ering them they will help you in order to get rid of you. The democratic leadership style represents an attempt to find a compromise between the first two extremes. This type of leader attempts to provide direction while at the same time tries to avoid dominating the group. This is the type of leader I currently have. He will come down to the group and say I need this project done, figure out the best way to accomplish the task and get back with me. Since he is not controlling our every move like the autocratic leader, often times we give him more then he needs. This is not on purpose but the autocratic leader tells you where he wants you to end up at. The democratic leader allows you to get there yourself and is often surprised with how well you did because you were able to come up with more then he could have guided you to. It is not hard to survive in a group with this type of leadership style.Group norms are defined as “standardized patterns of belief, attitude, communication and behavior within groups.” (12) This is one of the most vital areas to get a quick grasp of when you arrive in a new group. In a group I was in, there was a particular task we had to fulfill called flipping the flags. Basically all the work had been completed and it had already been checked by three different people. When they came out with this new task of flag flipping, it was designed as a fourth check to further prevent errors from getting on the manufacturing floor where they are more costly to fix. The only problem with this was the errors they were trying to find could not be detected on the new flag flipping computer system they had given us. It was considered standard practice in my group to go into the new computer system and check off as you had completed the work without even looking at it. This group norm was not communicated to me when I first arrived in the group and almost got me into some trouble. “Norms an...
