Web Exercises

Communication Currents

Look up the National Communication Association website and e-zine called “Communication Currents.”  Check the archives for the article, “Twitter and Its Impact on American Governance” (Vol. 4, Issue 2).  Consider the following questions:

  • How can Twitter affect the legislative process?
  • As a form of backchannel communication, what is an appropriate use of Twitter by a leader?  Is tweeting during someone’s speech appropriate? Why or why not?
  • As a minimalist channel of communication, what are the advantages and disadvantages of Twitter? 
  • Does Twitter replace or duplicate other modes of communication?
  • How might egoism come into play in a leader’s twittering?
  • In Hill’s Model for Team Leadership, at what points might a leader’s use of Twitter to improve team functioning?  How?

Team Leadership in Music

Look up and watch the YouTube video of Neeme Jarvi conducting Mahler (3 minutes).  Then read the following interview of Jarvi: Strubler, D. C. and Evangelista, R. (2009).  Maestro Neeme Jarvi on leadership: The power of innovation, stakeholder relations, teamwork and nonverbal communication.  Journal of Management Inquiry, 18(2), 119–121, at http://jmi.sagepub.com/cgi/content/reprint/18/2/119.  Consider the following questions:

  • How is cultivating relationships with donors part of the team-building process at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra?
  • How is leading an orchestra similar to leading a team in a business?  Different?
  • What internal leadership actions are required of an orchestra conductor?
  • How does Jarvi use nonverbal communication to lead the orchestra and audience?   
  • What conditions of group effectiveness are present in the DSO?
  • What characteristics of team excellence are present in the DSO?
  • Is the team leadership model sufficient to explain Jarvi’s success as a conductor?

Dilbert Mashups

Look up the daily Dilbert cartoon (www.Dilbert.com), then register and log in. Write your own dialogue to the daily strip by clicking on the “mashup” button above the strip. Create a new dialogue in the existing strip that incorporates one or more concepts of the team leadership approach and bring it to class.