Leadership and Decision Making in Groups

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Captain Ray Holt may not have the easiest police squad to command, but his leadership skills make him a respected and effective head of the team. FREMULON/DR. GOOR PRODUCTIONS/3 ARTS ENTERTAINMENT/UNIVERSAL TV/Kobal Collection

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IN THIS CHAPTER

  • Understanding Group Leadership
  • Culture and Group Leadership
  • Decision Making in Groups
  • Leadership in Meetings
  • Evaluating Group Performance

Captain Ray Holt is finally in charge: as the new commanding officer on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, he arrives at his post intent on making the precinct into one of the best in the NYPD. But the motley crew of detectives he inherits may not fit the bill. His two top detectives, the fiercely competitive Amy Santiago and the immature yet effective Jake Peralta, are continually at odds with each other. The mysterious Rosa Diaz doesn’t even try to control her temper. Holt’s old friend and new second-in-command, Sergeant Terry Jeffords, is on desk duty after, upon becoming a father, he found himself suddenly—and comically—risk-averse.

chapter outcomes

After you have finished reading this chapter, you will be able to

  • Describe the types of power that effective leaders employ
  • Describe how leadership styles should be adapted to the group situation
  • Identify the qualities that make leaders effective at enacting change
  • Identify how culture affects appropriate leadership behavior
  • List the forces that shape a group’s decisions
  • Explain the six-step group decision process
  • List behaviors to improve effective leadership in meetings
  • Demonstrate aspects of assessing group performance

But Holt is undeterred. He advises his staff that he has high expectations: regulations are to be followed; paperwork is to be properly filed. With his no-nonsense style and an imposing presence, he does not seem like a man to be trifled with. But that doesn’t stop the childish Peralta: when Holt insists he wear a necktie, Peralta responds by wearing one around his waist.

But before long, Peralta is wearing that tie, Jeffords is back in action, and Diaz is managing to smile at juries during testimony. Holt earns their respect, loyalty, and even obedience, not by laying down a hard line but by explaining himself. When Peralta asks why it took him so long to get his own command, Holt succinctly explains that it had to do with his coming out twenty-five years earlier. “The NYPD was not ready for an openly gay detective,” Holt says. “But then, the old guard died out, and suddenly they couldn’t wait to show off the fact that they had a high-ranking gay officer. I made captain. But they put me in a public affairs unit. I was a good soldier. I helped recruitment. But all I ever wanted was my own command. And now, I’ve finally got it, and I’m not going to screw it up” (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, 2013).

What makes a leader? Power? Experience? Decisiveness? In this chapter, we continue our discussion of group communication by examining two additional processes that often emerge in groups: leadership and decision making. These two processes are tightly interrelated: a group’s leader affects how the group makes decisions, and the decisions a group makes affect how the leader operates. When leadership and decision making work together in a constructive way, a group stands the best possible chance of achieving its goals. To understand how these processes influence a group’s effectiveness, let’s begin by taking a closer look at group leadership.