Essential Psychology for Managers - Case Study Example

Essential psychology for Managers Managers are required to adapt to the challenges that occur in the world, however, in case one leader lacks authentic leadership skills, conflict resolution skills and adequate communication skill, then his/her team will not deliver the required results. Changes are inevitable, and Harlem Fire Department ability to adapt to the challenges that occurred when fire broke Cotton club tested the professionalism of the department manager during a very despairing moment. Cotton Club is a famous for jazz music, and is located at Harlem. Harlem is one the most New York’s neighborhood characterized with many social problems. However, despite the challenges, the manager proved to be leader since he was able triumph over the challenges of the time. The leadership, leadership skills, conflict resolution skills and adequate communication skill, skills fire fighting department manager displays the uncertainties and risks that leaders goes through in daily operations while making efforts to achieve their preset goals. Through manager and his team achieving their goals that display how people work to towards self-actualization. This essay will focus on analysis of the Cotton Club Scenario and make use of theoretical approaches which will include, trait approach, behavioral approach and situational approach. The essay will demonstrate how the three approaches were depicted in the interactions between the managers, employees and the conflicting groups. It was during one of the life Jazz performances by a number of international Jazz artists at Cotton Club when the fans got excited and the security personnel could not manage them. Though the club is mainly dominated by African American, there was an equal proportion of white who were fast becoming fan of Jazz music. Issues of racism dominated the club. Jazz until recently, jazz music was considered as an African American music. During the show, the blacks started to charge against the whites. Since the whites had bloated ego, they resisted being intimidated by the blacks because the former considered themselves a superior race. The tow fiery opposite’s sides began to fight against each other. The whites were out shadowed and began to run for safety out the club. During fight, several people had been fatally injured. The whites gathered outside Cotton Club while the African American remained inside the club. Each group was deriving a scheme on how to revenge against the other. The whites looked more organized while the blacks argued on how to attack the whites who had access to crude weapons. The only way the African Americans could overcome the whites was through charging them randomly because they did not have any weapon inside the club. The whites began to through homemade petrol bombs inside Cotton Club. Within a short duration the whole club was filled with smoke and fire. The blacks were busy escaping through the emergency doors while the club’s security team was busy fighting the fire. The fire fighters were making their way in the scene. However, they faced many challenges along the way. Harlem fire department is located 110 New Street at Buford. The fire fighting team is predominantly black with a few whites. . There challenges that the fire fighting management faced included communicating effectively with the team, analyzing the scene and making the correct decision, assigning tasks, and ensuring that they achieve their objective of saving the investment. The unique management skills of the manager were attributed to successful control of the fire His personal skills like being cooperative, decisive, great tolerance of stress, integrity, adaptable to different conditions, self-confidence, among others motivated his team ufntil they were rescued in August. The authentic leadership skill skills can be analyzed broadly to comprise of behavioral approach, trait approach, power to influence approach, integrative approach, and situational approach (Mendenhall, 2008, pp. 2-143) The manger has several authentic strategies that are vital in a leader. These strategies are critical when making decision in times of major catastrophes like the case of Cotton Club fire. The manager was able to recognize what to do, when to act, how to do, and the talented person to implement the strategy. Among the authentic leadership skills that the manager has is having a goal and working relentlessly towards achieving the goal. The main objective was to ensure that everyone was safely evacuated and save the club. He remained energetic while encouraging then to overcome all the obstacles in order to increase their chances of survival. In efforts to inspire them, he stays positive through all his actions, and that enables them to win every short-term victory against the series of challenges. Analysis of The Cotton Club using Behavioural Approach, Trait Approach and Situational Approach Behavioral approach, The behaviorist approach describes personality in terms of observable behavior, without considering what is going on inside a person. Skinner proposed that the habits that people develop and exhibit are based on previous experiences especially on the rewards of the behaviors (Baron, Branscombe & Byrne 2008). In relation to the fire situation, the behaviors demonstrated by the manager and the employees could have been as a result of previous experiences. For example, fire fighters who make sacrifices and manage to save situations receive awards an promotions. Therefore, some of the employees could have acted diligently since they expected to be rewarded. This is referred to as reinforcement by reward. Moreover, the manager repeatedly appreciated the performance of the firefighters throughout the process. Therefore, the dedication demonstrated could be associated with the desire to be appreciated, which is a form of reward (Hofmann & Jones 2005). The behavioral approach sugest that better understanding of human behaviors such as conflict, expectations, motivation and goup dynamics is crucial and enables individuals to manage groups.Employees are considered resources or assets that can be developed. Therefore, managers are required the have the ability to understand and work with people from varyind diversity in terms of backgrounds, perceptions, aspirations and needs. The above diversities were all evident in the fire situation. The different employees had different perceptions toward the danger of participating into the firefighting activity. Some might have been scare at first. However, the manager understood the varying perception and provided the appropriate motivation. From the episode, the role of communication, group dynamics, and leadership was emphasized. The behavioral approach asserts that it is important to view members of an organization as human resources and involve them in the activities such as decision making other than viewing them as passive tools(Baron, Branscombe & Byrne 2008). This was evident in the fire episode where the firefighter were at times allowed to use their own perception to decide on the next move. This was crucial since they were able to achieve more as they did not have to rely on the manager’s advice fully. The advantages of the behaviorist approach is that it acknowledges the effect the environment or situation may have on people’s behaviors. The disadvantage of the behaviorist approach is its failure to explain the difference in behaviors of people with similar backgrounds. Moreover, the approach fails to acknowledge the existence of self. In respect to the Cotton Club situation, the behaviorist approach would addres the behaviors of the two conflicting groups in terms of the environment which was characterized by tension. Moreover, the approach cannot be used to evaluate an individual’s personality (Baron, Branscombe & Byrne 2008). Trait Approach The trait approach argues that there are certain consistent traits that underlie our personality and behaviors, some of which apply to all or most people. For example while dealing with the fire, all the Harlem Fire Department fire fighters demonstrate some similar traits such as persistence since they all remained active even when the fire was almost out of control. Additionally, the manager was persistent and motivated his team to keep fighting. Persistence in manager is important since it acts as a source of motivation to the subordinates and other employees. Another similarity in behavior was evident in the two conflicting groups, especially the whites. They were able to plot their attack which resulted in the fire. Since none of the whites or black attempted to prevent the members of the conflicting groups demonstrates the truthfulness in the argument that traits are innate. Moreover, the innateness in traits was depicted by the desire of the firefighters to stop the fire since the trait of sacrificing for others is in them (Hofmann & Jones 2005). There are advantage of using the trait approach in analyzing the above situation. This is because the model insist on comparing one person with another. Therefore, it become esier to predict the behavior of a person across a range of different situations. The Harlem Fire Department manager appeared to have great understanding of the trait approach. While he delegated duties, he was able to identify the employees who would be persistent enough to perform the different tasks. Moreover, he knew the persons who would work together effectively without conflicting and accorded them roles that required team work. Some situations require decisiveness and the manger knew the people to perform such tasks. Although quite a number of fire fighters were injured, they managed to deal with the situation appropriately (Baron, Branscombe & Byrne 2008). However, there is a disadvantage of using the trait approach while analyzing the fire situation. This is because the approach some people may not fir into the model. Moreover, it ignores the effect of temporary situational factors on the personality. Using the trait approach to analyze the above fire situation might lead to grouping the conflicting groups as racist since they were involved in the conflict. However, some people from either group might have responded the way they did due to temporary situational factors. For example, someone amongst the white might have knocked down another from the black group not because the former is violent but could have it in self-defense. It would thus be wrong to assume that all the individuals behaved the way they did because of their personality as the trait approach suggests (Hofmann & Jones 2005). Social Influence approach According to the theory of social influence, imagined pressure can result into change in behavior, belief, or both towards a group norm. In the episode describe above, it was out of imagined pressure that the fire episode arose. The whites imagined that they were better than the blacks and decided to challenge them, irrespective of the later being more in number. Moreover, the decision to use petrol bombs was more of a resultant from pressure. Normative king of social influence was evident since some of the individuals could have participated in the conflict to avoid disapproval of others. The normative approach asserts that participants are less likely to make mistakes while on their own. In our example, the two conflictin groups were less likely to conflict if they were not in groups. However, being together resulted in behavioral change by some individuals (Hofmann & Jones 2005). The application of compliance concept was evident from the dedication of the firefighters to put off the fire. The firefighters were acting in accordance with a direct request from their manager. Recommendations based on theories Based on the theory of situational approach, the power of group conformity can be reduced by making the participants understand the need for their own identity. For example, the Cotton Club is known to have encouraged racism by preventing mixing of black and whites. This enhance the power of conformity. It is thus recommendable that organizations accept diversity of personality or perspectives to prevent change in behaviours arising from the need to be accepted. Since people are likely to look at the actions of others to guide their own actions, leaders are supposed to have good character. For example, the owners of the club lacked a good leader to identify the possible conflicts that would arise from the racial segregation encouraged by the club management. As evident from the case, social forces are capable of leading people to commit destructive acts. In the same way social forces are capable of leading people to commit constructive acts. Therefore, managers are important since employees are likely to obey their commands. Managers should thus have good traits and personality to influence people positively. Works Cited Baron, R.A, Branscombe, N.R & Byrne, D 2008, Social Psychology (12th ed), London, Pearson. Hofmann, D. A & Jones, L.M 2005, Leadership, Collective Personality and Performance, Journal of Applied Psychology, 90 (3), 509-522. Mendenhall, M E, 2008, Global Leadership: Research, Practice, and Development, Taylor & Francis, New York. Read More