Archive for date: November 25th, 2014

During this late stage of the game leadership becomes a big deal, leading alliances is key to making progress to the end of the game and ultimately accomplishing their goal of victory. In the latest episode two members of the winning team of the reward challenge gave up their positions on a yacht with food and drinks to two members of the losing team. They played this off as a caring gift when in actuality they used it as a strategic maneuver. By gifting their reward to two members that were not yet in their alliance they gained favor with them and solidified their support in the upcoming votes. It also gave them the ability to vote one of their own members onto exile island to try and find the hidden immunity Idol to benefit their allegiance.  Not only was this a bold play in the game it was a strong showing of leadership by the two members that sacrificed their reward for the betterment of their alliance.

Many other aspects of this game show a laissez-faire style of leadership in the groups, even with the formation of alliances the dissolution of the two groups into one single group makes the group more of a free for all. Although they all strive for one goal it is mutually exclusive, only one of them may win, and so no one is obligated to work together for objectives. Therefore when it comes to meeting needs of the group on the island decisions are often left to the individual and the group no longer seems to be concerned about reaching a consensus on what actions to take for the group. The only agreements the groups try to make at this point in the game is who they will vote to remove from the islands and even this is ultimately left up to each individual survivor.

With the surprising departure of Julie in Episode 7, I was shocked and unsure of what would happen in episode 8. Josh and Jeremy tried to salvage their alliances. From the begining of the episode it seemed that Jon and Jaclyn were on the fence about which alliance they were going to choose. All of the younger players (Baylor, Wes, and Alec) just seemed to get more annoying.

In this episode, I really saw the course material relate to this week’s lecture. The Group motivation was extremely apparent During the challenge for the taco bar. The groups both encouraged their members to get the challenge done. I saw the episode relate a lot to the four categories of Motivation:

1. A sense of meaningfulness- Everyone tried their hardest to get the challenge completed so they could win.
2. A sense of choice- Jon and Jaclyn had the most relying on them this week; the way they voted could change the outcomes of future alliances.
3. A sense of competence- I saw this in everyone this week, except for maybe Baylor. She annoys me and I really wanted her to go home.
4. A sense of progress- By the end of the episode, I sensed that everyone in Jeremy’s alliance felt a sense of progress when they were finally able to vote Josh out.

In the eighth episode of survivor there was a wrench in the plan with Julie going home. Originally the tribe plan was to vote Jeremy off of the island due to him seeming in control. Jeremy is seen as the leader of the pack and Josh is considered a leader also.  Jeremy seems to have come to be the leader by motivating team players and by being strong in challenges even though he has failed at some challenges he still manages to show strength Josh seems to have emerged as leader by interacting and gaining peoples trust. Jon and Jaclyn are attempting to strategize to become leaders by manipulating other tribe member’s trust and appearing to side with people but their goal is to vote Jeremy off early in the episode. The episode begins with a reward challenge the two tribes are split up and mixed to compete for a taco feast with beers and margaritas. Keith Reed Jeremy Natalie and Wes win the challenge and decide to send John exile and this separates him from his girlfriend Jacqueline which may foil there plan if John is not around to interact prior to the next vote. At the reward meal Keith throws out the fact that when Julie left he was left without a strategy but Jeremy is displayed narrating separately that he knew that they planned to vote him off. Jeremy has s power position and is playing the game sternly knowing he is in a leadership position. Back at the other tribe meeting Josh is beginning to exercise his power to feel out the tribe members he is sitting with that lost the reward challenge. I will have to see what other blogs post about the rest of the episode but as of now it is clear that there are leaders rising Josh , Jeremy as well as John and Jac. They are motivating group members to make decisions they are modeling leadership we will see if they are effective.

Although each member is now playing individual in Survivor, for the most part, the members are still in alliances, which ultimately create groups. For example, in one group we have Jeremy, Natalie, John and Jacklyn. I argue that from the very beginning of the season, Jeremy has been a trait leader and he has demonstrated several forms of power including persuasive and charismatic power. Trait leader is defined in the book as a leader who is born instead of made.

Although it could be that he was taught him leadership skills, to me he always given me the impression of a natural leader. His persuasive and charismatic personality seems natural. For example, from the beginning people were trying to form alliances with him and he even expressed he felt like the “prom king.” His title of being a firefighter also gave me legitimate power, which is power from a job title. Especially at the beginning of the season, this title gave him the credibility of being physically trained and it carried on throughout the season. However, this did not save him from being eliminated.

Natalie and Jeremy showed Reward power when they traded their winning spot to John and Jacklyn. Reward power comes from giving out resources valued by members. Natalie and Jeremy though that by giving them these resources, they would guarantee their loyalty, strengthen their group/alliance and have better chances of being saved. Little did they know in this case that the reward power did not work because of the rules of the game.

Keith showed coercive power. In one of the scenes he says, “if anything I will play my idol and vote Josh out” Coercive power is power through having control and dealing out sanctions and punishments. He is trying to play the game by threatening to punish those against him, especially because he has an idol. This also gives him legitimate power because the idol was assigned and it gives him the upper hand if he plays his cards right.

For next episode, I am excited to see Natalie’s reaction and how she will handle the group tension!

This episode added an expected twist to the season, because one of the most influential characters on the show was given the good old fashioned boot. JEremy was a strong character that showed many of the signs of leadership that we discuss in the chapter.

While after our class discussion i realize that we do not agree on all the same traits that leaders display, it became quite obvious that jeremy was a candidate for the leader position. He was physically strong and fairly sharp as well as charismatic and appeared to be well liked. However i believe that the other characters had a bit of cohesion and knew that if he continued on the show for much longer he would be a threat.

The  longer the characters have been on the show together we see more shifts in power, and the persuasion of all different characters. We see that bonds are formed that the the communication can become more personal, i also believe that this gives everyone a better chance to deceive each other. If one of the characters performs a well thought out lie, it tends to be more believable.

As far as my personal feeling toward the show goes they are mixed. I suppose that i am beginning to enjoy the show as i am more curious as to who will win. However i feel that many of the scenarios are not as dramatic as they actually appear. However this is all speculation, and i am assuming that all of the characters are very anxious to win or lose the big prize.  Whatever does occur, i am sure that we will have some good old fashioned american entertainment.