Classical Leadership Theory in Action:
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HistoricalLeadership.docxAttached is your Assignment One feedback and Grade Rubric. Note items highlighted in green are comments/clarifications, yellow indicates recommended revisions, and red indicates items recommended to delete. Be sure to see my summative comments on the last page.
Plato’s Philosophical Ideas and their Application in Business Leadership
In the book, The Republic, Plato demonstrates us several valuable lessons on leadership. The theme of leadership, especially for the modern business leader, is intensively and extensively covered in books one to ten of Plato’s The Republic. The leadership lessons on self-knowledge and ethics are vital in today’s business world than ever before (How so?). Some of the essential qualities of a good leader, as emphasized by Plato include controlled ego and self-knowledge (Bloom, 1968). He emphasized that people should be driven by ambition, and without it, leaders are not motivated to leave a legacy.(Where is this notion found in The Republic?) According to Plato, leaders who are ambitious-driven are inspired to leave a reputation that will be beneficial to others for many years to come (Did not Socrates note in the Ship of State analogy that the one’s best suited for leadership (philosophers) were not interested in leadership or power, but were more interested in the pursuit of truth?). Regarding this (unclear antecedent. Be precise. It is not clear what “this” refers to), today’s business leaders can borrow a leaf from his teaching and be ambitious in whatever interests they pursue. Ambitious business leaders build business empires or make decisions which live on for many years and benefit many (Tell how business leaders would do this. Be precise to avoid ambiguity).
Another valuable lesson from Plato’s The Republic is that a good leader is in possessiones of humility and self-knowledge (Bloom, 1968). These virtues allow such a leader to keep an open mind and make decisions aimed at benefitting the majority, not tmaking decisions which only help the leader to remain in power. Plato maintains that keeping one’s interests in control or integrating one’s self-interests with those of others is the biggest challenge in becoming a good leader (citation needed here). Good business leaders do not have to ignore their own interests, but rather check that their ego (Are there other self-interests in addition to ego to consider?) is under control and that he/she prioritizes the interests of those under him/her.
Plato also emphasizes the need for a good leader to keep an open mind and be welcominge to new ideas. Uncontrolled ego may result in self-destruction (Bloom, 1968 citation location?). This is quite (Avoid intensifiers in scholarly writing to maintain an objective voice) applicable to today’s business leader. Business leaders should know that they do not have a monopoly idea and that they should be ready to get valuable ideas from those that they lead. Everyone’s opinion should be valued.
Nagamani,
You selected Platonic notions that have tremendous potential for application in modern leadership.
However, there is a need to address several key areas to improve this paper.
There is a significant need for idea development and specificity. That is, you identify relevant notions from The Republic that could be applied by today’s educational leader. But you do not explain how they could be applied. Modern application suggestions or examples are not provided. Instead, the discussion of Plato’s notions end with a summary or restatement of his notion. Without deeper illustration or modern examples of application, the citations act as platitudes. Simply stating that modern leaders should possess humility and self-knowledge, and seek the good of all more than selfish interests is much too general and vague to be immediately useful or applicable. More specificity is required to be meaningful.
Be sure to provide citations for any ideas, paraphrased notions, and direct quotations. Use Stephanus numbers, Bekker numbers or page numbers to indicate the location of the quoted or paraphrased idea.
State your thesis in paragraph one (if not your first sentence). Be clear what argument you are making. Start with the end in mind. Know the key points you want the reader to take away from your work. In this case, you want to show how two to three key leadership notions from The Republic could be applied to modern educational leadership i.e.,humility, self-knowledge, focusing on the good of all. The connections between the notions and examples must be clearly stated not just implied.
These concerns can be readily addressed and improve your future work with your diligent effort and study of the highlighted corrections. Keep working and hang in there!
ASSINMENT 2
Question:
Scenario 2: A 150 year old private Christian (mostly liberal arts) university is on the verge of closing its doors. XYZ University’s President, Dr. Smith, has served for seven years and is a beloved alum of the university. Under his leadership, the institution has taken on massive debt and has withdrawn funds from its endowment at unsustainable levels to supplement the operating budget. President Smith has fostered a climate of unhealthy competition among his leadership team of six vice presidents – fierce hatred and competition existing among those officers. Each administrative department within the university is self-contained, with practically no interaction with the other departments. It has an endowment of 150 million dollars and an annual operating cost of 60 million dollars. It has a student enrollment of 2,000 undergrads and 1,500 graduate students, but enrollment has shown signs of stagnation and pockets of small declines over the past five years. Additionally, institutional markers for success have continued to decline which include, average ACT scores, average high school GPA, and university retention rates. The lack of growth has resulted in an increasing number of students who need developmental education courses. However, the Vice President for Academic Affairs has resisted the need to create a new developmental education program and instead, has asked each academic department to absorb this responsibility. Over the past six years, President Smith has embarked on a building campaign that has added seven new buildings, three of which are residence halls, three are math, science, and technical training buildings (STEM) with state of the art technology, and one is a new athletic facility. The residence halls are not at capacity and the enrollment of STEM majors has been slow to grow even with the new facilities and added faculty. Faculty morale in STEM related departments is high, but low among the rest of the faculty. Only the STEM faculty have received pay raises in the past five years. Older faculty and administrative staff members are upset at the starting pay for new hires as well as the number of adjuncts needed to teach the growing number of technical training classes. The Board of Trustees is split regarding the future of the institution. • A group within the Board of Trustees is wishing to close the doors of the school and turn the campus into an auxiliary of larger, nearby state school. • Another faction is fighting the president over his plans to build more and is pushing for fiscal responsibility. • A third faction wants to keep the doors open by doubling the enrollment and increasing the power of the school’s vice president to serve as a check against the president.
Classical Leadership Theory in Action
Introduction
According to the classical leadership philosophy (Which classical philosophy are you referencing here?), there are four key theories used to define the various types of leadership. They are behavioral theory, trait theory, transformational theory, and contingency theory (Need to cite source of this information). Under the trait theory, it is believed that leaders have various personal characteristics such as intelligence, charisma, determination, integrity, energy, sociability, and self-confidence among others (Citation needed). As opposed to trait theories, behavior theories of classical leadership focus on what leaders do but not who or what they are. There are two key dimensions under which behavioral leaders are categorized: people-oriented and task-oriented (Citation needed).
The contingency leadership theory asserts that there is no single way that an organization should be led ( How is contingincy theory related to ideas from Plato’s Republic?). Rather, the ideal course of action depends on the prevailing internal and external environment. Thus, leaders who embrace this type of leadership theory are quite flexible in the way they make decisions and act according to the environment in which an issue has arisen. In the transformational theory of leadership, a leader works together with his/her team or group to pinpoint the required change and developing a vision to direct the change in tandem with the commitment of group members. (What do the these theories have to do with Plato or other classical philosophers?)
(Transition needed here to link to previous paragraph) Using Classical Leadership Theories to fix the problem at XYZ University, one of the problems facing XYZ University is because of poor leadership that is concerning fund management. The institution has taken on massive debt and has withdrawn funds from its endowment at unsustainable levels to supplement the operating budget. This leadership issue can be solved using one or several of Plato’s suggestions. One of Plato’s arguments in The Republic is that one of the a key requirements of a good leader is that he/she should be well trained in mathematics or calculations (Bloom, 1968, 525b to 526c).
According to Plato, good training in calculations or mathematics is important since it may improves a leader’s logical reasoning (Avoid making absolute assertions unless quoting from an expert source). In the given scenario for XYZ University, there is a high likelihood that the leaders have poor mathematical skills, something that has led to them plunging the institution into debt. Further, the lack of excellent mathematical skills has forced the leadership to resort to withdrawing from its endowment funds to unsustainable levels to finance its operating budgets. (Could there be other possibilities for the poor management e.g., poor skills, carelessness, misplaced priorities?)
With this argument in mind, there is an urgent need for the university’s president, Dr. Smith, to enroll for some training in accounting or other similar skills that would enable him to manage the institution’s funds effectively (Would the university not have a finance department with a finance officer, accountants or bookkeepers?). Alternatively, Dr. Smith can choose to surround himself with people who are good at calculations and logical thinking. These would include seasoned accountants, economists, and mathematicians who can help him, and other leaders make strategic decisions regarding the university’s fund.
At the least, Dr. Smith should endeavor to have outstanding mathematical skills. It is also true that training in accounting or any other related skill concurrently improves other logical capabilities including Ergo (Meaning unclear?), and other understanding which is beyond solving the university’s money issues. Mathematical and analytical skills are important when formulating effective policies as well as suitable legislative measures. Thus, those in XYZ’s University management positions should have the ability to sift through and be able to prioritize certain decisions over others. To avoid wastage, Dr. Smith should have considered establishing a team that has the knowledge knows how to ascertain information from various sources before making such decisions as constructing new buildings. Such groups sources would include think-tanks, consultants, research institutes, and lobbyists.
In order tTo solve the fierce hatred and competition among his leadership team, especially the six vice presidents, Dr. Smith should apply the ideas suggested by transformational leadership theory (The sources for this assignment are limited to the classical texts listed on the syllabus). Here, the president should be focused on transforming these leaders by empowering and encouraging them to support each other and the university. In return, the six vice presidents will respond by feeling that their leader trusts, admires, respects, and is loyal to them. This (Unclear antecedent) would encourage them to develop respect for each other, and they will be more willing to work diligently and support each other rather than cultivating a culture of hatred and unnecessary competition among themselves.
Through transformational leadership (Need to show how transformational leadership is based on Platos’s philosophical notions), the president of XYZ University should be able to bring the six vice presidents together and work as a team to bring about the much-needed change in the institution. According to Plato, men who are in leadership positions or are seeking to be in such positions should always be open-minded and just in whatever they do with their colleagues. Using this idea (Dangling modifier. Use precise language), the six vice presidents at XYZ University would be able to avoid hatred and unnecessary competition and start working as a team. (This section does not apply classical notions from Plato’s Republic )
Being their leader, Dr. Smith has a great role to play to help his vice presidents work in tandem. He could do this by developing a vision that will guide them through motivation and implementation of the change in harmony with all the leaders (Should Dr. Smith create the vision all by himself or should he solicit input from others?). As a transformational leader, Dr. Smith should be able to inspire and enhance the work performance of his vice presidents while giving them encouragement to work as a team and not as competitors. Some of the mechanisms which he can use to achieve this include connecting their sense of self and identity to the university’s projects and to the organization’s mutual identity.
The president should always make an effort to be a role model for his juniors and use his rhetoric power to inspire them staff and to increase their interest in the institution’s projects develop a sense of teamwork. The university president should also challenge the six vice presidents to assume more ownership of the university. He should also endeavor to have a good understanding of their strengths as well as weaknesses. This (Unclear antecedent) would enable him to allocate tasks based upon member strengths to heighten their performance.
In the case scenario given, President Smith has embarked on a building campaign that has given rise to authorized the construction of seven more new buildings within the institution. This action is against one of Plato’s leadership principles as illustrated in his ship of state analogy. This principle argues that a person in the position of leadership should not have an inclination for desire to rule and have motives which may lead him/her to spend resources in an appropriate way appropriately (Citation needed). In Book VI of The Republic, Plato asserts that an effective leader should not have such a trait (Be specific here) (Bloom, 1968, Book VI). Smith’s decision to construct more buildings has led to wastage wasteful spending in the sense that residence halls are not to capacity. Further, the enrollment in math, science, and technical training majors has been slow to grow even with the new facilities and added faculty.
Plato envisages an ideal society as one in which people are incessantly witnessing evaluating the structure or the mechanism of the government which they have put into place. The government is persistently appraising their performance and rectifying where required so as to attain the highest success and contentment of the people (Who decides when and what to rectify?). Any leader must do the same in the system that he/she is leading. For instance, President Smith should review all the activities of the university and make changes where necessary in order to ensure that stakeholders benefit as they should conduct a needs assessment to determine leadership priorities. He can achieve this (What is “This”? Unclear antecedent. Be precise) by continually reviewing the performance and regulations of the environment and improve on the things which are not working properly.
In the ship of state allegory, which can be found at (488a-489d of The Republic), Plato likens the state’s population to a robust but myopic ship owner who lacks sufficient knowledge in seafaring. The sailors who disagree in the ship are compared to the politicians and demagogues while the ship’s captain is the philosopher (Bloom, 1968, 488a-489d) (Tell how the sailors are like politicians and demagogues). In the case of XYZ University, the conflicting sailors can be likened to the six vice presidents who are in constant competition and fierce hatred of each other.
Like the sailors, the six vice presidents should stop flattering themselves with assertions about their sailing knowledge even when they do not have any skills in navigation. The hatred and competition between the vice presidents are aimed at winning the trust and approval of the president. In the meantime, the sailors dismiss their captain as an inadequate navigator, irrespective of the fact that he is the only person qualified to guide the ship through its course. If the vice presidents embrace the lessons from this allegory, they will be able to have a better working relationship with the president, thus becoming more productive (How so? It is not enough to merely make an assertion without explanation or support).
In the same spirit, the board of trustees should not remain split,; rather, they should come together, cooperate and solve the issues facing the university. The institution should not be closed and converted into a campus of a nearby larger state school (Daisy chaining platitudes does not make a compelling argument. There must be explanation and compelling support). Again, this is another area where the university president should apply leadership skills proposed in classical leadership notions. For instance, he should apply traits reflect characteristics such as charisma, intelligence, energy, self-confidence, sociability, and energy among other characteristics to prove to the board of trustees that he has the capability to can lead the institution effectively.
For the section of the board of The trustees who wish to close the university have lost confidence in the president’s leadership decisions. For this reason, President Smith needs to use all the necessary his skills (Which skills? Tell what those skills are) to convince them that he is able (Able to what? Be specific). He can use rhetoric, (Do you mean Aristotle?) as suggested by Plato’s The Republic to convince them that the institution can continue operating efficiently (Bloom, 1968). For those who are fighting the president over his plans to build more and is pushing for fiscal responsibility, Smith can could approach them using transformational leadership theory (How is the modern idea of transformational leadership based on notions from Plato’s Republic?). Here, he should work together with them and ask them to identify what needs to be changed and suggest how the change should be implemented. He should challenge the group by reminding them that they have a collective responsibility to ensure that the institution’s projects are done effectively.
Conclusion
Classical leadership theories are described using four key terms: behavioral theory, trait theory, transformational theory, and contingency theory (How so?). These theories and some leadership concepts from Plato’s The Republic can be applied to various institutions to fix leadership issues (Too general to have meaningful implications. Be specific). One such institution is XYZ University, which is on the brink of collapsing due to leadership problems. Mismanagement of finances is one of the issues the university is facing. This (Unclear antecedent) can be solved if the institution’s management gets enough training in mathematics and calculations. Vice presidents are involved in an unnecessary tussle with each other, and the president does not seem to care. The top leadership can fix this by applying transformational leadership skills. It (What is “it”? Unclear antecedent) can be done by involving all the vice presidents when making key university decisions and showing them how they are an integral part of the institution’s mission. This technique can be used to unite the board of trustees and demonstrating the need for the university stakeholders to work in tandem.
Reference
Bloom, A. (1968). The Republic of Plato. New York City, New York: HarperCoWmsPublishers.
You made a valid connection to Plato’s notions from the ship of state to XYZ University scenario. You also identified areas of growth for President Smith.
To improve:
This assignment called for an application of classical philosophical notions from the texts listed on the course syllabus. You listed modern leadership theories (transformational, behavioral etc…) and did not explain how they are based on the classical notions. Be sure you complete the assignment according to the directions.
Avoid axiomatic statements without explanation. It is important to support your assertions and objective analysis with rigorous and specific explanations and cited support.
Be sure to support your recommendations and analysis with evidence (citations) and provide clear, thorough, and well-reasoned explanations. It is not enough to say, “Following the example of Plato’s “ship of state” allegory, the leadership of XYZ University can bring various departments together and make sure that they are working in harmony” (p. 6) without explaining how or why this task should be completed.
Be sure to study the highlighted feedback throughout this paper to strengthen your future work.
Avoid writing with unclear antecedents. Use precise language. Avoid ambiguity. That is, make sure it is clear to the reader what “this” or “it” or “they” are referencing.
Do not make absolute assertions unless quoting from an expert source.
Your work shows much potential. However, there is a need for focused practice and improvement. It is important that you can develop your ideas and provide robust explanation and support.
I am recommending that you sign-up for writing tutoring. Doing so, will prove to be very beneficial assuming you will be diligent and committed to strengthening these skills. Effective writing is essential for success in a doctoral program. I am confident, with a firm commitment and attention, you can improve the above concerns in short-order. Please contact the graduate education office to sign-up this week. I believe you will be glad you did. Persevere! Challenges are what makes one grow and improve.
