Sophia Bush is my favorite actress and inspiration. I fell in love with who she is and what she stands for when she aired as Brooke Davis on my favorite tv show One Tree Hill. Brooke Davis was a privileged girl who got herself into a bit of trouble throughout high school. She always had a passion for fashion and later in the series, she goes on to become this famous fashion designer who upholds health and beauty for woman. She creates this clothing line “Zero is not a size”. Little did actress Sophia Bush realize it would become an epic fashion style where girls and woman all over the world took to heart. The shows models for the clothing line were all “plus” size woman and Sophia used her acting skills to promote 
healthy body figures. She became an activist for anorexia and promoting healthy body images for young woman. Her “zero is not a size” clothing line in the show became real fashion for everyday girls and Sophia took the chance to join and fund charities for woman with eating disorders.Sophia Bush could be described as a Contingency leader. Contingency theory matches leaders to certain situations. Contingency theory states ones effectiveness is based on changing the situation (Northouse, 2013). This theory argues that situations are broken into three factors; leader-member relations, task structure, and position power. Leader-member relations are the degree of confidence, loyalty, and attraction followers feel for their leader (Northouse, 2013). The more positive followers feel to their leader, the stronger the connection. Task structure is how clear the requirements are, if the task is clearly stated, and followers know what is required of them. The path to accomplish the task should have few alternatives, task completion can be clearly demonstrated, and there is a limited number of correct solutions (Northhouse, 2013). Non-for-profit organizations usually have a very specific, clear mission and goal statements that leaders and followers uphold in hopes to accomplish a task. Sophia is apart of several of these organizations such as The Art of Elysium and Make A Wish foundation. The third factor, position power, is the legitimate power leaders have as a result of the position they hold in the organization (Northouse, 2013). Since Sophia pours a lot of her own money into these organizations, she has authority over decisions made and where the organization’s money is best utilized. People who are task motivated (they are concerned with reaching a goal) will be effective in both favorable and unfavorable situations (Northouse, 2013).
This theory was brought to my attention when Sophia Bush was outraged with Urban Outfitters for a clothing line they tried to promote and sell a few years back. Urban outfitters came out with a shirt that says “eat less” on it. Sophia had gained so many followers who joined and supported her causes after her “zero is not a size” clothing line came out. Sophia could be known as a contingency leader because she was efficient at influencing a change in an unfavorable situation. Bush took it upon herself to stand up for her followers when Urban Outfitters released this disgusting shirt. She vowed to boycott Urban Outfitters refusing to ever buy their clothes again and demanded a public apology and donations to charities. So many people followed her and starting blogging, tweeting, and writing articles of their own backing up Bush and her letter to Urban Outfitters CEO’s. Sophia was a leader in a good situation when she created her clothing line for “plus” size woman and was a good leader again when she declared war on UO. She has poured so much time, money, and energy into making a difference, she couldn’t resist standing up for her followers in the time of need. Bush had a strong support system from her followers, her goal she wanted to see accomplished was clear cut and dry, and her power to write to the CEO’s and have the clothing line removed is what adds to her ability to be an effective leader in certain situations.
Please enjoy this link to the letter Sophia wrote to the CEO’s of Urban Outfitters:
http://www.celebitchy.com/110117/sophia_bush_tells_urban_outfitters_to_go_shove_their_eat_less_t-shirt/
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
To your point, Sophia Bush’s leadership preference does indeed appear to align with that of a task-motivated leader in that it is evident from your description of her that she clearly has made it her life’s mission to champion causes related to positive body image. And, although it is clear from your discussion that she certainly has gained the trust and respect of many so to facilitate positive leader-member relations, and that her campaign to boycott the specialty retailer cited in your post and design of her own clothing line clearly demonstrate an incidence of high task structure that supports her goal, what isn’t necessarily quite clear is in your reflection that Bush’s position power is also considered strong.
According to Northouse (2013), position power is relative a formal ability to distribute rewards or punishment to followers. As her followers are those who support her cause and perhaps a few who work for her in the one venture you mention (although you don’t specifically mention that her followers work for her necessarily), it isn’t evident that she controls position power at all. Does she indeed have some degree of control over the rewards and punitive consequences of her followers in any regard? Nonetheless, even with a low existence of position power, Bush is squarely placed in what can be calculated as a Category 2 on the Contingency Model, an ideal situation for the low LPC leader, which you have consequently determined her to be.
Sources Cited
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage.
I enjoyed this post on Sophia Bush and learning about her; however, I’m not sure I would label her as a leader. Based on your examples, she is a good entrepreneur and philanthropist, but who are the followers that she leads? Her fans? I personally wouldn’t consider fans or admirers of a person as followers in the terms of leadership. Though she no doubt has the charismatic element to be a good leader, as most celebrities likely would, I don’t see her as in a leadership position based on your examples. Perhaps I am imagining a more traditional sense of leadership, but I wouldn’t consider a celebrity who only has the power of influence due to their fame as being a leader. She promotes and donates to certain charities and has a strongly voiced opinion and those can be very inspirational to others; but is she doing it for the purpose of a common goal along with her “followers” or are her “followers” just going along with it because she if famous? Its questions like this that make me wonder if she can really be considered a leader based on being a philanthropist and a celebrity.
I really enjoyed reading your post! I had no idea about this movement and I think it is absolutely despicable of Urban Outfitters to try to promote a message like “Eat less,” without having enough common sense to know the ramifications this has on girls and women in our society. Kudos to Sophia Bush for wanting to be part of a solution for making changes for how our society defines beauty and healthy body images. As a result of her actions, I would say that Sophia is also displaying transformational leadership because she is demonstrating charismatic behaviors that are motivating her followers to share and achieve her vision of promoting self-esteem and self-acceptance (PSU, 2014). This world is tough enough without having a t-shirt giving you a punch in the gut of your confidence. Thanks for sharing and I’m going to go check out the link you posted!
Pennsylvania State University. (2014, May 27). PSYCH485: Leadership in Work Settings. Retrieved June 28, 2014, from Lesson 10 : Transformational Leadership: https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/su14/psych485/001/content/10_lesson/printlesson.html