Reference no: EM13813214

Organizational Behavior Case Study on Leadership

Introduction

Groups, teams and states are major characteristics of organizational life. It is believed that majority of the organization's practices need a lot of coordination through working as a team and a group.The leadership of an organization is important in terms of the development of the goals and objectives.

Leaders within an organization are responsible for developing the goals and objectives of the organization. In most cases, the success of an organization is usually attributed to the leaders of the organization. The genocide in Rwanda was instigated by the hostility between the Hutu and Tutsi as a result of polarization of the two ethnic groups by the colonial era. The colonization process favored one group over the other.

It is believed that the leadership of Rwanda at the time played a major role. Leadership in every country plays a major role in the unity of the nation and in fostering peace and co-existence between different ethnic groups. Therefore the leadership of Rwanda at the time failed to quell the existence of animosity between the Hutu and the Tutsi leading to the experience of genocide that led to mass killings.

The paper aims at discussing leadership, ethics and organizational failure in a post-colonial context with a case study of genocide in Rwanda. Main emphasis is laid on organizational failure that instigated the genocide and in particular the correlation between the key leaders and geo-political relations (Scott, 1998).

Leadership traits and concepts

Leadership is considered as the ability to influence the followers towards the achievement of set goals and objectives. Leadership is closely related to management which is aimed at ensuring compliance from the organizational members. The trait theory of leadership is important in terms of defining leadership.

The characteristics of the leader can be used for the determination of their leadership styles. According to the behavioral theories of leadership, the specific behaviors of the leaders differentiate the leaders from the non leaders. According to the traits theory of leadership, social, physical, personality or intellectual traits can be used for the purpose of differentiating the leaders from the non leaders.

According to the theory, the leader is also supposed to be qualified and open. The contingency theory on the other hand analyzes the environment in which the leader operates. Situational leadership theory examines the ability of the followers to readily accept the instructions of the leaders. There are also various styles of leadership and it plays an important role in determining the potential of the leaders. The charismatic leaders usually portray unconventional behaviors and usually understand. On the other hand, the transformational leaders are willing to give more freedom to the employees to exploit their potential for the good of the company.

It is also important to note that the leadership within the organization determines the ability of the followers to work together for the purpose of achieving the goals of the organization. Leadership also involves the ability to act with ethical and moral considerations while putting the interests of the people that the leaders serve first (Fulop and Linstead, 2009)

Case Study: Genocide in Rwanda

The genocide experience in Rwanda was fueled by the existence of the ethnicanimosity between the Hutu and Tutsi. The ethnic animosity was further instigated by the leadership at the time. The United Nations was appointed to oversee the peacekeeping mission. The UN peacekeepers main task was to monitor the situation and emphasize on the need to avert more bloodshed that might curtail the peace agreement.

Despite the efforts by the UN to quell the ethnic animosity it was obvious that there were forces within the government and the leadership that were encouraging ethnic animosity and enhancing mass killings. As a duty of the UN to promote peace they requested for more resources to minimize killings and ethnic animosity fueled by the leadership at the time.

The leadership of the Rwandese government did not offer the UN forces any form of assistance in a bid to end the mass killings. Furthermore the UN peacekeepers encountered bureaucratic, diplomatic and leadership resistance in the effort of ending ethnic animosity and ending genocide (Scott, 1998).

The situation of the genocide in Rwanda was changing rapidly with the increase in the number of killings that were being experienced. The UN Headquarters lacked capability of dealing with the situation as a result of the resistance in terms of political leadership of the time. Hence the UN lacked political will and leadership in dealing with the situation and restoring peace.

In addition the United Nations political will was heavily subjective to the western nations who had failed to put an end to the killings and involved in the polarization and creation of animosity in between the two ethnic groups. This ethnic animosity dates back in the colonial era whereby one ethnic group was favored over the other. Favoritism was in terms of leadership whereby one ethnic group was allowed to form the government and therefore the other ethnic group left to subjectivity.

The organizational factors that comprisethe western influence and post-colonial factors in the peace keeping operations failed to prevent the mass killings that were experienced in Rwanda. There was lack of charismatic leadership with the interests of the nation at heart and servant leadership that would ensure the effectiveness of the government and the development of organizational leadership (Scouller, 2011).

Therefore, due to the existence of poor leadership that lacked the interests of the country at heart the mass killings continued leadingto many people losing their lives. It was only through sound and charismatic leadership that the killings would have been stopped/ended. Leaders play a crucial role in influencing the perception of the people the lead. However instead of both the Tutsi and Hutu leadership fostering peace and co-existence the said leadership played a great role in fueling ethnic animosity for their own benefit and interests.

These are the leaders that had no interests of the nation at heart. They lacked charisma and wisdom. Hence the fact that there was existence of such leadership in Rwanda ethnic animosity continued to the length of mass killings and the experience of genocide. Leadership is believed to be a rational product of societies in which organizations engage in their operations. In this sense cultural variables in great length affect the ways through which leaders from diverse cultural background engage with each other. The cultural variables between the Hutu and Tutsi considered being diverse. It was therefore important for both leaders from the two different ethnic settings to understand each other and encourage coexistence instead of fueling ethnic animosity (Rice, 2011).

Conclusion

The leadership theories classify the leaders according to their behaviors. There are different leadership styles which determine how the organization is guided. It is evident that the leadership concepts are important to any leader in terms of self-assessment and steering an organization or country to achieve its aims and objectives and fostering peace and coexistence. In regards to the experience of genocide in Rwanda the ethical and organization of the leadership failed in the sense that they were unable to avert more mass killings. Furthermore the animosity between the Tutsi and Hutu ethnic groups were fueled by their respective leaders that saw mass killings and destruction of property being experienced.

It is also due to the resistance of the leaders to assist the UN peacekeepers that genocide experience was not averted. In addition the post-colonial context also played a role in fueling the ethnic animosity that resulted into genocide. The post-colonial context polarized the two ethnic groups through the use of leadership of the country.

It is therefore important to note that the existence of poor leadership and organizational behavior lead to the continued mass killings in Rwanda. Hence leadership of a particular state/country plays an important role in fostering peace and ensuring co-existence of varied ethnic communities. The genocide experienced in Rwanda is in many instances used in a bid to emphasize the leadership qualities and how poor leadership can lead to mass killing fueled by ethnic animosity.