5. Culture

My residence hall has a culture all its own.  Phillipps Hall, along with NCU, follows Christian values and beliefs.  For the most part, we live as a loving Christian community.  We value things like modesty, prayer, and morals.  Community is something that is stressed a lot.  Hall events, floor events, bro/sis events, etc.  Some behavioral norms could include: hanging out in the stairwells with the opposite sex when it's not open dorms, boys blasting their music, such as Friday, by Rebecca Black or Sexy Sax Man, loud enough for all of Phillipps to hear.  Random dance parties, forgetting your keys and pounding on the door, floor transfer days eating in the hallway, Lifecore on Tuesdays, PG on Wednesdays.  Each floor has its own traditions and perks such as the 4E rap and the 1W time capsule.  There is also a distinct dialect of language that has accumulated over the years.  Shortening of words such as: probs-probably, totes-totally, best evs-best ever; and the acronyms such as RD, ARD, DA, RA, and DL.  Oh and don't forget all the different names for meetings: in-service, in-hall, floor council, and wing council.  

Gender, race, and ethnicity all can influence a person's values and their leadership.  These differences are oftentimes put into categories and people tend to associate with people who are similar to them in these areas.  Because of this, they share common beliefs and values and are spread to others of the same.  Since girls all live together on their floors, they will all probably have somewhat similar mindsets about certain things simply by being associated and influenced by the same people all the time.  This also affects leadership because a person needs to lead in a way that will most closely impact the set of people they are leading.  In this way, a leader needs to know the needs and values of the group as it is and determine in what terms they need to be led.  Through an understanding of the cultural factors of a group grows a greater ability to lead.