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Leaders show up in infinitely varying circumstances and characters. Typically, each individual has a picture of who they see as a perfect leader, but no leader is perfect for everyone. Different circumstances and different people require different character traits and styles for their leaders to be effective. The coach of a high school football team is not going to have the same character traits or leadership style as a kindergarten teacher. Not only is the scope of a leader’s character limited in the minds of individuals, but the circumstances in which a leader is needed, or in which a good leader could be found, is typically a narrow field in the minds of individuals. When good leaders come to mind, they are often pictured as outgoing, authority-demanding, …show more content…
He didn’t have the easiest home life as he was growing up. His father was abusive. Jones become involved in church early on in his life, becoming a student pastor in the Methodist Church as a young man. He became disappointed and dissatisfied with the Methodist Church when they wouldn’t allow blacks to participate in the church services. He broke off from the Methodist Church and started his church, which eventually came to be known as People’s Temple. People of all races were encouraged to become members, with human freedom and equality being preached on a regular basis. People’s Temple started soup kitchens, housing for the elderly, and provided job assistance. Jones’ church made great strides in caring for his community and opening its doors to people of all races. One could look back on his church and see some of the great things that he was doing. Even on a moral level, Jones seemed to be doing pretty well. However, he began to stray from a seemingly solid moral foundation early on as he used some dishonest tactics to gain and retain members of his church. One of his most infamous tactics was to use fake healing rituals to manipulate viewers into believing it was real and join the People’s Temple. As investigations began to look into what he was doing, he moved the People’s Temple to California (Cults, …show more content…
Charismatic leadership is a type of transformational leadership. A key component of transformational leadership is that “the manager and the followers may emerge with a stronger and higher set of moral values” (Northouse, 2015). This is why defining Jones as a transformational and charismatic leader isn’t enough. Those two terms do not account for the immoral action that Jones committed. In fact, if we only defined him with those two words, it would suggest that he had moral actions and obtained a stronger moral compass as he progressed in his leadership. It is evident by looking at his life that this isn’t true. To more completely define the leadership style of Jim Jones, we must identify him as a pseudo-transformational leader. A pseudo-transformational leader is focused on his own goals rather than the common interest, and they tend to appear as exploitive people with warped moral values (Northouse, 2015). The psychodynamic approach to leadership explains that leaders can be successful and still have darker personality traits. These darker personality traits are usually unacceptable to and denied by the leader, but they are evident to those looking at the leader from the outside (cult, 2013). This explains how Jones demanded such a high moral standard among his followers, yet is known to have carried on affairs and abused
James Warren “Jim” Jones was the leader of the Peoples Temple cult and was the orchestrator of Jonestown and the following Mass suicide. Jones was born in Crete Indiana in 1931. Due to the great depression he and his family moved to Lynn and had to live in a shack with no running water or plumbing. As a child Jones was a heavy reader and studied past world leaders and philosophers including Hitler, Marx, and Gandhi. His parents, teachers and peers also noted that he had an intense interest in religion. It is
The third cult being discussed is Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple. Jim Jones is ranked one of the most notorious cult leaders. The Peoples Temple consisted of 900 men, women, and children. This group is sadly famous for the mass suicide that took place in the late 1970s, when the 900 cult members ingested a kool-aid blend laced with cyanide. Jones started on this path when his grandmother brought him to her church at age 10. After visiting numerous churches, the young impressionable Jones started to preach to other children. In the mid 1950s, Jones branched out and formed his own congregation called the Wings of Deliverance which then turned into the Peoples Temple. As an attempt to increase the population of his parishioners, Jones aired his homily on the local radio station. Just like Manson, Jones was known for his eloquent speeches that captured the audience. Jones would talk about a better life that is to come. Similar to Paul Schaefer’s teachings from Colonia Dignidad, Jim Jones deterred from any sexual relationships. However, Jones was involved in copious adulterous relationships. Jones got rid of any family bonds and pronounced him to be the “father of all”. Eventually, a paranoid Jim Jones moved the group to Guyana where the compound was renamed to Jonestown. Just like Schaefer, Jones ran this new compound with an iron fist. Similar to the people of Colonia Dignidad, the people of Jonestown were extremely malnourished and often dehydrated. The
First, people slowly started to realize this may not be what they want yet have no option, leading to psychological torture. It was said to be that if anyone was caught running away Jim Jones and his guards would use tactical skills to torment the people into staying, basically scaring them into any other idea. Also, Jones convinced his people that they were under attack by the government and that the US wanted to shut them down, using brainwash. After hundreds of nights practicing the suicide he finally called the actual drinking of the cyanide-laced kool aid (Jonestown and peoples temple, chidster). The people of Jonestown were manipulated and brainwashed into thinking that the life they were living was a hell and that suicide would bring them to peace. Jim Jones had implanted false thoughts in their heads causing emotional distress and ultimately leading to the mental break down of killing their children and themselves. The people of Jonestown were taken to the level of abnormal living and held high reliance on Jim. It was because of all these adaptions that Jim forced on these people that they became a cult (Cult, Gallagher). Jim Jones is one of the main and biggest examples of the difference between a religious leader and a cult leader. Another key example of a cult that used psychological techniques to persuade people
...fortunately, when a person is given that much power and control over a large group of people their decisions as well as reasoning can become altered. In the case of Jim Jones his power lead to an enflamed ego, which led to a greed, not only of loyalty but of money. Money then lead to drug use, and in the end, drug use led to insanity. Those who are gifted with the ability to influence others have a huge responsibility. They must recognize what they have as a gift and not abuse what God has given them. Jim Jones is a person who had this gift as well as good intentions, yet he could not balance and keep in perspective that what he was doing was to benefit the world, not to benefit himself.
Charismatic authority is when a leader gains followers simply by the strength of his/her character. Jones was considered to be very enticing for women and a very good role model for men. As opposed to the norms of other social groups, charismatic authoritarians were not leaders based on a written law but by the will of the people who serve him. Because charismatic leaders are not linked to tradition, they are a danger to established groups due to their lack of care for legal authorities. By blindly following a leader like Jones, who was a master of manipulation, members were not aware of the damage they were doing by the order of Jones. Charismatic authoritarians gain loyal followers more easily than law written organizations, for the people follow charismatic authoritarians by their own free will rather than requirement. Being a large group formed outside of written laws instantly deviates it from other established groups. Because of Jones magnetic pull he was able to convince his group members that everything they were doing including the mass suicide were for the greater good. Having an icon tell you that you’re doing something for the greater good desensitizes you to the task you were asked to perform. An example of this is that the majority of the members viewed the suicide as a ‘sacrificial’ act for American society. Charismatic leaders are dangerous in that
Throughout 2016, many different people will claim they can lead America to greatness again just as they do each election year. This directs attention towards leadership, and most Americans simply trust that these potential candidates display leadership characteristics. Unfortunately, politicians don’t always exemplify leadership, and many Americans experience poor leaders daily such as dreadful bosses. Because of these commonplace experiences, leadership may not appear as a direct character trait. Adaptable communication, the ability to inspire, a clear passion, and professional attitudes all characterize a true leader.
One may wonder exactly what it is that qualities a strong leader possesses. A strong leader is determined, and strong willed. They must be of good judgment, and without bias. They cannot easily be persuaded, and they are firm, yet at the same time, a good lead must also empathize with his subordinates, and have the best interest at heart for said subordinates, at all times. However, with that being said, a good leader cannot be afraid to discipline his subordinates when necessary. Unmistakably, being a leader is a very difficult feat – one which not everyone can accomplish. A leader must be an authority, a friend and a counsellor, all at once. They must be responsible, and always take into account the disadvantages of a situation. Not everyone is suitable to be a leader, whereas, just about anybody can be a good role model.
Jim Jones utilized the threat of severe punishment to impose the strict discipline and absolute devotion that he demanded, and he also took measures to eliminate those factors that might encourage resistance or rebellion among his followers. Research showed that the presence of a "disobedient" partner greatly reduced the extent to which most subjects in the Milgram situation (1965) obeyed the instructions to shock the person designated the "learner." Similarly, by including just one confederate who expressed an opinion different from the majority's, Asch (1955) showed that the subject would also agree far less, even when the "other dissenters" judgment was also incorrect and differed from the subjects. In the Peoples Temple, Jones tolerated no dissent, made sure that members had no allegiance more powerful than to himself, and tried to make the alternative of leaving the Temple an unthinkable option. Analyzing Jonestown in terms of obedience and the power of the situation can help explain why the people acted as they did.
On November 18, 1978, a notorious religious organization lead by Jim Jones became international news. As a result of manipulation and isolation, Jim Jones influenced his followers to commit suicide. Not only, but his followers were utterly convinced that what they were doing was for a good cause, specifically, a political movement. With kool-aid and a dash of cyanide, 918 people, adults and children, ended their lives that day. The aftermath of this horrific event resulted in numerous documentaries, on of which being, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple. Created in 2006, this documentary gives a thorough and accurate account of the events that lead up to as well as occured that day.
What makes a good leader? This article provides insightful analysis to the readers on how one should view and perceive leadership. Furthermore, I think, this article encourages each one of us to examine our own leadership traits and ask the following questions, “Are these traits and behaviors that I exhibit?” Why do not I exhibit these traits? Why are there not more women in leadership roles, if they exhibit these traits? How do we currently choose leaders? In addition, I feel, the article relates to leadership because it illustrates that it is imp...
Two decades ago a strange series of events ended in the deaths of more than 900 people in the middle of a South American jungle. Though thought of as a "massacre," what occurred at Jonestown on November 18, 1978, was to some extent done willingly. This made the mass suicide more disturbing. The Jonestown cult which was officially named “The People's Temple" was founded by a reverend named James Warren Jones, also known as Jim Jones, from Indianapolis in 1955. Jones, who didn’t have medical training, based his liberal ministry as a combination of religious and socialist viewpoints.
Are leaders born or created? Do they manifest in certain situations and not others? Does it depend on the dynamic or even demographics of the followers? In every society there are leaders, people who stand out from the crowd. Such a peculiar role and instrument of human interaction has been the subject of research for centuries. Leader’s use wisdom to guide other or manipulate social situations to gain followers. Over the years, new research promotes new ideas of leadership. Beginning with the trait theorists and Great Man concept through behavioral and situational ideologies, leadership theory is constantly evolving.
To start off, Billy Graham impacted the world because he was an activist for racial equality, which brought together black and white people inside the church. Graham once said, “Christianity is not a white man’s religion and don’t let anybody ever tell you that it’s white or black. Christ belongs to all people; He belongs to the whole world.” As silly as it sounds, that means that God does not reject a person based on skin color, but rather on the person’s heart and relationship with Christ. Imagine believing in the same thing as someone, but not going to the same church just because the person has a different pigment of skin? What’s next, black people’s heaven and white people’s heaven? Fortunately, in the 1950s Graham fought to end segregation in churches, which was a vital thing to do because God does not look at the skin color of a person, but the heart of man. He also ordered that his staff hire African Americans (Mayer). It is said that Graham began to combine races in his crusades before the start of Brown v. Board of Education. This led to, “… [him winning] the support of prominent African American associates, numerous black pastors, and multitudes of minority lay followers (Wacker).” It is clear that Graham was not just saying these things, but he actually put feet to his words, and made progress in desegregation. In later years Graham supported Kennedy’s actions of a nonviolent resolution during the Cuban missile crisis. Furthermore, “Graham continued to advocate desegregation and denounced violence against the Freedom Riders…” (Mayer). Billy Graham addressed many concerns that was going on during that time and fought for what was morally right.
Leadership is a fluent philosophy with definitions as unique as the individuals developing the descriptions. However, a majority of researchers, philosophers, and students agree leadership is “the relationship between an individual (leader) and a group (followers) where the individual guides and influences the group toward a common goal” (Estep, 2016a, p. 4; Keskes, 2014). Hence, great leaders need to be forward thinkers who lead by example and communicate the mission and vision to the followers, so personnel understands the path of ...
As Yukl (2010) indicates, such factors (e.g. personality, values and capacities) attributed to a leader. Normally it is widespread acknowledged that someone is born to be a lead...