leadership examination

Three of the following questions will be assigned to you as your mid-term examination.

Each question will be worth 33 points. Partial credit may be awarded based upon your answer.

 

You should use hospitality/tourism industry examples in your answers to illustrate your ideas.

These questions require thought and are not necessarily as easy as they seem.

Please be thorough, do not assume that I know what you are discussing.

 

In order to do well in these examinations it is imperative that you understand the following terms

and apply them appropriately:

 

1. Define – to identify the essential qualities or meaning, to make distinctly clear, detailed, to discover or set forth the meaning;

1. Discuss – to present in detail for examination, to talk about, implies an examination of possibilities especially by presenting pro and con;

1. Explain – to make plain and understandable, to give the reason for or the cause of, to show the logical development or relationship, to make clear that which is not immediately obvious.

1. Compare and contrast – pertaining to a written exercise about the similarities and differences between two or more people, places, or things

 

Answer all questions to the best of your ability. Your responses should be approximately

3 paragraphs/500 words.

 

 

1. Define “Leadership.” What is the relationship between leadership and communication? Explain how it exists in the hospitality industry.

 

2. Make a list of the characteristics of leaders and managers. Are your characteristics the same as those described by Kouzes, Posner, and Kotter? To clarify the differences between leaders and managers, describe someone who is an effective leader and then someone who is an effective manager. How do these two people differ?

 

3. Select one of your follower roles (student, employee, team member, etc.) and then select one of your leadership roles (team captain project group leader, coach). Consider the behaviors and qualities you appreciate or dislike in those who lead or follow you. What can you earn from those strengths and weaknesses that you can apply as a leader-follower? What conclusions can you draw about being and effective leader or follower?

 

4. In class we discussed your Willingness to Communicate (WTC) scores as well as your sub-scores. What factors make you reluctant to communicate in all situations or in particular contexts? What can you do to increase your willingness to communicate? What communication skills do you need to sharpen?

 

5. Define emotional intelligence. List and discuss the components of emotional intelligence. How does emotional intelligence apply to effective leadership, achieving leader and group objectives, and maintaining friendly group relations? Include in your discussion MMEO (the Multi-Level Model of Emotion in Organizations.

 

6. List and discuss the five skills of emotional competencies that skillfully blend feeling and thinking to achieve success as a follower and leader

 

7. Discuss the function of storytelling as it relates to leadership. According to Denning, what categories of stories can leaders use to assist in achieving their goals. Discuss each of these categories.

 

8. What constitutes “bad” leadership? List and discuss why leaders engage in destructive behavior, i.e, the causes or antecedents of bad leadership.

 

9. Define, compare and contrast democratic, authoritarian, and laissez-faire styles of leadership communication. Provide hospitality industry examples in your response.

 

10. List and explain Stech’s leadership communication distinctions between task and interpersonal leadership models using hospitality industry examples in your response.

 

11. Define and discuss the five plotted communication styles of Black and McCanse. Include hospitality industry examples to emphasize your points.

 

12. List, define, and discuss Kellerman’s Engaged Followers and their willingness to engage with their leaders and fellow followers.

 

13. List, define, and discuss Kelley’s concept of Exemplary Followership and his five categories of followers, how they respond to independent thinking and active engagement.

 

14. List and discuss national differences in leadership prototypes. Use hospitality industry examples to emphasize your point.

 

15. Make a list of the qualities that you believe are important for effective leadership. Compare your list with the communicative behaviors listed in Table 2.1, page 41 of your text. Do effective leaders seem to adopt one leadership communication style more than others?

 

16. Identify your follower communication style using the self-assessment questionnaire found in Box 2.6, Page 57 of your text. Why do you think you have adopted this style? What are your strengths and weaknesses as a follower? If you are not an exemplary follower, develop a strategy for becoming one. If you categorize yourself as exemplary, what can you do to become even more effective?

 

17. Define and discuss the information-processing perspective of communication styles. Why study leadership/followership?

 

18. Define what is meant by leadership traits, how was it first developed? Discuss leadership traits and how they contribute to effective leadership. Include a discussion of leadership traits that increase a leader’s effectiveness in hospitality industry situations. Are leaders born with these traits or can they be learned? Defend your position.

 

19. Define and describe the Path-Goal Theory of the Situational Approach to Leadership. List and discuss the four communication styles. Provide hospitality industry examples for each.

 

20. Compare and contrast two of the five primary approaches to leadership.

 

21. Define and describe the Traits Approach to leadership including the personal characteristics used in contemporary research.

 

22. Define and describe task-related roles and group building maintenance roles of the functional approach to leadership. How do individual roles impact these theories?

 

23. Define and describe leader-member exchange theory of the relational approach to leadership.

 

24. We discussed the LPC scale on page 79 of your text. Is your LPC score indicative of a task or relational orientation? Do you agree with Fiedler’s assertions? Defend your position.

 

25. Describe a time when you or someone you know became a leader by communicating like a leader. Identify the specific behaviors that led to you, or the person you observed, becoming the leader. What can you learn from the situation to apply to other leadership situations?

 

26. Complete the LMX scale on page 93 of your text. What factors contribute to your ratings on each of the items? What can you do to improve your relationship with this leader or follower?

 

27. Define and describe transactional and transformational leadership and the dimensions of each.

 

28. List, define and discuss the creative characteristics of transformational leadership.

 

29. Transformational leaders empower others. They require capable followers, encouraging What is required for followers to take ownership of their jobs? What is the relationship between empowerment and customer service?

 

30. Define and discuss the components of charisma based on the sociological approach.

 

31. Define and discuss the components of charisma based on the behavioral/attribution approach.

 

32. Define and discuss the components of charisma based on the communication approach.

 

33. Think of a time when you came up with a creative solution to a major problem. Analyze your problem-solving effort based on the four stages of the creative process identified by Wallas: preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. Did you experience each stage? Discuss each stage and which stage was most difficult for you. How can you overcome creative blocks and increase your flow of creative ideas in the future?

 

34. There are seven types of power discussed in class and in the text. Select four of the seven, define them and discuss the costs and benefits of each. Why did you select these four types of power?

 

35. List, describe and discuss the benefits of reducing power differentials.

 

36. List, define and discuss the components of the empowerment process.

 

37. Define and discuss the differences of powerful and powerless talk.

 

38. List, define, and discuss the components of the empowerment process.

 

39. Identify the sources of power you respond to most and least favorably. Analyze and discuss the differences.

 

40. Define and discuss constructive organizational politics. According to Kurchner-Hawkins and Miller what elements should we keep in mind regarding a positive political strategy to achieve our goals?

 

41. Evaluate and discuss your intrinsic task motivation as a student using the four factors described in chapter five of your text.

 

42. Identify the jobs/situations/or contexts in which you have felt most and least empowered as a follower. Compare and discuss your effectiveness in these two situations.

 

43. List, define and discuss the dimensions and challenges of credibility.

 

44. How do you build your credibility? Discuss the steps involved.

 

45. Conduct and discuss an emotional cost/benefit analysis when choosing a compliance-gaining strategy. What strategy is most likely to generate positive feelings for you amd the target of your request? Why? Defend your position.

 

46. List and discuss the constraints on organizational compliance seekers which are not present in the interpersonal context. Use hospitality industry examples in your discussion.

 

47. According to Yukl, what are the common managerial tactics? List and discuss them. What makes them more likely to be successful? Defend your position.

 

48. When is argumentation important? Why? When is it less effective? Why?

 

49. List and discuss differences in cooperative and competitive negotiation climates. Is one more effective than the other? Why or why not? Defend your position.

 

50. List, discuss, and critically analyze Cialdini’s tactics on