Human Behavior under the Education Administration - Essay Example

There is a belief that great leaders are born with the necessary skills that make them a good and efficient leader throughout their careers. People even go so far as to say that excellent leaders are those who prove to be role models for others because they embody all the traits and talents that allow them to be effective leaders. They use their influence within a group to inspire its members into achieving the goals and objectives that will eventually allow them to call themselves a success. Therefore, a good leader is, in my opinion, a person with a strong personality and transformative powers that help an organization achieve its pinnacles of success. I consider it a great honor to be a student of Ashlands Master of Education program because of the endless benefits that I have experienced ever since I participated in the program. The education I received at the hands of their able professors have allowed me achieve enriching personal experiences that have helped shape me into the future leader that I wish to become. I would like to mention my class in Human Behavior under the Education Administration course as being one of the most influential and eye-opening courses that I have taken due to its fascinating topics that helped me learn all about the history and formation of the leadership types that we have had throughout history all the way to the present. It is a class that has changed my perspective about leadership and has empowered me to design what I feel I should embody as a leader of the future. I wont lie. I am very thankful and happy that I took this course. Everything that I learned in class has taught me how to become a leader of principle, because a leader bound by principle is a leader who will be most effective when challenges or obstacles come their way. Starting a new organization will not be easy. That is I need to look at myself before I take on such a monumental undertaking. I need to understand who I truly am based upon where I come from and my beliefs. I need to ask myself if I am ready to defend those beliefs in relation to my actions because my beliefs and my actions should be as one and not as separate actions. Only when I truly understand myself will I be able to help my teachers understand who I am, what they can expect from me, and what I expect of them. Just like in any situation, first impressions are very important. I will only get one shot to make my teacher believe in me. So I better make the first meeting between us count. Ultimately, I am hoping to be able to inspire an motivate those who are looking to become leaders in their own ways in order to help promote a high rate of performance within my new organization. That is why I need to be acutely aware of the leadership characteristics and traits that I will be looking for in my employees. Although everyone is skilled at becoming a lower ranking leader in any situation, climbing the ranks is something else. Good leaders learn their skills either through academic training, work experience, or reading books whose theories can be exercised in their actual workplace. I have found that the book “Organizational Behavior in Education” is quite an inspiring and educational book. I would recommend it to others because I plan on using the book as the foundation of my personality based leadership skills because the book has taught me how to be empower myself using my own perspective. The first theory that struck me in the book was in relation to post structuralism philosophy. I learned that by providing my workers with a structured state in order to show them the direction that I plan to take the organization in. Once they learn to adapt to the way I run the organization, they will be able to meet my expectations. Then there is Follet Theory which explains that orders must be given to workers from the “top-down”. This displays the human relationship within an organization and allows for effective communication among its members. Without effective team communication, it will be difficult to find out who in the organization is not functioning as expected and that worker will find it hard to perform without being judged. This early, I would like to put this theory into practice by encouraging my teachers to communicate with me so that I can correct any mistakes I have and solve any problems that they see about me in class. In the real world though, I believe that I will be applying the Theory X and Theory Y for (McGregor) quite frequently. That is because as a leader, I should be able to influence my organizational culture depending how I see the needs of my company. It is of the utmost importance that I learn to discern the kind of leadership I have under me in the organization because a company functioning without a balance between theory X and Y will be on thin ice due to clashing leadership styles and low morality issues among workers. I expect my leadership to be a combination of the best qualities of Theory X and Y. That way I will leave myself open to all types of reviews from my teachers which will help enhance my work ethic. As a student, it will be my job to create a persona for my teachers that will entice them to help mold my talents and encourage responsibility on my part. By turning over my freedom and trust to my teachers, I will be able to see things from their perspective and thus be able to determine what went wrong in a certain situation and then take on the proper actions to fix it. Feedback is also very important in an organization. It is one of the best ways to determine leadership performance and problems. Feedback helps leaders understand human performance which in turn, helps them create a motivational strategy that will further inspire the leadership of the organization. It was Hawthorn Work who said workers engaged in organizational design will find their work having long term effects in terms of company visions, dreams, and employee empowerment. Workers who feel that they are a part of the organization will be valuable and worthy members of the organizational team. Therefore, when I step up to the front as the leader or my organization, I shall promote a different kind of leadership. One that is based upon shared decision-making that provides myself and my subordinate leaders a chance to do things far differently from the old-school leadership types. We will all learn from the past mistakes and create a new organization that will work far more effectively under new leadership. Perhaps that is why I have such a passionate vision for the school. Each terms is like coming into a new organizational culture with new professors at the helm of the team. It is my job as a low ranking leader to adapt and suggest changes whenever acceptable and possible to the leader of the group who in this case, is the professor. Ultimately, I see myself creating a new type of work environment. One that promotes growth and honest competition among my employees. I will not be a dictatorial leader. Rather, I will an open leader who is willing to support creativity among my rank and file employees and leaders while also helping to solve problems within the company. That is something that I can do once I truly understand a workers psychology by allowing them to help build a healthy work environment. I will be the one to challenge them to look at things from a different perspective and encourage them to work beyond a minimum effort in order to challenge themselves to attain more within the organization. Only then can I say that I understand the needs of my workers and acknowledge their needs as individuals, workers, and leaders. It is my firm belief that by changing an organizations leadership style, I will be leaving the world in a better state. This will not be a difficult task for me to do but I will need more time and a deeper understanding of human behavior in order to accomplish all that I know that I can accomplish. But first, I need to work on trusting, believing, and understanding myself as a person and then as a leader. Read More