Organizational Behavior Case Study on Leadership Name: Tan Yee Li Fiona Student ID: S3447594 Course: RMIT Business (Management) Leadership, ethics and organizational failure in a post-colonial context: a case study of genocide in Rwanda. Introduction Groups, teams and states are major characteristics of organizational life. It is believed that majority of the organization’s practices need a lot of coordination through working as a team and a group.The leadership of an organization is important in terms of the development of the goals and objectives. Leaders within an organization are responsible for developing the goals and objectives of the organization. In most cases, the success of an organization is usually attributed to the leaders of the organization. The genocide in Rwanda was instigated by the hostility between the Hutu and Tutsi as a result of polarization of the two ethnic groups by the colonial era. The colonization process favored one group over the other. It is believed that the leadership of Rwanda at the time played a major role. Leadership in every country plays a major role in the unity of the nation and in fostering peace and co-existence between different ethnic groups. Therefore the leadership of Rwanda at the time failed to quell the existence of animosity between the Hutu and the Tutsi leading to the experience of genocide that led to mass killings. The paper aims at discussing leadership, ethics and organizational failure in a post-colonial context with a case study of genocide in Rwanda. Main emphasis is laid on organizational failure that instigated the genocide and in particular the correlation between the key leaders and geo-political relations (Scott, 1998). Leadership traits and concepts Leadership is considered as the ability to influence the followers towards the achievement of set goals and objectives. Leadership is closely related to management which is aimed at ensuring compliance from the organizational members. The trait theory of leadership is important in terms of defining leadership. The characteristics of the leader can be used for the determination of their leadership styles. According to the behavioral theories of leadership, the specific behaviors of the leaders differentiate the leaders from the non leaders. According to the traits theory of leadership, social, physical, personality or intellectual traits can be used for the purpose of differentiating the leaders from the non leaders. According to the theory, the leader is also supposed to be qualified and open. The contingency theory on the other hand analyzes the environment in which the leader operates. Situational leadership theory examines the ability of the followers to readily accept the instructions of the leaders. There are also various styles of leadership and it plays an important role in determining the potential of the leaders. The charismatic leaders usually portray unconventional behaviors and usually understand. On the other.

1. Organizational Behavior Case Study on Leadership
Name: Tan Yee Li Fiona
Student ID: S3447594
Course: RMIT Business (Management)
Leadership, ethics and organizational failure in a post-colonial
context: a case study of genocide in Rwanda.
Introduction
Groups, teams and states are major characteristics of
organizational life. It is believed that majority of the
organization’s practices need a lot of coordination through
working as a team and a group.The leadership of an
organization is important in terms of the development of the
goals and objectives. Leaders within an organization are
responsible for developing the goals and objectives of the
organization. In most cases, the success of an organization is
usually attributed to the leaders of the organization. The
genocide in Rwanda was instigated by the hostility between the
Hutu and Tutsi as a result of polarization of the two ethnic
groups by the colonial era. The colonization process favored
one group over the other. It is believed that the leadership of
Rwanda at the time played a major role. Leadership in every
country plays a major role in the unity of the nation and in
fostering peace and co-existence between different ethnic
groups. Therefore the leadership of Rwanda at the time failed to
quell the existence of animosity between the Hutu and the Tutsi
leading to the experience of genocide that led to mass killings.
The paper aims at discussing leadership, ethics and
organizational failure in a post-colonial context with a case
study of genocide in Rwanda. Main emphasis is laid on
organizational failure that instigated the genocide and in
particular the correlation between the key leaders and geo-

2. political relations (Scott, 1998).
Leadership traits and concepts
Leadership is considered as the ability to influence the
followers towards the achievement of set goals and objectives.
Leadership is closely related to management which is aimed at
ensuring compliance from the organizational members. The trait
theory of leadership is important in terms of defining
leadership. The characteristics of the leader can be used for the
determination of their leadership styles. According to the
behavioral theories of leadership, the specific behaviors of the
leaders differentiate the leaders from the non leaders. According
to the traits theory of leadership, social, physical, personality or
intellectual traits can be used for the purpose of differentiating
the leaders from the non leaders. According to the theory, the
leader is also supposed to be qualified and open. The
contingency theory on the other hand analyzes the environment
in which the leader operates. Situational leadership theory
examines the ability of the followers to readily accept the
instructions of the leaders. There are also various styles of
leadership and it plays an important role in determining the
potential of the leaders. The charismatic leaders usually portray
unconventional behaviors and usually understand. On the other
hand, the transformational leaders are willing to give more
freedom to the employees to exploit their potential for the good
of the company. It is also important to note that the leadership
within the organization determines the ability of the followers
to work together for the purpose of achieving the goals of the
organization. Leadership also involves the ability to act with
ethical and moral considerations while putting the interests of
the people that the leaders serve first (Fulop and Linstead,
2009)
Case Study: Genocide in Rwanda
The genocide experience in Rwanda was fueled by the existence
of the ethnicanimosity between the Hutu and Tutsi. The ethnic
animosity was further instigated by the leadership at the time.

3. The United Nations was appointed to oversee the peacekeeping
mission. The UN peacekeepers main task was to monitor the
situation and emphasize on the need to avert more bloodshed
that might curtail the peace agreement. Despite the efforts by
the UN to quell the ethnic animosity it was obvious that there
were forces within the government and the leadership that were
encouraging ethnic animosity and enhancing mass killings. As a
duty of the UN to promote peace they requested for more
resources to minimize killings and ethnic animosity fueled by
the leadership at the time. The leadership of the Rwandese
government did not offer the UN forces any form of assistance
in a bid to end the mass killings. Furthermore the UN
peacekeepers encountered bureaucratic, diplomatic and
leadership resistance in the effort of ending ethnic animosity
and ending genocide (Scott, 1998).
The situation of the genocide in Rwanda was changing rapidly
with the increase in the number of killings that were being
experienced. The UN Headquarters lacked capability of dealing
with the situation as a result of the resistance in terms of
political leadership of the time. Hence the UN lacked political
will and leadership in dealing with the situation and restoring
peace. In addition the United Nations political will was heavily
subjective to the western nations who had failed to put an end to
the killings and involved in the polarization and creation of
animosity in between the two ethnic groups. This ethnic
animosity dates back in the colonial era whereby one ethnic
group was favored over the other. Favoritism was in terms of
leadership whereby one ethnic group was allowed to form the
government and therefore the other ethnic group left to
subjectivity. The organizational factors that comprisethe
western influence and post-colonial factors in the peace keeping
operations failed to prevent the mass killings that were
experienced in Rwanda. There was lack of charismatic
leadership with the interests of the nation at heart and servant
leadership that would ensure the effectiveness of the
government and the development of organizational leadership

4. (Scouller, 2011).
Therefore, due to the existence of poor leadership that lacked
the interests of the country at heart the mass killings continued
leadingto many people losing their lives. It was only through
sound and charismatic leadership that the killings would have
been stopped/ended. Leaders play a crucial role in influencing
the perception of the people the lead. However instead of both
the Tutsi and Hutu leadership fostering peace and co-existence
the said leadership played a great role in fueling ethnic
animosity for their own benefit and interests. These are the
leaders that had no interests of the nation at heart. They lacked
charisma and wisdom. Hence the fact that there was existence of
such leadership in Rwanda ethnic animosity continued to the
length of mass killings and the experience of genocide.
Leadership is believed to be a rational product of societies in
which organizations engage in their operations. In this sense
cultural variables in great length affect the ways through which
leaders from diverse cultural background engage with each
other. The cultural variables between the Hutu and Tutsi
considered being diverse. It was therefore important for both
leaders from the two different ethnic settings to understand each
other and encourage coexistence instead of fueling ethnic
animosity (Rice, 2011).
Conclusion
The leadership theories classify the leaders according to their
behaviors. There are different leadership styles which determine
how the organization is guided. It is evident that the leadership
concepts are important to any leader in terms of self-assessment
and steering an organization or country to achieve its aims and
objectives and fostering peace and coexistence. In regards to the
experience of genocide in Rwanda the ethical and organization
of the leadership failed in the sense that they were unable to
avert more mass killings. Furthermore the animosity between
the Tutsi and Hutu ethnic groups were fueled by their respective
leaders that saw mass killings and destruction of property being

5. experienced. It is also due to the resistance of the leaders to
assist the UN peacekeepers that genocide experience was not
averted. In addition the post-colonial context also played a role
in fueling the ethnic animosity that resulted into genocide. The
post-colonial context polarized the two ethnic groups through
the use of leadership of the country. It is therefore important to
note that the existence of poor leadership and organizational
behavior lead to the continued mass killings in Rwanda. Hence
leadership of a particular state/country plays an important role
in fostering peace and ensuring co-existence of varied ethnic
communities. The genocide experienced in Rwanda is in many
instances used in a bid to emphasize the leadership qualities and
how poor leadership can lead to mass killing fueled by ethnic
animosity.
Bibliography
Rice, S. E., 2011, Building a new nation: Rwanda’s progress
and potential, Speech presented at Kigali Institute of Science
and Technology.
Scouller, J., 2011, The Three Levels of Leadership: How to
Develop Your Leadership Presence, Knowhow and Skill,
Management Books
Fulop, L and Linstead, S 2009, ‘Leadership and Leading’ [Ch.
10], in Linstead, S, Fulop, L and Lilley, S 9eds) Management
and Organization: A critical text, 2nded, Palgrave, Houndmills.
Scott, F., 1998, Preventing Genocide: How the Early Use of
Force Might Have Succeeded in
Rwanda," Report to the Carnegie Commission on Preventing
Deadly Conflict, New York.