Constructing a Cooperative Community in Education Essay

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Constructing a Cooperative Community in Education

In a drama film "12 angry men" of 1957, one can draw some vital lessons that can help manage a community as well as an organization. The film explores various techniques on consensus building, and the difficulties a person encounters when managing a large number of people. When managing a large number of individuals, one cannot escape the fact that there is a variation of personalities to control. The film centers on an 18-year-old boy accused of stabbing his father to death. The judge in the case informs the jury that a guilty verdict will include a mandatory death sentence. The team of jurors retires to a private room before proclaiming their verdict.

They take a vote on the case, and majority members of the team have already taken a guilty stand except juror 8. However, the vote of juror 8 annoys other jurors since they harbor personal prejudices. From the group, one can see exceptional cases on personality of the jurors. One of the juror's wishes to visit a baseball match another has fixed prejudice about people living in the slums where the accused boy come from. This film tries to put into perspective on how difficult it is to build consensus. The film brings into picture how it was difficult for the jurors to reach at one decision. From this story, one has to realize that it is not only in the court where consensus building is hard to reach.

Influence of Henry Fonda Representation

Henry Fonda who represents juror 8 in the film is the only person with the opposing vote. Fonda's argument and stand may shape organizational leaders in a challenging situation. From his representation, one can see that he went beyond personal prejudices and challenged the case with facts. From their deliberation, one sees that he was able to convince all other jurors that the boy was not guilty. He first had to change their personality and their perspective on the case. This case is applicable on modern organizations. Modern organizations are either governmental, profit or non-profit centered. These organizations operate from an external environment and internal environment. However, one might want to recognize that the environment keeps on changing from time to time. This, therefore, means that individuals' personality as well as the culture changes proportionately (Johnson, 2012). These sudden changes have an effect on organizations that might necessitate crisis decision making. Crisis decision making necessitates ethical considerations, but one gets the impression that unethical decisions come into play in crisis management. Just like a surviving human the organization sometime, have to implement unethical decisions to survive in the competitive market.

Henry Fonda further proves to the reader that a good leader may transform an organization to success. It was his leadership characteristics and the way he managed his emotions that made other jurors see facts of the case. In an organization, Leadership is critical in promoting employees performance towards goals (Kouzes & Posner, 2011). The leaders should be emotionally intelligent and able to influence groups of individuals. The leader needs to balance employees' personalities, power struggles and their divergent views of the world. This is not only true for organizations it also boils down to communities, nations, and even diverse groups on people. There need to be a leader to facilitate cooperation and capacity building, despite diverse personality and other factors.

Additionally, organizations need to consider organizational ethicality and culture. These two perspectives are essential in encouraging responsible decision making. Ethics in an organization is a crucial aspect that measures the performance. Organizations, which follow ethical standards, perform as required by law. These organizations build their reputation with their customers and the public. However, personality of employees has a role to play in attaining ethical standards. Their personality relates to their culture, communication, and public relation skills.

Factors influencing decision-making

For ethical decision making in organizations, there are diverse factors for one to consider. These factors relates to the personality of individuals, the ability of leaders to foster ethical standards and the structure of organizations. The structure of the organization represents communication channels, on systems where ethical issues are accepted. Ethical communication systems assist organizations' heads communicate with the internal and external publics. Leaders in an organization have a responsibility to give counsel to employees and offer training on ethics. The leaders also promote good public relations and ethical conscience in organizations. Therefore, organizations' management task is to formulate policy and offer counseling to a broader audience.

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These audiences not only represent employees but also include members of the public (Kouzes & Posner, 2011). Culture is crucial in the management of organizations. Culture affects behaviors as well emotional stability of individuals or the public. Therefore, this means that culture affects the potential and sustainability of organizations.

Communication

Organization communication and culture relate inseparably in organizations. They both have mutual representation in the sense that, communication is the means by which culture reaches other members. These mean that, an organization needs to have a good communication system to make it necessary for better management of processes and attitudes. The communication structure of the organization relates to the channel where the organization communicates with the public or within their hierarchical ranks. Communication relates to two cultural perspectives; the Authoritarian and the participative culture (Bowen, 2004). These two aspects relates to the communication channel of an organization in that, Authoritarian perspective to culture in organization looks at the internal processes.

These processes, fosters mechanical structures within the organization. Participative form of culture, on the other hand, relates to the communication channels that include members of the public. Participative form of culture and communication proves the best option for any organization. This approach fosters communication from the highest level in the organization, as well as interactions with all stakeholders of a firm. However, for participative culture in an organization, leaders need to have skills in order to include employees in decision-making (Johnson, 2007). They need to be able to engage in ethical analysis and on how to counsel dominant groups in organizations. The field for consideration for these managers is on personality traits of individuals. According to studies by McGregor 1960, individuals are classified into two personality perspectives. These are theory Y, and theory X McGregor argues that individuals are either optimistic or pessimistic. These personality characteristics hinder ethical decisions in organizations to some extent (Bowen, 2004). This therefore means that management teams have to be skilled in analyzing personality of individuals and encourage innovation. However, this cannot be true if there is an ineffective communication channel.

Leadership and their influence in organizations and community

Leadership in organizations is important in the management of processes and influencing customers and other stakeholders. Leaders need to be poses innate and trained skills that promote performance. However, leaders have diverse leadership styles, which include authoritarian, charismatic, or democratic styles. The beneficial aspect of leadership styles in organizations is to motivate followers, assist in performance, shape behavior, and promote the organization and public interactions (Cha & Edmondson, 2006). Considering charismatic leaders, one need to point out that, charismatic leadership is the heart to modern management practices.

A charismatic leader implements and compel organization's vision, generate followers enthusiasm, connects followers to goals and other values. The leader also provides solutions and identifies new opportunities for the organization. A charismatic leader differs from other leaders in respect to his ideals and ways of motivating. This leader influence followers' behavior and attitudes by evoking higher ideals in respect to organizations goals and vision. Therefore, charismatic leaders need to identify the individual's identities and core values, a crucial element to self-concept (Cha & Edmondson, 2006). This however, depends on the effectiveness of the communication system in the organization. Values of an organization on a community and its workforce depend on internal and external structures of communication. Good hierarchical communication ensures problem reporting, which translates to ethics.

Ethics in Times of Crisis

Due to the nature of modern organizations, there are many challenges that organizations face. The competitive environment, individual and organizational factors affect the ethical standards of any organization. Demands from governments, members of the public, customers, and other influences make it hard for organizations to manage their processes. These influences together with personality characteristics of employees need skilled managers. Leaders need to ensure that organizations remain ethical even in cases of ruin. With sudden changes and competition in today's market organizations stand a chance of failing. Failures have an effect on stress levels of individuals that may contribute to unethical activities. Therefore, the management team needs to develop strategic ethical standards to manage crisis (Christensen & Kohls, 2003).

Groups Practices that Minimize Rivalry

In relation to the film 12 angry men, there are other aspects, which foster group cohesion and relation. In a community rivalry ends when people love one another, and there is peace. Organizations, on the other hand, face challenges due to rivalry. This form of rivalry is.....

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