Discussion Questions Read the following article to answer the discussion questio
ID: 365111 • Letter: D
Question
Discussion Questions
Read the following article to answer the discussion questions (link below).
Day, D. (1991). Adopting a Contingency Approach to One’s Leadership Style: From Cognitive Awareness to Actual Practice—As Easy As It Appears? Journal of Management Education, 15(3), 362-365.
“Adopting a contingency approach to one’s leadership style: From cognitive awareness to actual practice – as easy as it appears?”
Compare and contrast the experiences and takeaways of the author in the context of student discussions in an Organizational Behavior class with a more traditional organizational setting with a manager and employees. How might the experiences be similar and how might they be different given another context?
If you were in the role of an OB professor, what are some leadership behaviors you would demonstrate in order to generate a higher level and quality of student discussion?
Explanation / Answer
1.
The Author explains the difference in the level of response, attentiveness and motivation among the students of two different sections and makes a small experiment to emphasize upon the leadership style. As per the author, the leader (a professor in the classroom in this case) should quickly change the leadership style if it is not working. The best way is to analyze the situation or scenario as a part of cognitive awareness and applying the leadership that best suits to the scenario. It is the practicing of outcome of the cognitive awareness. It is termed as situational leadership style where the leader changes the approach, according to the behavior and the level of the audience. In contrast to the classroom scenario, in a traditional organizational setting, managers can still follow the transformational or a democratic leadership style upon the employees and get the desired result. Here, the employees are on a payroll, and are responsible for the follow up of instructions of the manager. Though, it is not the case for the author in the classroom. Students are desired to be attentive, but they cannot be forced. Hence, there is a quick need of change in leadership style. Situational leadership is required in a traditional setting when the manager wants to motivate the employees and responds to the issues of the employee. It is the example of situational leadership.
In a scenario where is communication is difficult, it will be good to follow the situational leadership and it will be similar either in organization or in the classroom. But, the traditional leadership style will work better in the traditional organizational setup than the classroom.
Therefore, a traditional organizational setting requires situational leadership, but less often than the author requires in the classroom.
2.
In a role of a professor in the classroom, my leadership strategy will be to engage students in activities that will be fun as well as learning for the students. It will make them more responsive. I will create a few small groups of students in the classroom and will discuss the cases. Each group will come with the solutions based upon the rationality. The best group will be appreciated. Further, I will create a virtual organizational scenario in the classroom (A demo or skid) and define roles to the students and students will behave as per the roles. It will make them understand the practicality of the organizational behavior and students will earn effectively. Moreover, they will now start responding sincerely in the class as they will get more value.