Pop Pop

I don’t know how many of you watch Community but it is one of my favorite shows ever, and if you are a person who likes laughing than you should probably be watching, NBC Thursdays 8pm.  Aside from that Community’s latest episode was about running for Student President of Greendale Community College so I thought it was the perfect choice to apply some of our leadership theories to.  If you would like to check out the episode I am talking about it is currently up on hulu, Season 2 Episode 17, titled Intro to Political Science.  Below I am going to take a look at some of the characters and what leadership theories I think they best illustrate.

Annie – Annie is a character that I think illustrates Path-goal theory.  She does this by clarifying her goals throughout the race. Annie wants to remove mold, and balance the school budget “by removing administrative redundancies.”  She also tries to remove obstacles out of her way, her obstacle mainly being Jeff, so she shows the school his audition tape from the 90s for the Real World where he sings his version of George Michael’s Faith in order to embarrass him.

Jeff – During the race Jeff is definitely task oriented. The only reason Jeff decides to run for Student President is to prove to Annie that government is stupid.  Jeff uses lying and misleading tactics to get the voters on his side.  Jeff tries to play himself as the everyman, even stating at one point that his favorite color is a, “three way tie between red, white, and blue.”  Anytime that Jeff believes Annie is gaining ground with any of the voters he comes up with ways to make them like him more.

School Voters – I think to find the LMX theory present in the episode it is best to look at the Voter/Candidate relationship.  During the debate is where this theory is best illustrated.  I think that the Voter/Candidate relationship is in Phase 1, people aren’t really sure of any of the candidates but they are willing to follow for the benefits they are going to receive by having a Student President.