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26/11/2012
Questions answered by Nihal Lamge Roll No. 221 Div: B
Q1) Describe Gandhis Leadership Style
A1) Gandhi portrayed different types of leadership style in the movie. During
the time in South Africa he wanted to free the Indian people who were
working as slaves for many years. Their maturity level was very low and hence
Gandhi used a Charismatic style of leadership and guided them towards
freedom. Gandhi was always a Charismatic leader as he gathered Indians
through his personality and charm rather than any form of external power.
Charismatic Leaders pay much attention to the person they are talking to at
any one moment, making that person feel like they are, for that time, the
most important person in the world.
Charismatic Leaders pay a great deal of attention in scanning and reading their
environment, and are good at picking up the moods and concerns of both
individuals and larger audiences. All these characteristics were shown by
Gandhi in the movie.
When he moved to India the Leader Member Relations were poor, Task
structure was low and the Position Power was weak and hence Gandhi used a
Consultative Approach towards the people.
This was because he was new in the country and did not know about the
culture among the people. Hence to educate himself he travelled the whole
country and he always kept an open mind, welcomed comments and
suggestions from the people and then took decisions accordingly. Hence
Gandhi portrayed different types of leadership styles in various phases of his
life.

Q2) Describe the behaviours of Gandhi which he used to influence his
followers.
A2) During his early days Gandhi tried to follow as relationship oriented
behaviour as he was more inclined towards achieving independence with the
comfort of his followers. However after incidences like the Jallianwala Bagh
Massacre and Indians lighting the police station on fire and burning policemen
inside Gandhi decided that it would be better for him to follow a more task
oriented type of leadership. He called off the fight for independence because
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he wanted to address and remind the people that the only task which was to
be accomplished was to gain Independence without violence. This would
hamper the leader member relation but it was important to accomplish the
task in hand first.

Q3) Describe the effective and ineffective leadership styles of Gandhi in the
movie.
A3) When Gandhi came to India for the first time while addressing people he
tried to use the authoritarian style of leadership. However the Leader Member
Relations were weak as nobody knew who Gandhi was and hence such an
authoritarian approach failed. He later realised that the maturity level of the
people was quite different in India and hence it was suggested to him that he
understand the Indian culture well before he could lead the people. At that
time Gandhi started using a consultative approach and welcomed suggestions
and comments for the decisions he took. This was one of the successful types
of leadership styles he followed. Soon he realised that various suggestion that
were given to him were negative and consisted of violence or created a divide
between the Indians. Gandhi soon found this out and followed the Neurocratic
Style of leadership. During this phase he had a soft corner for all the Indians
and was emotional and sensitive with them, but at the same time he was
highly task oriented and all the major decisions were taken by him and were
not influenced by others. This style was very effective example of Gandhis
Leadership style.

Q4) Explain several personal traits, skills and power sources of effective
Gandhis leadership.
A4) Gandhi portrayed all the important leadership traits one requires to
become a successful leader. He had traits such as intelligence, integrity, self
confidence, sociability and determination. He had intelligence as he was a
lawyer and could tackle various problems or questions thrown at him by the
British. He had the self confidence and determination that he would make the
Indians free out of the colonial rule of the British through non violence. He had
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integrity as he was honest and trustworthy and lastly he possessed the trait of
sociability because he could build social relationships with other unknown
Indians and very well understand their problems.
He also possessed skill such as problem solving skills, social judgement skills,
knowledge, motivation and general cognitive skills.
He could solve even the complex problems in various situations, he could take
good judgments in understanding different people and their intentions.
Gandhi had the right knowledge and motivation required to arouse the people
to fight for independence and lastly he had good reasoning skills to justify the
decisions which he had made.

Q5) Major favourable effects of Gandhis leadership style
A5) Due to Gandhis Charismatic leadership he was able to acquire the
attention of the people and improve his leader member relations. Due to this
everyone saw him as a leader and followed all his directions.
Whenever Gandhi was put in jail the whole nation would protest against it,
also huge number of people took part in the Swadeshi movement that had
taken place and had a great significance in the struggle for freedom. He had
motivated even the most demotivated people from the backward castes and
untouchables to join the fight against the British. Hence the biggest impact of
his leadership was that he had aroused the whole nation irrespective of their
caste to fight against the British.

Q6) Explain the risks that Gandhi created for his followers.
A6) Followers of Gandhi had to face big problems against the British and they
had to fight it with non violence. The followers could be thrown in jail for no
valid reasons and also had to face the consequences of all their protests and
marches against the British. Many of his followers were shot at the Jallianwala
Bagh Massacre for no obvious reasons. They had put themselves in a situation
where they themselves as well as their families were in danger of getting killed
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by the British. However due to Gandhi leadership style and his motivation all
his followers were ready to face any kind of risk in order to free the nation.

Q7) Identify situations in which Gandhi is especially effective.
A7) During Gandhis time in South Africa when he burnt his pass given to him
by the government in front of the public even if he was been beaten by the
police ,it had a great impact on the minds of the people. Gandhi was especially
very effective when he delivered his speeches for independence. He was
successful in making people understand the importance of independence. Even
after the burning of the police station in India the whole nation took the path
of non violence due to his fasting. Gandhi also started wearing simple hand
woven Indian clothes and started avoiding imported British goods. This had an
impact on everyone to avoid British goods. He also announced the Swadeshi
movement where many Indians burnt the British goods they had and took an
oath never to use any of those goods again and only use Indian products. That
is an ideal situation where Gandhi was very effective.

Q8) Explain how Gandhi can modify situations to make things more effective.
A8) Gandhi had great skills such as knowledge, problem solving skills and
general cognitive skills. He could use his knowledge to change any scenario
into his favour and use his general cognitive skills to give proper reasonings.
Problem Solving skills helped him to tackle various problems in any situation. In
South Africa after the prison incident he used it to get his fellow Indians back
to India. Gandhi also used the fasting as a resort to modify violent situations
and convert them into non violent ones. Due to his swift delivery of answers
and sociability with all the people Gandhi was able to modify various situations
and make the more effective.