number 1
Are you a born leader? If yes, provide examples of how you would prove it. If no, where are you short? Are you more comfortable as a leader or a follower? Why?
number 2
reply to this
I am not a born leader. I fall short to the take charge attitude of dominance. I do not have a dominating presence and I tend to shy away from being the center of attention. I would rather be someone's right hand man. I am the Robin to Batman or the Louis Lane to Superman. However, I strive on being a supportive follower that works hard, has a positive attitude, and is the support system for the leader. I have never sight out a leadership position, but I enjoy doing work that carries great importance and helps out the organization.
The readings this week and last week makes me think about the different aspects of my personality and some of the qualities that are considered leadership. According to our readings, "Leadership is realized in the process of influencing the activities of an organized group toward goal achievement" (Yukl, 2006, P.3). Even though a person is not in a direct leadership position or prefers to stay out of the lime light, they can still influence people by their attitudes, work ethic, and loyalty to the company. It does not take a person to be in a leadership position to show leadership qualities.
In conclusion, I am not a born leader, but I show certain qualities that reflect leadership. I would rather be someone's sidekick and help them guide and influence the organization to success. Dominance is not a strength of mine and because of that I find it hard to take charge and be the boss.
References
Yukl, G. (2006) Leadership in Organizations, sixth edition. Retrieved on February 25, 2014 from http://www.coursesmart.com/C090030010667/firstsection
number 3
When is participative leadership most likely to be effective? When not? Provide an example of when you've seen participative leadership in your experience be effective or ineffective.
number 4 reply to this
Participative leadership involves efforts by a leader to encourage and facilitate participation by others in making important decisions" (Yukl, 2006, p. 82). I think participative leadership is important because it involves an entire team, and it shows the value of others ideas and creates leadership opportunities. I think this type of leadership is most effective when there has been a steady track record of the leader following through with the thoughts of others. When a leader truly wants what is best for the company, and they can see beyond themselves. Participative leadership can effective as well as ineffective.
An effective example of participative leadership would be an employee owned company or volunteer projects. When a company is employee owned, all employees want what is best and so its important to listen to everyone and the leader to do what is best for the company. Another effective example would be volunteer projects such as Habitat for Humanity. Everyone knows what they want the final outcome to be, but allowing individuals to be leaders in particular areas such as there strengths will assist greatly in the final outcome. Someone that is a great carpenter shouldn't be painting the walls, and a great painter shouldn't be building the foundation. When there is opportunity for leaders to allow the strengths of others to be useful, its a great example of participative leadership.
Sometimes participative leadership can be ineffective as well. The idea of gathering everyones thoughts and opinions may sound great, but the goal for the gathering in the first place may not be reached. I work for a college, and we want to make sure the students have the best overall experience. I can easily say we are primarily broken up into 2 sides: admissions and not admissions. I do not work for admissions rather I handle student records (everything from handling the application to graduating the student in our database and anything in-between). When a student first starts thinking about pursing the college, we want to provide them with all the information they need. Since I started about 7 months ago, we have met with admissions several times to determine what we can do to create a better student experience. We are all participating on deciding a future process. The process has yet to change. In my opinion, admissions likes the ideas, but they don't want to do anymore work even though they are the main point of contact with the student until after the first week of courses, then the advisors take over. This example of participative leadership has been a complete waste of time as nothing has been done even though we have all expressed our thoughts, ideas, and opinions numerous times.
Yukl, G. (2006) Leadership in Organizations, sixth edition. Retrieved from:http://www.coursesmart.com/C090030010667/firstsection
number 5
Discuss the concept of "domestic containment". How did this concept operate in 1950's-1960's America? Why was it destined to ultimately fail? Give an example of one of the values present in domestic containment, and explain why it did not apply to the increasingly independent youth culture during the 1960's.
number 6
reply to post
There are many examples you could choose from for this question. Humans always try to plug things into nice, neat categories, and they like for what they put there to stay there. This has proven rather problematic when it is people that you are trying to keep into those pigeon holes. Have efforts at containment worked in other nations? Why or why not? Is containment realistic in any culture? Why or why not?
number 7
Define the "McCarthyism". Explain how this term was created. How did McCarthyism affect Hollywood during the cold war era?
number 8
reply to post
McCarthyism" is defined as the practice of investigating people of power or influence within the government from being disloyal or from committing treason. It was not limited to just government though, teacher/instructor and union worker were included. These three type of people were at the head of the investigations. There were two closely associated people in the creation of "McCarthyism," the first being Senator Joseph McCarthy and secondly senator Richard Nixon, in which both served a Republicans. McCarthyism started before Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon due to the fear of the Republican Party. This led to a large amount of arrest, deportations, convictions and infractions of civil liberties. In 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) began looking into rather communist were a part in American Films. Of 43 people, 10 friendly people testified to the threat of communist within the film industry. These 10 people were then placed and approved to be member of the House of Representatives. A day later Waldolf Studios implied they would not employ any communist or anyone whom think or will try to overthrow the government. These people were blacklisted! Later, no one would admit that a blacklist exited!
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