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Class 2, Week 12, Peer Review 2
Class 2, Week 12, Peer Review 2
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Strategic leadership is an important aspect of effectively running an organization. The absence of this can only result in devastating effects on the organization. The handling of the Hurricane Katrina is no different. It would require strategic leaders to manage such environmental and natural disasters, which is where strategic essential skills and the strategic leadership framework come in (Schoemaker, Krupp, & Howland, 2013). Strategic leadership is seen in the linkage between the plans and actions conducted by organizational leaders for the sake of meeting both individual and organizational goals, as the author mentions (Jabbar & Hussein, 2017). This especially comes to light during disasters just like the author details. In anticipation, for instance, the New Orleans’ leaders were heavily criticized for failing to manage the situation in a timely manner (Buxton et al., 2017). Despite great preparedness in the previous year for the occurrence of a hurricane, the leaders failed the people due to a lot of bureaucracy and lack of cohesiveness among departments. Anticipation, as much as it had been prepared for, was difficult to put to practice. The cultural competencies come in at this juncture.
It is detailed that the government leaders to various levels had planned for a catastrophe of such a magnitude in the previous, with considerations of the various areas that would be affected. However, this same magnitude was downplayed just before the hurricane fell in Louisiana resulting in great destruction. This describes the challenging skill of strategic leaders. Not only did the leaders fail to challenge each other on the matter, but they also failed to reveal the issue or ask for assistance from leaders in other parts of government (Pao, 2015 & Senate, 2006). There was, therefore, incompletion and inadequacy in response. With confusion in the flow of information, then there would arise issues in interpretation by leaders. Social and political competencies are considered, but in this scenario, the leaders failed to have facts to enable problem solving and effective making of decisions. In this case, therefore, I agree with the author regarding failure of leadership to take control when and where needed.
Decision making would then result from interpretation of understand the challenge and issue anticipated. However, the leadership had prepared for a catastrophe of their own magnitude without considering how different some aspects would come from a natural disaster (Senate, 2006). Better decision making would have resulted from heeding to warnings that had occurred on the short and long term. This is to say that the leaders had failed to learn from the growing magnitude of hurricanes that had befallen Louisiana previously. Like the author mentions however, effective decision making is paramount even in uncertainty (Littlefield & Quenette, 2007). As was identified in FEMA’s activities, there was a lack of effective communication among the various levels of government and the government agencies (Buxton et al., 2017). Even when the leaders had prepared for the oncoming disaster, they failed to keep their activities coordinated, cohesive, and in sync leading to disaster upon disaster. With the shortcomings of the actions of the Louisiana leaders during the hurricane, it is then needed that they learned from their actions and the need to work effectively and efficiently, before and after a catastrophe, thus reducing the negative effects. It was important to learn the need for effective communication and acting quickly and with other leaders in a strategic manner with lasting results.
References
Buxton, J., Ondracek, J., Saeed, M.O., & Bertsch, A. (2017). FEMA Leadership and Hurricane Katrina. International Research Journal of Marketing and Economics, 4(8), 58-68.
Jabbar, A. A., & Hussein, A. M. (2017). The role of leadership in strategic management. International Journal of Research-Granthaalayah, 5(5), 99-106.
Littlefield, R. S., & Quenette, A. M. (2007). Crisis leadership and Hurricane Katrina: The portrayal of authority by the media in natural disasters. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 35(1), 26-47.
Pao, M. (2015). Swept Up In The Storm: Hurricane Katrina’s Key Players, Then And Now.
Schoemaker, P. J., Krupp, S., & Howland, S. (2013). Strategic leadership: The essential skills. Harvard business review, 91(1), 131-134.
Senate, U. S. (2006). Hurricane Katrina: A nation still unprepared. Rep. to the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, Washington, DC.
Class 2, week 12, Peer Response 1
Class 2, week 12, Peer Response 1
Name
Institutional Affiliation
As the author details, strategic leaders are a significant part of any organization. Without them, then it is impossible for the organization to thrive. With the example of BP trying to balance its profits and safety for the people and environment, failed strategic leadership is seen, especially in light of the essential skills that they ought to possess. These essential skills are anticipating, challenging, interpreting, deciding, aligning, and aligning (Schoemaker, Krupp, & Howland, 2013). In the case of anticipation, for instance, strategic leaders are expected to start from within the organization growing outward. However, in the case of BP, the company began outward as a means of blinding people from the real issues. The failure to appreciate and analyze the impending risk during maintenance, as well as ineffectiveness in timeliness and communication ailed the company, so much so that the company leadership brushed off the need for continued maintenance (Pranesh et al., 2017). There were already hazardous conditions in play way before the explosion happened, and they happened due to mismanagement and lack of concern from the leaders, as the author identifies in detail.
Leadership ineffectiveness is clear in the anticipation phase, and in the same fashion, absent in the challenging phase. As the author identifies, the leadership in this case is said to have made poor decisions that led to the explosion. The Transocean leadership had a hand in this regarding the oil well’s materials coming up and resulting in the explosion. The decisions and considerations made in the process by the leaders were not challenged by other leaders or questioned for that matter, with little consideration made for the extent of impact the well would cause if it exploded (Corkindale, 2011 & US BBC, 2011). The results would have otherwise been successful. In interpreting, as the author mentions, the leaders would have been expected to have been honest with themselves and the public regarding the state of the oil well before and after the explosion. However, they either downplayed the actual state of the explosion or hid information from the public, thus losing the trust of the people. The BP leadership failed to take action at the pre-crisis stage and acute crisis stage (Heller, 2012). This would explain why the company failed to manage the situation with timeliness, which the author details on.
On deciding, BP took the approach of trying to engage in activities to help save the environment but while still making decisions that would keep the real state of the oil well hidden from the media and public. The company failed to engage in clean-up, resulting in the government and agencies taking charge. They made the wrong decision to keep the public out of the loop. On alignment, just like the author shares, the leadership was motivated to bring back the company’s glory while hiding the truth from the people (Heller, 2012). Their denial in minimization and mitigation of environmental and safety problems hang them out to dry since their priorities and actions were not in line with their words, through which the public saw through. They had also shifted the blame to other players which led to their intentions’ questioning. Lastly, on matters learning, following BP’s approach of little consideration for the environment and the people’s safety, the leaders finally agreed to taking a wrong approach. With the company receiving criticism for its unethical and dishonest approach, it learned a lot from importance of anticipation actions to being honest with the stakeholders.
References
BBC, U. (2011). oil spill:’Bad management’led to BP disaster.
Corkindale, G. (2011). Five leadership lessons from the BP oil spill. Harvard Business Review.
Heller, N. A. (2012). Leadership in crisis: An exploration of the British Petroleum Case. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(18).
Pranesh, V., Palanichamy, K., Saidat, O., & Peter, N. (2017). Lack of dynamic leadership skills and human failure contribution analysis to manage risk in deep water horizon oil platform. Safety science, 92, 85-93.
Schoemaker, P. J., Krupp, S., & Howland, S. (2013). Strategic leadership: The essential skills. Harvard business review, 91(1), 131-134.
My Shattered Dream
My Shattered Dream
Living in the United States of America had been what I had wished for since my first grade. I had fancied of living the best life ever. USA had what I believed I was chasing and it was here in the world of untapped opportunities that my dreams would be achieved. I had been driven to believe that this was the land of a great breakthrough. The celebrities that I saw in the television movies, music videos and personality shows made me believe that moving to America would make my dream of becoming an all-time achiever fulfilled. My trance was to accumulate wealth, own sleek cars and live in a modern bungalow with servants a beautiful wife with kids.
The company that my father worked for appeared to be on my side. It was a multinational organization with branches worldwide. It got my dad a transfer and moved him to an American branch during my second grade when I was barely ten. We moved to a state known as Dallas and it was here that all I had fantasied on would come to a fulfillment.
My dream that I was chasing that I later referred to as the American dream was to start here. I completed my 8th grade and joined high school with no much change in my life though I had great hopes that my college life would be the turning point.
I loved studying and becoming a scholar was a part of my dream. As an immigrant to the USA that I had now known to be my home, my American dream started to break when my father got his retrenchment. It was traumatizing and shocking and having had saved little with much invested in educating the three of us myself being the first born, I saw challenges line up in front of me. Life changed drastically with my family moving to a slum into a cottage that my father could barely afford with his shoddy jobs that had little income. I successfully completed my 12th grade and I was ready to join college under an education insurance cover that had not yet expired. It was here in college where all my wishes were to come true. I went for the enrollment of my college education and that was when it dawned on me that I was undocumented and my name was nowhere in the government system. It was heartbreaking and frustrating with a lot of regrets in minds. I broke the sad news to my parents and as their hope I made them believe in me. I looked for jobs in restaurants and pubs and worked tirelessly during the day and night. Life as an immigrant youth became more challenging with threats of deportation, little payments, poor working conditions and poor housing, (Flores 1). I saved for some months and finally maneuvered to hire an immigration lawyer who led us to securing passports and went back to our native country where I was forced to live a simple life of a commoner.
Conclusion
The essay is a literary essay of a broken dream in the chase of material possessions in the United States of America. What I did not think as a teenager was that the American dream does not always go the way I wanted and that is why I ended up disillusioned with no achievement but frustrations.
Work cited
BIBLIOGRAPHY l 1033 Flores, Timmons. M. A DREAM Deported: What Undocumented American Youth Need their Schools to Understand. Journal of educational controversy. Web 26th October 2013 http://www.wce.wwu.edu/Resources/CEP/eJournal/v007n001/a003.shtml .
BIBL. O. RAPHY l 1033 Flores.T.M. (2012) A DREAM Deported: What Undocumented American Youth Need their Schools to Understand. Journal of Education Controversy. [Online] http://www.wce.wwu.edu/Resources/CEP/eJournal/v007n001/a003.shtml retrieved on 26th November 2013.