Running head: LEADER BIOGRAPHY ANALYSIS
Leader Biography Analysis: Group 4
Kate L. Kraynak
EDA6103: Leadership III Administrative Processes
Florida Atlantic University
Dr. Wright
Fall 2012
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LEADER BIOGRAPHY ANALYSIS
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Introduction
The leader biographies that will be assessed include Leader A (Dr. Manny) and Leader B
(Dr. Mary). Dr. Manny is a current adjunct instructor at the College of Education, and former
Vice President of Student Affairs. Dr. Mary is the Director of Student Retention, and former
teacher and instructor. Both leaders' experiences and approaches to leadership provide
invaluable insight into effective communication, employee motivation, problem-solving skills,
decision-making processes, and the inevitable conflict and negotiation. Each leader will be
evaluated according to these five themes, detailed in Osland, Kolb, Rubin, and Turner's (2007)
Organizational Behavior: An Experiential Approach.
Leader A (Dr. Manny)
Dr. Manny, former V.P. of student affairs at various institutions, often refers to his
background in sports as a primary leadership tool. He frequently uses terms like "team effort"
and "team player" throughout his interview with Lisa. This brings to mind equity theory and
expectancy theory in regard to motivation. Dr. Manny states that "You have to be fair to your
employees, respect your employees, gain input from them, and allow them to help. I got my
ideals from my mother. She always raised me to treat people fairly," (Byard, 2012). According
to equity theory, fairness is a strong motivator for employees, and an employee's perceived
unfairness can result in either decreased performance or justified over-rewarding. An employee's
contribution is evaluated by the employee in relation to what they receive, and if Dr. Manny is
ensuring that fairness and team effort are encouraged, people will likely feel that their
contributions matter. Furthermore, Dr. Manny's emphasis on seeking others input and allowing
others to help plays into expectancy theory. According to expectancy theory, the connection
between effort and performance result in positive or negative rewards, but if an employee is not
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sure if they will receive credit, respect, or tangible rewards, they will not put in much effort. Dr.
Manny makes sure to include others in work, and makes sure to incorporate others' input rather
than simply seeking it. Direct input from employees increases performance and effort in the long
run, creating a motivating environment for the "team" (Osland, Kolb, Rubin, & Turner, 2007).
Dr. Manny's description of his communication style is one that is very straightforward.
He tells us that "The person you are at work is the same person you are at home. You have to be
a person of you word." This statement directly describes the theory of "The Johari Window" in
that "The more we know ourselves and allow others to know us, the greater the potential for
effective communication," (Osland et al., 2007, p. 226). His open style alludes to a sense of
transparency and straight-forward style of communication that he probably values as effective
communication tools in leadership.
Decision making for Dr. Manny appears to again play off of his emphasis on team
cohesion and effort. According to the leader-participation model, "[the] quality of the decision
relates to how wise, well-reasoned, and sound it is," (Osland et al., 2007, p. 472). Dr. Manny's
remark that "[you] have to do your research before you make decisions" highlights this step in
the decision-making process, along with his approach to deciding whether to fire someone or not.
He mentions that he has had to let people go "...because their presence begins to infect the
group." His decision-making process in this regard is strongly driven by a team approach, and
letting someone go is a result of negative effects on other team members.
Dr. Manny probably addresses conflict from a collective point of view, as opposed to
individualism in the individualism-collectivism dimension. He most likely tackles conflict when
it becomes dysfunctional (according to Brown), and "prevents achievement of organizational
goals, increases anxiety, absenteeism, and turnover," (Osland et al., 2007). However, through
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approaching employees through a fully team model, it may be that an intergroup is formed, and
ethnocentrism is at risk of occurring, as they did in Muzafer and Sherif's "Robber's Cave"
(Osland et al., 2007). Too much of a focus on team dynamics may leave new or different
employees feeling left out or lost in finding ways to fit in with an established "team."
While Dr. Manny does not specifically delve into his problem solving processes, it is
likely that he frequently adopts the role of coordinator and leader, in that he emphasizes
participation, goals and values (Osland et al., 2007). Dr. Manny also stringently approaches
problem solving as "a social process," which is one of the three main premises of the art.
Finally, he asserts that effective leaders must be good problem solvers, which he defines as
"adept and efficient."
Leader B (Dr. Mary)
Dr. Mary, current Director of Student Retention, explicitly discusses ways in which she
motivates her employees. She focuses on team-building, competition, and positive incentives
like parties and gift cards. Parties and gift cards are certainly operant conditioning through
reinforcing desired behavior, as described in Skinner's Reinforcement Theory (Osland et al.,
2007, p. 111). Group activities and parties also satisfy employees' need for affiliation (close
interpersonal relationships), and the collaboration and competition promote achievement
(through goal accomplishment). Both are primary needs according to McClelland's need theory.
McClelland states that different people have different levels of need for each need (affiliation,
power, and achievement), and Dr. Mary's group activities help satisfy each individual's level of
desire for a particular need (Osland et al., 2007).
It appears that Dr. Mary values effective communication highly in that she listens to her
employees when their work is suffering, and allows them opportunities to explain their situation.
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It is likely that Dr. Mary practices active listening during these times, through nonverbal cues,
non-evaluative language, and reflecting underlying feelings. Through assessing employees'
performance and discussing plans for improvement, Dr. Mary emphasizes and practices effective
communication.
Dr. Mary's decision-making can probably be described through the lens of prioritizing.
She mentions that she feels "helpless" when she is unable to help every student or employee, and
that lesson had been a difficult one for her to learn. It is quite possible that Dr. Mary's decisionmaking processes go through a stage of prioritizing, which likely includes maximizing the
effectiveness of that decision so that it may help as many people as possible and in the best way
possible. She likely travels through the linear four stages of decision making: situation analysis
("What is the most important problem"), problem analysis, solution analysis, and implementation
analysis (Osland et al., 2007).
Although conflict negotiation isn't explicitly addressed by Dr. Mary, it appears that she
values a combination of collective and individual dimensions, in that she focuses on individual
expectations, but also on the individual's effect on others. She also mentions that she promotes
competition among her employees, which may create conflict through a power-struggle, but also
promotes collaboration. Ideally, through ongoing exercises in competition and collaboration,
employees benefit from both while learning to work together even in competitive situations
(Osland et al., 2007).
Problem solving seems to be a part of everyday life for many leaders, and Dr. Mary is no
exception. She is constantly working with students, employees, and student-employees to
overcome their own problems, she says, and tries to give employees "...a chance to explain their
situation and ...multiple opportunities to fix their mistakes and/or improve their work
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performance." One student in particular was unable to attend tutoring sessions, and she worked
with others to ensure that he received tutoring. She played all of the facilitator roles in problem
solving in both situations: leader (identifying goals), detective (gathering information), inventor
(generating ideas and testing), and coordinator (developing participation). Dr. Mary had to work
with others (coordinate) in order to solve the problems for others, as well as spend time gathering
information and ideas from others and about what is possible to help as much as she could.