Real Communication An Introduction

Chapter 10  Leadership and Decision Making in Groups 301

THINGS TO TRY

Video clips that illustrate key concepts, highlighted in

teal in the Real Reference section that follows.

2. Arrange an interview with the chair, president, or director of an organization to
   determine how the various groups within the organization operate. How closely
   do these groups conform to the decision-making process discussed in this chap-
   ter? Report what you have learned to the class.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

At the beginning of this chapter, we took a look at Captain

Ray Holt, the fictional commanding officer at a New York

police precinct on the sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Let’s take a

look at Holt’s leadership in light of what we’ve learned in this

chapter.

c In the NYPD, there is a clear hierarchy of legitimate power. As command-

ing officer, Captain Holt has authority over all of his detectives, but even

a captain must defer to the chiefs who outrank him. For Holt, that meant

“being a good soldier” and working in the public affairs office for many

years. Although that job did not align with Holt’s career goals, it helped

the department to meet other goals: having a gay (and African American)

captain in a high-profile role helped the department to change its image and

improve recruitment.

c Holt’s power is rooted not only in his rank as captain (legitimate power)
but also in his experience as a veteran officer who knows how to solve
major cases (expert power). As commanding officer, he also has coercive
and reward power—he can reward or punish his detectives based on their
performance. His personal story, too, affords him an additional degree of
referent power: over the course of his long career, Holt overcame preju-
dices within the department and played a central role in changing the face
of the NYPD, something his young, diverse squad might have taken for
granted.

c In a police squad room, there is an expectation of a directive style of
leadership—supervisors lay out clear instructions, and officers are expected
to follow those instructions. But Holt knows that, despite their hijinks, his
detectives are capable and competent. For this reason, he can take a more
achievement-oriented approach, setting goals and providing guidance for
meeting those goals.

Activities

1. LaunchPad for Real Communication offers key term videos and encourages self-
   assessment through adaptive quizzing. Go to bedfordstmartins.com/realcomm
   to get access to:

LearningCurve

Adaptive Quizzes.

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