Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.
Steven Sample described two rules of decision making for contrarian leaders: “(1) Never make a decision yourself that can reasonably be delegated to a lieutenant; (2) Never make a decision today that can reasonably be put off to tomorrow” (Sample, 2003).
- Discuss your agreement or disagreement with these rules.
- Identify pros and cons of these rules of decision making.
- Discuss if these rules would be effective if applied in your current work environment.
- Discuss a work, life, or academic decision-making situation when you followed these rules and the results were positive and a situation when you followed these rules and the results did not yield positive results.
In addition to addressing all requirements of the assignments, model answer includes the following:
- Recognize that using the contrarian leaders’ decision-making rules depends on several conditions:
- First, to delegate to a lieutenant, one must have someone he or she trusts, is knowledgeable to make the same decision as the leader and understands the complexity of the situation to make the right decision (these complexities are often not pushed down to the next level).
- To hold off on decisions will depend on the culture and structure of the organization. If the organization is one that requires quick decisions, and a lot of other factors depend on that decision, then following rule 2 would not be effective in that culture.
- Additionally responses will be based on the personal experiences i.e. answers will vary.
Additional Resources:
- Bayan, Y. F. (2018). Application of path-goal leadership theory and learning theory in A learning organization. Journal of Applied Business Research, 34(1), 13-22.
- Bickle, J. T. (2017). Developing Remote Training Consultants as Leaders-Dialogic/Network Application of Path-Goal Leadership Theory in Leadership Development. Performance Improvement, 56(9), 32–39.