Describe the Sources of Conflict Between the Two Bodyguard Teams and Their Leaders (jason and Etienne)? How Did the Teams Resolve the Conflict?

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However, team went on to conduct coaching clinics and Francois took lead, later all team members also joined in, then they started enjoying it and took pride in doing so. The team was made to go through the rigorous training schedule. The desire to win, personal interest by the President, support of countrymen, both black and whites cheering in matches and rising expectations made the team started building strong values, cohesion, commitment, and collaboration. It can be observed that the team was passing through the Norming stage.

President Mandela gave a surprise visit to the team while practicing for the World Cup and met all members calling them by their names, this personal interaction gave team a sense of belongingness and high esteem. All team members visited Island jail together where Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in jail- this incident gave strength to all the team members but Francois in particular when he felt how Nelson Mandela stayed in that small room for 27 years and didn’t break. He promised to himself that he will make Mandela’s dream come true. In the final match, the team was singing the complete national anthem and they played beyond anybody’s expectations and fought till end. This shows team passing through Performing and Adjourning phases.

Q3. PROBLEM SOLVING: What problem did Mandela need to solve when he came into power? Describe the approach he used to solve this problem. Hint: Use Kolb’s model of problem solving to structure your answer.

The Kolb model of problem solving states that there are following four major analytical stages to probem solving.

- Situational Analysis - What’s the most important problem?

- Problem Analysis – What are the causes of the problem?

- Solution Analysis – What’s the best solution?

- Implementation Analysis – How do we implement the solution?

(Osland et al., 2007, p. 288-289; Duxbury, 2016, Week Seven, Slides 34-35).

Situational Analysis.

On his first day to the office, Nelson Mandela observed that many offices were empty and many white office bearers were packing up to leave. Then, he resolved the issue of white bodyguards with Jason. Later, when he was witnessing a rugby match of Springboks vs England, he observed negative cheering by fellow South African Blacks. After the end of apartheid era, Nelson Mandela realized that though most of the blacks carry lot of hatred against white Afrikaners but if let loose it will lead to civil war, so it has to be curbed down. Therefore, very soon the confidence of Whites is to be won back and at the same time love and empathy for whites in the hearts of blacks is to be generated.

Problem Analysis.

It is not difficult to analyse the causes of the problem. The blacks were oppressed by whites for so many years, they were ill-treated, not allowed to live freely on their own land and many including Nelson Mandela were prisoned for umpteen years. The African National Congress (ANC) was fighting for the equal rights for blacks for so many years, after long and sometimes violent struggle by ANC and other anti apartheid activists, discriminatory laws began to be abolished from 1990 onwards and finally, general elections were held in which all political parties including ANC participated. The ANC won with majority and Nelson Mandela was elected as the President. Now, with this background history, the white Afrikaners were afraid of their future as they thought that blacks might behave in similar manner with them and this could mean violence and bloodbath. On the other hand now Blacks had power, so their aspirations were high and they were hopeful for benefits from their new government which were not given to them by white government. So Mandela had dual responsibility of removing fear from the minds of whites and meeting aspirations of blacks.

Solution Analysis.

Nelson Mandela knew that all important appointments in civil administration, army, police, health care etc. are still held by white Afrikaners, if there is any bloodshed it will lead to a very grave situation and which will have cascading effect and it will be very difficult to restore and ultimately it might lead to civil war which might carry on for years. Therefore, at any cost he should not let the hatred being carried by blacks for centuries let out of control. On other hand, he planned that the whites should be given enough assurance that their fear overcomes he should not take any step which would suggest tit for tat strategy, rather he should surprise them by reconciliation.

Implementation Analysis.

When Mandela observed that his office bearers are packing to leave, he immediately summoned everyone and conveyed that if they want they can continue working here and they should not be afraid because of the colour of their skin. He emphasized that they will not be harmed and there will not be any discrimination. While resolving issue of white bodyguards with Jason, he explained to Jason that bodyguards represent him directly in the public, so he wants both white and black bodyguards to work together as a team so that he can show to public that he respects all. Therefore, he opted for reconciliation and forgiveness and knew that it has to start from him.

Mandela found an opportunity in Rugby World cup to reduce the differences between the two poles of blacks and whites. He intelligently planned popularity and acceptance of the game in black community by conducting coaching in townships across country, thereby garnered support for the team and provided all support to the rugby team to ensure that they win the world cup.

He was successful in his plan of uniting south Africa with rugby. In the final match all South Africans, be it white or black cheered for Springboks and after they won the match everybody was seen celebrating on the streets.

Q 4. LEADERSHIP: Describe Mandela’s leadership style (Choose 1-2 theories on which to base your answer). Was Francois a leader or a great follower? Justify your response to the second question by referring to one or two theories from the book/lectures.

Nelson Mandela was a Transformational Leader. Kouzes and Posner states that the transformational leaders are value driven change agents who make followers more conscious of the importance and value of task outcomes; they provide followers with a vision and motivate them to go beyond self interest for the good of the organization.