Principles and Practices of Leadership and Management Essay

Principles and Practices of Leadership and Management - Essay Example Other cultures seek a more sensitive leader with empathetic and charismatic personalities and strategies. Not just related to cultural dynamics, I must understand the state of employees (as well as myself) if I am go build trust and confidence in my decision-making processes. This is why I felt to discuss my strength as a leader in relation to cultural sensitivity and awareness. I understand that most organizations have diverse populations of workers that hail from different ethnic, regional and just general lifestyle cultures. All of these individuals have differing beliefs, values and attitudes that must somehow find harmony when working with others in group settings. Fairholm (2009) describes the transformational leadership model, one in which a shared vision and mission must be established, where the leader role models desired behaviours, and also opens effective lines of communication. In order to provide any meaningful feedback or direction, others have to trust in my judgment. As a transformational leader, I must get the whole organisation on board with a singular vision. Having an understanding of the foundational concepts of long-term orientation, individualism, collectivism, and other important characteristics of diverse employees is highly valuable in understanding how to approach certain cultures. In a collectivist organisation, which is the goal of the transformational leadership model, people appreciate and find personal identity through group membership and social belonging (Hofstede, Hofstede and Minkov 2010; Hofstede and Hofstede 2005; Hofstede 2001). I realise it will be necessary for this type of culture to focus on group rewards, establishing collective rewards, and also promoting better socialisation among tacit and explicit knowledge holders. Understanding both the emotional states of others and their cultural values will assist in develop cohesive vision direction and promoting better work group outcomes. Whilst also providing strengths, I must be critical of my weaknesses. One of these is an inherent ethnocentrism, a belief in the superiority of my own cultural values. Even though I understand the needs of others, I am sometimes frustrated when what I view as over inter-dependency occurs between organisational members. I do not personally have much of a need for the social condition and belonging within the organisation since I trust in my own competencies and maintain very positive self-esteem. I have reached the self-actualisation stage of development, one that is highly motivated to succeed and do not require the affiliation nearly as strongly as others. Now, achievement is considered a significant strength in leadership. An achievement-minded leader gets intrinsic self-satisfaction from excellence in a task and reaching a standard of excellence (Kirkpatrick and Locke 1991). However, this over-confidence in my own abilities sometimes translates into frustration or disappointment for those who have not yet achiev ed the type of confidence that I have earned through experience. This is apparent in my body language, if not my words. It is something I must work on: finding balance between ethnocentrism, self-confidence and finding empathy for others that require more social approvals to build their self-esteem. A quality-focused leader must appeal to the needs of employees by first motivating and then inspiring followers (Kotter 2001). I have another strength which is excellent communication skills,

Role of Blacks in the American Revolutionary War Essay example -- Afri

â€Å"And I hereby further declare all indented servants, Negroes, or others (appertaining to Rebels) free, that are able and willing to bear arms, the joining of His Majesty's Troops, as soon as may be, for the more speedily reducing the Colony to a proper sense of their duty, to this Majesty's crown and dignity.† -- Lord Dunmore's Proclamation The quote above is from the British governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore who proclaimed freedom for African American slaves who fought for the British, after George Washington announced there would be no additional recruitment of Blacks in the Continental army in 1776. For numerous free blacks and enslaved blacks, the Revolutionary War was considered to be an essential period in black manifestation. Many public officials (like Dunmore), who initially had not expressed their views on slavery, saw the importance of African Americans and considered them an imperative tool in winning the war. Looking back, it almost seems like an inherent paradox in white America’s desire of emancipation from England while there still enslaving blacks. This concept has different grounds in white’s idea of liberation in comparison to that of the African-Americans. To white Americans, this war was for liberation in a political/economical tone rather than in the sense of the privatized oppressio n that blacks suffered from. But what started this war and what would this mean for blacks? How did these African Americans contribute to the war effort? What were there some of their duties? How did the white communities perceive them? How did it all end for these blacks? The main topic of this paper is to show how the use African Americans helped the control the outcome of the war while monitoring their contributions. .. ...Revolution." Black Soldiers in the Revolutionary War. U.S. Army, 27 Feb. 2013. Web 6 May 2015.. Egerton, Douglas R. Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Goldman, Hal. 1997. "Black Citizenship and Military Self-Presentation in Antebellum Massachusetts." Historical Journal Of Massachusetts 26, no. 2: 157-183. Kaplan, Sidney. The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, 1770-1800. Greenwich, Conn: New York Graphic Society, 1973. Lanning, Michael Lee. African Americans in the Revol. Citadel Press, 2005. Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the American Revolution. Chapel Hill: Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Va., by University of North Carolina Press, 1961.

An Essay on the Views of Booker T Washington

Born a slave, Booker T. Washington rose to become a commonly recognized leader of the Negro race in America. Washington continually strove to be successful and to show other black men and women how they too could raise themselves. Washington†s method of uplifting was education of the head, the hand, and the heart. From his founding of the Tuskegee Institute in 1881 to his death in 1915 Booker T. Washington exerted a tremendous influence on the people that surrounded him. With his emphasis on industrial education Washington†s approach gave African-Americans hope of accomplishment and success. Growing up in Franklin County, Virginia, Booker was a young slave living on a plantation in a cold, dismal cabin with his mother being the plantation cook. He struggled through the hardships not unlike all the other slaves in the country. Booker T. Washington did not know his own father, which sounds very terrible, but was nothing unusual to young children of enslaved mothers. However Booker†s thoughts and feelings were different from what you†d suspect. Booker states, † I do not find especial fault with him (his father). He was simply another unfortunate victim of the institution which the Nation unhappily had engrafted upon it at the time. â€Å"(4) Booker T. Washington was engulfed in labor throughout his adolescence and young boyhood days, joining his step-father in working in salt furnaces and coal-mines after the civil war. Of course the labor force in this country was predominately slaves, and after the civil war black people were paid little money to do some of the same work. The whole machinery of slavery was constructed as to cause labor, as a rule, to be looked upon as a sign of degradation and inferiority. The slave system took the spirit of self-reliance and self-help out of white people. Again, Booker T. Washington†s thoughts about the labor of black people differ from a traditional view. Washington feels that many white boys and girls never mastered a single trade or special line of productive industry. All the cooking, cleaning, everything was done by slaves, so when freedom came blacks were well off to begin a life of their own. Except for book-learning and ownership of property, Washington felt positively of the long term investment made from all that hard labor. Washington envisioned a future for Black America where their hard work would earn them the respect of whites and pave the way for equality between the races. Washington had success on his mind for his whole life. There is not a moment in his life where he did not think of achieving a goal that would make him more successful and a better person. He used to picture in his mind how he would climb from the bottom of the ladder and one day be on the top, despite his race. He did envy the white boy as you would think in his early part of his life, but once again his view changed from what is considered normal in my opinion. Washington states, † I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. â€Å"(27) Washington felt that a Negro youth must work harder and must perform his tasks even better than a white youth in order to secure recognition, and in that also gaining more strength and confidence than a white youth. Booker T. Washington was infatuated with learning ever since his childhood slave days. His intense desire to learn enabled him to master a Webster â€Å"blue-back† spelling book, and even led him to move ahead the hands of a clock at work so that he could get to his night school on time. Washington had a goal to go to Hampton where he can get a descent education, and his hard work and long journey paid off when he got admitted their due to his cleaning abilities. This was an example of what I had stated earlier in that some of the labors he had done in his life as a slave and a worker paid off. At Hampton Washington met the principal, General Armstrong, and because of Mr. Armstrong, Washington saw the ideal he was to strive for, Washington said, † the noblest, rarest human being that it has ever been my privilege to meet. â€Å"(36) Washington was inspired by educational work and felt that General Armstrong was one of the men and women who went into the Negro schools at the close of the war to assist in lifting up his race. The greatest benefit in my mind that Washington received from Hampton was his attitude toward education which changed form the common idea that education would free one from manual labor, to love of labor, self-reliance, and usefulness, an unselfishness that strives to do the most to make others useful and happy. When Washington experienced this himself, he could take what he learned and lead others through more practical education. The Reconstruction period from 1867-1878 helped fuel an urge that Washington had to educate his race. He felt that blacks throughout the South looked to the Federal Government for everything, just like a child needing its mother. Also, that the Reconstruction policy, so far as it related to blacks, was in a large measure on a false foundation. Washington states, † In many cases it seemed to me that the ignorance of my race was being used as a tool with which to help white men into office. â€Å"(56) He felt that â€Å"general political agitation drew the attention of our people away from the more fundamental matters of perfecting themselves in the industries at their doors and in securing property. (56) In July of 1881, when the Tuskegee Institute for colored people opened, Booker T. Washington was asked to be the principle. Washington tried to expand as much as possible during the years of the school, he wanted to accommodate as many kids as possible and in order to do that the school needed to be bigger, so he put the kids to work, building the school and stressing the importance of work to the kids. Washington felt the value of this work for self-confidence, esteem and disciplined conduct was immense. How likely would a student write his initials on a wall if an older student next to him told him that he had built that wall. Washington felt Industrial education was a foundation. From it would come the professional positions of responsibility, wealth, and leisure. His way was to combine industrial training with mental and moral culture. He observed that the need to take care of one†s body and property and to have an economic foundation was more important than memorizing facts and readings of Latin and Greek. That†s why Washington stressed cleanliness, personal neatness, also housekeeping and mechanical skills. Through proper training of head, hand, and heart, Tuskegee could develop teachers and leaders who would go out to people and change their lives. Industrial education had three functions: First, black students could work to pay their expenses at school. Secondly they could develop skills that would be of economic value when they left school. Third, and most important, was to teach economy, thrift, the dignity of labor, and provide a strong moral backbone. Booker T. Washington had visions of equality for the black and white race, but his visions were somewhat different from that of the norm. He wanted to build up the black race slowly, knowing that equality was not to be achieved overnight. He taught blacks the power of knowledge and hard work to which they could gain a respect from their former masters of this country, and prove to them that they could live together and help out each other. He didn†t want to be better than the white man, he didn†t even dislike the white man, he just wanted to prove to the white man that a black man can have just as good of a heart. Washington took the positive factors out of everything in life, whether good or bad, and paved the way for a non-segregated country. He has no remorse for anything that has happened to his race, infect he says it best when he states, â€Å"Ever since I have been old enough to think for myself, I have entertained the idea that, notwithstanding the cruel wrongs inflicted upon us, the black man got nearly as much out of slavery as the white man did. â€Å"(13)

Social Psychology - 1232 Words

Tuesday, Mar. 28, 2000 social psychology Socialization The process by which personality is formed as the result of social influences is called socialization. Early research methods employed case studies of individuals and of individual societies (e.g., primitive tribes). Later research has made statistical comparisons of numbers of persons or of different societies; differences in child-rearing methods from one society to another, for example, have been shown to be related to the subsequent behaviour of the infants when they become adults. Such statistical approaches are limited, since†¦show more content†¦Forms of questions have been devised to compensate for errors that arise from the efforts to respond in a socially approved manner; some are designed to detect lying. Mass communications have been devised on the basis of research into persuasion. Use is also still made of Freudian symbolism and theory. Research into the causes of mental disorders has shown the importance of social factors in the famil y and elsewhere. Mental patients often show deficiencies in social performance that may be the cause of other symptoms. Many social psychologists hold that social factors may also apply to such disorders as schizophrenia, which also seem to have hereditary and chemical bases. There has been a corresponding growth in the use of various kinds of social therapy in psychiatry (e.g., group therapy, therapeutic communities, and social-skills training). Considerable research has been devoted to industrial productivity, absenteeism, labour turnover, accidents, and job satisfaction. Factors that have been found to be important include the style of supervision and management, the size and composition of working groups, theShow MoreRelatedSocial Psychology And Social Influence1600 Words   |  7 PagesIn social psychology, social influence is a process where someone’s beliefs, thoughts and behaviour change by being exposed to beliefs, thoughts and opinions of others. It manifests in se veral forms, such as obedience, compliance and conformity. All these types of social influence have been studied by numerous researchers who investigated the reasons why people conform to social norms and obey to authorities, such as Milgram’s classic studies on obedience. His experiments support the popular ideaRead MoreSocial Psychology2623 Words   |  11 Pagesourselves (Friedkin, 1998). 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