Good Leadership

¶ … Community The first question asks the author to provide an overview of community building practices as defined by the Kouzes and Posner text. The second question asks the author to identify three different cultures from countries than their own and how they establish and create a sense of community. The third question asks the author to give examples of leaders that are definitely or probably using Contingency Theory.

Fourth, the author needs to provide an example of a culturally diverse work team that the author worked in and how the author promoted cohesiveness in that team. Finally, the author is asked to suggest specific actions that can be taken to implement a tangible and effective leadership approach. Questions Answered As for how a sense of community and overall community building practices are best implement and effected, the main headers of the relevant Kouzes chapter tells the story.

In order, they are listed as celebrating accomplishments in public, provide social support and invest in fun. The further sections about getting personally involved, showing that one cares, spreading good stories and others are all good steps to take as well. The "cheer ticket" example regarding Sprint was a good example of this in motion. In short, accentuating and amplifying the good and minimizing the bad is the order of the day and keeping involved is necessary for things to go as planned and smoothly.

If any of the above is out of phase, then negative morale and emotions will set in and this will lead to poorer results (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). Regarding cultures that create communities of their own that are completely unlike the ones they otherwise inhabit on a grander scale, one need look no further than cities like Los Angeles or New York.

There are many different cultures that entrench themselves in American society while at the same time creating enclaves and areas that are collectives of like-minded people from the same area. For example, Chinatown would be an area in New York City that is teeming with Chinese people even though Chinese are a stark minority in the United States at large (NYC-Go, 2014).

Other examples would be business or residential districts that are predominantly inhabited, owned and controlled by a single race like Latinos (from one country or from the entire region), Pakistanis, Indians, Iranians and so forth. However, ethnic and racial differences do not always account for such enclaves as Muslims, Mormons and even some Christian groups tend to flock and settle together in one part of the country or another. For example, Salt Lake City has a very high Mormon population and the southern United States is full of Baptists.

The collection can be loose or tight-knit, but it is not hard to see trends and commonalties in a collective of people…one just needs to pay attention. Contingency theory is the next topic up for discussion. As forwarded and crafted by Galbraith in 1973, contingency theory is the idea that no single best way exists to organize and collect information and that all methods are differently effective based on the circumstances and particulars of a situation (Babson, 2014).

For example, a database of people in the United States can be organized or sorted based on any number of traits such as Social Security number, name, gender, place of birth, age and so on. Which trait is best can vary but there is generally no single answer that is "entirely" correct as arguments can be made for other outcomes and tactics.

As far as leaders that use such a mindset, any leader that is clearly open to things being done a different way, albeit not the detriment of deficiency and inequity of customer experience, would technically qualify as a contingency theory proponent. For example, if a tire shop owner personally prefers that the front tires of a car be done before the rear tiers but is not averse to someone else doing the rear ones first, that would be a contingency theory situation.

However, if they demanded and/or insisted that he should do it as should everyone else, that would NOT be a contingency theory proponent. As for a real-world example, any software-maker clearly has to be pro-contingency theory to some extent as there is often more than one way to do most things.

For example, it is clear that Microsoft bears this in mind as in programs like Microsoft Word or Microsoft Outlook, cutting and pasting something can be done at least three different ways such as CTRL-C, right-clicking a selected passage or using the menu bar.

Rather than have a single non-flexible way to do the function, they give the users the option to use any one of multiple methods and further customizations and shortcuts can sometimes be created by the user at their own discretion but they are not required or asked to do so (Microsoft, 2014).

As for the promotion of the cohesiveness of a team that the author of this report worked in, the author can give the example of a school project whereby the author was working in a group of four where two of the four people were ethnic minorities with very different backgrounds. In fact, one of the two was born in a foreign country and was fairly new to the United States, let alone the school system.

To facilitate that person's buy-in and involvement, the group collectively allowed and even encouraged that person to offer their insights and viewpoints as far as how the project could or should be completed and this led to the entire group jelling very well and producing a very well-rounded and though out final project. Finally, the author will now suggest certain actions that can be used to grease the proverbial skids of a diverse work team getting along together and how this can be manifested and enforced by a leader.

One huge thing is to encourage and allow people to get involved and contribute to the group. People that are shy should be allowed to offer their input and no one should be mocked or shun just because there is any sort of.