Leadership Style of Martin Luther King Jr - Essay Example

Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Name: Institution: Professor: Course: Date due: Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Executive summary This paper is on Martin Luther King Junior. It also shows leadership qualities of King junior and how people can use them. Martin’s leadership qualities include courage, empathy, having gaols, good speech making and hard work. These are some of the many leadership qualities of Martin Luther King Junior. There different methods organisations may use to help their employees get theses good leadership qualities that would help them at their workplace and even in their social lives. Some of the programs used include teambuilding, reward system and mentorship. In teambuilding, the workers have to work together on tasks that need cooperation from the other team members. This makes the members learn to work together and communicate. Organisations use the reward system to encourage workers not to lose their good leadership qualities. Mentorship on the other hand makes workers copy someone they respect and has good leadership qualities. The other methods include tuition assistance, job training and management training. Through these methods, leadership qualities are improved. Table of contents Introduction………………………………………………………............ 4 Performance evaluation…………………………………………….......... 6 Teambuilding……………………………………………………….......... 7 Organisational restructuring………………………………………............ 7 Reward system……………………………………………………............ 8 Tuition Assistance…………………………………………………........... 8 Job training………………………………………………………….......... 8 Mentorship…………………………………………………………........... 9 Principle of learning………………………………………………............ 9 Conclusion………………………………………………………….......... 10 References………………………………………………………….......... 12 Introduction Martin Luther King Junior was born on 15th January 1929. He was a prominent African American leader who is known for fighting for civil justice in America. He was the leader of the famous African-American Civil Rights Movement. He got his inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi. He is the one behind the famous speech; I have a dream, delivered in 1963. He is known as one of the best orators in American history. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the youngest people in the world to receive the Noble Peace Price in 1964 for fighting against racial segregation and discrimination. He is a graduate of Morehouse where he got a bachelor of art and a degree in sociology. He also got a degree in Divinity from Crozer Theological Seminary. He also worked as a priest for twenty-five years. King Jr. did not like making available the ways of the political party. Martin Luther King Junior fought for the power of black Americans and other disadvantaged Americans (Murphy, 2003.pg 326. His first issue was the economic gap between blacks and whites. He stated that justice was not enough to establish that difference down. In collaboration with the SCLZ, he organised for a campaign branded ‘Poor People’s Campaign’ in 1968. This campaign was aimed at addressing the issue of economic injustice. Martin Luther King Junior was assassinated on April the 4th 1968. This was when he was standing on his hotel balcony. His assassination made the whole country turn into riots. This vividly shows that the whole country loved and appreciated his efforts. As a result of all these experiences, he obtained many leadership qualities. His education level also helped him to be a better person and enhance these qualities. He had qualities such as: 1. Good speech making skills- With this skill, he was able to reach many both in his country and the rest of the world. This gave him an upper hand and made him more popular among the people. This ensured that people identify with him and his speeches. One of the most popular speeches he made was; I have a dream. 2. Courageous- He took a position that not many people would get. He addressed the issue of consistency among blacks and whites. He fought for economic justice for them too. He fought against racial discrimination and segregation. 3. Risk Taking- The rallies he conducted were extremely dangerous, but he still persisted. As mentioned earlier, not many people were willing to take it to fight for the right of everyone. 4. Visionary Leader- He had a vision to make America a better place for all races. From his speech, I have a dream; he had a vision of a country where everyone would be just. Race and religion would not be a problem. 5. Determined - He never gave up fighting for what he strongly believed. He held strongly to what he thought was right and fought towards achieving his goal. 6. Inspiring- Through his speeches, he inspired his audience to endure and fight for their rights. 7. Resilient- Considering the many times he was arrested one would expect that he would give up but he did not. He continued fighting despite the many arrests and attacks. These arrests and attacks strengthened Martin Luther King Jr. 8. Empathy- He saw how the black people suffered and empathised with them. This is what led him to fight for their rights. 9. Self-Confident- He used this feature well during his position as a leader and an activist group. He approached other leaders for help with the activist movement. 10. Transformer- Martin Luther King Junior was a transformer. His aim was to change the world to a better place for everyone despite his or her race or creed. Various methods are used to develop leadership qualities in people. These methods may be used to exploit or extend the qualities in people. The Human Resource Development (HRD) is a group aimed at improving the profession. This may be through trainings and analysis to improving the leadership qualities of people. Its main objective is to make the employees competitive in the international market. The trainings make the organisations and companies make their short term and long-term goals. The methods used to develop these qualities include: Performance Evaluation Performance evaluation involves judging the employees and seeing their efforts. This helps to identify the employees’ efforts and provide valuable information. The performance evaluation helps to improve the integrity and behaviour of the employees. This method could be used to make the workers to work harder. This method may be used to develop the value of hard work. This is because the evaluation may be done monthly or yearly. This method is used to keep the workers on their toes. Teambuilding Teamwork is one of the important qualities of a leader. An organisation may organise team building sessions that build the workers work together. Teambuilding helps the noble and presumptuous workers to see how to work together to accomplish tasks. The tasks should be put in such a way that people want to operate in teams, and they need to communicate effectively. Good communication skills are also prominent in a working area. Workers must learn to listen and talk and give the other members a chance to do the same. This would help them to work effectively because communication is also notable for a satisfactory working system. Teamwork helps to promote good qualities such as hard work, excellent communication skills and risk taking. Teamwork helps the workers appreciate everyone in the team and even their comments and contributions. It also helps to eliminate qualities such as pride, selfishness and lack of courage. Organisational Restructuring Organisational restructuring involves moving workers from one station to another. This helps the workers to know what their partners go through. This will help them learn to be patient with their colleagues (Sendjaya & Sarros, 2002.pg 53). They will also appreciate their friends’ efforts and fix them whenever they go wrong. Organisational restructuring is almost equivalent to job rotation. This helps them understand the principles of patience. Being patient is extremely beneficial because not everyone is as first. Through this, one will learn to apply patience. The strategy would also teach the workers appreciate everyone’s service no matter how small it is. Reward System Rewarding workers according to their work is necessary. Most companies have their parties usually at the end of the year to recognise the hardworking members and other fundamental values the workers may have exhibited throughout the year. This approach makes workers work harder and effectively with their colleagues (Ilies, Judge, & Wagner 2006, pg. 11). It improves the quality of the work because workers treat each other right. The reward makes the workers work as a group and thus improving teamwork. It is difficult to improve their quality of work. Tuition Assistance This involves taking interns for training to help them develop skills in their area of specialisation. They get trained to handle situations at workplaces. One of the most salient is communication skills. They also learn on team building. This also helps organisations spot and utilizes principled leaders. The tuition assistance helps organisations prepare for future leaders. This is through taking their workers for trainings that will help them become better leaders. The collaboration also helps improving on good qualities of workers and discouraging the contrite ones. This helps the workers have accomplished and creative leaders who in turn improve the efficiency of the organisation. Job Training Job training may be in form of in-service programs. This is where workers who left school a long time ago are trained to improve on their current knowledge. This helps them to obtain information on current affairs. It may also teach them or remind them on some of the essential qualities they should have. These qualities include communication skills, courage to face a job no matter how difficult it may look, how to set appropriate goals and how to resolve conflicts. This will give them an up to date time of tackling various issues in the organisation. Mentorship Mentors serve as guides to the people. They are like the point of reference. Mentors help people not to deviate from what they had planned. Using mentors is extremely significant because they would help someone develop outstanding leadership qualities. If they are trustworthy and have admirable qualities, the members would strive to be like them. This is an effective way of developing robust qualities in people. Leadership skills learnt through this form are hard work, trust, humility, courage, determination and resilience among many others. Principles of Learning Learning has quite a number of principles. These principles help the person teaching to know how to handle different situations. Some of the principles are: 1. Organising efforts- This aims at teaching the learners that putting result is crucial. The efforts can aid one attain high achievements. This section also involves learners to work together because the task may be challenging. This principle encourages teamwork. It also encourages one to think fast and make the right choices when faced with a challenge. 2. Clear expectation- This is where what the learner should learn by the end of the session is clearly stated elsewhere. It is where performance is the most noteworthy thing because remarkably many people are expecting a lot from the learner. This could be associated with preparation assistance. This is because the leaner in tuition assistance is expected to perform certain habits or qualities by the end of the session. Qualities learnt through this principle may be the same as the ones in the tuition assistance. They could also learn on setting goals and evaluate themselves for advancement. 3. Evaluation- This is a method used for self-evaluation. It also makes learners realise that they would be evaluated in their various fields of study. In the event, they continue to judge someone in an organisation; they discover that they should do it legally. Fair assessment creates a strong correlation between workers. Evaluation helps workers to see the value of hard work, which is particularly beneficial. 4. Recognition of accomplishment- This principle dictates that when one does a decent job, they should be recognised. This makes the workers for example to work hard. Recognition encourages people to put in maximum effort. This principle may be used to encourage hard work in people. It may also be used to support teamwork. 5. Self-management- This principle encourages learn how to manage their time among many other factors. Proper time management is an indispensable quality. It helps one to make proper use of their circumstances no matter how fast it is. This helps in virtue of the work. 6. Learning as apprenticeship- Apprenticeship is learning through copying or looking. This helps the learners to emulate the proper and desirable qualities of the person they are emulating. This idea gave rise to the mentorship process of developing leadership qualities. This may make learners understand how to be hardworking, courageous, risk takers, good communicators among many others. Conclusion In today’s society, everyone is a leader in his or her own way. Leadership qualities are vital for each person to exist because we are all leaders in independent capacities. These leadership qualities should be reinforced through different methods so that they are not lost. These methods include teambuilding, organisational restructuring, reward system and tuition assistance. The above-mentioned methods should be used effectively to reinforce behaviours such as hard working, exceptional communication skills, goal situation among many others. These qualities are necessary for any manager to manage effectively. Workers in an organisation should aim at getting the qualities for effectiveness. Martin Luther King Junior worked hard to make America a convenient place for all races. This was by fighting for justice among all Americas. His vision was to see America a home free of discrimination of any kind. References: Ilies, R., Judge, T., & Wagner, D. (2006). Making sense of motivational leadership: The trail from transformational leaders to motivated followers. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 13(1), 1-22. Pauchant, T. C. (2005). Integral leadership: A research proposal. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 18(3), 211-228. Sendjaya, S., & Sarros, J. C. (2002). Servant leadership: its origin, development, and application in organizations. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 9(2), 57-64. Piovanelli, P. (2005). Jesus’ charismatic authority: On the historical applicability of a sociological model. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 73(2), 395 Murphy, D. D. (2003). Understanding America: The Martin Luther King myth. Journal of Social, Political, and Economic Studies, 28(3), 325-327. Read More