BUS381 Solutions Focused Leadership
Laura Schade
Dr. Marjorie Lott
Argosy University – Inland Empire Analyzing Jim Jones as a Leader When analyzing what is determined as a good leader, one must think about what leadership really is. According to our text, “leadership is a complex phenomenon involving the leader, the followers, and the situation.” (Chapter 1) A leader is someone who is able to influence others to attain goals. “Leadership comes in all shapes and sizes whether religious or political or social…an essential element that all leaders share whether for good or evil goals is vision.” (Mosley, 2009) Jim Jones had a vision of making the world a better place. Or at least that was what he wanted people to believe. In Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple, an article by Jennifer Rosenberg, she says that Jim had one child and adopted several children of different ethnicities. He was proud of his “rainbow family” and tried to encourage others to adopt interracially. He was against segregation which was not a popular idea in his time. He started his own church in 1956, the Peoples Temple in Indianapolis, Indiana. Most churches were segregated at that time, but Jim Jones offered a utopian view of what society could become. He was a charismatic man who demanded loyalty and preached of sacrifice. His church established soup kitchens and homes for elderly and also helped people find jobs. In 1966, he moved the church to California because it seemed more open to an integrationist church than Indiana had been. About 65 families followed him. Many did not know how complex and unbalanced he actually was. The church was transforming into a cult centered around Jim Jones. Jim envisioned a communist community where everyone lived in harmony and worked for the common good. Jones found a remote location in Guyana and leased some land to establish his community, Jonestown. In 1978, a United States Representative, Leo Ryan heard reports of bad things happening in Jonestown and wanted to find out for himself. Ryan flew to Guyana and at first everything seemed fine. Then Ryan found out that people were being held against their will. He offered to take anyone who wanted to leave back to the U.S. There were only a few who accepted Ryan’s offer because they were worried about Jim Jones’ reaction. When they tried to fly out from the airport, the group was attacked and the congressman was killed along with 4 others and many others were severely wounded. Back at Jonestown Jim became panicked for killing the congressman and ordered everyone to commit suicide. On November 18, 1978, 912 people died from drinking poison and only a handful of Jim’s followers survived by escaping into the jungle. Jim Jones clearly was able to influence a lot of people, making him by definition, a good leader. Even though Jim Jones was a good leader by definition, his goals were evil and meant to do more harm than good. I think that his personality changed with his drug use and the drugs made him paranoid. His infatuation with power led to largest mass suicide in history. The fact that he was a good leader was that his followers were loyal to his “cause”. Our text also points out that leadership is a social influence process shared by all members of a group. Jim Jones’ leadership was good because he had the followers that needed to go hand in hand. (Chapter 1) To better understand the success of a leader one must understand the leadership process. There is a three factor framework for analyzing the leadership process. You need the leader, followers and a situation. The situation can have different aspects and can either constrain or facilitate leader’s actions. In chapter 2 of our text a complex interaction between leaders and followers is evident in what are called in-groups and out-groups. Leaders are more effective with in-group followers. Leaders are not all alike but they do have common characteristics. Personality can affect leadership through temperament. Some are generally calm or might be prone to emotional outbursts. Another aspect of a leader is how they became a leader. Someone who is appointed by superiors might get less loyalty than those that are elected from a consensus of followers. Generally the leaders experience or history is important to his effectiveness. Jim Jones started out with good morals and values. He was against segregation, helped the needy and elderly. His vision of a utopian society most likely appealed to his followers at first. Then when people started to realize that he was unbalanced and paranoid it was too late to get out from under him. He did help society realize the disadvantages of an evil man, the leader of a cult. He was a strategist who took advantage of opportunities that other people overlooked.

References
Rosenberg, J. (n.d.). Jim Jones and the people’s temple. About.com Guide, Retrieved from http://history1900s.about.com/od/people/p/jimjones.htm
Rosenberg, J. (n.d.). The jonestown massacre. About.com Guide, Retrieved from http://history1900s.about.com/od/1970s/p/jonestown.htm
Mosley, H. (2009). Leadership: Influencing people to attain goals. Yahoo! Contributor Network, Retrieved from http://voices.yahoo.com/leadership-influencing-people-attain-goals-4895992.html?cat=4
Hughes, R., Ginnett, R., & Curphy, G. (2008). Leadership, enhancing the lessons of experience. (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.