With such a wide range of cultures around the world and a plethora of individuals vying for leadership of these countries, the question is raised of what to do when your leaders fail to lead. Brazil is currently involved in a scandal of mammoth proportions. President Michel Temer is facing corruption charges (Lima & Iglesias, 2017), the previous president, Dilma Rousseff was impeached for violations of budget rules (Cuadros, 2017), and now, senior military leaders are threatening a coup.
In 1964, the Brazilian military threatened the same thing, and started a twenty-one-year dictatorship (Cuadros, 2017) which resulted in almost no change to the political atmosphere and culture of the country. Ask the people of Brazil, and they will say it was a time of order, and lawfulness. These feelings are likely to do with the lack of news and press at the time.
The current discussion of a coup by military leaders needs to be met with social learning as proposed by Albert Bandura (PSUWC, 2017). Through observing a successful country of similar cultural features, the leaders of Brazil need to focus on what needs to be changed, being able to retain that information, have the motivation to use the model, and to reproduce what has been done. Through these steps, Brazil has a much better chance of being successful without the use of a military coup.
Brazil has had a tenuous political history as of late, and without some kind of change, they are destined to stay on the path they’re on now. Through use of Bandura’s social learning process, I think they should be successful in turning the political climate around without the use of a military coup which has a poor track record. Military leaders need to be called on to show their leadership through their involvement with this process rather than being resistant to change.
References:
Cuadros, A. (2017) Open Talk of a Military Coup Unsettles Brazil. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/open-talk-of-a-military-coup-unsettles-brazil
Lima, M & Iglesias, S. (2017) Temer Is Brazil’s Most Unpopular Leader Ever, Poll Says. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-28/most-unpopular-leader-ever-in-brazil-is-temer-poll-shows
PSUWC (2017) Social Learning. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1867265/modules/items/22824731
Marci Anderson says
I really enjoyed reading your blog post, especially because I am doing my Global Leadership Paper on Brazil. I struggled to decide if the corruption that is evident in Brazil’s government should be the topic of my paper, and ultimately I decided to go with a different leadership issue in Brazil. So, I really enjoyed reading more on the topic. I particularly like your take on the solution to the corruption being Brazil adapting the Social Learning Theory described by Bandura. By applying the steps of social learning: attention, retention, motivation, and reproduction I think that you have very valid points of how this could benefit Brazil and their government. I wanted to expand on this thought: do you think that Brazil and the government within the country could benefit from the model for planned change that is described by Stein (1980) and consists of unfreezing behaving, changing, and refreezing? (as cited in Pennsylvania State University, 2017). I think that combining the steps of the Social Learning Theory as well as the model for planned change that is described by Stein (1980) Brazil’s government and culture overall would have all of the resources it needs to make necessary changes, and that the country would be on a fast track to improvement. However, I think that it would be necessary to adopt both of these models of change into their culture and government. Do you think only one or both are necessary? Overall really great post!!
References:
Pennsylvania State University. (2017). OLEAD-410: “Planned Change”. Retrieved at: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1867265/modules/items/22824733
Schein, E. H. (1980). Organizational psychology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.