For this blog I decided to discuss Sojourner Truth as an unelected leader. Although, she is no longer living and the context of this blog is from past history, I do believe it is very relevant to some of our class theories. For a brief biography of Sojourner please follow this link: http://www.sojournertruth.org/Library/Archive/LegacyOfFaith.htm. Sojourner Truth was an African American woman living in New York City as a slave and as a free woman when it was later emancipated. Sojourner was not a very intelligent individual and she had no experience in public speaking or politics. Yet, she found the courage to join feminist and abolitionist movements to speak on issues like slavery, equal rights for blacks and women. Sojourner found herself speaking to crowds of people who highly opposed her as much as they opposed the issues she wanted to bring justice to. Despite her adversity and lack of "professional" knowledge she still was able to change the way people looked at women's rights in the seventeenth century. One of her most infamous speeches was "aint I a woman". In this speech Sojourner highlighted why women and men should be treated equally. I believe Sojourner is an unelected leader because no one formally elected her as a leader of these movements and she was highly opposed by majority of women and men. These groups of people opposed her because they either didn't think she was capable of being in such a position or they didn't agree with what she had to say. Again despite the situation and circumstances Sojourner was able to press through the barriers of adversity and become a highly publicized and respected abolitionist for women's rights. My question for the group is how do you think Sojouner's experience as a Woman and a leader in the seventeenth century is similar and dissimilar to leaders today? Do you think she is a credible leader? if so according to which theory?
Quasheena Ellis
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Is Sojourner Truth a credible leader, is a very complex question. Webster defines credible as “offering reasonable grounds for being believed.” One theory on which to base these “reasonable grounds,” the definition speaks about, is the Contingency Theory. To test this I placed Truth and her situation into the Contingency Model. To start as you stated Q, she often spoke to people who completely disagreed with her, so at first I thought her leader-member relations would be poor, but the more I think about it I believe it would be good. I have come to this conclusion because the people that did follower her had very strong loyalty to her. Then from there I would say the task structure was low and her position power was weak. This concludes that she was not the best leader for the situation but she was also not the worst.
ReplyDeleteAn additional theory that could be used to decipher her leadership credibility would be the Path-Goal Theory. I would describe the task as ambiguous, challenging and complex and the group members as having high expectations and needing to excel. According to the Path-Goal Theory the most effective leader would be an achievement oriented and have the ability to provide structure. From what I have learned about Truth this seems very true, her ability to convince African Americans to participate in the civil war and her ambition to help former salves proves that she was the right leader for her followers and the situation.
So to answer the question was she a credible leader I would say yes, although it changes as to how you define credible. Perhaps other theories would hint that perhaps a different personality type might have been better.
It is difficult to compare her then to other leaders because their situations, followers and their personality characteristics differ so much, but because of her accomplishments her leadership ability is undeniable.
Emily Seaholm
Great insight Emily!
ReplyDeleteGreat Insight Emily!
ReplyDeleteI also believe Sojourner was a transformational leader because she transformed people. The equal rights issue evoked many different emotions and it motivated people to start a process to change standards, ethics and values. Sojourner use the Inspire a Shared Vision to create a compelling vision to guide her followers behavior's. Through her vision of how society should be she was able to communicate and relate this message to many others.
Quasheena Ellis
I believe that Sojourner was definitely an authentic leader. I feel this is the case because even though she wasn't highly educated, she was still a visionary who spoke her mind had very insightful opinions on issues that are, to this day, unresolved. For example, there is still a discrepency between the equal treatment of women and men and there will probably be race issues for all of eternity. Therefore, Sojourner is very much like leaders of today who are working to defeat the same problems.
ReplyDeleteBy: Ty Wiesemeyer
Quasheena, thank you for proving information on someone I do not know very well. It was nice to learn about Sojourner and her path. I really like the idea of calling her a transformational leader and an authntic leader. She definately transformed thousands of people during a critical time in our history. More specifically she transformed the way people thought. She was also very inspirational in that sense. But the fact that she had no formal schooling or training to overcome her fears and step up and be a leader makes her authentic to me. She stepped up to work for the betterment of the people around her she saw struggling. She led because it was something she was passionate about and to me thats authentic. To me she is similar to authentic leaders of today, who don't wait for others but take it upon themselves to step up because they legitimately want to better the world. And I think Emily hit the nail on the head with the credibility part. Well done guys.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with everyone when it comes to credibility. The best leaders have had to overcome difficult obstacles and this resonates through their followers. Also, when the mission has a moral aspect to it, like this one, it is even more important to have a leader who has been through the hardships to gain trust by the followers. SoJourner Truth was able to gain that trust.
ReplyDeleteBy Dan Becker