Analysis Paper
Working as group after getting to know as well as understand one another has been interesting. We have been involved in so many group activities together. The work that we have done as group members from the beginning of the semester has been good and it has also served to strengthen our relationships as member of the group. Most of the group members have learnt to communicate as well as understand when some of the group members are engaged in other activities. We have been able to forge stronger working relationships as well as communication strategies as group members as well as with the people we interact with in the course of our work. Through the leadership, we have been able to work together and communicate within the group in a way that all group members understand. This paper will explore how the stylistic theories of leadership enabled the group to work together during this semester.
Stylistic Theories
Stylistic theories are about group leadership which puts leaders into three broad categories namely; democratic leadership, Autocratic leaders as well as Laissez faire. Our group from the start of the semester has had a leader who has been able to guide the group but at the same time has given all the other five group members the chance to be heard and the chances to make decision as well as give suggestions that are beneficial to the whole group. Under the stylistic theories, the group leader has adopted democratic style and Laissez faire style of leadership in which all the group members have the chance of being heard as well as being able to make decisions that influence the way the group functions. In this respect, the group adopted a communication strategy which mainly involve text messaging as well as occasional meeting to perform various group activities. The democratic style of leadership style has enabled us to work together in ensuring that all the members of the group are able to work in a flexible manner so that even when some of the group members are committed with work elsewhere the are still able to participate in group activities through the digital communication styles such as using text messages
The Group has been working with the FERIA DE SALUD organization by educating Latino communities about diabetes. The group understands how difficult it is for the people to get free screening as well as treatment for this disease and therefore sought to collaborate with the organization so as to disseminate information to the people and advise them to use the free mobile clinics to get tested as well as get free treatment. In this whole process of passing educating communities on the importance of diabetes screening, out team leader allowed all the group member to come up with the best ideas that could be used to pass information effectively so that as many people as possible are able to get screened for the diabetes. The group member gave suggestions and people agreed to brain storm on some of the factors that would enable the group be effective in performing the task that was a head.
The group decided to have regular meetings to brainstorm on various things that would enable members achieve their objectives. All the six group members were allowed by the chairman of the group to come up with suggestion and the brainstorming sessions were organized twice. Member also formed a whatsapp group from where they would discuss most of the suggestions that were made and this would even debate on the ways to work. The group leader always allowed the discussions to go on freely and for member to agree and disagree among themselves. These fruitful discussions among members allowed them to work towards having common ground for their work, meaning that what the majority of group members stood for became the official position of the group and all members even those who did not agree had to join in. However, in cases where the group members totally disagreed among themselves, there was compromise so that a common ground would be found.
The open nature of discussions and communication with the group served to give the group an identity that would be reflected in their work. The group agreed to work by gathering information and doing proper research on the various activities that they had to engage in so that at the end of the day they do not do things that. In the group assignment on the relating to the dissemination of information about diabetes, the group agreed to do research around campus to find out the best way that this activity will make the impact on the communities and each member was assigned task to find out how this would work. The research was done both within and outside campus and all the group members shared their findings so as to enable the group make a unanimous decision on the issue.. Most of the information that came across from the rigorous research process by the group members was shared through emails and messaging for group all the six group members to read as well as understand the findings of others so that when the group finally met, it would be easy to come up with the best and unique ways to pass information that would create an impression
When the group met after doing research and identified various possibilities that would help the group achieve its objectives of disseminating information to the Latino communities, two suggestions emerged, the first suggestion was about facilitating the process of education with some exercise or activity that may help the people do regular exercises. The second suggestion about teaching the people about proper eating habits. These two suggestions came from the group members and were based on the fact that diabetes is a lifestyle disease. The group discussed and agreed that whatever activity they had to involve in was supposed to be one that is fun, so that the people who are receiving the information may not be bored. This was driven by the fact that the group wanted to be able leave a lasting impression among the Latino communities whom we were supposed to help educate about diabetes.
The group therefore, settled on use of dance as well as cooking healthy food as some of the tools that would be used to pass the information. Luckily, within the group two of us knew the Zumba dance and was willing to offer lessons to most of the people who were willing to exercise through this method. There was also the issue of cooking, and two of the ladies in the group had gone through some nutrition classes and had some knowledge on cooking healthy foods as well as eating healthy, some of the staff FERIA DE SALUD also helped us with the issue of advising people about healthy eating.
In the effort to ensure that the group worked achieve the objectives of sending as many people as possible to the mobile clinics for the screening of diabetes, our group worked closely with the staff from the FERIA DE SALUD to ensure that people understood what the screening and why it was important for them. Our group leader us divided into two groups so that it would be like two sub groups operating in different areas at the same time; we had T-shirts from FERIA DE SALUD that gave us an identity for the work which we did. Each subgroup had three people, that is two ladies and one gentleman. We all managed to learn the basics of Zumba for the purposes of demonstration to our clients as we talked to them about screening for diabetes.
As we moved around talking to people about screening, we kept communication between the two subgroups ongoing through text messaging so that each group is aware of which places had been covered and the challenges that were emerging from the exercise. The communication was meant to help each group learn from the other which methods were working best and on which age groups so that we would both be able to convince people from all age groups to go for this screening. The communication among the group members was very instrumental since we applied different techniques and some worked on young people while others worked better on the elderly. It also emerged that the communication techniques worked differently on women and men.
Women were impressed more by the lessons on healthy eating, young people both male and Female like the ideas about Zumba while older men were generally interested in knowing the effects of diabetes and how best they could treat avoid it. The parents were more concerned about their childrens future and how they could avoid the disease. Mothers accompanied their children for Screening. The group mainly worked through the as Laissez faire style of leadership while in the filed meeting these communities and exchanged ideas on how the whole activity was ongoing. This enabled the group member to work whole heartedly. We had the freedom and the authority from our leader to work to the best of our knowledge as long as we were able to achieve our group objectives
In conclusion the stylistic theories and with specific reference to the democratic leadership and the as Laissez faire leadership style enabled our group members to communicate freely and work closely towards ensuring that we all achieved our groups objectives. Through these leadership styles as exercised by the group leader, the group was able to work together in unity to disseminate information to the Latino communities in the way that all group members agreed had agreed and this enabled the work of our group to stand out in this whole process.