De- and Reconstructing Leadership

Table of Content

Introduction

Methodology

Theory

Charisma and Leadership

Transactional and Transformational Leadership

Discourse

Deconstructing/ Analysis

Leading by biography

Transformational Leadership

Discussion / Different Context

Conclusion/ Future Research

1. Introduction:

This project will outline Tan Sir Anthony Francis Fernandes (Anthony Fernandes) role in the raise of Malaysian based AirAsia, which was named Malaysia Airlines at that time, from being a company close to bankruptcy at 2001, when it was bought by him for a symbolic amount of $0.25 USD to one of the most successful airlines in the world.

Fernandes chose to set up an airline in the one of the toughest times of the airline industry; Right after the 9/11 attacks in with hundreds lost their lives and costumers were too scared to fly, additionally were the oil prices quite high and along with the acquisition there came a debt of $11 million USD. (e.g. White 2010) Despite this unfortunate starting position he did not fail. Already in 2002 one year after the acquisition Fernandes was able to take the first profits and in 2008 the revenue already reached 877 million USD. (e.g.Times 2010) He was awarded as “Asia Businessman of the Year” by the Forbes magazine also he became member of the French Legion of honor (for his contribution in aviation industry) and in 2011 her majesty Queen Elizabeth II honored him by appointing him as a Commander of the British Empire. He was honored for his work to promote commercial and educational links between the UK and Malaysia. (e.g.Times 2010) The question arising is how did Tony Fernandes manage to turn a business idea likely to fail in such a big success?

Different studies argue that it was simply possible because Fernandes discovered an unfulfilled need in the marked and then just copied an already successful proven business model.(e.g. Ricart 2005, Ahmad 2006, Ahmad 2010) And according to these studies Fernandes business idea behind AirAsia is quite simple. Fernandes vision is easy to understand and clearly visible presented to everyone in AirAsias slogan ‘Now everyone can fly’. (AirAsia 2010) To achieve this goal, the studies argue, Fernandes copied Ryanairs business model and brought it to the Asian market. Thereby AirAsia positioned itself as a low fare and low cost airline exactly what the Asian marked was lacking of at that time. (Ahmad 2006)

When asked during an interview with CNN if his business model was really that simple and if he was not afraid that people were too scared to fly after the 9/11 attacks Fernandes even states: ‘I knew Malaysians very well. You put a price low enough, they'd risk their lives’.(CNN 2007)

Even if this simple idea was enough to start up a business, a bright entrepreneurial idea is usually not what keeps a large company going and helps maneuvering it through times of crisis. Not a single CEO can manage that by himself but needs to convince other people of this idea and make it desirable to work making the vision come true.(e.g. Shamir, Dayan-Horesh, Addler 2005) Therefor it becomes interesting to investigate what it is that renders Fernandes and his business so successful and how he manages to maintain this success. The propose of the following paper is to answer the question:

Is Tony Fernandes success based on an exceptional good business idea or his leadership qualities?

– And if it is not only the business idea how does Tony Fernandes convince people to work for his vision and what renders him effective in doing so?

Disagreeing with the assumptions made by Ahmad and Ricart the academic paper makes the following three claims.

Claim 1: Fernandes created a story around him in order to make people believe in his vision.

Claim 2: Fernandes uses transactional leadership on a daily bases in order to keep

performance up.

Claim 3: It is Fernandes exceptional way of leading AirAsia that makes him so successful.

1.1. Methodology:

The empirical data used in this academic paper is exclusively gathered from secondary sources as it was not possible to interview Mr. Tony Fernandes. Therefore the data comes as suggested by Shamir et. al. from various other sources such as biographies or parts of biographies, interviews, in written and taped form, given by Tony Fernandes and interviews conducted for research purpose.(e.g. Shamir, Dayan-Horesh, Addler 2005) Furthermore different academic and case studies about Tony Fernandes and AirAsia as well as Fernandes own CEO blog will be used as sources of data. Taken the topic of the academic paper into account the focus will be on qualitative data.

Due to the limitations of this academic paper it will only be possible to shed light on three aspects of Fernandes leadership behavior while other parts of the curriculum as for example the relation between CEOs and analysts cannot be investigated

At first I will look at Tony Fernandes and AirAsia from the rather marco perspective where there will be investigated how in general he his gains legitimacy to lead and by the use of which technics he does so. In a second step of deconstructing the micro perspective will be investigated. Questions of interests will be how Fernandes create meaning among his followers and motivates them.

1.2. Theory:

1.2.1. Charisma and Leadership

When referring to charisma or charismatic leadership in this paper there will be drawn on the concept of charisma provided by House et al. (e.g. House 1977; House & Shamir 1993; Klein & House 1995). There charisma is viewed as the potentially significant factor of strategic leadership. As viewed in this concept charisma is a discourse between a single individual (referred to as the leader) and one or multiple followers. Essential behaviors of the leader include providing a vision that makes sense to possible followers, articulate high expectations and in order to motivate the potential followers generate admiration and/or respect. (e.g. House 2001) Also it is to mention that in the here used definition of charisma, charisma is subjective and something that is ‘evaluated by the followers’ (Steyer 1998: 808).

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