Leadership and Listening: Perceptions and Behaviors

Recently, however, Bechler & Johnson (1995) made an initial attempt to identify a relationship between perceptions of leadership and perceptions of listening skill. Their study found a significant positive correlations between member perceptions of who was leading the group and member perceptions of which members were the best listeners. “Those subjects ranked as most like a leader were also typically ranked as good listeners…Individuals perceived to be leading the groups were most commonly believed to be listening to the groups” (Bechler & Johnson, 1995, pp.82-83). This essay extends that study, reexamining the relationship between perceptions of leadership and listening and adding a consideration of actual listening performance

Deference, Denial, and Exclusion: Men Talk about Contraception and Unintended Pregnancy

Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 men, ages 21-48, who have fathered at least one unintended pregnancy. The goal of the interviews was to explore the experiences of these men with unintended pregnancy, their communication with partners and others, contraceptive beliefs and practices, their relationships with their partners, and the outcomes and consequences of the unintended pregnancies. This essay describes results derived from their comments regarding their contraceptive practices and the pregnancy-outcome decisions, with thematic analysis used to identify prominent themes from participant comments. Two strong themes, deference and denial, and one lesser theme, exclusion, emerged from participant responses. Discussion of the role of communication, the power of denial, and opportunities for further involvement of men in decision making relating to unintended pregnancy are presented