Essay On American Gangs

[Professor]

Business and American Gangs

Management and Leadership
I must say that I greatly agree with the statement: "People can be an excellent manager even if they are not good leaders. But people cannot be excellent leaders without becoming good managers" (Chapman & O'Neil, 2000). According to an article from the World Health Organization, the goal of good management is to provide quality services to people in an equitable, efficient, sustainable, and appropriate way. Most certainly, this can only be achieved if all facets of the delivery such as the finances, human resources, and hardware are in the perfect place at the time of the service delivery. For an individual to achieve this, a very careful management consideration must take place in managing the system for the proper service delivery. Suffice it to say that managers get things done. Leaders will always have a vision or a plan of what the people or the group can achieve. They will communicate this with others, but they will still need effective management skills in order to get this done. What is vision without action after all?
Of course, everybody can get the job done; hence people, who have the right skills for the job, will deliver the proper service to any customer. However, since not all managers are good leaders, there may be instances wherein a line of command is not the most effective course of action. The reality is people sometimes only do what they want to do thus making it difficult for a manager without leadership skills to ask for an effective job behavior (Farr and Ernsberger, 1). This aftermath is where leadership and management come together in the play. Since leaders can motivate people to do a task, being a good manager can now proceed to lay the groundwork for excellence service delivery (World Health Organization, 1).
A good example, as evidence for the notions above, would be the cases at a major car company and at certain hospitals as discussed by Graban for the Entrepreneur. Graban reports that front-line employees at the mentioned organizations above complained that they were only hired for their arms and bodies and not for their brains (What Bad Managers, Good Managers, and Great Managers Do). Healthcare professionals also have complained according to Graban that they think that they were just told what to do (What Bad Managers, Good Managers, and Great Managers Do). Managers will always have the plan on how to get the job done. That’s what makes them good at their jobs. But, to reiterate not all managers can motivate employees as well as leaders can. Of course, to be an excellent leader one must acquire the right management skills fit for a job. Without these skills, there will be the absence of a good leader. Communicating skills, involvement of everybody in the job and technical skills are good examples of the management qualities needed for an individual’s leadership acquiescence.

A historical overview suggests that American gangs started to emerge alongside the causes of ethnic and racial lineage in the 1760s (Esperanza, 10). The organized crime gangs were observed to belong to the same race and ethnic group. There is no exact number as to the actual figures of the gangs and gang members in the United States. Esperanza, a Hispanic Association in the US, discuss that these gangs fluctuate largely and widely due to differing opinions of what composes a gang (11).
So why do people join gangs? There are a number of reasons why individuals join gangs. Initially, it was for protection and ethnic identification. But, nowadays, reasons of friendship, recognition, status, excitement, curiosity, and money come into play. According again to Esperanza, joining a gang gives these people a feeling of control and power over a certain land area or a group of people thus strengthening their desires of joining a gang. According to Howell, the common public misconception is that individuals who join gangs were coerced into the group. It was found that the reality is quite the contrary. The youth gang members reported a number of reasons such as money, for fun, protection, and friendship of why they joined the gang (Howell, 3).

Gang Psychology

I do agree with the statement that gangs preclude its members from realizing the consequences of their actions. In a study conducted by Harris, Turner, Garrett, and Atkinson, they discovered that gangs highly influence its members. Influence from gangs is shown by using violence for fun and as a pre-emptive force to protect themselves from being victims (6). If this scenario is the on-going mindset of members of gangs then being in groups, contribute to their lack of sense in the consequences of their actions.

Works Cited

Esperanza. Gangs 101: Understanding the culture of youth violence. Philadelphia, PA: Esperanza, 2010. Web. 8 Jan. 2015. <http://gangs.umd.edu/Downloads/Prevention/Gangs%20101%20-%20Understanding%20the%20Culture%20of%20Youth%20Violence.pdf>.
Farr, James N., and Mark D. Ernsberger. "Leadership vs. Management Why Knowing the Difference Matters." (2014): Web. 8 Jan. 2015. <http://www.bbtleadershipinstitute.com/documents/Leadership%20vs%20management.pdf>.
Graban, Mark. "What Bad Managers, Good Managers and Great Managers Do."Entrepreneur. N.p., 16 Sept. 2014. Web. 8 Jan. 2015.
Harris, Daryl, et al.Understanding the Psychology of Gang Violence: Implications for Designing Effective Violence Interventions. London: Ministry of Justice, 2011. Print. 8 Jan. 2015. <https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/217379/research-gang-violence.pdf>.
Howell, James. Gang Prevention: An Overview of Research and Programs. United States Department of Justice, 2010. Print. 8 Jan. 2015. <https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/231116.pdf>.
World Health Organization. "Leadership and Management." Operations Manual for Staff at Primary Health Care Centres. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/imai/om_10_leadership_management.pdf>.