web posters--leadership

In my entry today I'll blog about the web posters that focused on leadership and leadership-related issues. Kristle's web poster provides insight into classic and current views of organizational leadership. In reviewing the to do list for leaders, I was struck by how much we expect of them such as provide a vision, complete administrative tasks, manage employees, demonstrate empathy, and adapt to a changing environment. From my perspective, ideally leadership is shared, with multiple organization members stepping in to fulfill leadership functions that best suit individuals' particular knowledge bases and skill sets.

David's research provides a bridge between culture and leadership, exploring the effectiveness of various approaches to leadership in different cultures. This perspective is different from Hapa's, who was interested in leaders' roles in changing organizational culture. As David points out, the majority of leadership research has been conducted in the U.S. The research on leadership conducted outside the U.S. has revealed differences in what is expected of leaders, what it means to be a leader, and what is entailed in leadership. The paucity of research in cultural differences in organizational leadership suggests many avenues for future research.

BUS244 and Affan examined gender differences in verbal and nonverbal communication in the workplace. What I find most interesting about this research is the lack of significant differences between the two groups, especially when power is factored in. That is, differences often attributed to sex are better explained by status or how much power individuals are able to exercise in the organization. This web poster provides some insight into gender differences in leadership, which reside to a large extent on followers' expectations about how women and men should lead as well as leadership in general.

~ Professor Cyborg