Leadership and ManagementLeadership and ManagementThe conditions under which Franklin Roosevelt donned the presidency of the United States could sparingly have been more daunting. The country was in year four of a disastrous economic crisis known as the great depression. Twenty five percent of the workforce in America was out of work, or barely working at all, more than thirty eight states had financial institutions that had closed or were closing, and farmers across the country who were losing their farms began to resist the taking of their farms and property by resorting to violence (The White House, 2013). Even the actual continuation of a democracy surrounding the nation’s political system was in peril.
LeaderFranklin Roosevelt was innovative, was able to develop plans to be followed, and had a long term view to bring the nation back to a level of prosperity. Roosevelt’s ideas involved taking the nation off of the gold standard and his innovative ideas spawned what became known as social security for the citizens of the country and an enormous work program that put American’s back to work known as the Work Progress Administration, part of Roosevelt’s New Deal plan. Roosevelt was not willing to accept the status quo at the time.
ManagerAs a manager Roosevelt was able to control the fellow democrats that were in political office at the time. Roosevelt even had control of some republicans that were willing to side with him during his first presidency. Roosevelt had political leaders from both sides working on his team to solve the crisis the nation was in. His ability to control both the democrats and the republicans made Roosevelt a great manager of his time. Another example of Roosevelt’s attempt at being a manager was when he made the decision to add more justices to the Supreme Court that were in favor of his New Deal program. Although he was not successful in his endeavor, it was a clear example of Roosevelt’s intent to control the courts (Leuchtenburg, May).
Roles and FunctionsRoosevelt displayed many roles and functions as the nation’s president. Two of the most popular roles could have been his ability to direct and his capability to set goals. The similarity of his ability to direct and set goals went hand in hand. His direction to his support staff was quite clear when it came to achieving the goals he had in mind. Roosevelt knew that he needed to direct the nation out of the depression, and he had numerous goals that he had set to make that happen. Roosevelt needed the support of his entire party and even the support of some republicans. He was able to direct the political system to favor his ideas therefore increasing the chances that his goals for the nation would be
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1.2 Roosevelt’s political party was organized and disciplined. During the 1920’s, as the economy of the United States grew the political leaders at the federal level increased the need for the assistance of the political parties in order to create a more coherent opposition to the Federal government. For example, he helped to create the National Bank. He saw that “The National Government needs to have its own people to govern.” Roosevelt saw that the President did not want a centralized executive power but that he wanted the executive branch to take charge of the agencies, regulations, and spending decisions of the government. He saw as high government had been controlled by Congress and by the president the Federal Republic was to rise up under the new President.
1.3 Roosevelt’s party was highly effective in this endeavor. For example, with the election to the office of senator and the establishment in place of President John H. R. Adams, his national standing in Congress was impressive. He carried through a strong campaign to achieve certain Democratic gains by the end of the 1920’s. But at the same time, his efforts for the presidency continued to disappoint.
J. M. S. ROGERS–
1.4 Roosevelt enjoyed considerable popularity for most of his adult life with the Congress even after President Grant took over the administration. Roosevelt was, as one member of the House stated, “a very good man and a very talented diplomat.” But Roosevelt was unable to get the approval of the President. So President Grant issued a series of executive orders to the agencies, and Roosevelt was largely ignored by the government. And his relationship with the White House grew increasingly tense.
1.5 President Roosevelt began to get increasingly anxious and frustrated in January 1933. He felt that he was being left behind and was having difficulty reaching his desired goals. But the fear that was instilled into him was of a new magnitude and he had no choice but to make some drastic changes.
1.6 On January 14, 1933, President Roosevelt decided to withdraw the Federal Reserve from circulation and withdraw money from banking establishments. He did this because he thought that the Bank of England had “dissolving” its own banking operations, because of the lack of Federal Reserve control, and because of his frustration that it would not have to act as lender to depositors and accountants. Roosevelt wanted the Bank to close a few branches but no one in the world wanted them.
1.7 The bank in question held two positions, Bank of New York and Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The first positions were to manage the securities market and to sell commercial paper futures contracts. These positions were not publicly available at that time. Roosevelt would have to resign from those positions immediately if he realized that he was being left behind.