Leadership in “Norma Rae” Essay

Norma Rae is a film based on a true story set in a gray factory- township. The gentle character and fellow mill progress toers start a contrastingiate of the Textile Workers Union of America through the use of leadership. The two characters of Norma Rae and Reuben Warshofsky mix their talents to em potence and lead the wad of the mill from downtrodden organiseers to proactive union members. When Rueben front comes upon the town, he finds the managers of the mill oppressive to their workers. People have no rights. They pass small wages. They work long hours. Rueben starts the revolution for the mill workers by stir Norma Rae through Superleadership. Norma Rae in turn empowers and touch offs the mill workers to attain their common remainder a union.Superleadership occurs when a leader leads others to lead themselves. Superleadership is appropriate for Reuben Warshofsky be trend it applies well to organizational leaders. Reuben is a representative of the Textile Workers Union of America. He came to Norma Raes town to start a union at her mill. For his job to succeed, Reuben needs to be cap competent to start the call for union, and leave the area confident that the cause is in good hands. Superleadership is designed to facilitate the leader within all(prenominal) individual. A leader who exercises Superleadership is non necessarily a charismatic leader. He may have a set vision and great disquisition skills, that he does non lead to be attach toed or obeyed. He leads so that others burn lead themselves and better themselves in the process. Superleadership maximizes the human resources of an organization. In the case of Norma Rae, it maximized Normas ability to have a voice.In Superleadership, the power is shared. While Reuben started the union movement, he shared a mutual right with Norma Rae once she was up to speed. Followers lead because they want to. They have a stake in what they do. They believe their actions are for a greater cause. A Superleader break outs self-leadership through compensation and constructive reprimand. He fosters an environs where slew nookie be free to explore their abilities and gain confidence in what they find. This environment is essential to Superleadership. Only in an open environment offer this subject of leadership employ the potency and knowledge of the followers. It is the duty of the Superleader to help develop a groups skills once power is divided among the followers.Self-leadership can be learned through Superleadership. People are non natural to lead. They need not be educated to be motivated or to learn. A Superleader provides a self-leader with direction. He orientates the person with the situation and helps explore the talents and skills necessity to get the job done.Reuben Warshofsky practices Superleadership on Norma Rae. He is a labor organizer looking for aid in a town that is ignorant of unions. The start-off person he meets is Norma Rae. She is a thirty- one year-old working-class mother of three. She is naughtily educated and sacking nowhere fast. Her two children were by two different men. Only at the beginning of the movie does she brake off her birth with a married man. Men oppress her in her life. Her bosses at work oppress her. They care not for her mother when she goes deaf. They reject every test Norma Rae makes to improve working conditions. She is a woman battered by life, tho in a higher place it all she reveals an acute understanding of the world. You lie with dogs, you get fleas. She tells this to Reuben on their second meeting shortly subsequently the married man slapped her. Reuben sees this sparkle of life in her and offers her hope when he says, I think youre to smart for whats happening to you.Reuben eventually leads Norma to self-leadership. Reuben tells Norma Rae the way things could be at the mill and she is inspired. He explains that the textile industry is the only industry not unionized. Reuben says t o people at the first church meeting that things will not change, not unless you make it happen. Reuben encourages the people to join him and share in the determination to unionize the mill. Norma Rae is the only one who accepts the challenge at first. Reuben gives Norma a voice. He teaches her how to fight for a union. She starts by signing a union card. She because wears a union button and hands out others. The woman forward was pushed around and uneducated. Now she is typing documents, making copies, and cold-calling her fellow workers all for the interest of the union. Reubens Superleadership extends to things outside of the union. She begins to read Dylan Thomas. She allows blacks and whites to visit her home together. Norma makes her own decisions.Her priest insults her when he will not allow a bi-racial meeting and without delay, leaves the church. When her unfermented husband is upset with her time-consuming work, she yells back at him, and he see her for it. Norm a Rae no longer allows people to push her around. Her bosses at work continually try to make her quit they make attempts at character character assassination they work her father literally to death through it all Norma Rae perseveres. The counsel posted a sign on the bulletin board to anger anti-union sentiment. They try to stop her from copying it and she responds, I started it, Im going to finish it Norma Rae shows her self-leadership by facing the managers of the mill. She serves a higher purpose that they cannot defeat. She evolved as a person through Reubens guidance. When times were tense, he was thither to cheering her or to sit her down and chew her out. She was arrested soon after she copied the bulletin board and she was in tears. Reuben explained to her that she had just a taste of what was to come. He prepared her for the battle, and gave her the skills to fight it herself.The path proves to be an uphill battle, yet Norma Rae is able to encourage and motivate her foll owers at the mill. She bears pressure from management, resentment from mill workers and suspicion from her husband, but she stays true to her goal. She motivated people employ situational approaches. She changed certain aspects of the situation in order to fit the needs of the followers. Her operator of motivation were great and diverse, but it fit best under the title of the operant approach. The operant approach modifies observes and punishments based on observable behavior. If individuals direction, intensity, or persistence needs to be changed, a reward or punishment is de populatered. In the case of Norma Rae, if someone aids the union, they can imagine a brighter future. If someone denies unionization of the mill, they will continue to work long hours for subsistence pay. Norma Rae has her own system of rewards and punishments. She knows the workers at her mill. She speaks to them as a friend, a friend who knows about them personally.Her reward can be a compliment or a que stion about a loved one. through with(predicate) Reuben she developed the ability to influence people by means of flattery. She compels people to volunteer their time for the union movement so that their children can live a better life than they do. Norma knows what makes people tick and she uses this knowledge to motivate the people to her cause. When her father dies at the mill, he becomes a modern-day sick person to rally around in hopes of a brighter future. The mill workers follow Norma Rae not because she is a saint they know of her quick temper and sexual history. They follow her because she is passionate about her cause.The more confident Norma becomes in her role, the more she embodies her cause. She does not pretend to be anyone but herself, but she holds the union to higher standards. She is able to command the allegiance of her peers and yet remain equal to them. Her passion is what compels them to follow. In the end she gives them their greatest reward they become a union. She resignd her joband closely her marriageto bring her goal to fruition. The union debate came down to a vote, 427 to 373 in favor of a union. This close ballot likely gained the pointless needed votes due to Normas most memorable moment of self-leadership and motivation.In the climax of the movie, Norma Rae scrawls union onto a board and climbs upon a table. The sign is held above her head for three long minutes. She stands on the table willing to sacrifice everything she has for the sake of the union. She stands on the table holding up a member that is a promise for a better life. On the table, scared but determined, she inspires her co-workers. One by one they turn off their machines. A traumatise that one moment was a whir of noises and movement is reduced to a deafening silence. Norma demonstrates the power an individual can have to motivate people when they believe so fully in their cause.Norma Rae is a wonderful mannikin of Superleadership and the motivation techniques of a leader. The journey of the mill starts with Reuben Warshofsky and his affect on Norma Rae. She in turn gains self-leadership and is able to use it to motivate her peers to unionize. It is leadership from the bottom up. It is an pattern of the fortitude of individuals when they are able to channel their power and organize change. It is an example of the change that can be made when backed by the strength of many able followers.