Instructor: Roger F. Cram                                                       

Office: College Relations - Teachout Price Building                                              
Place : Second Floor
Regular Hours: 8:00 am to 5:00 pm                                        
OfficeTelephone: 330-569-5104 
Home:  330-569-7962 
Cell: 330-569-4912                                                   
Email: cramrf@hiram.edu                                                        
FAX: 330-569-5290

INTERDISCIPLINARY 377-51: The Tuskegee Airmen –
A Study in Group-Leadership Theory and Non-verbal Communication

Summer Semester, 2007
Every other Wednesday - 6 pm to 10 pm - starting May 30, 2007
Credit Hours:  4

Instructor:  Roger F. Cram, Adjunct Faculty.  B.A., Hiram College; M.B.A., Kent State University.  Director of  Special Projects for Hiram College, Associate Member Tuskegee Airmen North Coast Chapter, Scholarship Committee, Central Division, National Tuskegee Airmen, FAA Certified Flight Instructor.

Course Description:  This course will study group dynamics and leadership theories using the Tuskegee Airmen experiment as a basis.  We will examine how racism can be successfully combated with ethics, and how goal setting, nonverbal communications, and strong group leadership can overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Despite many, almost insurmountable obstacles intentionally placed in the way of their success, the black Tuskegee-trained airmen triumphed over all opposition and developed into the most skilled and formidable fighting air force ever known.  This course will attempt to find answers to the following questions: How could this be when the architecture of the Tuskegee Airmen program was designed for failure?  How did the Tuskegee Airmen’s group dynamics serve as a “substitute” for outside managerial leadership?  How did nonverbal communication play a major role in the Tuskegee Airmen achieving their objectives?  How did the Tuskegee group leaders employ various leadership theories to successfully overcome their obstacles.

Course Requirements: Attendance, two quizzes (20% each), one final exam (20%), one research paper (20%), two short essays (5%) each, and one field trip (10%).  

Required Text(s):

Homan, L.M. & Reilly, T. (2001). Black Knights: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen. Pelican.
Tubbs, S.L. (2005). Human Communication:  Principles And Contexts With Powerweb  (10^th Ed.). McGraw-Hill.

First Assignment:  Read Chapters I-II in the Black Knights, Read Chapter 1 in Human Communication

Prerequisite:  No prerequisite.

This course will satisfy one or more of the following:

General Graduation Requirement	Interdisciplinary-One Instructor
Core Requirement for Major	N/A
Correlative, Track or Additional Coursework for Major	Business Management

Tentative Syllabus
4-hour class sessions

The Tuskegee Airmen-A Study in Group-Leadership Theory
Summer 2007 -  WEC  

Tentative Weekend College Syllabus
WEC - Summer 2007

The Tuskegee Airmen-A Study in Group-Leadership
  

Weekend I – May 30, 2007

Text – Black Knights – The Story of Tuskegee Airmen - Chapters I through II – to be read  before first class
Text – Human Communication - Chapter 1 – to be read before clas
Video – The Tuskegee Airmen  -  Laurence Fishburn
Establish Working Groups            

Weekend II – June 13

Text - Black Knights – Story of Tuskegee Airmen - Chapters III through IV   
Text – Human Communication - Chapter 2
Video – The Tuskegee Airmen – They Fought Two Wars.
Video - The Tuskegee Airmen Gold Medal Presentation in Washington
The Tuskegee Airmen Value System
 Group discussions/activities

Weekend III – June 27

Text - Black Knights – Story of Tuskegee Airmen - Chapters V through VI
Text – Human Communication - Chapter 4                                                           
Video – Nightfighters – The True Story of the 332^nd Fighter Group – The Tuskegee Airmen
Extra Credit: A Tuskegee Airman Research Paper: Why did the Tuskegee Airmen fight for a country that didn’t want them? This will count up to 10% of the final grade if the student feels extra credit is needed.
Group discussions/activities and group assignments
Test One – ½ hour quiz – and pizza party

Weekend IV – July 11

Text - Black Knights – Story of Tuskegee Airmen - Chapters VII through IX
Text – Human Communication - Chapter 6
The Tuskegee Airmen Problem-Solving Model 
Other world heroes of peace employing Tuskegee Airmen Values
Group discussions/activities
Soup & Salad party - provided by students if desired                      

Weekend V – July 25

Text - Black Knights – Story of Tuskegee Airmen - Chapters XIII through XIV
Text – Human Communication - Chapter 10 
Test Two – ½ hour quiz – Chapters 1 & 2 of Human Communications
                                    Tuskegee Airmen 4-TEST (GAP) Problem-Solving Model (Click above Mustang)
                                    The Value System of World Heroes attributes -  Click on VALUES. 
Group discussions/activities
Guest Speaker – Kaylon Clarke – WWII Hero – Bomber pilot – Prisoner of War
Video - Passion and Discipline 
Optional hors d'oeuvres party provided by students
Take home final exam issued -  How do the Tuskegee Airmen problem-solving techniques and group dynamics compare to those of other class-discussed world heroes of peace?                                                      

Weekend VI – August 8

Text - Black Knights – Story of Tuskegee Airmen - Chapters XV through XIII
Text – Human Communication - Chapter 12
Group discussions/activities

Weekend VII – August 10

Tuskegee Airmen Banquet – Hiram College – Heritage Room - attendance = 10% of grade
Original Tuskegee Airmen in attendance – Please bring guests
Final exam – to be turned in – 25% of grade
Optional: August 21-24 – Tuskegee Airmen National Convention: Dallas, Texas


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Final Exam
The Tuskegee Airmen – a Study of Group Dynamics
Summer 2007
This final is to be turned in no later than August 10, 2007

All papers are to be double spaced, 12-point New Times Roman font, with no more than 1 inch margins.

Essay Question One: From the list of twenty-one heroes of peace, briefly research one of these leader’s accomplishments and write a two page paper (minimum of 400 words) describing the similarities between his/her the problem-solving techniques and those of the Tuskegee Airmen. Pay particular attention to describing how the value system was used by both the Tuskegee Airmen and your selected hero.

Essay Question Two: Chapter Six in Human Communication deals with conflict. According to this text, there are six ways human address conflict from ignoring it to total disorder. Study the following terms and examples found in chapter six and become familiar with their meaning. They are found on pages 181 through 187.

1. Avoidance:
   1. Denial
   2. Under responsiveness
   3. Shifting and avoiding topics
   4. Semantic focus
   5. Postponement
2. Competition
   1. Presumptive attribution
   2. Prescription
3. Compromise
4. Accommodation
   1. Appeasement
5. Collaboration
   1. Qualification
   2. Negative inquiries
   3. Showing empathy
6. Ambiguity and Disorder

     In is interesting to note that the Tuskegee Airmen 4-Test (GAP) Problem-Solving Model, when combined with the Value System for determining a course of ACTION, does not follow any of the above approaches. It instead encompasses an internal value system approach to determine an ACTION from a Problem-Solving Matrix designed to protect an ultimate goal without creating additional problems and while protecting the dignity of your adversary.

Problem: The Tuskegee Airmen are in Europe. They are in conflict with their white commander who gives them assignments designed keep them away from enemy aircraft. Their commander assigns them only to shoot at ground targets on Mediterranean islands and they are given worn out aircraft to fly that must constantly be repaired. They are segregated from the whites, degraded, and they cannot prove their combat readiness, courage, or flying ability under such prejudicial conditions.

Goal: To become the first U.S. black fighter pilots, to open doors for blacks in the United States by demonstrating their capabilities, to integrate the U.S., Military, to defeat Hitler from creating a “superior race,” to make their families proud of them, to earn military pay and learn a skill they can use after the war.

Action: Continue performing at their highest level, do every task without resistance and to standards beyond requirements giving no excuse to cancel the program. Eventually they will be noticed for their repeated excellence. Combat opportunities will most likely evolve in our present situation if we are persistent.
     Hopefully they can eventually get into the war by continuously displaying their excellence without creating problems and by developing trust and consistency. The Army Air Corps is short on pilots, they need the Tuskegee Airmen. There are enemy in their area; things may break in their favor if they don’t cause trouble.

     The Tuskegee Airmen’s problem-solving techniques are based on an individual taking charge of himself/herself, determining the type of person the individual wants to be, and then requiring himself/herself to behave according to these values, especially when reacting to others.

     Write a two-page paper (minimum of 400 words) describing the differences between the Tuskegee Airmen’s conflict resolution techniques based on their value system and any three of the six conflict-resolution choices listed in Chapter 6.

      Twenty-one World Heroes of Peace

1. Susan B. Anthony

2. Jimmy Carter

3. George Washington Carver

4. César Estrada Chávez

5. Albert Einstein

6. Mahatma Gandhi

7. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

8. Abraham Lincoln

9. Nelson Mandela

10. Rigoberta Menchu

11. Rosa Parks

12. Florence Nightingale

13. Eleanor Roosevelt

14. Ginetta Sagan

15. Princess Dianna Spencer

16. Albert Schweitzer

17. Aung San Suukyi.

18. Mother Teresa

19. Desmond Mpilo Tutu

20. Booker T. Washington

21. William Wilberforce

 

The Tuskegee Women
(A book being written by Hiram College Students)

Interview and Chapter Guidelines for Glass Groups

Name of Class Group _____________________________________________________

Student’s names in Group      ______________________    ______________________

______________________    ______________________    ______________________

______________________    ______________________    ______________________

Candidate’s Name _________________________________ Home Phone: ___________

Address _________________________________________  City __________________

State ____Zip Code ___________________ Email ______________________________

Where was the candidate born? _____________________________________________

Where did the candidate grow up? ___________________________________________

High School _________________________ College ____________________________

Why is this candidate considered an original Tuskegee Woman?

Between 1940 and 1948, what were this candidate’s duties?

Describe several memorable events involving this candidate’s Tuskegee experience?

Describe this candidate’s saddest moments with the Tuskegee experience.

What were this candidate’s emotions and feelings regarding:

• The Tuskegee experience?
• The racial prejudice of the military?
• The lack of appreciation from our country?
• The pride in doing a good job?
• The Tuskegee camaraderie?

How did this candidate’s Tuskegee experiences affect her life after World War II?

• Regarding her employment?
• Regarding her accomplishments?
• Regarding her ability to resolve problems?
• Regarding her spousal relationship?
• Regarding the relationship with her children?
• Regarding the relationship with her grandchildren?

 

The Tuskegee Airmen-A Study in Group-Leadership Theory
 

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I.   Course Description:

     In 1925, Major General H. E. Ely, commandant of the War College , responded to a study ordered by the War Department entitled “The Use of Negro Manpower in War.” Ely concluded, “…that black men were cowards and poor technicians and fighters, lacking initiative and resourcefulness.”  Ely further stated that the average black man’s brain weight only 35 ounces, while the average white man’s brain weight 45 ounces. This report “proved” to most officials that the black man’s role in the military should be limited to closely supervised menial jobs and that they should be kept segregated from whites because they were “…a subspecies of the human population.”

     In 1941, the black man was finally allowed to train in aircraft through a civilian program at the Tuskegee Airfield in Alabama . The program, however, was to show that black men did not posses “what it takes” to be fighter pilots in a white man’s air core.  Many government officials went to great extremes to insure the program would fail.

     Despite many, almost insurmountable obstacles intentionally placed in the way of their success, the black Tuskegee-trained airmen triumphed over all opposition and developed into the most skilled and formidable fighting air force ever known.  How could this be when the architecture of the Tuskegee Airmen program was designed for failure?  How did the Tuskegee Airmen’s group dynamics serve as a “substitute for outside-managerial leadership?  How did nonverbal communications play a major role in the Tuskegee Airmen achieving their objectives? How did the Tuskegee group leaders employ various leadership theories to successfully overcome their obstacles?         

     This course will study group dynamics and leadership theories using the Tuskegee Airmen experiment as a basis. We will examine how racism can be successfully combated with ethics, and how goal setting, nonverbal communications, quality performance, and strong-group leadership can overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

II.   Goals and Objectives:

A. Examine how groups can operate in a management and organizational setting using the Tuskegee Airmen's persistence, ethics, and commitment to excellence as a basis.

B. To learn how a group can succeed in its objectives without top-management support.

C. To study how individual’s performance and nonverbal communications affects a group’s outcome.

D. To understand how nonverbal communications can be used (positively or negatively) to jump gaps in cultures, management, and social status.

E. To understand that many problems can only be solved through groups.

     This course provides students with an opportunity to study a hierarchal organization using leadership and group dynamic theories as applied under extreme conditions and how these theories are not mutually exclusive, but rather codependent to insure success.  

     The Tuskegee Airmen – A Study in Group-Leadership Theory and Nonverbal Communication, is well within the guidelines of the Hiram Mission Statement as well as being an invaluable aspect of the Business Management major. It demonstrates through many varied examples (business case histories, class group experiences, communication variables, and effective group dynamics under duress) how one’s oral, nonverbal behavior, and written communication skills, guided by social responsibility and ethics, can prepare one for successful leadership under the most extreme conditions.

III.   Course Expectations:

Texts

Tubbs/Moss (2005) 10th Edition, Human Communication Principles and Contexts. Eastern Michigan University
Homan, Lynn M., Reily, Thomas (2001).   Black knights: the story of the Tuskegee airmen.   Louisiana : Pelican Publishing 

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Course Intention

A. To demonstrate how leadership and goal setting in groups can overcome obstacles.

B. To examine how a group designed to fail by management, can still succeed.

C. To illustrate how subgroups and their behavior contribute to the success or failure of an organizational goal.

D. To understand how ethics and nonverbal communications coupled with strong group leadership skills can offer a formidable opposition to stereotyping and racism.

E. To study nonverbal communications involving management styles, cultural differences, and public perceptions.

    The Tuskegee Experiment is a classic example of how a group can succeed in their mission when outside-managerial influences are determined for them to fail.  This course offers a hands-on experience in business groups and team case studies allowing groups to succeed in their goals even when outside leadership is conflicting.  Using nonverbal communications to reinforce important group objectives and cross cultural barriers is an important part of this course. Students will be divided into groups and given an objective, but support from the professor will be hampering, at best. The evolving group dynamics should reach a necessary level for goal attainment. Similar conflicts frequently occur in today’s business world when technology and older CEO’s often experience conflicts with more modern subordinate groups and their objectives.

Research Paper - The Tuskegee Women

The Group Analysis and Case Studies

     The class will be divided into groups and given an actual project involving the Tuskegee Airmen and Women. This project is designed to promote better understanding of group dynamics from hands-on experience.  This project will start the third class session and continue through the last class on August 10. A 5-page paper (activities log) compiled by each group involving the project's encountered obstacles and how they were overcome will be due the last day of class.
     Another short observation project will involve the effects of nonverbal communications with the Tuskegee airmen’s struggles. The final exam will be issued on July 25 and involve how the Tuskegee Airmen problem-solving techniques and group dynamics compare to those of other class-discussed world heroes of peace?    

Attendance, academic honesty, and class behavior are expected to be equal to or exceed the guidelines already established in our Student Handbook.

Class reading assignments are expected to be completed before class.
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IV.   Assessment and Evaluation:

1.      Tests:

In class - first and second exam = 20% of grade each = Short answer, multiple choice, fill in the blank,
matching, true & false. Involves the Tuskegee Airmen history, group dynamics.

Possible subjects for final exam:
     (1) Why did the Tuskegee Airmen/women want to fight for the United States when their country was segregated, limiting their rights and privileges, allowing "Jim Crow" laws to prevail, and ignoring their accomplishments?
     (2) If the methods the Tuskegee Airmen/Women used in the 1940s to resolve their goals were applied today, would the results be favorable or not?  Why?
     (3) Why did it take so long for this country to become aware of the Tuskegee Airmen/women and start to recognize their accomplishments - 1941-1943, yet first movie in 1992, first Tuskegee membership group established in 1972?
     (4) Why were the Tuskegee Airmen able to succeed?
     (5)  How do the Tuskegee Airmen problem-solving techniques and group dynamics compare to those of other class-discussed world heroes of peace?    

Take-home final = 25% of grade.
Group Project = 25% of grade
Field trip, (banquet) last class = 10% of grade.

2.    Grading Policies:

     a. Attendance as part of grade = 0%
b. Class participation encouraged and required for class-group assignments; however, class participation will not be a portion of the student’s grade.        
c. Makeup work will be more difficult than the original assignment.
d. 1/2 letter grade will be deducted for work up to 2 days late, 1 letter grade for 2-5 days late, not accepted after 5 days late.

3.    Grading Rubric 93-100 = A, 90-92 = A-, 87-89 = B+, 83-86 = B, 80-82 = B-, 77-80 = C+, 74-76 = C, 70-72 = C-, 67-69 = D+, 63-66 = D  60-62 = D-, 60< = F

4.    Written Work Guidelines: typed, Times New Roman font, double spaced, 12 pt font, 1” margins.

5.    Extra Credit may be offered equaling 10% of the final grade, but not in place of required tests and assignments.

6.    Plagiarism will be addressed as outlined in the College Student Handbook.

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V.   Resources:

1. Assigned texts
2. Videos on the Tuskegee experience
3. Group projects and case studies in class

4. Research on the Internet and through libraries and periodicals.

5. Guest speakers and/or field trips.
6. Tuskegee Websites, Group Dynamics Websites.
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VI.           Epilog

     This course is designed to offer a hands-on experience in business-group case studies allowing groups to succeed in their goals even when outside leadership is poor, not supportive, and/or conflicting.  Nonverbal communications, a very powerful tool if used correctly, will be interwoven with class case studies. The texts and study materials presented in this course are dynamic and will change with altering outside influences, such as technology advances and accepted business ethics and cultures. The Tuskegee Experiment, however, should remain as a steady constant for group-dynamic comparison analysis to any currently accepted theory.  The longer the class is taught, the more refined and efficient the presented material will be.

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