PSYC 405 Week 8 DB Forum 6 Example

Discussion Board Forum 6: Thread and Two Replies

PSYC 405 Group Dynamics, Discussion Board Forum 6 (thread and two replies)

Thread by [Student Name]

The prompt and the classmates' posts are composites standing in for the course's own forum; the textbook, Scripture and journal articles are real and described from their published sources; the requirements follow Liberty's public course guide for PSYC 405.

Thread

At my church, two leaders shape how volunteers experience ministry. Our senior pastor casts a vision that makes people want to be part of something larger, and attendance at volunteer meetings rises when he speaks. Our ministry coordinator rarely speaks to the whole church, but she checks on each volunteer, removes obstacles before they become problems and makes sure no one burns out. Volunteers stay longest on her teams.

Forsyth (2017) treats leadership as a process of guiding, coordinating and motivating others toward shared goals, one in which followers grant the leader influence rather than simply obeying a title. The pastor fits transformational leadership, which inspires followers to look beyond their own interests. The coordinator looks more like what researchers call servant leadership, in which the leader's first question is what each person on the team must have to grow and do good work.

Judge and Piccolo (2004) gathered 87 published and unpublished sources, yielding 626 correlations, to compare the major styles. Transformational leadership showed an overall validity of .44 with outcomes such as follower satisfaction and leader effectiveness. Surprisingly, contingent reward, a transactional style in which leaders reward followers for meeting expectations, came close at .39 and was even stronger for some outcomes. Leaders who stepped back and let things drift, the hands-off pattern called laissez-faire, showed a correlation of -.37, a reminder that the most damaging style may be no style at all.

Hoch et al. (2018) asked whether three newer, morally focused styles tell us anything new. Measures of ethical and authentic leadership tracked transformational leadership so closely that, once it was counted, they predicted little more. Servant leadership was different; across the nine workplace outcomes the authors tested, it added predictive power of its own, which suggests it captures something the older model misses.

When the disciples argued over rank, Jesus answered that the one who wants to be first must take the place of a servant, as he himself came to serve (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Mark 10:43-45). Our coordinator lives that pattern, and the research suggests it is not only faithful but effective.

Classmates: which style did your research group's leader use, and how did it affect the group?

Reply to Aaliyah

Aaliyah, I was also surprised that contingent reward did so well in Judge and Piccolo (2004). Your example of your research group's leader setting clear deadlines and thanking each member publicly when sections arrived shows why. Clear expectations followed by recognition give members a reason to deliver and a sense that their work is noticed. Forsyth (2017) notes that transactional leadership is often dismissed as less inspiring, yet for a short project with defined tasks, it may be exactly what a group needs. The meta-analysis also found that transformational and contingent reward leadership were strongly correlated, at .80, so good leaders may simply do both.

Reply to Jordan

Jordan, you wondered whether servant leaders can make hard decisions, such as removing a volunteer who repeatedly misses commitments. I think the answer depends on what service means. Hoch et al. (2018) describe servant leadership as focused on followers' development, which is not the same as avoiding conflict. Serving a team can require protecting it from a member who undermines its work. Forsyth (2017) adds that effective leaders adjust to the situation, so a leader who usually supports can still act firmly when a group's goals are at stake. Our coordinator once reassigned a volunteer kindly but clearly, and the team respected her more for it.

References

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Forsyth, D. R. (2017). Group dynamics (7th ed.). Cengage.

Hoch, J. E., Bommer, W. H., Dulebohn, J. H., & Wu, D. (2018). Do ethical, authentic, and servant leadership explain variance above and beyond transformational leadership? A meta-analysis. Journal of Management, 44(2), 501-529. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206316665461

Judge, T. A., & Piccolo, R. F. (2004). Transformational and transactional leadership: A meta-analytic test of their relative validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(5), 755-768. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.5.755