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Blog Post #5: Equality in a Workplace

November 20, 2023 by yvy5498

Yuki Yamashita

Dr. Hamel

PSYCH 485

November 20, 2023 (JST)

Blog Post 5: Equality in a Workplace

As is often the case with women, females are expected to do some housework, not a same or a similar job as men do although things are gradually changing in some places. In Japan, most people think that women should not complain about their husband when they do not chores; rather, many people think that women should still respect and thank their husband for working outside. They also say that if women are not satisfied with their husband, the females should have not got married in the first place while some people refute them. In this assignment, I would like to focus on a personal barrier to analyze dilemma women have about this issue.

Widely, women are thought to have time off from work to do better child-rearing and housework. According to course material, work-home conflict, which is about that women who are forced to give up for their career for family have fewer possibilities to have a better position in the workplace (The Pennsylvania State University). This means that women must choose either their family or career. This has become a social norm in Japan as well, and thus, many people can irresponsibly limit women’s options in life. Therefore, it is rational to say that overcoming this barrier first can help such people rethink about the women’s right to work instead of sacrificing their career for family which is something that men do not have to.

Reference

The Pennsylvania State University. (2023). Barriers [Lecture notes]. Canvas @ PSU. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2283258/modules/items/38927274

Blog Post 4

November 6, 2023 by yvy5498

Yuki Yamashita

Dr. Hamel

PSYCH485

November6, 2023 (JST)

Blog Post 4: Servant Leadership of a Great Leader

Learning about leadership in this course often reminds me of one peer of mine back in junior and senior high who always played a leadership role in any situations, ranging from a leader in a group allocated for a school trip to a school government. To be honest, I always wanted to be like her in terms of her leadership and her personality since she was so trustworthy and friendly that I relieved to see her in the same group as mine whenever I found her name on a members list of a group. Moreover, she was friendly to everyone, so a lot of students often voted for her to be the president of the school government committee two years straight. In this assignment, I would like to analyze why she was such a great leader, by referring to servant leadership.

One significant characteristic of hers as a leader was that she always listened to her followers, who were peers in the group even when a democratic decision making process ignored the minority’s perspectives or their needs and when she sometimes had no choice but to decline some people’s opinions. Whenever this happened, she tried to reflect the minority in other situations instead of asking them to put up with the fact that their opinions were not reflected. When someone wanted to visit a particular popular spot during the school trip but it turned out that they could not make it due to the location, for instance, she was afraid to say she had to decline the request while she asked the person what restaurant they wanted to visit so she would be able to be as inclusive as possible. According to Northouse, listening, empathy, and awareness are some of the most essential types of leadership (Northouse, 2021). To be more specific, Northouse says listening is a communication skill as a leader, empathy allows the leader to consider how their followers feel about the decision making process, and awareness is about a recognition of influence the leader has on their group and followers (Northouse, 2021). Associating these skills part of servant leadership, she demonstrated servant leadership by listening to her followers to prioritize them, taking the minority into consideration, and by comprehending how her decision-making process can affect her followers’ feelings. In this situation, it is rational to say that she had enough leadership skills to be fully trusted as a leader who can make everyone in group feel comfortable working with her.

As explained above, I always wanted to be like her in terms of leadership and her friendliness while I had no idea about how I could. Also, some people who seem to be a good leader but not trusted by everyone may leave some to be desired in some types of servant leadership. Thus, considering skills and types of leadership part of servant leadership helps such people and me to be a better leader by improving thyself first.

Reference

Northouse, P. G. (2021). Leadership: Theory and Practice (9th ed.). Sage Publications.

Blog Post 3: Team Leadership in an International Event

October 23, 2023 by yvy5498

Yuki Yamashita

Dr. Hamel

PSYCH 485

October 23, 2023 (JST)

Blog Post 3: Team Leadership in an International Event

One week ago, I joined an international event to discuss what is going on in international society, based on the content of some provided articles. In the event, there were four groups, and most participants were Japanese, while there were also Egyptian, Peruvian, and two Nigerian student assistants. The group I was assigned included one Peruvian student as an assistant, so I would like to analyze her leadership based on the course content.

In the event, the Peruvian student worked as an assistant/ leader to lead a discussion on what topic the group wanted to focus on, general thoughts and opinions about the topic of the article, any solutions for global leaders, and how the group members were going to give a subsequent presentation. One significant leadership the Peruvian student demonstrated is that she helped one of my Japanese peers in the group to share his opinion about the topic considering his introverted personality. In other words, the Peruvian leader showed amazing inclusiveness which is vital to be a leader.

Another leadership she demonstrated was seen when she was trying to assign group members some tasks to comprehend the article deeply and to determine who was going to oversee what part of the presentation. According to the course material, a leader should support their followers to make decisions, make plans, and achieve their goals as a group (The Pennsylvania). To apply this information to the real-world leadership situation, the Peruvian leader played an important role as a leader by helping a student so that he would be able to keep up with the discussion and still be part of the community.

In addition, her leadership included what the course material calls, creating a “positive climate” (The Pennsylvania). This is because she confirmed if the student who was likely to be left behind wanted to be in charge of a particular portion of the presentation so everyone, including the student, of course, was on the same page with one another in terms of the task allocation and the content of the work. If her leadership had not included this skill, the student would have felt isolated and would have not felt comfortable with active participation. Thus, her confirmation of the task allocation demonstrated her potential to be a leader.

As described in the paragraphs above, the international leader showed great leadership in terms of her supportiveness, task allocation, and the creation of a friendly environment. Thus, it is rational to say that the Peruvian leader is democratic and can often gain the support of her followers.

Reference

The Pennsylvania State University. (2023). Critical Functions of Team Leadership. [Lecture notes]. Canvas @ PSU. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2283258/modules/items/38927226.

Teachers as a Leader

October 2, 2023 by yvy5498

Yuki Yamashita

Dr. Hamel

PSYCH 485

October 2, 2023 (JST)

Teachers as a Leader

Learning about leadership, I often recall teachers in a classroom. As I have shared in this course, I played the role of a leader, called “class leader,” who was expected to ask classmates to be quiet as necessary, encourage students to submit all assignments on time, lead peers to be on time at every class, and to explain to a teacher why the class was not on time when they did not manage to get fully prepared before the bell rang when I was an elementary school student. Although I had a lot on my plate as a leader, it still seemed that the teacher was a kind of paramount leader of the class. I feel, however, that I did not get enough support from the “leader” when I worked as the leader. Thus, I would like to analyze the teacher’s leadership style in terms of behavior.

When it comes to being a class leader at the elementary school, I had a lot of difficulties in completing the tasks assigned to me as the leader since kids would not be quiet or would not hand in every assignment by the due date even if a teacher tells them to be abided by the rules. Since I was skeptical about the probability of successfully making peers obey the rule, and I did not make it, I always wanted some teachers’ help while almost all the teachers just focused on how to encourage students to obey the rules instead of supporting me or students who seemed to fail to be ideal in class so that everyone would be on the same page with the teacher about the class structure and the rules that everyone should follow.

Applying the teachers’ leadership style to one theory about leader behavior which is part of leadership style, the teachers seem to be directive. According to course material, the directing leadership style is that a leader directs their followers instead of being supportive (The Pennsylvania). Similarly, Northouse says that directing leaders often see a lack of supportive behavior (Northouse, 2022). In the situation where I did not conduct a brainstorming session with teachers to discuss the process for students to improve the quality of their academic journey, and rather, the teachers would often focus only on the result they want to get from kids’ improved performance and attitude during class, I am sure that their leadership style was directing which could sometimes be dictatorial.

I do not mean to criticize the teachers at that time since I now understand as a grown-up person that it is difficult to lead one class of around 30 kids to do ideal work both in class and outside of class. Thus, I should have thought about some possibilities of leadership styles I could have adopted so the blend of multiple kinds of leadership styles could work for teachers and kids.

Reference

Northouse, Peter G. (2022). Leadership: Theory and Practice (9^th ed., pp. 109-131). SAGE Publications, Inc.

The Pennsylvania State University. (2023). Leadership Style and Development Levels. [Lecture notes]. Canvas @ PSU. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2283258/modules/items/38927174

#1 Blog Post: Followership in a Choir

September 15, 2023 by yvy5498

So far in this course, leadership, trait, and followership have been covered. Each aspect determines what kind of people are appropriate to be a leader and what kind of support the leader needs to exercise their power as a leader. In this assignment, I would like to dissect followership by referring to my experience of being part of school choir when I was a junior and senior high school student in Japan.

In Japan, there is a culture where the older are likely to be a leader unlike in the US where people with skills tend to be a leader in a group. In this situation, it is quite natural to see that third-grade students in a junior high and sophomores in a high school play a role as a leader, sub-leader, and part leaders of soprano, mezzo, and alto. As a follower, I saw some students were against the leader of the choir because the leader’s instructions did not go well with what the students wanted to do for a concert. Applying what the course material says, it is rational to say that this situation sees some alienated followers for being a “negative energy” for the leader (Northouse, 2022).

At the same time, however, the members also demonstrated traits of exemplary followers. When I worked as a part leader of soprano, for instance, all members in this part practiced by themselves to learn the tunes of a compulsory song for a competition while I had not told them to remember the tunes but just to listen to other choir singing the song. Moreover, the choir members even shared their thoughts on the status quo of the members’ performance and vocal production to let me broaden my knowledge about what other skills are needed to create music with other part. In this situation, I would conclude that these amazing peers were exemplary followers who, according to Northouse, demonstrate active participation skills and share helpful criticism (Northouse, 2022). Therefore, my peers of soprano were exemplary followers when I was a part leader of this part.

As written above, one cannot deny the possibility that people can sometimes be exemplary followers and other times be alienated or other kinds of followers depending on situations. Hence, one clever way for a leader is to see what members or followers want to do to accomplish a shared goal instead of focusing on the leader’s own want and goals.

Reference

Northouse, Peter G. (2022). Leadership: Theory and Practice. (9th ed., pp. 352-383). Sage.