Abstract

In 2015, Mary Barra (Barra), CEO of American multinational corporation General Motors (GM), headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, was placed ninth in Fortune’s list of The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. The case study is about Barra and her leadership at GM. Barra’s career at GM spanned more than three decades. In January 2014, Barra became the CEO of GM, the first woman ever to head a Big 8 automaker. The case describes how Barra rose through a series of manufacturing, engineering, and senior staff positions during her stint at GM. It also discusses in detail Barra’a leadership and management style. The case also looks at how Barra drove culture change at GM in her capacity as Vice President of Global Human Resource (HR) and Executive VP of global product development and later after she became the CEO of GM. The case goes on to discuss the challenges that Barra could face in the near future.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand the role of a leader in change management and in changing the culture of a company
• Study the leadership and management style of Barra
• Study the personal characteristics and traits of Barra that contributed to her success

Keywords

Leadership,Leadership style,Inclusive Leadership,Women in leadership,Change management,Culture,Driving culture change,Management style,Behaviors, Characteristics, Traits, Strategic management, General management, Layers of management, Communication