Leadership

April 6, 2010 at 7:13 pm 16 comments

Think about a leadership role within the ILR School or the University. Describe how leaders use cultural forms to convey what they want to accomplish.

Entry filed under: Uncategorized.

Reaction to Binge Reflections on Drinking Norms On Campus

16 Comments Add your own

1. Chelsea Blake | April 8, 2010 at 2:49 am

Leaders often use cultural forms to communicate what they want to accomplish or as a way to maintain leadership. Cultural forms include rituals, rights, and ceremonies, which serve to express, affirm and communicate the ideologies, beliefs and norms to members. Leaders have the ability to motivate and emotionally captivate followers through the use cultural forms, such as language, narratives, symbols, myths, and practices. Leaders know how to exercise language in a way that persuades others and attracts followers. In addition, they are able to utilize symbols and practices to articulate and reaffirm their ideologies.
Within the ILR School, the members of the Student Government Association occupy important leadership positions. The individuals involved in SGA possess many leadership qualities, including the ability to communicate and persuade others. Through the use of various cultural forms, the Student Government Association is able to inspire others and execute its vision and mission for the ILR school. The SGA executive board maintains leadership by holding monthly meetings, which can be considered a rite of renewal or a ritual. These meetings serve to reaffirm and endorse their leadership roles. Furthermore, SGA members aim to improve the ILR School in order for students to have the best academic and social experience possible. They do this by creating various opportunities for ILR students, often coming up with new ideas and events each semester. For example, SGA put together an ILR Fall Gala this year, in order for student and teachers to mingle and enjoy themselves in a social setting. SGA was able to inspire and motivate students to attend this event through their leadership abilities and tactical use of cultural forms. SGA leaders used cultural forms, including language and symbols, to communicate and gain support for their idea. Their skillful use of language and ability to persuade others, enabled them to communicate this idea to the student body in a way that captivated and enthused others. In addition, their use symbols, which were found on fliers and other marketing devices, allowed the Student Government Association to gain support as well.
In order for leaders to motivate others and achieve their objectives, they must have the ability to use cultural forms in a strategic manner.
Reply
2. jssy123 | April 8, 2010 at 6:26 pm

Cornell University went through a difficult time in dealing with consecutive suicides last month. It was very unusual for three suicides in less than a moth and brought the reputation for Cornell University as irresponsible and unsupported. These abnormal incidents stirred the campus community and the university was on high alert about the cultural form.
The university administration and professors decided to take innovative methods in order to maintain the cultural form. Unless there are major events, the whole student body does not receive an email from the president, David J. Skorton, but he sent the email to raise the awareness of a tragedy. He also tried to show that the university administration care about the students not just academically, but also personally. Professors also interrupted classes to tell students that they really care. They said that they are going to be 24/7 for anyone who needs helps. I also could see many flyers on the wall introducing clinical treatments presented by Gannett Health Service. The college administration took another innovative action by putting fences on the every bridge. The flowers had been placed on the bridges as a way of condolence lost members of the community. The patrols were on their duty by the Thurston Bridge so they can prevent a possible suicide.
The suicide crisis brought the change to the community. The administrative leadership actively created new social movement within the community to deal with the crisis. In order to maintain the status quo, it was important to prevent further tragedy so the community sends out the message to everyone, so they can get help right away when they need help. The leaders try to facilitate the tension by using cultural forms including professional clinical services, helps from professors, and fences on bridges. These cultural forms allow maintaining the culture by articulating the ideology that there is people care about another person so he is not alone by himself.
Reply
3. Brian Fetterolf | April 8, 2010 at 7:15 pm

Within the University, there are several layers of leadership, for positions rise from the bottom up – student leaders answer to other student leaders who answer to administrative leaders who answer to President Skorton, and outside of Cornell even he answers to other leaders. In my life on campus, I see my fraternity president as the most prevalent leadership role as it affects my life directly. Beneath him lies several lower leadership positions in my house, and he has established an effective system to make everything run smoothly by playing to our cultural form and ideologies.

First and foremost, our secret rituals and ceremonies that we learn upon initiation unite us together. This commonality creates a certain pride of being in the fraternity, and so our president makes sure to transfer this energy to power the organization’s functions. The honor to be amongst the brothers, as well as the support that we gain from the friendships, motivates people to execute different departments of our organization, which includes chapter meetings, judicial administration, recruitment, new member education, social events, philanthropy, and even clean ups. The president leads our ceremonies, carrying on the tradition of brotherhood unity. The rituals ignite the flame that keeps our fraternity thriving.

Furthermore, our president endorses our symbols to increase brotherhood involvement. For example, the symbol of our Greek letters is significant to each and every brother. Therefore, wearing clothing with our letters at events and on campus will tie brothers together. We also are founded under a symbol that goes with our letters, and its presence unites us.

During brotherhood gatherings, the president will lead discussion by using our proper “language” forms. We also have certain greetings that we use. The execution of these verbal and physical acts unites brothers, for we all have our fraternity’s customs in common. In terms of communication outside of meetings, the President will use an email list-serve to announce events and post upcoming discussions to think about. This will even foster online conversation threads in which brothers will voice their opinions about certain matters.

Along with the maintenance of the typical fraternity culture, the fraternity president has established a significant innovation in our culture over the last six months. He founded a leadership program held on Friday afternoons with the fraternity. Initially, brothers took a personality survey, and then our president explained with charisma and confidence what our personality types meant in terms of leadership positions. This fostered a strong team environment as we learned to better understand ourselves and how we interacted with others, and it also encouraged brothers to aspire to take on leadership positions in the house, whether that may be philanthropy chair, treasurer, or president. To embellish this point, he posted each leadership position’s goals for the semester on a wall that everyone saw. By displaying this visually, brothers were much more aware of the house’s functions, where improvement was needed and where it was occurring. The president successfully maintained our general culture while innovating this leadership program into our culture.
Reply
4. Sharon | April 8, 2010 at 7:58 pm

One of the most important duties as a leader is to create, encourage, and retain an organizational culture that is beneficial and healthy for all participants as well as accomplishes their goals. It is the role of the leader to lead the change and to get their vision across to the people. At Cornell University, there are many people on campus who have leadership roles in their respective student organizations and many professors who serve as leaders to the students. For example, the President of Cornell Students Against Sweatshops uses many different cultural forms in order to convey their goals on campus. CSAS is part of a larger organization around the nation that attempts to address the issues of social injustice, especially issues that concern worker’s rights, international labor, and labor violations. One of their main goals as an organization is to educate the students of Cornell about some of the workplace conditions of sweatshops around the world and what changes we can make. One of CSAS’s major victories is their campaign against Russell Corporation, whose corporation made headlines when they found violating several labor law codes in their manufacturing sites, particularly in Honduras.

The president of CSAS uses many cultural forms in order to accomplish her goals. The culture that CSAS attempts to promote in its organization and in the community is the result of the beliefs, values, and assumptions articulated and expressed through its founders/leaders and the experiences of the leaders and new members. In terms of beliefs, values, and assumptions, the executive board members of CSAS share the same belief, values, assumptions and vision about a world that is socially just. Many of the campaigns and speakers they invite expose the wrongs of labor violations and the atrociousness that many workers face in sweatshops. The members of CSAS are very united and show solidarity in their disapproval of some of the workplace conditions that employees are subjected to. CSAS embeds this culture of social justice and fervor for worker rights by teaching their values to ILR students and exposing them to as much information about social injustice, international labor and policy, etc. to students. Many of the executive board members and the speakers that come in to educate the students are very charismatic in character and they are truly passionate about the subject matter, which socializes the audience into their beliefs and values. Many of the members of CSAS send out mass-emails and post several flyers in the ILR School to grab the students’ attention – they are attempting to accomplish their goals by sending informal messages to the student body. Passing out flyers and sending out e-mails can be considered a ritual that CSAS does in order to grasp the attention of the student body before a major event or before a speaker comes in.

Part of the reason that CSAS is very strong is because I believe that it possesses a single, unitary culture, in which many of the members share norms, values, and beliefs. Their main goal and vision is that social justice is extremely important and Cornell students can make a change by giving workers who don’t have a voice, our support. In other words, with empowerment and solidarity, CSAS has attempted to and has successfully maintained an organization that is fighting for a common struggle.
Reply
5. Nate Lee | April 8, 2010 at 9:21 pm

When I look around the ILR School I see three types of leadership, the administration, the professors, and students. Each form has its own set of goals that they hope to accomplish, but they must share one thing in common; they must all use cultural forms if they hope to succeed. Although fliers can still be seen tacked to walls and scattered on tables, I think that they are becoming a cultural form of the past. Students brush past the fliers, generally without giving a second thought. Why? It is not necessarily because they are not interested, but rather, because their noses are stuck in their iPhones and droids, checking their email and updating their status on Facebook. Email, Facebooking, Twitter, and other forms of technology are definitely cultural forms of the current student generation. As such, leaders much reach out and get their messages across through these mediums if they hope to succeed in conveying what they hope to accomplish. For a student running for a class position it is enlisting support through Facebook or Twitter that can be most effective. Today we see teachers using email to contact their students, and blackboard as a place to give documents and readings, grades, descriptions of the course, and much more; all are effective parts of conveying what they are trying to teach to the students. Today, students are about technology, and it is not their fault, it is everywhere around them and constantly evolving into new and amazing things. So, it is no surprise to me that when I log into my email it is littered with notifications from teachers, TA’s and the administration. Leadership is not static and it must change as the culture changes if the leader hopes to convey what they want to accomplish effectively to their audience. When it comes down to it, the ILR students are similar to the whole student body population and are most effectively reached through these methods.
Reply
6. starburst1113 | April 9, 2010 at 4:19 pm

I agree with Nate’s comment on the importance of technology as a cultural form for leaders within the ILR school. Dean Katz, for example, embraces technology as a way to reach out to students, parents, prospective students, faculty and other members of the general population. Technology is becoming an ever-more popular mode of communication. The internet has decreased the relevance of paper-products within school settings. Every day, I receive e-mails from ILR faculty members who are either sending out mass e-mails to the entire ILR community or are contacting me specifically about a specific question, etc. My sister graduated from ILR in 1999 and it was only in her senior year (1998-1999) that she got her Cornell e-mail address. Therefore, the ILR faculty has been quick to adapt to the rising importance of the internet within the ILR school. As the world becomes increasingly technologically advanced and globalized, Dean Katz has stressed the rising importance of technology within a classroom setting.

Through utilizing technology, Dean Katz is able to convey ILR’s motto, “Advancing the World of Work”. The “World of Work” today relies heavily on technology, whether it is through the form of video-conferencing, twitter, e-mail, blog posts, etc. Dean Katz recognizes this and incorporates these aspects into the ILR curriculum. In order to adequately prepare students to enter the workforce, he encourages faculty to utilize technology within their curriculum, such as within this class with blog posts or in other classes with guest lecturers via video-conferencing, online tests, etc.

In addition, he recognizes that the advancement of technology accompanies an increasingly globalized world. Advanced technology has made room for increased communication between companies, organizations, etc in countries all over the world. To help instill this message within students, he has signed several partnerships with foreign universities in which ILR students can study abroad there and receive ILR credit to encourage the foreign exchange of ideas. Dean Katz has embraced this reality and as a result, has utilized technology as a cultural form to help to convey the ILR’s mission of “Advancing the World of Work”.
Reply
7. cornellstudent | April 9, 2010 at 4:25 pm

In Ives hall, the phrase “Advancing the World of Work” seems ubiquitous, as it is prominently displayed in administrative offices and on bulletin boards or posters throughout the building. Although many organizations have slogans, “Advancing the World of Work” is more appropriately categorized as a mission statement, which prescribes that the objective of the ILR School is to improve labor-management relations. In this sense, a simple five-word phrase acts as a cultural form by underscoring key ILR values and beliefs to anyone that sets foot in Ives.

Interestingly enough, under the prescription that all activities in ILR must “Advance the World of Work”, various academic departments each provide their own variant of how to precisely achieve ILR’s organizational purpose. As evidenced by the diversity of courses offered in ILR, the heads of each academic department define unique values and beliefs that can be used to achieve the overall purpose of the ILR School. After defining these values, department heads pass them down to professors, who then convey them to students. For example, the head of the Labor Economics department seeks to improve labor-management relations by urging students to understand the factors that influence one’s decision to work as well as the economic tensions faced by employers. Similarly, the head of the Collective Bargaining department believes that in order to improve the workplace, labor must be given an equal role in defining fair employment standards.

As leaders, professors convey their department’s adaptation of “Advancing the World of Work” through cultural forms, using language and stories that convey the department’s core values. During last semester’s Introduction to U.S. Labor History Course, Professor Daniel exuded the previously mentioned values of the Collective Bargaining Department by assigning readings, which illustrated the detriments of inequality of bargaining power between employee and employer. Using cultural forms like this, students are continually socialized into the values, beliefs, and norms of various academic departments throughout their time in ILR.
Reply
8. fashionfab12 | April 9, 2010 at 5:01 pm

Good leaders effectively use cultural forms to maintain organizational culture or change it during times of crisis. In the school of Industrial Labor Relations, there are two layers of leadership that work synergistically-student leaders and the faculty. The Student Government Association works hard to communicate what the ILR School stands for and tries to maintain a good relationship between the students, alumni and faculty member. The ILR Fall Gala is a perfect embodiment of a cultural form that the SGA used to communicate ILR’s culture. The faculty members casually interacted with the students outside of an academic environment. The SGA members also serve as positive role models for the students of the ILR School and motivate them to become leaders on campus as well.
Dean Katz is the embodiment of the ILR School. Even though he has the extremely time consuming job of running the school, he still continues to teach a large lecture class and meet with students regularly. In class, he is sarcastic, engaging and does not give off the impressive that it is his less important job. He effectively maintains the culture of the school by showing that it’s a warm, interactive environment
Reply
9. cam352 | April 9, 2010 at 5:47 pm

When I think of leadership on Cornell’s campus, I automatically think of the leadership that I witness every day in my sorority house. My sorority is managed by an executive board made up of eleven elected girls and a president. The executive board has different positions, such as philanthropy chair and financial officer, all of which ensure that the house runs smoothly. To be able to effectively accomplish running a sorority house, cultural forms are used to promote and guarantee successful leadership.

The executive board uses cultural forms such as rituals, rites, and ceremonies in order to motivate and communicate with sorority members. Using these cultural forms also help to establish the norms and beliefs of the sorority as a whole.

There are weekly chapter meetings during which the entire sorority gathers to talk about important events and chapter news. The president of the house leads these meetings. At these meetings, the president uses language that helps to motivate the entire chapter. We have certain rituals that we partake in at every chapter meeting and these rituals help to promote the goals of our program and motivate the girls of the sorority to uphold these goals and expectations.

On a more daily basis, if there is ever any problem within the house, the president is always the first person to deal with it. The current president partakes in the practice of making sure that each member feels comfortable confronting her or the executive board with any problems. The open communication policy helps to reinforce the ideals of the sorority.

Leadership is extremely important in terms of motivating members to be involved and have some sort of attachment to the house. Without leaders who can motivate, the sorority would not exist.
Reply
10. br277 | April 9, 2010 at 8:14 pm

President David Skorton is a good example of a leader who frequently uses cultural forms to convey ideas and objectives. Cultural forms are used to express ideologies, beliefs and norms to followers. President Skorton frequently uses rites, ceremonials, stories, and language to convey his ideas and objectives. Rites are relatively elaborate, dramatic, planned sets of activities that consolidate various forms of cultural expressions into one event, which is carried out through social interactions, usually for the benefit of an audience. A ceremonial is a system of several rights connected with a single occasion or event. A story is a narrative based on true events, which is commonly a mix of truth and fiction. Language is a particular form or manner in which members of a group use vocal sounds or written signs to convey meanings to each other.
In a monthly column for the Cornell Daily Sun and a bi-monthly column for the Cornell Alumni Magazine, President Skorton uses stories and language to convey his ideas and vision to the Cornell community. President Skorton also uses language to convey his strategic goals for improving Cornell. He has launched a program called “Reimaging Cornell.” The campaign is a very substantial undertaking, which is intended to position Cornell for excellence in priority areas and ensure the financial health of the university. The phrase “Reimagining Cornell” conveys the optimism and significance of President Skorton’s vision for Cornell.
President Skorton plays a leading role in Cornell’s graduation and orientation ceremonies. Graduation and orientation ceremonies are obvious displays of the cultural forms of rites and ceremonials. The ceremonies are certainly very significant and in many ways embody the nature of Cornell. The presence of President Skorton’s leadership is thus strongly felt by Cornellian’s as they enter and leave the university.
Reply
11. davidrostowsky | April 9, 2010 at 9:02 pm

Leaders use cultural forms in any and every capacity. They help to accomplish a leader’s goals and promote their ideas. Cultural forms include rituals, rights and ceremonies. These cultural forms help to convince others to follow the leader and to listen to them. At Cornell University, there exists a large Greek system, which allows many students to gain leadership roles throughout campus.
In my Greek Chapter, the president uses certain cultural forms to get his idea across and to accomplish what he deems necessary for our house to continue functioning in the same capacity. Our house consists of individuals who all have a different opinion on every subject and are prone to fight each and every issue. The president must take these ideas and develop one cohesive thought without alienating any member of the fraternity. When choosing a president, the fraternity undergoes an election where the candidate must receive a majority of the votes in order to obtain the presidency. Taking the ideas of the house as a whole and being able to incorporate them into the more general ideals of the fraternity is a difficulty task. The president must be able to see what is important and be able to mold a final product incorporating the ideas of all members. A leader of a fraternity must be able to get people to listen to him in both formal and informal settings. By keeping his cool when others get agitated and by respecting and listening to each opinion, our president is able to command respect and have the other members of the fraternity listen to him. Since the president listens to everyone else’s ideas, when he presents his own it is easier for everyone to agree with his as these ideas have some aspect of everyone else’s. This form of leadership enables our president to be effective in running our fraternity efficiently and productively.
Reply
12. djh279 | April 9, 2010 at 10:24 pm

I remember sitting in Labor Law class, with Prof. James Gross, in Ives room 217 last semester – my best guess is that this all occurred in November, but I say so without much confidence. I noticed the student sitting in front of me had with her one of those eight ounce coffee cups that tend to denote a free giveaway somewhere within the building. So in inquired, and was told that coffee was being provided to students in the undergraduate lounge downstairs. I was advised to hurry as class was almost to begin.

I travelled downstairs in a half-trot and entered the undergraduate lounge. A table was set up with several coffee dispensers, all of varying flavors and caffeine content. Sitting at the table were Dean Harry Katz of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and a classmate of mine who is, like me, to graduate in May of 2012 should all go well.

I struck up brief conversation with my peer, and gleefully and rhetorically questioned, “The coffee is for free?” My peer said “Yes, Dean Katz got it for everybody!” with Katz clearly in earshot of the remark. Resultantly, I quipped, “With his own money?” Unsurprisingly, I was met with no formal answer to my question from either of them.

To this day I am certain that Katz did not pay out-of-pocket for the coffee, though I may head to the grave lacking absolute certainty. Regardless, he had a mission. I do not remember the purpose of the coffee stand, but it is irrelevant. Katz had a goal, and by providing coffee and locating in the undergraduate lounge, he achieved multiple things.

Coffee is an institution of its own. Estimates suggest between eighty and ninety percent of United States adults are caffeine-dependent, and I have observed a striking amount of caffeine dependence among my peers at Cornell. I have fell prey myself, or I would have never bothered to trot downstairs to get a free cup. In addition to the attractiveness of coffee, the undergraduate lounge is a popular destination for ILR undergraduates for killing dead time between classes or for meeting to discuss a pending assignment. By locating where he did, and by providing a coffee to the masses, Katz maximized the baseline number of students that encountered his message, at the small expense of providing eight ounces of coffee to uninterested leechers such as me.
Reply
13. norain471 | April 10, 2010 at 12:41 am

When I think about leadership within Cornell University I think of how large of an organization the entire Cornell community is. We not only educate a large number of undergraduate students, but graduate students as well. With the large number of student deaths this year, there existed many possibilties where the student body would suffer, through either psychological and/or physical damage. President Skorton held the university together during this time, however, and I believe the university will do incredibly well for the rest of the semester.

President Skorton was able to reach out to the students of the university during a dark time in the lives of many on campus by using cultural forms. Skorton used email to reach out to the students, and advocated the use of assistance provided by the professionals of the university as well as peer groups on campus. President Skorton also used every aspect of the college life to assist in having students seek help if necessary. Many teachers talked to their students during class, notifications were emailed in the school chronicle, and the Cornell Daily Sun had full page ads encouraging people to ask help.

President Skorton did an incredible job in maintaining student unity during what will be looked back upon as a very dark moment in the history of this unviersity. While some leaders would have allowed student morale to falter, Skorton was able to keep up hope among the many students at Cornell. Even the bridges, which were condemned by many as ugly and embarrassing, were decorated by the students, and now seem to have the bridges representing the beauty of life as opposed to the cruelty of it. President Skorton used cultural forms during a period of distress among the students of Cornell University to maintain the spirits of the students on campus, as well as to reach out to students who needed help to let them know that it was available.
Reply
14. bigred15 | April 12, 2010 at 3:11 am

In any large organization, there are multiple leaders who the masses look to for guidance. Each additional layer of bureaucracy carries with it a different scope of concern and influence. At the top of any hierarchy is the president with the most responsibility and visibility. In times of crisis, these leaders are depended on to handle the situation and to visibly reassure members of the community. Such as crisis was presented with the rash of recent tragic suicides and was handled by university President Skorton. He used methods to both maintain Cornell’s culture as well as change and innovate it.
Immediately after the tragedies, Skorton took drastic actions that could be characterized to both maintain and innovate Cornell’s culture. To maintain the culture, Skorton utilized all of the university’s resources to push the existing counseling services. This included numerous email as well as through comments and articles in the school newspaper. As an extension of that agenda, every Resident Advisor was sent to every dorm room in an effort to reach at risk students. Professors were also enlisted in the mental outreach efforts, as many made announcement in class on the subject. These methods worked through preexisting channels and served mostly to reinforce that the university was a caring entity focused on individual wellbeing. Him more innovative actions most prominently feature one which was received controversially. He chose to station security guards at every bridge on campus and, in a more permanent and visible way, to erect fences on the bridges. While such a presence is intended to be reassuring, such radical, physical actions may remain as reminders of the crisis and its uncorrected root causes. While these methods are yet to be evaluated as their ultimate success or failure will be judged in the long-term, it is interesting to note that the more traditional methods are viewed by many students as the best course of action.
Overall, in times of crisis leaders must act. President Skorton took various actions both to maintain Cornell’s caring culture and novel ways to prevent the problem. While these methods are yet to be evaluated as their ultimate success or failure will be judged in the long-term, it is interesting to note that the more traditional methods are viewed by many students as the best course of action. Such drastic acts seem to have removed the risk of gorge-related incidents, but only a concrete culture can solve the problem permanently.
Reply
15. Alana Reid | April 12, 2010 at 3:49 pm

Leadership has a very prevalent and very necessary role on the Cornell campus. As an institution founded on the principles of scholarship and democratic ideals, and functioning as a conglomerate of seven separate academic schools, Cornell needs a great deal of leadership primarily to organize the institution so that it can properly function.
An important part of the student social life on campus is the institution’s prominent Greek system. Many students participate in the Greek system and are sorted among more than 50 different chapters across campus. These chapters are primarily student run and provide and interesting example of student leadership initiatives that are rich in tradition and cultural forms.
Most chapters are led mainly by their president. The primary way presidents not only perform their leadership role is through the ritual of chapter. Chapter occurs weekly, typically on a Sunday, and is an opportunity for the president to address the entire fraternity or sorority. The specific details of what might occur at a chapter vary among the different Chapters at Cornell, but this is a time for the president to make formal announcements or lead important discussions. Also, chapter serves an important role of reiterating the president’s position and authority in a house. Even the general structure of chapter set the president apart from the rest of the members, usually at a special table or seat of honor facing the rest of the members.
Chapter is also rich in tradition. Not only is it’s occurrence a ritual, but it is the primary way for members to relate to their fraternity or sorority and participate in the collective aspect of their house. In this way, presidents promote the culture of their organization through a tradition that brings out ideologies and values or the organization, primarily led by him or her.
Reply
16. John Parker | April 19, 2010 at 3:48 am

Leaders use cultural forms as a vehicle to communicate their message. Culture is the adhesive that binds groups together, so in order to build and sustain support leaders must be able to express themselves using the cultural forms that are familiar to the group. Obama’s use of socially relevant cultural forms such as social networking sites could have very well won him the presidency. Young voters who have traditionally felt far removed from the political process were being engaged through mediums (Facebook) that they were familiar with. The substance of the Obama’s message didn’t even really matter, young voters responded because they were being engaged through familiar cultural forms… Which for young voters was completely unfamiliar. Using Facebook to reach the youth was a tremendously effective gesture because it demonstrated that he respected the youth enough to communicate with them via the cultural forms most familiar to them. Martin Luther King’s pulpit’esque oratory style is another perfect example of how leaders use cultural forms to effectively communicate their message. MLK’s oratory style capitalized on the religious sensibility of both blacks and whites, which is a major reason why people felt he was such an incredible speaker. Americans were simply far more receptive to a message that was being conveyed by the man that reminded them of their preacher rather then a politician. His use of the religious cultural form was especially effective at facilitating understanding for whites who would have found it more difficult to sympathize with an African American leader who did not engage them on a familiar cultural level (Malcom X is a perfect example).
I had the privilege of seeing the president of Cornell use a fraternity as a cultural setting for a meeting where he was trying to convey why he had made the decision to put up fences around the bridges on the campus. The fences had just been erected and the opinion around campus was mixed so we were all very interested in what he had to say. Had the format of the discussion been different, say a large lecture hall, I don’t think we would have been nearly as receptive to what he had to say. But while he explained why he decided to put up the widely unpopular bridges he engaged us personally by including relevant cultural forms such as the role fraternities have in preventing suicide. The discussion was also noticeably less formal then we had expected which suited the cultural norms of a frat house. Had he come with a serious written speech he would not have been able to capitalize on the culture of environment he was in, he would not have been able to convey his message as effectively. A long formal speech would be inappropriate because it would violate the salient cultural norms a frat house. If he had chosen that route he would have been intentionally ignoring an opportunity to engage us on a culturally level familiar level, which would have signaled a lack of interest, on his part, in our constituency. Instead he observed the cultural norms of the frat house by keeping his speech/discussion short, intelligible and frank.
Reply