Literature of Leadership


	The Literature of Leadership


	An exploration of the hearts and minds of leaders and followers

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	Unit 2: Traits of Leaders


	In this unit, you will closely examine a variety of leaders, with the goal of developing a personal vision of what defining traits or attributes make leaders who they are. Often they are hero figures. Often, they are anti-heroes. You will see examples of leaders who did not think of themselves as leading -- but, thanks to their followers, they were thrust into leadership positions. Others scripted themselves as leaders in order to accomplish their vision.


	Reading from Required Texts Gorn, Elliot. Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America. 2001. Examine the ethical dilemmas, and the core issues involved in reform of any kind. Daft, The Leadership Experience: Chapters 5-10 Daft, R. L. The leadership experience. Mason, OH: Cengage South-Western. Reading from Online Texts Procedure for reading -- read quickly, for concepts rather than detail. Choose two or three to read more closely. Please think of ways that what is occurring in the text relates to a current contemporary situation, or a leadership / management issue that you have encountered or been aware of. Be sure to relate the reading to current historical & political issues as well. Guiding Questions Please use these questions as springboards for fruitful contemplation, and to help you with your papers. You may respond to the questions if you wish. If you prefer to address other issues regarding the readings and leadership, please feel free to do so. Based on the readings, what do you see as characteristics or defining traits found in most leaders? How can leaders fight for social reform and to build strong communities? How do leaders "package" themselves so that they are immediately identified as leaders? Do you ever consciously do this? Do you think that packaging is unnecessary, and that the innate qualities of the leader will automatically communicate themselves to leaders (even if the individual has bad communication skills?) What are the ways of communicating? Words, appearance, gestures, tone of voice, actions, symbols & other accompanying signs and meaning-filled aspects? How and where can a woman use a different approach to be effective, given that the people she needs to lead have specific ideas about gender roles? How and why do leaders "script" themselves? In the case of "scripting" a "hyper macho male," what are the signs, symbols, and narrative elements (myth, archetype, personality theories) that are employed in order to achieve the desired effect? What is it about a hero that makes people want to follow? What does following entail? Does the follower give up something, or does he/she in fact gain something in being a follower? Provide examples and explain the leader's role. How does the media tend to depict a leader? How do you know that a person is a leader when you are watching a movie or television? What are they wearing? Where are they? What are they doing?

Unit Learning Objectives:

Develop and explain a strategy for leadership given cultural and gender expectations and differences;

Explain the concept of charismatic leadership, its potentials and limits;

Describe how the media packages a person to be considered a hero, a leader, or both;

Explain the role of leadership to initiate and build strong communities.

Detail the psychological and personality theories that could explain the behaviors of leaders such as Mother Jones, "mad messiahs," dictatorships, self-sacrificing leaders and heroes.

List attributes of effective leaders.

Online Readings:
Hours of Opportunity, Volume 1
Lessons from Five Cities on Building Systems to Improve After-School, Summer School, and Other Out-of-School-Time Programs
by Susan J. Bodilly, Jennifer Sloan McCombs, Nate Orr, Ethan Scherer, Louay Constant, Daniel Gershwin
High-quality out-of-school-time (OST) programs have a positive effect on youth development, but many cities have found it difficult to address the challenges of expanding and improving the quality of programs offered to underserved and high-need students. In response, The Wallace Foundation sponsored an initiative to help five cities increase collaboration, access, quality, information sharing, and sustainability in their OST systems. The overall goals of the initiative were to increase access, improve quality, develop information systems for decisionmaking, and plan for financial stability.

Charismatic Leadership: Pro's, Con's, References, Dark Side

Extraordinary Governance and Non-Traditional Leadership
Over the course of the last two decades, three urban school districts--Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Orleans--have undertaken extraordinary systemic reform shaped by major changes to their governance structures and led by a non-traditional leader focused first on an operations-based strategy.

What Is Your Leadership Script?
The Script
"My life is a script" is a coined phrase used by one of my tech guys in regards to recent events with the software that I manage. This phrase stimulated my thinking in what is a life script and who is in charge of writing our scripts?

Subordinate Perception of Leadership Style and Power: A Cross-Cultural Investigation (Master's thesis -- good review of concepts)

References and Readings (check D2L):

Berger, P. and Luckmann, T. Society as a Human Product. In The Social Construction of Reality (1966).

Elms, Alan. (2004) Personality Theory: Theories I find most useful.

Erikson, E. Eight States of Human Development.

McAdams, D. P. (2001) When Bad Things Turn Good and Good Things Turn Bad: Sequences of Redemption and Contamination in Life Narrative and Their Relation to Psychosocial Adaptation in Midlife Adults and in Students. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, April 2001, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 474-485(12).

McAdams, D. P. et al (1996) Themes of Agency and Communion in Significant Autobiographical Scenes. Journal of Personality, Jun96, Vol. 64 Issue 2, p339, 39p, 4 charts (large file -- use fast connection if possible)

McAdams, D. P. (1993). The stories we live by: Personal myths and the making of the self. New York: Morrow.

McAdams, D. P. (2001). The psychology of life stories. Review of General Psychology, 5(2), 100-122.

Tomkins, S. S. (1978). Script theory: Differential magnification of affects. In H. E. Howe, & R. A. Dienstbier (Eds.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation (Vol. 26, pp. 201-236) Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Tomkins, S. S. (1981). The quest for primary motives. Biography and autobiography of an idea. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 306-329.

Tomkins, S. S. (1987). Script theory. In J. Aronoff, A. I. Rabin et al. (Eds.), The emergence of personality: Michigan State University-Henry A. Murray lectures in personality (pp. 147-216). New York: Springer Publishing Co.

Tomkins, S. S. (1988). Scripting the macho man: Hypermasculine socialization and enculturation. Journal of Sex Research, Vol 25(1), Feb 1988. pp. 60-84. (large file -- need fast connection)

Personology and the narrative interpretation of lives. Barresi, John; Juckes, Tim J.; Journal of Personality, Vol 65(3), Sep 1997. pp. 693-719. (large file -- need fast connection)