Public Leadership and Diversity
Delores Blango
Dr. Derrick Tinsley
Strayer University
PAD 515
February 15, 2020
Public Leadership and Diversity
Defining a Public Leader
A public leader is an individual that is tasked with role of leading the people while holding a public office. The key responsibilities of public leaders include guiding the community towards change, recognizing the needs within his or her society and helping in the development of solutions (Tummers & Knies, 2016). A good example of a public leader is the mayor, who usually serves a municipality. What is more, is that a public leader also has the responsibility of ensuring that public value is increased. However, in defining a public leadership, one should consider that it includes the collaboration between different agencies and the public, which is set towards attaining specific goals.
In the example of a mayor as a public leader, there are certain duties that this individual is expected to perform. Working with the mayor, one notices that this leader has executive power, whereby he manages the administrative power. The mayor can appoint the heads of department depending on what must be done to ensure that continued improvement is attained. Additionally, the major protects the interests of the followers, whereby he considers the changes necessary in the different departs in his municipality and ensures that changes are enforced. Research indicates that public leaders should be able to think differently and be able to guide the team members towards successful attainment of set goals.
Overview of Public Leaders
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King can be considered as a public leader, mostly because of his efforts towards ensuring that the needs of his society (the African Americans) were met. Martin considered the problems that were there such as discrimination against the blacks and realized that there was the need to course a revolution. Additionally, in his efforts, he aimed towards that the future generation found a better community in which everyone was treated as equals in the United States. For this reason, Luther King opted to come up with civil rights movements to aid in the attainment of his motives and to encourage the people to follow him.
Martin Luther King used certain leadership traits, styles and theories that are attributed to successful public leaders. One of these traits is that a public leader ought to be intelligent. Martin portrayed intelligence in that he realized that violence and force would not help him achieve his goals (Northouse, 2016). Therefore, he considered using boycotts and convincing power to encourage the people in his community to join him in creating the civil rights movement. Additionally, self-confidence is an important factor, because when a leaders believes in his strategies, it becomes easy for the followers to believe that the methods suggested by the leader will work.
Transformational leadership was the key theory utilized by Luther King. This leader recognized that the community required change and for this to happen, there was need for a leader that would make things happen. The key concept behind this theory is usually to attain collective good, which can be seen in the work that was done by Martin Luther King (Yusuf & Kurniady, 2020). In this case, the community needed equal treatment of all person, which remained his main motivating factor.
Winnie Madikizela Mandela
Winnie was the wife to the former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. She can be considered as a good example of a public leader due to the efforts that she engaged in towards ensuring that the people survived the apartheid era. As a leader, Winnie understood the need for being selfless and helping people, which could help improve the conditions within the society. for this reason, she participated in social work and attained success whereby she volunteered in hospitals.
Winnie Mandela used situational leadership styles. She understands that every situation is unique and, therefore, must have a tailored solution. For instance, when the South African government issued passbooks for black women, Winnie joined forces with other women to protest this move (Eynon, 2017). On the other hand, with increased HIV cases in the country, she took to activism, whereby she made numerous donations to help her government deal with the problem.
Changes in the I990’s
The 1990s marked an era of peace and prosperity in most countries. While the rest of the world was celebrating the end of cold war and increased socialization from the invention of the internet, South Africa marked history by emerging from years of apartheid. In south Africa, the period marked the end of apartheid, which resulted in great changes in the social and government organization and structure. The period marked a new social era in which racial segregation came to an end in the region. The blacks were no longer considered as the inferior race, they were allowed to enjoy equal rights as the whites who had colonized them and marginalized them for years. Additionally, whites and blacks were allowed to mingle and intermarry without any social or legal backlash as was the case prior to the 1990s. Governmental changes that occurred in the country were the end of the dictatorial regime and the creation of a democratic government (Evans, 2017). In 1990, president F.W de Klerk released Nelson Mandela and democratic election were later announced.
The government changed in structure and leadership during the 1990s as Mandela became the president and a government formed by both blacks and whites was created. Similar to the rest of the world wars that involved the government fighting local groups or communism came to an end during the period. Most governments around the world saw a transition from cold war and active war to a period of peace and a stable government. As was the case in South Africa, most of the government settled and ruled through a period of peace and prosperity.
Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and F.W. de Klerk played the roles of a leader, peace-maker, and unifier in enabling change, recognizing diversity, and leading courageously. The three leaders worked played the role of a leader by mobilizing the people to engage in reconciliation and avoid violence in their quest for freedom. Although part of the ruling government, Klerk played an active role in attaining change in South Africa by releasing Mandela and announcing multiracial democratic elections. Mandela and Tutu actively sought change by unifying the people and pushing for a peaceful transition in the government for all the people to be included. In doing so, all the leaders were courageous and helped the people realize diversity and a positive attribute among the society.
Gender Diversity
Gender diversity in the workplace has increased in the modern era as the society has realized women as equals. Women are no longer marginalized and have helped organization equally as men, which has led to a change in the attitude of the society towards women and their increased number in organizations (Fritz & van Knippenberg, 2019). Currently, there is a significant percentage of women in managerial positions, which shows a change in attitude in the society about women. Additionally, change in cultural norms has helped to increase the participation of women in the workplace and being elected as departmental and business leaders. If a leader of another was to be elected as my new leader the benefits would include new opportunities, new learning opportunities, and new ways of doing business. The disadvantage would be that it would be difficult to interact with the leader in the short-run.
Key Strength
A key strength that would influence my ability as a public leader is the ability to commit to projects undertaken. Regardless of any difficulties experienced, I normally do not loose hope and will put more efforts to ensure that goals are met.
References
Evans, G. (2017). Commonwealth Diplomacy and the End of Apartheid. The Round Table, 106(1), 61-69
Eynon, D. E. (2017). Before the End of Apartheid. In Women, Economic Development, and Higher Education (pp. 35-64). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Fritz, C., & van Knippenberg, D. (2019). Gender and Leadership Aspiration: Supervisor Gender, Support, and Job Control. Applied Psychology.
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Tummers, L., & Knies, E. (2016). Measuring public leadership: Developing scales for four key public leadership roles. Public Administration, 94(2), 433-451.
Yusuf, M. A., & Kurniady, D. A. (2020, February). The Implementation of Transformational Leadership: Makes Effectiveness Organizational Culture. In 3rd International Conference on Research of Educational Administration and Management (ICREAM 2019) (pp. 330-332). Atlantis Press.