Theories in Action – Part II

Coming off a week on vacation, I was not only rested, but also eager to return to the work that I’ve grown to enjoy. I have fun with my team, I am gaining great experience, and I actually feel like I am going “good” work for my home state. With that said, this week, unlike the rest of the summer, really only saw one of those aspects of my internship present: having fun. This past week was simply rather a slow one at work and there was very little for me to do. Since Connecticut holds its primary elections on August 14th, our campaign has slowed down its progress greatly. While our candidate is not getting primaried, my boss has taken on a new role with another campaign with the candidate in a tight primary. What that means for me and my work is it is little and without much supervision. Of course I am certain that many people would kill for this situation at work, but I find it to be rather boring and unfulfilling. With Primary Day coming so soon, my boss’s attention has shifted more and more towards his other duties. This reminds me of some theories of “bad” leadership discussed in our Theories & Models class.

Barbara Kellerman was our source for theories on “bad” leadership. She makes a distinction between unethical leadership and ineffective leadership. Kellerman says that unethical leadership means that the leader does not have the followers needs at the forefront, while ineffective leadership means that the leader failed to bring about the desired change. In my case, I believe that my leader (boss) is a great leader almost always. This last week seems to be his first string of “bad” leadership days. While my boss is not an unethical leader, this past week he has showed more ineffective leadership. Our tasks have not only been missed, but just completely ignored. Instead, I did more meaningless tasks instead of fulfilling work. Often, my boss is great; ethical and effective. This last week was simply not a good week for him and it was felt by the team. Kellerman also describes how how “people follow bad leaders to satisfy basic needs of protection, stability, simplicity, certainty. Group needs peace and cohesion, as well as someone to take on collective work.” (From class notes). While my team continues to follow him because he’s still obviously our boss, it seems we might be also slipping into this sort of blind followership if this bad week turns into a bad month into a bad quarter…