The problem and the solution. Leadership development is arguably one of the most important activities undertaken by human resource development (HRD) professionals.The process of leadership development has implications for each of the three primary categories of action that characterize the field of HRD: career development ; training and development; and organization development. Thus, exploring alternative and innovative approaches to understanding leadership should take a prominent role in the practice of HRD. Although not a new concept, popular culture is one such innovative approach to teaching leadership. Although there has been increasing interest in techniques of leadership development in HRD, the field of HRD has not fully explored how popular culture artifacts—such as film, television, and fiction/nonfiction books—can be used in leadership development. This article explores the literature regarding popular culture as it relates to shaping audience perceptions, the role of popular culture as a teaching tool, and key characteristics for choosing effective popular culture artifacts for leadership development.
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks paints a disturbing, realistic picture of life in a small village in England in the year 1666 during the outbreak of bubonic plague. The tale of the life of the villagers and how they cope with the plague provides a backdrop for the emergence of unlikely leaders, testing of the traditional leaders within the society and revealing the weaknesses that have the potential to emerge in any leader.This is an examination of the characters within the novel and how their leadership characteristics and skills emerge and are tested. A variety of leadership theories and concepts can be seen in the leaders within the novel, including trait and process leadership; assigned and emergent leadership; the concept of power in society; path-goal theory; and transformational leadership. In this article, several characters in the novel are identified as leaders. Each of these identified characters is examined in terms of leadership theory and concepts.
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