Leadership and Human Resource Practice: Obama Case Study Analysis

This case study provides a comprehensive analysis of Barack Obama's leadership during his presidential campaign and presidency. It examines his use of transformational and charismatic leadership, highlighting his communication skills and ability to inspire and motivate followers. The study explores the application of behavioral, contingency (situational), and Great-Man theories in Obama's leadership approach. It discusses how Obama adapted his strategies based on changing circumstances, such as the economic crisis and criticism from opponents, showcasing his situational leadership skills. The analysis also delves into Obama's ability to connect with diverse groups, his use of slogans, and his adaptability in policy-making. The case study references various sources to support the analysis of Obama's leadership qualities and their impact on his success in becoming the 44th President of the United States.

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Module name Leadership and
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Module Code 7HR024
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Due date 25 May 2021
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Individual Case Study
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Table of Contents
1. Synopsis of Barak Obama's Case Study.................................................................3
2. Analysis of leadership theories and styles..............................................................4
2.1 Behavioural Theory.............................................................................................4
2.2 Contemporary Leadership Theory......................................................................5
2.3 Contingency Theory (Situational).......................................................................6
2.4 Great-Man Leadership Theory............................................................................6
3. Leadership Theory Analysis and Obama Case Study.............................................7
4. Summary.................................................................................................................9
5. References.............................................................................................................10

1. Synopsis of Barak Obama's Case Study
Barack Obama's ascension to the president of the America has been
considered as significant example of showcasing leadership qualities in ant
world of politics in history. The case study highlights President Obama's
unforeseen political path and influential experiences as the 44th President of
the United States of America, starting as an improbable Democratic Party
candidate, competing with well-known and experienced figure as Hillary
Clinton and later ending as the 44th US president, defeating John McCain
who’s the candidate from the Conservative Party (Thomas, Roberts, & Creary,
2009).
In 1991, Obama got his law degree from Harvard Law School and started his
legal career at the University of Chicago as a lecturer. Before that, he worked
as a public-sector social worker. Between 1997 and 2004 he had worked in
Illinois Senate as junior US Senator. In 2004, then-US presidential candidate
John Kerry who was the contender for the presidency of the United States at
the time, gave the chance to Obama to deliver the keynote address at the
DNC in Boston. The seventeen-minute "the audacity of hope” speech was
considered as one of Obama’s charismatic speech which drew national media
attention and improved his status as a Democratic Party "star". This is
considered as the turning point of carrier and Obama raised as a possible
future president (Obama, 2006).
Furthermore, this research article talks about the President Obama’s
leadership qualities and characteristic such as public speaking, emotional
intelligence, political skills, vision, cognitive style, and biographical summary
of his past as a community organizer, with focusing on his campaign for
becoming the candidate of Democratic party in 2008 for US presidential
election. Barack Obama's campaign's success was partly due to his
transformative and charismatic leadership style paired with democratic
behavior, which was based on the ideas of bringing changes to American

society, mainly focusing on education, healthcare and economy.
(Elkatawneh, 2016)
2. Analysis of leadership theories and styles
According to Burns (1978), leadership is one of the most experienced but
least recognized phenomena on the planet. It is often considered as the most
important factor in an organisation's success or failure (Bass, 1990).
Members, on the other hand, must be aware of their effect on workers and,
eventually, the company. Employees are motivated by their leaders (Gardner,
1990).
Traits, attitudes, authority, contact habits, job relationships, and occupation
in an administrative position have also been used to describe leadership
concept (Yukl, 2002, p.2). According to House et al (1999), the ability of an
individual to manage, inspire, and motivate others to contribute to the
company development and success is referred to as leadership.. Further
Jacobs & Jaques (1990) has stated that leadership is the act of giving
collective action a goal (meaningful direction) and allowing willing effort to be
spent to accomplish that purpose.
2.1 Behavioural Theory
According to behavioural theories of leadership, great leaders are made, not
born. Leaders' behaviours are considered to be more important than their
intellectual capabilities or interior moods. Behavioural theory describes that
individuals can become to be leaders through training and inspection
(Bhindora & Narmada, 2013).
The authoritarian or autocratic leader, the democratic leader, and the laissez
faire leader are three leadership styles established by a team led by Kurt
Lewin at Iowa University (Bryman, 1986).

An autocratic leader, according to Daft (1999), is one who seeks to centralize
authority and derives power from rank, reward influence, and coercions.
Furthermore, according to Warrick (1981), autocratic leadership focuses on
command, control, power, and manipulation to attain its aims, placing a high
weight on outcomes and a low value on people.
A democratic leader delegated power to others, encouraged involvement,
relied on subordinate expertise to complete assignments, and was influenced
by subordinate respect (Daft, 1999, p. 69).
The lack or evasion of leadership is known as laissez-faire, and it has been
dubbed the most inefficient leadership type (Bass, 1990).
2.2 Contemporary Leadership Theory
Leadership styles such as transformational leadership, transactional
leadership, servant leadership and charismatic leadership are all present in
contemporary leadership.
Relationship or transformational leaders encourage and inspire their
followers by supporting them by highlighting the task's importance and
superior benefit.
These type of leader’s concern about the individual's capabilities to reach
their full potential as well as the performance of the entire group. (Charry,
2012). According to Avolio & Yammarino (2002), transformational leaders are
concerned with their supporters and are aware of the effect of their decisions
on the party. They aim to cultivate supporters who are inspired by strong
internal beliefs and thus more committed to the leader's task.
Transactional theories, often called management theories, are concerned
with the function of supervision, organization, and group performance, as
well as the interactions between leaders and followers. These concepts rely
on a system of incentives and punishments to motivate people (Charry,
2012).

The servant leadership concept describes a leader's job as one of fulfilling
others' needs. In this method, the leader's primary purpose is to develop
personnel and assist them in achieving their objectives. A number of high-
profile business ethical scandals have characterized the early twenty-first
century. The value of ethical leadership and considering stakeholders' long-
term interests is becoming more generally recognized (A. Gregory Stone,
et.al, 2003).
Both leaders and followers should anticipate charismatic leadership,
according to charismatic leadership theory. Charismatic leadership is a
recognizable leadership style that is viewed as less tangible compared to
other leadership styles. Charismatic leaders create excitement from their
teams and are active in inspiring personnel to take actions (Bell, 2013).
2.3 Contingency Theory (Situational)
According to this contingency theory, leaders should have the capability to
adopt to the internal and external factors. Further there is no one-size-fits-all
approach to leadership with the highly dynamic nature of the world. Most of
the time, leaders do not only change the dynamics and atmosphere of the
business; they also transform the personnel. Situational theories, in a wide
sense, are a type of behavioral theory that argues that there is no one
optimum method of leading or managing, and that a style of leadership that
fits in one scenario may not fit in another. (Greenleaf, 1977).
2.4 Great-Man Leadership Theory
The search for universal leadership attributes has lasted millennia since most
civilizations want heroes to describe their triumphs and excuse their
mistakes. Thomas Carlyle stated in his “great man theory” that leaders are
born, and only those persons gifted with heroic potentials have the potential

to lead. Great men, he believed, were born, not made. (Dobbins & Platz,
1986).
3. Leadership Theory Analysis and Obama Case Study
This case study describes the leadership theories which President Obama has
followed during his presidential campaign. Further the leadership qualities
and styles of Barack Obama has played a major role in his victory against two
contenders such as Hilary Clinton and John McCain. The main leadership
theories and styles, adopted by Obama are transformational leadership with
charismatic behaviour, behavioural leadership with democratic style,
contingency, or situational theory and Great- Man theory.
During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama's most important leadership
style is transformational and charismatic leadership. People attract the
charisma of Obama mainly due to his art of communication. During the
interview with Prof. Ben Tiggelaar and Obama, Obama said that “the most
important thing for effective communication is that you believe what you
say”. Further he stated that “you have to take your time to think what is
important and you say it as truthfully and as clearly as you can”
(businessbeacuse.com, 2021). His statement has clearly demonstrated how
he has used his communication skills to inspire and drive his followers and get
their commitment and attraction which guide him to be the 44th President of
USA. Furthermore, according to Thomas, Roberts, & Creary (2009), his
famous seventeen-minute speech is considered to be the turning point of life
which pave his path to become a star in United States. Obama has established
an attractive vision and inspired confidence in his supporters through his
speeches, as well as empowered the community to follow him, exhibiting
exceptional charismatic behaviour. Moreover, Obama has displayed his
transformative capabilities by highlighting slogans such as “Need for
Change”, “All are Americans”, “Remove ethical discrimination” etc. With

these slogans, Obama managed to carry out more fundraising and political
with the more attraction of people (Green and Roberts, 2012). These examples
clearly showcase how Barack Obama has used transformational and
charismatic leadership qualities to get the support of different ethnical groups
and eventually becoming the president of United States.
Obama’s situational and contingency leadership style, which showcases the
adaptability and flexibility during critical moments, has been important factor
during his journey of becoming the president of USA. Obama time to time
changed his theme of president election: initially the theme was “Need for
Change” but later Hillary Clinton’s team criticized this theme, stating Obama
is lack of experience. Hence Obama later change his theme as “Change vs
Experience”. Later Obama was defeated at Hampshire election of a narrow
margin to Clinton and again Obama changed his theme as “Yes We Can”.
Likewise, Obama always prepared to change his policies depending on the
situation, which was a key leadership style, helping him to becoming US
president (Thomas, Roberts, & Creary, 2009).
Furthermore, at the start of 2008 there was a major economic crisis prevailing
in the world which resulted higher unemployment in USA. Obama understood
the current situation and came up with logical economic policy whereas John
McCain could not promote his economic agenda which gave clear edge for
Obama in the Presidential election and win the heart of US community
(Thomas, Roberts, & Creary, 2009). This was another example which clearly
demonstrates the situational leadership quality of Obama. Moreover, at the
initial period of the Presidential election, Obama did not get much support
from African American community stating that Obama is representing the
white people. But Obama identified this threat and later delivered key
speeches regarding the ethical discrimination problems and later he could get
the support of African American community (Nesoff, 2017).
Barack Obama during his presidential campaign exhibited the behavioural
leadership qualities such as democratic leadership style in different
circumstances. Obama was a good listener who always listen not only his

competitor’s criticism but also the ideas shared by his followers. For an
example, at the beginning Obama had selected his symbol of campaign as
eagle clutching arrows of an olive branch. But later there were many criticisms
for that symbol and Obama decided to completely remove that symbol from
entire election campaign. This was a good example to showcase his
democratic leadership qualities which paved his path to become as 44th
President in United State of America. Furthermore, during his presidential
election period, Obama were traveling several foreign countries and conducted
several speeches in foreign territories. And late his opposition started to create
a view US community, saying that Obama was a celebrity, and he was not
suitable for the President of USA. Obama, being a good listener decided to
stop the foreign travels and later this helped to diminish the people’s
perception as worldwide celebrity status (Thomas, Roberts, & Creary, 2009).
And Obama appointed David Axelrod as his leader for the presidential
election and Obama trust his advice and Davide played key role in the
Presidential campaign and the victory of Obama. Further The New York
described Axelrod as a “campaign guru” who has followed Chicago style
campaign (Reardon, 2007). These examples demonstrated how the democratic
leadership qualities of Obama helped to secure his place as the 44th President
of USA.
Obama may also be regarded a servant leader because he has displayed
characteristic such as humanitarianism, organizational management,
persuasive mapping, wisdom, and emotional healing are important traits of
servant leadership (Yukl et al.,2011).
Further to that Barack Obama has several good leadership skills such as self-
concept, cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligent, public speaking which
were useful in his pollical career and come to the top position of United States.

4. Summary
The case study describes detailed analysis of remarkable leadership skills
throughout his presidential election campaign such as public speaking,
emotional intelligence, cognitive intelligence, inner motivation, personality,
political skills etc. But Obama, having only competency leadership would not
give him the chance of becoming the 44th President of USA, rather need to
have situational leadership skills to adopt in different situations. Therefore it
can be concluded that Barack Obama is having mix of leadership qualities
which gave him the opportunity of becoming the 44th President of United State
of America.

5. References
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Bass, B. (1990) “From Transactional to Transformational Leadership: learning to
share the vision”. Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp.19-31
Gardner, J. (1990), “On Leadership”, New York, Free Press.
Yukl, G. (2002) “Leadership in Organizations”, 5th ed.-International, Prentice Hall,
Upper Saddle River, N.J.
House, R., et al (1999), “Cultural Influences on Leadership and Organizations: Project
Glob”. In Mobely, W., et al, (Eds), “Advances in Global Leadership”, pp 171-233.
Stamford, CT: JAI Press
Jacobs, T. O., & Jaques, E. (1990). Military executive leadership. In K. E. Clark & M. B.
Clark (Eds.), Measures of leadership (p. 281–295). Leadership Library of America.
Bhindora, D., & Narmada, (2013). “A Review of Leadership Theories, Principles and
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Bryman, A. (1986). “Leadership and organizations”. Boston, MA: Routledge &
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Daft, R. (1999) “Leadership: Theory and practice”, Fort Worth, TX: Dryden Press.

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