HUM 205 - Unit Essay Questions

The essays should be about 750 words long and selected from Eight of the Ten Units. Please make sure you only answer one question per Unit. I encourage you to illustrate your responses with real world, personal, and historical examples both within and outside the read text. The final deadline for submission is May 6th. The film questions will be provided by Mrs. Smith.

Unit One - Personal Leadership Philosophy
1. The Philosopher King - Write a defense or critique of Plato's Philosopher King.
2. Discourse of Angostura - "No other form of government is as weak as a democracy." Discuss Bolivar's provocative statement on democracy and examine the weaknesses and strengths of it as a political system.

Unit Two - Leading by Serving
1. The Art of Charodic Leadership - Do you agree with Hock's implications that the tenets of servant - leadership are important to growth as an individual as well as to the growth or improvement of society and the economy?
2. Journey to the East - Write a defense or critique of Leo's "Law of service".
(or previous essay on Harriet Tubman)

Unit Three - Understanding Ethical Leadership
1. Universal Human Values - If Kidder interviewed you, how would you answer the question "If you could create a global code of ethics, what would be on it?"
2. K'ung Fu-tzu - What do The Analects tells us about followership?

Unit Four - Articulating a Vision
1. Enlist Others - Under what conditions are people most responsive to the appeals of others?
2. Vision and Meaning - Do you agree with Vaughan that "you never achieve your vision?"

Unit Five - Building a Team
1. The Secrets of Great Groups - For a group to be a "Great Group," must there always be a price to pay on the part of the individual members?
2. 1984 Address to The Commonwealth Club of California - Why do you think Chavez succeeded in organizing farm workers into a group or team that could successfully negotiate labor contracts with growers, when other organizers had not?

Unit Six - Leading with Goals
1. Man's Search for Meaning - What does Frankl suggest is the outcome of a person's lack of clear purpose?
2. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Douglass' vision for the future could be said to be the abolition of slavery for all blacks. For each of the steps or goals that Douglass sets and achieves for himself in this reading, describe how each is a necessary step toward attaining the vision for the larger group.
(or previous question on Douglass)

Unit Seven - Making Decisions
1. A Question of Leadership - Do democratic processes always result in groupthink?
2. Chief Joseph - How do Chief Joseph's decisions seek to uphold the several 'laws,' or values, important to the Nez Perces that he lists early in the speech?

Unit Eight - Guiding Through Conflict
1. Conflict - What are the author's four suggestions of actions that may help the individual resolve a conflict? Are these good suggestions for group decision making too?
2. Chimate Chumbolo - Why do you think Chimate Chumbolo tried to persuade disputants to use Dita custom first before turning to the courts?

Unit Nine - Realizing Change
1. Allegory of the Cave - What role does insight play in defining and influencing change within an organization?
2. Letter from a Birmingham Jail - Why do you think King encountered resistance to his tactics and goals from people within the civil rights movement?

Unit Ten - Empowering Others
1. From Transactional to Transformational Leadership - Why do you think employees exert extra effort for transformational leaders?
2. Long Walk to Freedom - How does Mandela balance his ideals of African democracy, unity, and peace with the policy of violence adopted by the African National Congress (ANC)? Is his justification acceptable to you? Why or why not?