ULMS085 - Leadership in Contemporary Business.

Reflect on the leadership style of any present-day leader. Consider their leadership style
and the role that emotional intelligence plays in their role.

Lee En Jia Chloe

201680452
Table of Contents
1. Introduction of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
2. AOC’s Referent Power
3. AOC and Authenticity
4. AOC as a Transformational Leader: Strengths and Criticism
5. AOC and Emotional Intelligence
6. Evaluation: Political Backlash
7. Conclusion
Introduction of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
This paper examines modern-day US politician, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC).
Congresswoman AOC is a member of the American Congress, and represents the Democratic
Party. Aged 32, she has defied all odds to become the youngest woman ever to be elected on the
American Congress, as well as the first woman of color to represent NY-14.

AOC’s Referent Power

According to the 5 sources of power, AOC’s power comes mainly from referent power. 1 With
regards to referent power, many of AOC’s fans and supporters are attracted to her political vision
and identify with her ideas which centers around social and economic justice through initiatives
such as the Green New Deal, gun control, progressive taxation, and more. This can be seen
through an example of AOC being able to raise $4.7 million in the 2021 Texas Storm. 2 Her
followers believed in her fundraising efforts and had, as a result of that, donated a generous sum
in total. Donations are especially telling of a leader’s referent power because followers feel the
desire to be a member or become closely associated with AOC’s causes.

AOC and Authenticity

Significantly, AOC is a pertinent example of a leader because of her authenticity and self-
confidence, which are major leadership traits. This also overlaps with more recent studies. 3 Far
from a conventional politician in America that is usually male and white, AOC is a young
woman of color. What makes AOC an effective leader is that she embraces her identity, in ways
that are authentic, unconventional, and inspirational. For instance, she can be seen embracing her
femininity by sharing makeup tips and her skincare routine in a video by Vogue on Youtube. 4
This is largely different from other female politicians, who generally shun away from such
quintessentially female behavior for fear of being viewed as frivolous, and therefore risk losing
credibility. In contrast, AOC’s openness and engagement with her feminine side while also
retaining credibility as a politician appeal to the millennial and more open-minded generation of
today. These traits that AOC possesses suggest that she is a transformational leader.

1 https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/21/politics/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-texas-relief/index.html
2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXqZllqGWGQ
3 Shankman and Allen (2012)
4 https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-responds-backlash-tax-rich/story?id=80010808
AOC as a Transformational Leader: Strengths and Criticism
There are 4 factors of a transformational leader. 5 Firstly, AOC has a clear democratic political
vision. To serve American citizens, and fight for social, racial, and economic justice is a
compelling vision that is promoted consistently through her speeches as well as her social media.
Clearly, she exhibits inspirational motivation here. The second factor, intellectual stimulation, is
shown through AOC’s Green New Deal. Other democrats think the Deal is not workable for
America’s economy, and that the Green New Deal is a radical and novel idea in the field of
climate change and economy. This is exactly intellectual stimulation as followers consider the
novel matter of climate change that other political leaders do not sufficiently address. Moving on
to the third factor of idealized influence, AOC’s followers only believe in her vision when AOC
practices what she preaches. She checks the box in this case because she is frank about her
background as a former college student struggling to make ends meet. Her story is somewhat a
role model that followers look up to and try to emulate - struggling student turned successful
politician. Her majority demographic of the younger generation can relate easily to AOC, and
therefore believe in her. Lastly, individualized consideration. AOC spends a few minutes before
each day going through conversation cards such that her team bonds on a human level - albeit
just for a few short minutes. This helps stimulate a working environment with AOC where
employees are empowered and supported enough to voice their opinions in a team.

However, one of the common limitations of the transformation leadership theory is that
transformational leadership makes use of impression management, allowing followers to be more
susceptible to manipulation, and in extreme cases, pseudo-transformational leadership. In this
case, I believe this criticism does not apply because AOC’s plans and initiatives are always
backed up by facts, data, and research. Further, for the younger generation, access to facts are
immediate and convenient. It is, therefore, less likely for manipulation to take place theoretically.
Nonetheless, I admit that this criticism still applies to a different and older demographic of
voters.

5 Bennis & Naus (1985)

AOC and Emotional intelligence
The core of leadership is the relationship between a leader and her followers. It is a dynamic
process based on three key factors - context, self, and others.6 In AOC’s case, she is very aware
of the environment that her voters are in. In the context of today’s media-saturated society, she
has amassed the greatest following on Twitter than any other member of Congress. She plays to
her strengths - a seeming underdog as a girl from the Bronx who is fiercely independent in
thought and action. In this way, she is group savvy, navigating social media platforms such as
Instagram and Twitter to great effect. Next, the ‘self’ factor involves being aware of yourself in
terms of ability and emotion. AOC also displays this, per a 2011 study of authenticity. 7 As
mentioned above, her followers identify with her transparency and trustworthiness. Examples
include AOC doing interviews about her daily routine with Vanity Fair, and documenting herself
doing daily chores while talking politics. Lastly, the third factor involves being aware of her
relationship with her followers. In this respect, AOC comes closest to the sub-factor of
recognizing and fulfilling her responsibility for citizens, per a 2010 study of citizenship. 8
Besides, another sub-factor includes being a change agent - with her working on the Green New
Deal for climate justice, as well as student loan debt relief. 9 These are issues that Americans have
grappled with and resonate with for change for a long time.

Evaluation: Political Backlash

To present a more nuanced view of AOC, she has previously faced backlash on certain political
decisions she has made. She received backlash by attending the 2021 MET Gala, wearing a
political dress that states “Tax the rich”.10 Other politicians and Americans have criticized her for
being a hypocrite - wearing a $10k dress and paying $30k for a spot in the MET gala while
championing causes for the poor. This goes against the principle of a leader modeling the way as
one of the five fundamental practices. 11 Nevertheless, AOC responded to these allegations
quickly through social media, explaining that elected officials do receive invitations, and this
forms part of the city’s cultural events. Although she did receive criticism for her actions, the

6 French and Raven (1959)

7 Kouzes & Posner (2002)
8 Jackson & Parry (2009)
9 Bass (1985)
10 Kouzes & Posner (2011)
11 Northhouse (2010)
way she responded importantly cemented her follower’s trust in her as she stood by her
decision.12

Conclusion
Through examining AOC’s leadership style through different approaches and lenses, I find that
the leadership approaches overlap in terms of sub-factors. There are several unifying factors such
as authenticity, being a visionary, empathy, and more. The different approaches vary due to the
different contexts that a leader is in, and for AOC’s case, it is most pertinent as a politician for
her to exemplify authenticity, as well as the values of a transformational leader.

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12 Hickman (2010)