The Disastrous Presidency of James Buchanan

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred I. Greenstein ◽  
Dale Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Cognitive Style ◽  
Organizational Capacity ◽  
Political Skill ◽  
Public Communication ◽  
Common Phenomenon ◽  
James Buchanan ◽  
Southern States ◽  
Political Experience ◽  
Civil War Era

This chapter assesses the strengths and weaknesses of James Buchanan, focusing on six realms: public communication, organizational capacity, political skill, policy vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence. Buchanan was a Northern politician with Southern principles—a common phenomenon of the Civil War era. He had been a presence in American politics for more than four decades when he assumed the presidency. It was widely expected that his extensive political experience would enable him to reverse the spiral of conflict between the free and slave states, but when he stepped down, several Southern states had left the Union and war was imminent, in no small part because of his pro-Southern policies.

Franklin Pierce and the Kansas-Nebraska Act

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred I. Greenstein ◽  
Dale Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Cognitive Style ◽  
Organizational Capacity ◽  
Political Skill ◽  
Public Communication ◽  
Presidential Nomination ◽  
Fugitive Slave ◽  
Policy Vision

This chapter assesses the strengths and weaknesses of Franklin Pierce, focusing on six realms: public communication, organizational capacity, political skill, policy vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence. Pierce won the Democratic Party's 1852 presidential nomination after a forty-eight ballot impasse in which none of the party's top three leaders was able to muster the two-thirds vote needed to become the Democratic flag bearer. A gregarious nonentity, he took office amid growing anger over the Fugitive Slave Act and passed on to his successor an acutely polarized nation. Pierce's historical reputation is captured in a survey of sixty-four historians conducted by C-SPAN in which he ranked fortieth in a field of forty-two.

Millard Fillmore and the Compromise of 1850

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred I. Greenstein ◽  
Dale Anderson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Cognitive Style ◽  
Organizational Capacity ◽  
Political Skill ◽  
Vice President ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Communication ◽  
Critical Part ◽  
The Status

This chapter assesses the strengths and weaknesses of Millard Fillmore, focusing on six realms: public communication, organizational capacity, political skill, policy vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence. Vice President Fillmore unexpectedly became the thirteenth president of the United States following the death of Zachary Taylor on July 9, 1850. Fillmore had been sidelined in his predecessor's administration, but in his capacity as presiding officer of the Senate, he had carefully followed the heated congressional debate over the status of slavery in the Mexican Cession. Plunged immediately into a crisis when he assumed the presidency, Fillmore played a critical part in the enactment of compromise legislation that appeared at the time to have averted the threat of a war between the slave and free states.

Abraham Lincoln: Consummate Leader

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred I. Greenstein ◽  
Dale Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Cognitive Style ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Organizational Capacity ◽  
Political Skill ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
Public Communication ◽  
White House ◽  
State Legislator ◽  
Policy Vision

This chapter assesses the strengths and weaknesses of Abraham Lincoln, focusing on six realms: public communication, organizational capacity, political skill, policy vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence. Lincoln entered the White House following a mere eight years as a state legislator and two years in the House of Representatives. He excelled in all of the qualities used here to assess leadership. In the realm of communication, he showed acumen in the way he managed his message, the vision conveyed in his statements, and the clarity of his rhetoric. His organizational methods were unsystematic but effective, and were driven by his political acumen. Lincoln was also a master politician who could cooperate with others regardless of their viewpoints.

The Rough and Ready Leadership of Zachary Taylor

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred I. Greenstein ◽  
Dale Anderson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cognitive Style ◽  
Organizational Capacity ◽  
Political Skill ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Communication ◽  
Palo Alto ◽  
White House ◽  
La Palma ◽  
Buena Vista

This chapter assesses the strengths and weaknesses of Zachary Taylor, focusing on six realms: public communication, organizational capacity, political skill, policy vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence. Taylor was accomplished career officer who lived up to the nickname “Old Rough and Ready.” By February 1847, he had won a series of battles at Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterrey, and Buena Vista. The last victory, in which Taylor's forces won despite being outnumbered three to one, earned the general instant fame. On December 2, 1847, Taylor returned to the United States and began his transition from soldier to would-be politician. After being elected president, it comes as no surprise that Taylor governed the nation in a manner better suited for the battlefield than the White House.

Presidents and the Dissolution of the Union

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred I. Greenstein ◽  
Dale Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Organizational Capacity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
George Washington ◽  
Personal Strengths ◽  
History Of ◽  
Civil War Era ◽  
American Leader ◽  
Policy Vision

The United States witnessed an unprecedented failure of its political system in the mid-nineteenth century, resulting in a disastrous civil war that claimed the lives of an estimated 750,000 Americans. This book assesses the personal strengths and weaknesses of presidents from George Washington to Barack Obama. The book evaluates the leadership styles of the Civil War-era presidents. The book looks at the presidential qualities of James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Abraham Lincoln. For each president, the book provides a concise history of the man's life and presidency, and evaluates him in the areas of public communication, organizational capacity, political skill, policy vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence. The book sheds light on why Buchanan is justly ranked as perhaps the worst president in the nation's history, how Pierce helped set the stage for the collapse of the Union and the bloodiest war America had ever experienced, and why Lincoln is still considered the consummate American leader to this day. The book reveals what enabled some of these presidents, like Lincoln and Polk, to meet the challenges of their times—and what caused others to fail.

Emotional Intelligence and Political Skill Really Matter in Educational Leadership

2016 ◽  
pp. 1274-1303
Author(s):  
Nikoletta Taliadorou ◽  
Petros Pashiardis
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Social Skills ◽  
Educational Leadership ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
School Principals ◽  
Political Skill ◽  
Complex Environment ◽  
Political Skills ◽  
The Social

In this chapter, the authors investigate the social skills that school principals ought to exhibit in order to be more effective in the complex environment that characterizes modern schools. Thus, the main aim of this chapter is to provide an in-depth exploration of those social skills that are needed in order for school principals to become more flexible to external and internal requirements and to balance the need for change with stability. Therefore, an attempt is made to investigate the linkages between school leadership, emotional intelligence, political skill, and teachers' job satisfaction, as well as to examine the correlation of emotional and political skills of principals with the job satisfaction of their teachers.

Millennials and political savvy – the mediating role of political skill linking core self-evaluation, emotional intelligence and knowledge sharing behaviour

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pushpendra Priyadarshi ◽  
Rajesh Premchandran
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Core Competencies ◽  
Political Skill ◽  
Process Technology ◽  
Mediation Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Core Self

Purpose Navigating the labyrinthine connections between people, process, technology and infrastructure is a key skill for employees in agile organisations. Political skill is imperative amongst millennials who in a continuously changing environment need to stretch their minds to accumulate and disseminate new knowledge and develop core competencies while responding to new business triggers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate a mediation model in which the effect of emotional intelligence (EI) and core self-evaluation (CSE) on knowledge-sharing intention is mediated by levels of political skill amongst millennials. Design/methodology/approach Hypotheses, on mediation, were tested with data collected from prospective employees graduating from a premier management institute in Northern India. Structural equation modelling was used to test hypotheses with bootstrapping to test mediation effects. Findings The findings demonstrate that the relationship between EI, CSE and knowledge-sharing intention is mediated by political skill. Theoretical and practical implications and directions for future research are followed. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature on knowledge sharing by providing a basis for understanding the mediating mechanism through which EI and CSE influence knowledge sharing. This is the first attempt examining the role of political skill as a mediator in the study of knowledge sharing, a critical lever for agile organisations to flourish. By investigating the underlying mechanisms through which individual differences impact knowledge-sharing behaviour, this study significantly supplements current research on knowledge management.

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