Week 4—Ken's Research Proposal

Hi all,

I hope you had a nice long weekend. For the many of you who turn 20 this year, welcome to the adult world!

This week, as usual, please make two blog posts. One should be about our text, either Chapter 4 or 5.

For the other, however, I suggest you just use your research proposal as your post. That will probably save you some time, and it will be great for everyone to see each other's research proposal. Please also print out your proposal and bring it to class tomorrow so you can present it to others and turn it in.

As I will be writing a paper, the same as you, please find my research proposal below. I look forward to seeing yours.

Emergent Leadership as a Learnable Skill

When thinking of leadership, images come to mind of great historical figures such as Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, and Nelson Mandela. These are charismatic figures who led nations through times of great need. Leadership, however, can come in many forms. One such form is “emergent leadership.” Emergent leaders are those that develop organically over time, or present themselves periodically in groups and teams when new ideas or direction are needed. According to Laszlo Bock, head of personnel at Google, “emergent leadership” is particularly important in Google’s hiring and promotional decisions. The purpose of this paper will be to identify the language and behaviors of emergent leadership and the extent to which it can be taught and learned. It would seem that acquiring the skills of emergent leadership will greatly facilitate student success, both during their time at university and later in the working world. Research done so far has shown that there are several key interactive elements that contribute to the emergence of leaders within a group. These include initiating new ideas and actively seeking the opinion of others (Fisher 1974), participating early and often (Regula & Julian, 1973; Sorrentino & Boutillier, 1975; and Mullen, Salas, & Driskell 1989), and helping to build a cohesive unit (Hackman & Johnson, 2000).