innovation, with an eighth grade education. Don't get me wrong, LeTourneau had broader, more practical work experience than many of his contemporaries. He was able to practically apply this experience to innovating some earthmoving designs that were, in many cases, decades ahead of their time. LeTourneau was often heard telling his engineers that his ideas could be accomplished. That it did not matter what they had learned in school, they just needed to do it to prove it (LeTourneau, 1967). Many times his ability to take risk brought him to the front of the market, but nearly as many times, his ideas were too original to be accepted by customers.

Chapter 4 Concept: Need for Achievement

LeTourneau was driven by a strong desire to do everything better than it has been done before. This is characterized as a need for achievement, which is a major motivational point based on McClelland's Theory of Needs. People who are motivated by personal achievement, are always looking for a challenge in which they perceive their chances at success are only 50% (Robbins, pg52).

After he had grown tired of his earthmoving equipment business, he sold the entire company so that he could devote his time to creating a new drive concept for heavy equipment which is still used today. LeTourneau was an all or nothing leader who was driven by the idea that things could be done better. His passion for achievement did not stop at heavy equipment; His second love was the Church and spreading the gospel (LeTourneau, pg288).

Chapter 6 Concept: Intuitive Decision Maker

“Gut decisions” were a trademark of LeTourneau. This intuitive process of sifting information through the grid of past experiences enables people to make accurate choices very quickly. Robbins states that recent studies have proven that intuitive decisions, when pared with rational analysis, can improve decision making (pg93). Based on LeTourneau's vast experiences in labor intensive work, he was able to quickly analyze solutions to manufacturing problems and prove it worked before his staff had a chance to fully understand what he was trying to accomplish. This lead to numerous advances in manufacturing that are credited to LeTourneau, including welding as a means to assemble rather than to repair (LeTourneau, 1967).



Sources Sited:

LeTourneau, R.G.(1967) Mover of Men and Mountains, Autobiography. Prentice-Hall.

http://www.letourneau-inc.com/about/RG_bio.htm

Robbins, S.P. (2005). Essentials of Organizational Behavior - 8th Edition. Pearson - Prentice Hall.

Personality Assesment

I completed more than the assigned 5 assessments for no other reason than I was enjoying seeing the results. I completed all Part I assessments, as well as all Part IV.A through Part IV.C assessments. Some were informative but most were just interesting to see as I reflected on the answers to my questions and the results of the assessment.

I would like to discuss the results of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or Jungian 16 Type Personality assessment. After answering the associated questions the result showed that I am rated as ENTP. “E” for Extroverted, “N” for Intuitive, “T” for Thinking and “P” for Precieveing.

Although I would have never (nor anyone who knows me) classified myself as Extroverted, I believe that I must be close to the center point on this classification. This is the only classification that was a surprise to me.

EMTP's are identified as conceptualizers which are innovative, individualistic, versatile and entrepreneurial. We tend to be “resourceful in solving challenging problems but may neglect routine assignments” (Robbins pg35). I see these tendencies in everyday life. I have a broad range of skills and interests and I am always looking for a better way to accomplish basically everything. It is always a challenge do the day-to-day tasks that are required in my work, but I am able to overcome the challenge by identifying ways to improve the efficiency of the mundane. I see my personality as an asset as I deal with people because I can quickly react to changing situations.