Introduction
Netflix is a streaming company that has gained popularity among Internet users, attaining high revenues that rise exponentially. Indeed, one of the main reasons for the organization’s success lies in its innovative solutions in the industry of entertainment and mass media. Namely, Netflix created the distribution of video content through Internet on the terms of a subscription. However, apart from this advantage, the effectiveness of the company’s management and strategy implementation depends on its CEO’s leadership style. As Parnell (2014, p. 304) emphasizes, “effective strategic leaders inspire managers and even non-managers to take the necessary steps to realize [the strategy]. They build and promote an organizational culture.” Transformational leadership style, the course concept, is characteristic of Netflix’s CEO’s approach. The freedom, encouragement, and responsibility offered and cultivated by Reed Hastings guarantee the company’s prosperity.
Main body
First of all, Hastings’ leadership’s critical element is ensuring the employees’ independence from the top management. The CEO proposes a significant amount of liberty to all his workers, from managerial staff and researchers who have no considerable influence in other corporations (Koss, 2021). According to Mahmood et al. (2019), the transformational leadership method allows greater imaginativeness of the team to generate ideas that improve strategy and the company’s performance. An example of this concept is the download option that has been rejected by the CEO initially but attained a new profit source and perspective for the organization (Koss, 2021). Hastings trusts his employees and accepts their decisions even if he does not entirely agree with them. Additionally, he transmits his attitude to the managers, who, in turn, motivate others to choose for themselves. Thus, the style of the leader affects the staff interrelationships, building a respectful attitude and creativeness.
The other important component, the responsibility given to the employees, underlies Hastings’ approach. The freedom from top executives’ supervision cannot exist and provide the company with productive workers’ performance without a commitment from the staff. Nonetheless, the people hired by Netflix do feel obliged to the organization for several reasons. First, they are given evidence of their value in the company: the managers can raise their workers’ wages if competitors offer them more. Next, all employees go through a “keeper test” that proves their contributions to the organization. Finally, they provide an account of the mistakes that have led to the losses of the firm. Furthermore, the top management staff does not fire those who have suffered a failure (Koss, 2021). The initiative for such a manner of staff handling comes from Hastings’ vision and guidance. Therefore, the employees are motivated when the headquarters treat them as equals, which includes equal responsibility.
Yet, the mentioned parts of the leadership strategy would not be applicable if it were not for the quality of the workers and encouragement. Hastings’ created an environment that approves creative thinking, healthy criticism, and appreciation of talent. In research by Okoro et al. (2018), the highly competitive workplace damages the organizational structure and employees’ satisfaction. To avoid this, Netflix restrains from rating its staff and hires only the most qualified people (Koss, 2021). As a result, all the workers are recognized as valuable, stimulating them to bring the maximum effort.
Conclusion
To conclude, Netflix obtains not only innovative solutions and technological advantages over competitors but effective leadership as well. The source of the strategic success is the CEO of the company, Reed Hastings. His philosophy and principles of motivating the staff are based on the transformational leadership style. The guidelines he proposes are “no rules,” trust, talent density and appreciation, and proper obligations given to the employees.
References
Koss, H. (2021). 7 leadership lessons from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings’ new book. Built In. Web.
Mahmood, M., Uddin, M. A., & Fan, L. (2019). The influence of transformational leadership on employees’ creative process engagement. Management Decision, 57(3), 741–764. Web.
Okoro, C. M., Okonkwo, E. A., Eze, A. C., Chigbo, C. M., & Nwandu, I. B. (2018). Competitiveness among employees in the workplace: The influence of conflict handling styles and organisational types. Journal Of Humanities And Social Science, 23(6), 82–89.
Parnell, J. A. (2014). Startegic management: Theory and practice. SAGE Publications.