Case Study Form

Your Name: 

Title of this paper: Challenges faced by high school students

Theory or concept you used for analysis: Fiedler’s contingency theory

1) Source of information (APA style):

Fiedler, F. (1958). Fiedler’s contingency theory. Leader Attitudes and Group Effectiveness.ZeroHedge Janitor. (2019). San Ysidro High Valedictorian Slams “Alcoholic” teacher, school staff [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeSjkVFtb9k

2) Case description (more than 300 words) – You have to add the number of the word count (such as 456 words) at the end of this section to indicate how many words you wrote for this section. 

In this case, it is a school setting and some students are complaining about their teachers not being available for them. The students however continue to pursue without the presence of their teachers and it is time for them to graduate. Nataly Buhr is a valedictorian and she addresses the whole graduating audience, visitors, and teachers. Here is where her leadership qualities are displayed as she uses the opportunity she gets to address the main issues which are very deep within herself and which as displayed from the video are also a reflection of what the students felt. One of her qualities is that she is bold enough to tell the teachers that they were never available for the students and only showed up towards graduation time. This serves as a very volatile period whereby the students got confused at such scathing truth about their teachers just being exposed. However, they gain courage as she continues to give her speech and with time they can support her and prove that what she was saying is true.

Even though this is stated as unfounded by many people she still moves on and continues to speak her mind out. She talks of how the teachers expressed their joy in knowing she was a valedictorian even though they never contributed to her success. She also talks of how the school staff made her unable to apply for several scholarships because of their unwillingness to help her whereby they never told her of available scholarships and even if they told her they said it at the last minute towards the deadline which meant that she had to miss out on the scholarships most of the times. She also talks of how the school teacher always insisted that the students should not be involved in drug use even though he was escorted from the school by police which is sarcasm.

(Word count: 315 words)

3) Theoretical analysis (more than 300 words) – Why is this case a case of leadership communication? How can the theory or concept you have chosen be applicable for or relevant to the case you selected? Add a word count at the end of this section. 

According to Fred Fiedler leadership has to be based on different and specific times of the leader expressing them clearly and in a unique manner. This is because the ability to excel in a leader depends on various factors and one of them is the current situation. Therefore a person can be a very good leader given a specific and a certain situation. In this line, we see that Nataly Buhr uses her situation as the valedictorian to become a leader and express the ills that afflict the school. Even though it is very possible for a lot of people to disagree that she displayed leadership it is also true that she at this period displayed good leadership given the situation and the circumstances. First of all the situation at hand was wanting and she addressed the issues one by one in a very clear manner without any voice of contradiction.

What makes her speech a leadership example and icon is that the situations are important and favor her. It acts as a way for the teachers and the staff to change their behavior. This is because in most instances if she had talked to them in the face and told them that what they were doing then they could question her who gave her the responsibility to question them. However, she uses the platform she has as a valedictorian to address the issues. Through this, there is expected change because she is not only open but also specific to the people whose traits and behavior need to change for the betterment of the school. Therefore this speech is a very powerful tool of her leadership to make sure that everything goes on right in the school after she has left. It is also a leaving mark which will always hold that she helped the teachers and the school staff be better and be more willing to help the students.

(Word count: 320 words)