Chapter 1 of the
Obolensky text begins with a reflective exercise. Create a reflection blog that
responds to the questions asked in this exercise.
Additionally, while we live
in a world with more information about leadership and leadership practices why
is it that we have an apparent gap in the quality of our leaders and how do you
think we can close this gap?
As described in Obolensky
(2010,) the exercise contained three questions to reflect upon. I will answer
those questions individually.
Has my own attitude toward
leaders changed in my life, and if so how?
As I quickly reach the
middle of the fifth decade of my life on this planet. I find that as a leader and parent for that matter, the margin for
error is growing smaller and smaller. Much like I find myself looking for ways
to be a better parent and to learn from my parents’ mistakes/misgivings if you will.
I also look as a leader to learn from those same mistakes/misgivings that
others and I have made in the past. Naturally I look better myself based upon
those past discretion's and pray daily to be a better parent, leader and provider.
To answer the question fully
and with the latter statement in mind, I would say
that without a doubt, my attitude toward leaders has changed. I am no longer
tolerant to take them at their word and have always questioned authority
without reason. My use of critical thinking, trust but verify and general wariness of those whose use of
rhetoric on a continual basis puts themselves and their motives in question.
If we take as a starting
point the attitude to those in authority/leaders as held by your grand parents,
and then look at those attitudes held by your parents, and then by the younger
generation, is there a changing trend? If so, what is it?
Remembering that my
Grandparents grew-up and were products of the great depression and the
industrial era and two world wars, I would say their position toward authority
and leadership were like most during that time-frame to not question what was
transmitted to them by the various forms
of communication like movie theaters, radio, newspapers and eventually
television.
I recall my parents being
less lenient of authority and questioning it to the point of the on-set of
conflict, yet still demanding answers from public and private officials. My
supposition is simply communication was gaining momentum and the likelihood
that any official public or private could hide behind the facade of ignorance
on the part of their constituents were lessening as technology increased.
I am confident you can see
the trend of the likelihood to take things at face value lessening as
technology has increased making it more difficult for one to hide their
skeletons in the closet as we advance into my era and now that of my eleven
year old daughter. In-fact comparatively her critical thinking skills at eleven
and mine at eleven were not even in the same ballpark,
which is critical in today's fast paced world with predators on-line and in
society.
Why do you think that has
occurred?
As the generation of BABY
BOOMERS begin to come of age came of age, the '60s and '70s and the social
movements brought forth from that era has
brought new freedoms and complications from those new freedoms, individualism’s and responsibilities.
Some of this has been taken for granted; it is most likely for that reason that
more emphasis has been placed on leisure values vs. work ethics?
In today's multicultural
and global work environment, the work force is comprised of at least three
generations of individuals and groups such as “the Veterans (b. 1943-1960,) the
BABY BOOMERS (b. 1943-1960,) GENERATION Xers)
b. 1960-1980 and the NEXTERS (b. after 1980).
What does all this mean?
For starters, the generation gap is alive and well and at work in the work
place. Such a diverse and potentially volatile mixture of individuals and
groups could spell a recipe for disaster in the work place, including age
discrimination from several standpoints. When most
here the words age discrimination, think about the more senior and aged
workforce that is discriminated against. Not necessarily the case in all
circumstances, of course it does occur, like the age discrimination discussed
in Deyoe. Of the many strategies an organization might employ in addressing general conflict and
the generation gap, would involve rewriting a job description as a measure to
keep a Millennial from qualifying for a potential position. This method is
implemented simply to avoid dealing with the potential conflict of hiring a
Millennial (Deyoe, R. H., & Fox, T. L.,
2012).
References:
Obolensky, N. (2010). Complex
adaptive leadership. Burlington, VT: Gower Publishing Limited. DOI: www.gowerpublishing.com.
LaFollette, H. (2007). The
practice of ethics. Malden, MA: Wiley- Blackwell.
Baute, N. (2010, Mar 20).
Three generations, different values. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.
Eckenrode, V. (2002, June
23). Work place feels generation gap. The Augusta Chronicle (Georgia).
Retrieved from www.augustachronicle.com.
Deyoe, R.
H., & Fox, T. L. (2012). Identifying strategies to
minimize workplace conflict due to generational differences. Journal
of Behavioral Studies, 5, 1-17.
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