“Planning a Playground and “Politics of Sociology”

Order Description
Resources: Ch. 5 & 8 of Working In Groups and the Week 3 videos, “Planning a Playground” and “Politics of Sociology”
Write a 1,400- to 1,750-word summary of your responses to the following after completing the collaborative Week 3 discussion associated with the “Planning a Playground and “Politics of Sociology” videos:
Group Interaction
How clear was the intent of the discussion?
How prepared were your group members for the discussion?
Did everyone participate equally in the discussion?
Were group members open to different points of view?
How would you describe the overall climate of the discussion?
Did you feel your group was productive in the discussion? Did you use the time efficiently?
What strategies can you use in future discussions to increase productivity and outcomes?
What approach will you take next time to increase group cohesion?
Video Analysis – “Planning A Playground”
What are the issues in this meeting?
What did they do well as a group?
Can you identify constructive or deconstructive conflict occurring in this group? What are some key indicators? What conflict styles do you see?
Based on what you learned this week, how might you handle this situation differently?
Video Analysis – “The Politics of Sociology”
What are the issues in this meeting?
What did they do well as a group?
What types of conflict do you see in this video? Provide examples.
There is a clear leader in this video. What can he do to be a better leader for this group?
Based on what you learned this week, how might you handle this team situation differently?
Click the Assignment Files tab to submit your assignment.
VIDEO LINKS
https://media.pearsoncmg.com/pcp/pcp_82302_engleberg_uop_pp/
CHAPTER 5 & 8
Chapter 5 Group Leadership
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Chapter Outline
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What Is Leadership?
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Becoming a Leader
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Designated Leaders
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Emergent Leaders
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Strategies for Becoming a Leader
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Leadership and Power
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Types of Leadership Power
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The Power of Power
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Leadership Theories
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Situational Leadership Theory
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Functional Leadership Theory
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The 5M Model of Leadership Effectiveness
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Model Leadership
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Motivate Members
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Manage Group Process
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Make Decisions
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Mentor Members
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Diversity and Leadership
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Gender and Leadership
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Culture and Leadership
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Case Study The Leader in Sheep’s Clothing
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The Peoples Project is a nonprofit organization with the mission of serving displaced families within their local communities. If a homeless family qualifies for help, the Peoples Project moves them into a local Peoples Project apartment. Every family receives job counseling, skills training, child care, and assistance in looking for a permanent home.
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For 20 years, the Peoples Project was directed by Bill Blessing, one of its founders. When Blessing announced his retirement, the board of trustees hired an energetic and experienced nonprofit director named Will Dupree. From his first day at work, Dupree jumped right into the job. He met with residents of Peoples Project housing to listen to their needs and complaints. He scheduled meetings with community leaders and politicians to solidify their support. He delivered an eloquent speech at a local church that assists the Peoples Project. And when a fire left three families without shelter, he rolled up his sleeves and spent two days helping them move into Peoples Project housing. The board was thrilled. The community was delighted with the new charismatic leader.
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Meanwhile, back at the Peoples Project headquarters, the mood was quite different. During his first week on the job, Dupree called a meeting of the senior staff, most of whom had been working for the Peoples Project for many years. He told them that to the outside community, he would always be responsive, caring, and empowering. Behind closed doors at the Peoples Project, he would be a tough, uncompromising director. “I don’t want to be your friend,” he said. “You will meet all deadlines and give 110 percent without complaining.” Within a few days, they learned that Dupree was a man of his word. One afternoon at 4:30, he marched into a senior staff member’s office and said, “I need a report on how the proposed zoning legislation will affect our buildings and those we’re trying to buy. I need it by noon tomorrow.” The staff member worked past midnight to write the report. The next morning, she came in early to make revisions. By noon the report was sitting on the director’s desk. A day later, she asked the director what he thought of the report. His response was “Oh, I’ve been busy—haven’t read it yet.” As incidents like these increased, senior staff members became frustrated and wary of their new director. His popularity outside headquarters was high so they didn’t think they could do anything. But when Dupree started to have “favorites” among the staff members, several veteran employees decided that retirement or looking for work elsewhere was a better and healthier option.
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Even though the Peoples Project had never been more successful, staff members were at a breaking point. At the same time, their commitment and loyalty to the organization and its mission was strong. No one knew what to do or how to respond to the new leader.
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When you finish reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following critical thinking questions about this case study:
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As a designated leader, how could Dupree have adapted his leadership style more effectively to accommodate the existing staff members?
According to Situational Leadership theories, is Dupree a task-motivated or relationship-motivated leader? How well does his leadership style match the group’s situational dimensions?
Given that many staff members are currently unhappy working for Dupree, what strategies could they use to improve the group’s situation?
How does Dupree measure up to the 5M Model of Leadership Effectiveness?
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Planning a Playground
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Virtual Miscommunication
Before you read any further, visit Pearson’s MyCommunicationLab website and watch the short videos “Planning a Playground” and “Virtual Miscommunication,” which illustrate Chapter 5 concepts. Each video comes with a set of study questions to keep in mind as you read this chapter.
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What Is Leadership?
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If you use the word leadership to search any major online bookseller’s site, you will discover thousands of books on that subject. And if you review the first 300 offerings, you’ll see that most of them are written by highly respected scholars and well-regarded business leaders. Some unusual titles, however, demonstrate the popularity of leadership books. Here are just a few:
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Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun
Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell
Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton
Jesus on Leadership
Lincoln on Leadership
The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham
Robert E. Lee on Leadership
Martin Luther King, Jr. on Leadership
The Leadership Secrets of Santa Claus
And before you chuckle too much over The Leadership Secrets of Santa Claus, consider how you could translate some of his “secrets” into useful leadership tips: Choose your reindeer wisely; make a list and check it twice; listen to the elves; find out who’s naughty and nice; be good for goodness’ sake.1
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Apparently, everyone has something to say about leadership. You do, too. You have observed leaders at work, voted for leaders at school and in public elections, and probably led a group at some point in your life. That group could have been a sports team, a study group, a work team, or a group of children left in your care.
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All groups need leadership. Without leadership, a group may be nothing more than a collection of individuals, lacking the coordination and motivation to achieve a common goal. Quite simply, “there are no successful groups without leaders.?.?.?. Leaders lead because groups demand it and rely on leaders to satisfy needs.”2
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A leader and leadership are not the same thing. Leadership is the ability to make strategic decisions and use communication effectively to mobilize group members toward achieving a common goal. Leader is the title given to a person; leadership refers to the actions a leader takes to help group members achieve a common goal.
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Another way to understand the nature of leadership is to contrast it with the functions of management. Whereas managers concentrate on getting an assigned job done, leaders focus on the ultimate direction and goal of the group. Note how the employee in the following situation describes the difference between a manager and a leader:
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Lee is the manager of our department, so he’s technically our leader. He always follows procedures and meets deadlines for paperwork, so I guess he’s a good manager. But we don’t get much guidance from him. I think that managing and leading are somehow different. Allison supervises the other department. She inspires her workers. They’re motivated and innovative, and they work closely with one another. We do our job, but they seem to be on a mission. I’ve always thought that working for Allison would be more rewarding and enjoyable.
As we see it, there is an obvious reason why some leaders succeed whereas others fail: Those who fail often lack effective and appropriate communication skills. In his book on leadership, Antony Bell describes communication as the mortar or glue that connects all leadership competencies. The ability to think and act, self-awareness, and self-discipline are critical leadership competencies, but it takes communication to bind these building blocks together.3
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Ronald Heifetz, director of the Leadership Education Project at Harvard’s School of Government, describes the dialectic tensions inherent in leadership. Leaders, he writes, must create a balance between the tensions required to motivate change and the need to avoid overwhelming followers.4 Effective leaders walk a line between both fostering interdependence and encouraging self-reliance, between both building cohesion and welcoming disagreement, and between both imposing structure and promoting spontaneity.
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Groups in Balance?.?.?.
Value Both Leadership and Followership
Who wants to be a follower? In the United States—the number one individualistic country in the world—we praise and value individual leaders. This admiration of leaders is not shared by all cultures. In collectivist cultures, standing out from the group is considered arrogant. Instead, loyal, hard-working followers are admired. In the United States, being a follower receives little praise. Garry Will captured this perception in his book, Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders:
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Talk about the nobility of leaders, the need for them, our reliance on them, raises the clear suspicion that followers are not so noble, not needed—that there is something demeaning about being a follower. In that view, leaders only rise by sinking others to subordinate roles.5
Of course, in an effective group, none of these suspicions make sense. Leaders and followers share ideas and opinions. They collaborate to achieve a common goal. Followers have a say about where they are being led. After all, without followers, there would be no one to lead.
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In Chapter 1, we identified the leadership???followership dialectic as significant to group success. We emphasized that effective leaders have the confidence to put their egos aside and bring out the leadership in others.6 Think of how many “ordinary” people came forward to take leadership roles during the horrific events of September 11, 2001. Office workers in the World Trade Center organized coworkers to carry injured colleagues down thousands of stairs. Local businesses worked cooperatively to provide food to workers during the rescue and recovery operation.7 Other businesses donated office space to companies whose operations had been destroyed when the towers collapsed.8 Despite the fact that Mayor Rudy Giuliani was widely credited and praised for his leadership during the crisis, there were hundreds of extraordinary followers doing what was needed to help the stricken New York City community recover from the emotional, physical, logistical, and financial shocks it suffered.
Becoming a Leader
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Anyone can become a leader. Abraham Lincoln, Harry S Truman, and Barack Obama rose from humble beginnings and hardship to become U.S. presidents. Corporate executives have worked their way up from the sales force and the secretarial pool to become chief executive officers.9
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Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, the son of an electrical supply shop owner, started his business career as a telephone cable splicer’s assistant.10
Brenda C. Barnes, CEO of Sara Lee (now retired), the daughter of a maintenance man, worked as a waitress, post office mail sorter, and clothing salesperson before becoming a manager at a sporting goods store.11
Oprah Winfrey, born to an unwed teenager and raised on her grandmother’s farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi, became a CEO and the richest self-made woman in the United States.12
The path to a leadership position can be as easy as being in the right place at the right time or being the only person willing to take on a difficult job. Becoming the leader of a group primarily occurs in one of two ways: being chosen to lead or naturally emerging as a leader.
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Designated Leaders
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A designated leader is selected by group members or by an outside authority. You may be hired for a job that gives you authority over others. You may be promoted or elected to a leadership position. You may be assigned to chair a special work team or subcommittee. In all these cases, the selection of the leader depends on an election or an appointment.
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Sometimes, less-than-deserving people are appointed or elected to powerful positions. Is it possible, then, for a designated leader to be an effective leader? Of course it is, particularly when a leader’s abilities match the needs of the group and its goal.
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Designated leaders face unique challenges. When a newly appointed leader enters a well-established group, there can be a long and difficult period of adjustment for everyone. One student described this difficult process as follows:
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For five summers, I worked as a counselor at a county day camp for underprivileged children. Anthony was our boss, and all of us liked him. We worked hard for Anthony because we knew he’d look the other way if we showed up late or left early on a Friday. As long as the kids were safe and supervised, he didn’t bother us. But when Anthony was promoted into management at the county government office, we got Tyler. The first few weeks were awful. Tyler would dock us if we were late. No one could leave early. He demanded that we come up with more activities for the kids. Weekend pool parties were banned. He even made us attend a counselors’ meeting every morning, rather than once every couple of weeks. But, in the end, most of us had to admit that Tyler was a better director. The camp did more for the kids, and that was the point.
When group members elect or appoint a leader from within a group, the problems can be as difficult as those faced by a leader from outside the group. If the person who once worked next to you becomes your boss, the adjustment can be problematic. Here, a business executive describes how difficult it was when she was promoted to vice president:
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When I was promoted, I became responsible for making decisions that affected my colleagues, many of whom were close friends. I was given the authority to approve projects, recommend salary increases, and grant promotions. Colleagues who had always been open and honest with me were more cautious and careful about what they said. I had to deny requests from people I cared about, while approving requests from colleagues with whom I often disagreed. Even though I was the same person, I was treated differently, and, as a result, I behaved differently.
Being plucked from a group in order to lead it can present problems because it changes the nature of your relationship with the other members of the group. Even though the members know you well, you still must earn their trust and respect as a leader. Here are three suggestions:
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Involve the group in decision making as much as possible.
Discuss ground rules for interactions with friends while assuring them of your continued friendship.
Openly and honestly address leadership concerns with group members and seek their help in resolving potential problems.13
Emergent Leaders
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Very often, the most effective leadership occurs when a leader emerges from a group rather than being promoted, elected, or appointed. The leaders of many political, religious, and community organizations emerge. An emergent leader gradually achieves leadership by interacting with group members and contributing to the achievement of the group’s goal. Leaders who emerge from within a group do not have to spend time learning about the group, its goals, and its norms. They also have some assurance that the group wants them to be its leader.
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Strategies for Becoming a Leader
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Although there is no method guaranteeing that you’ll emerge or be designated as a group’s leader, certain strategies can improve your chances. All of these strategies require a balanced approach that takes advantage of opportunities without abusing the privilege of leadership.
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Talk Early and Often (and Listen to Others).
Research shows that the person who speaks first and most often is more likely to emerge as the group’s leader.14 The number of contributions is even more important than the quality of those contributions. The quality of your contributions becomes more significant after you become a leader.
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The link between participation and leadership “is the most consistent finding in small group leadership research. Participation demonstrates both your motivation to lead and your commitment to the group.”15 Although talking early and often does not guarantee you a leadership position, failure to talk will keep you from being considered as a leader. Yet, don’t overdo it. If you talk too much, members may think that you are
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Ethics in Groups
Leadership Integrity
In his book on leadership, Andrew DuBrin makes the case that ethical leaders do “the right thing as perceived by a consensus of reasonable people.”16 Doing the right thing requires integrity.17 Such leaders honor their commitments and their promises. They practice what they preach, regardless of emotional or social pressure. For example, if a good friend in your group asks to chair a committee, and you’ve promised the position to someone with better skills, you should keep your promise even if it upsets your friend.
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Unethical leadership has enormous consequences, regardless of whether it affects a small study group or a global corporation. Unethical behavior has bankrupted companies, led to thousands of layoffs, exposed the unrestrained spending of self-centered corporate executives, and resulted in dangerous safety violations on off-shore oil-drilling rigs, at nuclear power plants, and in the contamination of the food we eat.
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The Center for Business Ethics at Bentley College poses five questions to help you decide whether your (or someone else’s) leadership behaviors are ethical or unethical:18
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Is it right? Do you conform to universally accepted principles of rightness and wrongness, such as “thou shalt not steal”?
Is it fair? Would you overlook a competent person in order to promote a less competent relative or friend?
Who gets hurt? Do you try to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people?
Would you be comfortable if the details of your decisions or actions were made public in the media or through email? What would you tell your child or a young relative to do in similar circumstances?
How does it smell? If a reasonable person with good common sense were to look at your decision or action, would it “smell” suspicious or bad to that person? Would it seem wrong?
Leadership can become an ego trip—or, even worse, a power trip. Warren Bennis and Joan Goldsmith use the metaphor of effective leadership as a stool with three legs—“ambition, competence, and integrity—[which] must remain in balance if the leader is to be a constructive force.” If one of these leadership legs is missing, the group may fall apart. A leader with too much ambition and/or not enough competence or integrity risks becoming a destructive force, pursuing selfish goals rather than goals that benefit the group.19
not interested in or willing to listen to their contributions. While it is important to talk, it is just as important to demonstrate your willingness and ability to listen.
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Know More (and Share What You Know).
Leaders often emerge or are appointed because they are seen as experts—people who know more about an important topic than others do. Even if a potential leader is simply able to explain ideas and information more clearly than other group members, that person may be perceived as knowing more.
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Groups need well-informed leaders, but they do not need know-it-alls. Know-it-alls see their own comments as most important; leaders value everyone’s contributions. Members who want to become leaders understand that they must demonstrate their expertise without intimidating other group members.
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Offer Your Opinion (and Welcome Disagreement).
When groups have difficulty making decisions or solving problems, they appreciate someone who offers good ideas and informed opinions. Members often emerge as leaders when they help a group out of some difficulty. Offering ideas and opinions, however, is not the same as having those ideas accepted. Because your opinions may conflict with those of other group members, use caution when discussing these differences. Criticizing the ideas and opinions of others may cause resentment and defensiveness. Bullying your way into a leadership position can backfire. If you are unwilling to listen to alternatives or collaborate with members, the group may not want to follow you.
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Remember This
Effective leaders welcome disagreement. They do not suppress conflict, they rise and face it.20
The strategies for becoming a leader are not necessarily the strategies needed for successful leadership. Although you may talk a lot, demonstrate superior knowledge, and assert your personal opinions in order to become a leader, you may find that the dialectic opposites—listening rather than talking, relying on the knowledge of others, and seeking a wide range of opinions—are equally necessary to succeed as a leader.
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Leadership and Power
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You cannot fully understand the dynamics of leadership unless you also understand the dynamics of power. In the context of group communication, power is the ability or authority to influence and motivate others. Leadership experts Warren Bennis and Bruce Nanus claim that power is “the quality without which leaders cannot lead.”21 In the hands of a just and wise leader, power is a positive force; in the hands of an unjust or foolish leader, power can be a destructive and corrupting force.
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Types of Leadership Power
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Many researchers study power and its relationship to group leadership. Here, we combine the work of two sets of researchers. John French and Bertram Raven classify power into five categories: reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, expert power, and referent power. Psychologists Gary Yukl and Cecilia Fable add three additional types of power: informational power, persuasive power, and charisma. Yukl and Fable note that if you combine French and Raven’s five categories with their three categories, you end up with two basic types of power,22 which we’ve named position power and personal power. Position power depends on a member’s job or status within an organization. Personal power stems from a member’s individual character, competencies, and earned status. Figure 5.1 on the next page lists the four types of power in each of these two categories.
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The Power of Power
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What kind of power is best? The answer depends on many factors, including the type of group, the situation or organization, member characteristics, and the group’s goal. For example, reward power works best in groups where the leader controls something members value. It is less effective when the so-called rewards are insignificant or trivial.
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Research examining French and Raven’s five categories of power concludes that reward power, legitimate power, and coercive power are the least effective. “They either have no influence or a negative influence both on how people act at work and on job satisfaction. Expert power and referent power tend to produce positive outcomes.”23
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In the extreme, highly coercive leaders can range from the “abusive tyrant, who bawls out and humiliates people, to the manipulative sociopath. Such leaders have an emotional impact a bit like the ‘dementors’ in the Harry Potter series, who ‘drain peace,
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Figure 5.1 Types of Power in Groups
hope, and happiness out of the air around them.’ At their worst, leaders who rely on coercive power have no idea how destructive they are—or they simply don’t care.”24
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On the other hand, coercive power can be “effective when those subject to this form of power are aware of expectations and are warned in advance about the penalties for failure to comply. Leaders using coercive power must consistently carry out threatened punishments.”25
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Contrast coercive power with referent power. Referent power is the personal power or influence held by people we like, admire, and respect. Referent power, as a form of personal power, is influential because it is recognized and conferred by the group rather than by an outside source.
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In most groups, a leader employs several kinds of power, depending on the needs of the group and the situation. Some leaders may have the power to reward, coerce, and persuade as well as having legitimate, expert, informational, referent, and charismatic power. In other groups, a leader may depend entirely on one type of power. The more power a leader has, the more carefully the use of power must be balanced with the needs of the group. If you exert too much power, your group may lose its energy and enthusiasm. If you don’t exert enough power, your group may flounder and fail.
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Leadership Theories
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In Leadership, Warren Bennis and Bruce Nanus point out that “no clear and unequivocal understanding exists as to what distinguishes leaders from non-leaders, and perhaps more important, what distinguishes effective leaders from ineffective leaders.”26 Despite inconclusive results from thousands of research studies, there
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Theory in Groups
The Evolution of Leadership Theory
Two early leadership theories have shaped the way many of us think about the people we elect, appoint, and look to as leaders. In 1841, Thomas Carlyle’s book On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic History led to what we now call Trait Leadership Theory.27 Trait Leadership Theory Often referred to as “The Great Man” theory, this theory is based on an assumption many people now reject—that leaders are born, not made. Trait Leadership Theory identifies and prescribes individual characteristics and behaviors needed for effective leadership.
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Think of the leaders you admire. What traits do they have? In his book Leadership, Andrew DuBrin identifies several personality traits that contribute to successful leadership: self-confidence, humility, trustworthiness, high tolerance of frustration, warmth, humor, enthusiasm, extroversion, assertiveness, emotional stability, adaptability, farsightedness, and openness to new experiences.28 Although most of us would gladly follow a leader with the qualities described by DuBrin, many effective leaders only exhibit a few of these traits. For example, Harriet Tubman, an illiterate runaway slave, did little talking but led hundreds of people from bondage in the South to freedom in the North. Bill Gates, an introverted computer geek, became one of the richest men on earth as head of Microsoft, a company that all but dictates how we use personal computers.
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At the same time and according to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®, a specific set of traits characterizes “life’s natural leaders.” These “extroverted thinkers” (the ENTJ types) use reasoning ability to control and direct those around them.29 They are usually enthusiastic, decisive, confident, organized, logical, and argumentative. They love to lead and can be excellent communicators. And although they often assume or win leadership positions, extroverted thinkers may not necessarily be effective leaders because they may intimidate or overpower others. They also may be insensitive to the personal feelings and needs of group members. Although many extroverted thinkers become leaders, they may need a less intense, more balanced approach in order to be effective leaders.
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Styles Leadership Theory As a way of expanding the trait approach to the study of leadership, Styles Leadership Theory groups specific leadership traits into distinct styles. Actors work in different styles—tough or gentle, comic or tragic. Different styles are attributed to leaders, too. Early attempts to describe different leadership styles yielded three categories that stretch across a continuum of leadership control. As shown in the figure below, autocratic leaders exert a great deal of control, democratic leaders employ a moderate amount of control, and laissez-faire leaders give up control.30
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Autocratic leaders seek power and authority by controlling the direction and outcome of group work. They make many of the group’s decisions, expect followers to obey orders, take personal credit for group success, and tend to use reward power and coercive power. Dr. Sandy Faber, a world-renowned astronomer, wrote about her experience leading a group of six astronomers who developed a new theory about the expansion of the universe. An unfortunate back injury made her take a new look at her leadership style. Rather than directing and controlling the group process, she had to lie on a portable cot when she met with the research team. She discovered leading a group from a cot is almost impossible. But from that position, she also learned a valuable lesson about leadership:
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It was the best thing that could have happened to us. The resultant power vacuum allowed each of us to quietly find our own best way to contribute. I now think that in small groups of able and motivated individuals, giving orders or setting up a well-defined hierarchy may generate more friction than it is designed to cure.31
Although many people assume that democratic leadership is always best, an autocratic style may be more effective under certain circumstances. During a serious crisis, there may not be enough time to discuss issues or consider the wishes of all members. In such cases, a group may be thankful when a leader takes control of the situation.
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Democratic leaders promote the interests of group members and practice social equality. As the name implies, democratic leaders behave quite differently than autocratic leaders. Democratic leaders share decision making with the group, promote collaboration, focus on both the task and group morale, give the group credit for success, and tend to rely on referent and expert power to motivate members.
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There are potential costs, however, to democratic leadership. By failing to take charge in a crisis or to curb a discussion when decisions need to be finalized, democratic leader

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