Lubna Alli

The Mafia is very much alive and present. Today I felt afraid walking the streets of Palermo and publicly taking about it during our tour with Stefano. It just felt like such a taboo subject and that no matter how secretive we were in discussing it (which he reassured us we needn’t be), we would still be threating our safety. The members of the Cosa Nostra seem to all have thick skin, high uncertainty avoidance, assertiveness and in-group collectivism. Similar to the leadership style of the task-oriented leader, the Cosa Nostra means business. They claim to put up a façade that they are people-oriented, offering the people of Sicily protection in exchange for pizzo, but in reality, they are only in it for themselves. Their main goal is to obtain money, and they will go through whatever means necessary to do so.

 

The Cosa Nostra places a high value on structure, privacy and hard work. Much like Germany, they also prefer directness and honesty, which is not be mistaken for rudeness. With members of the Mafia, their desire for orderliness spills over into business life, where surprises and humour are not welcomed. One last value of the Mafia that is not to be overlooked is their value for family and community; they depend heavily on their families for protection, safety, trust and comfort.

 

These are the rewards that are motivating for leaders of the Mafia. This is why someone would want to take in the role of being a leader within the organization. Aside from monetary gain, members of the Mafia are able to gain protection and acceptance. As was mentioned in the tour, once one person is a member of the Mafia, their entire family becomes a member or the Mafia/ affiliated with them in some way. They all work for each other and in their favour. With this kind of pressure to fit in, especially among younger recruits, the tempting reward of feeling accepted is definitely a thing.

 

When it comes to building the personal relationships among the members of the Mafia, this is where the façade of the people oriented leader comes into play. The relationships between the members of the Mafia are built on trust. As was mentioned by our tour guide, when someone becomes a member of the Mafia, they must put a nail through their hands and use that same blood to swear upon the picture of the Virgin Mary, symbolizing that they would never give up any of the secrets of the Mafia. This is a defying point in the role that the Mafia plays because it puts religion second. With Italy being such a church based and Christian based society, taking this oath is definitely a statement in itself of the commitment that these leaders are willing to make for their involvement in the Mafia. It is for this reason that the personal relationships that are made among the members of the Mafia are so strong and are not taken lightly.

 

Similarly, this is how the leader’s success is measured. They are considered successful when they are able to obtain their task. As is mentioned in the lecture notes titled “Breaking Ground On Cultural Dimensions: Hofstede,” the role of the leader is to influence followers to achieve a shared goal. Once this goal is achieved, then the leaders of the Mafia can consider themselves successful. Ultimately, the main goal of the Mafia is to obtain money. They do this in a number of steps. One of the major steps is recruiting new members to join the Mafia, usually those who appear weak and susceptible to victimization. Another means that they use to obtain money (and, consequently achieve their desired goal) is by threatening. They measure their success by the number of shops that succumb to the payment of the pizzo through the explicit and implicit hints that they drop. These forms of intimidation include the placing of funeral flowers or bullets outside your door, or graffiti and physical harm.

 

As someone that is so used to seeing leadership impact communities in a positive way, it is unfortunate to think that this is not applicable when it comes to the Mafia. I’m sure there are benefits of having the Mafia, but given that both of our tour guides were pro anti-Mafia, that is a perspective that I felt we missed out on. All the more reason for me to go back to Sicily to find out more from the opposing perspective. That, and arancine!

 

Craving,

Lubna