Case Study Of Shackleton

Great Essays
Shackleton Case Study: Was He a Successful Leader?

Summary
In late 1914, the ship Endurance, left the port of South Georgia Island for their final stretch to their South Pole destination. Sir Ernest Shackleton, their illustrious leader, had been at sea before and had even attempted this perilous journey prior to this sailing. Shackleton was starting this journey with renewed vigor as he could sense this would be one of his last chances to accomplish his life-long goal of traversing the southern continent. As time went on the ship eventually became stuck in pack ice, eventually suffering enough damage that it sank. At this moment is when Sir Ernest Shackleton began to show his most fantastic qualities of leadership. Up until this point on the
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This is known as the great man theory of leadership. This theory states that some individuals are natural born leaders, and therefore more inclined to be better leaders because they have more charisma, intellect, decision making skills, and wisdom compared to others (Bernal, 2009). Shackleton is however not a good example of this theory. Many aspects of his journey state that by this definition Shackleton was not a “great man”. Some of those reasons are; he left the country as World War 1 was brewing, he attempted his Antarctic journey despite not being in good financial standing, all the while he did not have the public’s favorable opinion. The “great” factor was not present on all counts. He was unable to charismatically change public opinion, nor was he successful at gathering funds, and not even after his triumphant return he was not given any noteworthy recognition. Therefore, it is apparent that Shackleton was not a leader as defined by the great man theory. However, the great man theory is not the only popular theory on leadership. Some people believe that transformational leadership theory is very applicable to Shackleton. The transformational leadership theory states that leaders tend to have higher moral and ethical standards than average, which can raise both the motivation and the morality of their followers. Hammon citation. When Shackleton arrived back at South …show more content…
Considering all the facts Shackleton met many of these objectives. First, he was able to inspire the men and change their goal to survival. Second, he was able to motivate them in a way that cultivated purpose and belonging. Without purpose and morale, the group would have quickly dissolved, and all would have

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