Browsing by Subject "Leadership Development"
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Item Leadership and the Boy Scouts of America's High Adventure Program(2013-04-29) Lizzo, RobinRecreation programs for youth are increasingly being asked to justify their purpose beyond providing fun and games. Stakeholders (e.g., taxpayers, parents, or donors) expect youth programs to develop specific outcomes in young people that will assist them in becoming fully functional adults. More empirical evidence is needed to support the idea that recreational programs indeed provide added educational or developmental benefits. One key outcome that transcends many recreational programs, regardless of setting, is leadership development. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate leadership development in a Boy Scouts of America (BSA) High Adventure Program. Two research objectives guided this study. First, the researcher sought to determine whether youth participants in Philmont?s 12-Day Trek High Adventure Program reported increases in leadership measures as a result of their experiences. Based on the goals of this program, the researcher hypothesized that self-reported leadership qualities would increase after youth had participated in the program. Second, the study went one step further to explore what characteristics of the High Adventure Program potentially promoted or detracted from leadership development within the BSA High Adventure Program. The research design for this study was a non-experimental retrospective research design using quantitative and qualitative data obtained from a single sample of participants at the Philmont Scout Ranch. The method of data collection employed a self-administered survey instrument given to participants upon completion of their program. The survey used the Youth Leadership Life Skills Development Scale in addition to two open-ended questions designed to extract elements that promoted or detracted from leadership development. Results from the Youth Leadership Life Skills Development Scale indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the mean of participant attitudes before the Philmont experience and the mean of participant attitudes after the Philmont experience. Results from the open-ended questions isolated nine emergent themes that participants reported to promote leadership development and four that detracted from leadership development. Overall, this study provides much needed empirical evidence to contribute to the idea that recreational youth programs, while providing fun leisure experiences, can utilize their settings to make an even bigger contribution to the lives of young people.Item LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN CONTEXT: A DESCRIPTIVE MIXED METHOD STUDY OF LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES DURING SIGNIFICANT ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE(2010-07-14) Hasler, Michael G.This study explores the extent to which organizational culture and operational environment influence the leadership activities of an organization in the midst of significant organizational change and whether culture drives leadership development or vice versa. After exploring several different leadership theories, the study focuses on the concepts of transformational leadership as the theoretical foundations for the leadership component of the research. Likewise, the study builds on organizational theory and sociological foundations to focus on the work of Schein and Hatch for organizational culture, and Schneider for key concepts used in the development of person-organization fit. The research in this study concentrated on the manufacturing organization of a large, well-known company based in the US. This organization is in the midst of considerable organizational change in response to upheavals in its markets, its technology, and its manufacturing strategy. Research was conducted through collection of data from public sources, review of internal organization documents, a survey of perceptions of the organizational culture held by the staff, and detailed interviews with a cross section of the professional and managerial staff involved in the leadership development process. The results of the research and analysis showed that despite strong efforts by executive leadership and developing leadership at all levels to create a more compassionate organizational culture, the crisis facing the organization caused even the most committed and well-meaning individuals to revert to a cultural norm of a driven, results-oriented organizational culture. The interviews and survey data led to conclusions that culture change is a long term effort; that it requires executive leadership commitment, vision, and constant communication to reinforce the vision; and is best addressed through leadership development in the younger staff with less personal investment in the status quo.Item Scenario Planning as the Development of Leadership Capability and Capacity; and Virtual Human Resource Development(2011-08-03) McWhorter, Rochell 1963-This dissertation explored the perceived association between scenario planning and the development of leadership capability and capacity. Furthermore, this study explored sophisticated virtual environments seeking instances of adult learning and the conduciveness of these environments for innovative developmental activities to build leadership capability and capacity. Data sources included 1) fifty semi-structured interviews with five expert-practitioners purposively selected for their experience in both scenario planning and leadership development, 2) descriptive process and outcome data from scenario planning programs in university business schools, and 3) fifteen published scenario planning reports, 4) observations of the scenario planning process, and 5) a survey of forty-five individuals who participated in the study of sophisticated virtual environments. The first stream of inquiry that investigated the perceived association between scenario planning and the development of leadership capability and capacity revealed the development of a synthesis model integrated from three informing theoretical frameworks. The model was used for subsequent data collection, analysis, and organization. Each data source supported and further described the associative relationship between scenario planning and the development of leadership capability and capacity; leading to increased confidence in the synthesis model. This study is unique because it links scenario planning explicitly through empirical evidence with the development of leadership capability and capacity. Findings from the second stream of inquiry into sophisticated virtual environments included formal and informal learning in the 3D virtual world of Second Life (SL). Respondents in the study completed forty-five open-ended surveys and follow-up interviews that revealed six enablers of adult learning in SL: 1) a variety of educational topics for life-long learning; 2) opportunities for multidisciplinary collaboration; 3) collaboration across geographical boundaries; 4) immersive environment creates social; 5) health and emotional benefits; and, 6) cost savings over face-to-face experiences. Four barriers included: glitches in technology reduced effectiveness, addictiveness of SL, learning curve for "newbies" and funding issues for small businesses and nonprofits. Also, sophisticated technologies are creating media-rich environments found to be integrative spaces conducive for developmental activities in the field of human resource development (HRD). Scenario planning and leadership development were found to be reasonable developmental activities suited to these digital spaces. Virtual human resource development (VHRD) was identified as a new area of inquiry for HRD.Item The Effectiveness of Leadership Development Programs on Small Farm Producers(2011-10-21) Malone, Allen A.Although there were numerous leadership development programs throughout the country, most ignored the small producers located throughout the south. In order to address the needs of these traditionally underserved individuals, the ?National Small Farmer Agricultural Leadership Institute? was created to address the concerns of small farmers in rural communities. This research specifically targeted the effectiveness of leadership development over a period by exploring the factors that motivate the program participants to enhance their leadership skills and the ability to transform that motivation into effective leadership. The group involved in this study is a convenience population of small farmers and ranchers from across the Southern United States, who graduated from the National Small Farm Leadership Institute. These participants represent 2 graduating classes from 2007 and 2009. A retrospective post survey methodology was used to conduct this study. The instrument is divided into a knowledge base before they took the program (pre) and a retrospective post assessment. Each of the questions allowed the participants to rate their ability on a 5 point Likert-Type scale. The responses ranged from 1 to 5 with the following responses Very Poor, Poor, Fair, Good and Very Good. The survey research examined four educational constructs that were covered during the leadership development program. These were Leadership Skill Development, Leadership Theory, Agricultural Skill enhancement and the Transformation of their leadership skills. Through analysis of the four educational constructs the research reveals substantial increases in knowledge and skills such as Group Problem Solving, Consensus Building, Team Building, Group Decision Making and Obtaining information to help in decision making. Participants were definitely found to have increased their leadership skills through teaching of Leadership Philosophy, linkages to Federal and agricultural resources, the appreciation of different styles of leadership and awareness of agricultural policy issues. The study revealed that in each of the four educational construct areas of the National Small Farm Leadership Institute that there were substantial increases in knowledge and changes in behavior such as: understanding and explaining personal leadership philosophy, increased awareness of Agricultural Policy Issues and transferring the leadership back to the community.Item The impact of a leadership development learning community on the leadership development of freshmen in transition at Texas A&M University: a comparative analysis of year one and year two(2009-05-15) Arnold, Felix Wallace, IIIThe purpose of this research is to see if the peer mentors make a difference in the leadership development of students, their feelings about peer mentors, the Leadership Living Learning Community, and their acclimation to Texas A&M University. Leadership is defined as an interaction between members of a group in which individuals, in the name of the group, act as agents of change, persons whose acts affect other people more than other peoples? actions affect them. The five leadership skills studied were working in groups, positional leadership, communication, decision-making, and understanding self. A post-then methodology was utilized with self-reporting as the process by which data was collected following completion of an academic leadership learning community. The findings from years one and two participants were computed individually and then compared to see if the addition of peer mentors during the second year yielded any significant findings. The major findings for this study were as follows: Year one participants in the learning community indicated improved leadership skills after participation in the learning community for the first semester, as measured by the Leadership Skills Inventory. In addition, year two participants in the learning community indicated a similar increase of leadership skills after the first semester. Year one participants indicated a more statistically significant increase when compared to year two on their leadership skills on the individual questions, while year two participants were found to have more statistically significant findings relating to the five leadership skills or Leadership Skills Inventory scales. Responses by year two participants indicated that the peer mentors who helped them were supportive, gave positive feedback, were good role models, were knowledgeable about Texas A&M University, were easy to communicate with, and did not use peer pressure to persuade them to do anything negative.