No description available.

Outward Bound stands out amongst the rest of the wilderness organizations not only for its time-honored contribution to the field of wilderness education, but for its fundamental process and theories which contribute to its success. Academic attention in the field of wilderness programs largely overlooks the role of organizational culture. To fill the gap in our knowledge, this study synthesizes the academic conversation on Outward Bound programs and integrates it with the most consistent findings about organizational culture. Interviewing the participants and instructors of a 72-day long Outward Bound course conducted in 2015 provides clear insight into the role of organizational culture on Outward Bound, its formation, management, and impacts, as well as overall course outcomes for participants. My research finds that the culture within organizations that are built to dissolve can create meaningful and lasting cultural shifts in its members including increases in interpersonal dimensions such as open-mindedness, patience and improved relationships, as well as in intrapersonal dimensions such as independence, confidence and motivation. Drawing on participant responses, I further find that the role of subgroups, conflict, and exclusion can be contentious, contributing to instability and division in organizational culture. Conversely, shared values, familial themes, and compassion can coalesce to unify the culture so strongly that all participants reflect back on the culture as net positive and their experience with Outward Bound as one of growth and positive transformation.

Outward Bound and the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) are two of the United State’s largest providers of outdoor education and adventure recreation programs. While many studies have examined the outcomes of the different organizations individually, there is very little comparative research. This study compared the attributes, consequences, and values obtained by 510 participants of courses 14 days or longer in the Rocky Mountain region during the summer of 2006. Means-end theory was used to analyze data obtained from participants through personal interviews. Means-end theory links the physical objects or services, the means, with the outcomes and the personal values of the individual, the ends (Klenosky, Frauman, Norman, & Gengler 1998). The theory focuses on the interrelationship among attributes, consequences, and values, as three levels of abstraction (Goldenberg, Klenosky, O’Leary, & Templin, 2000). Data were collected using a convenience sampling method from OB schools in Leadville, Marble, and Silverton, Colorado and the NOLS headquarters in Lander, Wyoming, for a total of 162 OB participants and 348 NOLS participants. Interview questions were entered into LadderMap software, a program used to analyze means-end data. Content codes were developed and then tested by an additional researcher to measure intercoder reliability. An implication matrix was then created to tabulate the frequency of concepts being associated with one another. Hierarchical value maps (HVMs) were then created to graphically depict the themes and relationships that surfaced in the implication matrix. Seven HVMs were developed to visually present the data for all participants, all NOLS participants, all OB participants, OB males, OB females, NOLS males, and NOLS females. Though all HVMs were varied, some themes emerged by organization. For example, all NOLS participants had slightly more significant links to hard skills development than did their OB counterparts. NOLS and OB females stated being challenged and interactions as their most significant consequences yet corresponding males had slightly less emphasis on being challenged and more emphasis on new experience. This study produced more similarities than differences among the various subsets of the population. For example all HVMs showed a clear link from multiple attributes to independence, and ultimately to transference and additional values. The HVMs showed that new experiences, being challenged, and group interactions were significant components for all participants. The most common values obtained also demonstrate great similarity among participant demographics. These values include transference, sense of accomplishment, self respect/esteem/confidence, and self-awareness.

Onward Bound: -- the first 50 years of Outward Bound Australia traces the founding and development of this unique, Australian, non-profit, non-government organisation from its earnest beginnings to its formidable position today where it attracts some 5,000 participants a year to its courses. The project included interviewing hundreds of people and scouring archives and public records to piece together a picture of how and why Outward Bound Australia (OBA) developed -- recording its challenges and achievements along the way. A mediated oral history approach was used among past and present OBA founders, staff and participants, to gather stories about their history. This use of oral history (in a historical book) was a way of cementing the known recorded facts and adding colour to the formal historical outline, while also giving credence to the text through the use of 'real' people's stories.

The results from this study suggest that participants of wilderness adventure education programs offered by Outward Bound and the National Outdoor Leadership School felt challenged by many of the experiences from their programs. Interactions with their group helped in dealing with the challenges presented by the experience. The development of hard skills gave participants a confidence in their abilities to survive and feel safe in these wilderness environments, which allowed them to relax and enjoy the experience, develop new perspectives, become motivated and inspired, and develop a sense of independence. Participants developed a sense of growth and maturity from their experiences, which upon reflection led to a sense of accomplishment. This sense of accomplishment led to transference of program benefits and values into participants’ lives, particularly in greater self-respect/esteem/confidence. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the outcomes that individuals experienced from wilderness adventure programs and the effects they had on participants’ lives. Means-end theory was used to understand the outcomes, more specifically attributes, consequences, and values, and their connections to each other. This study was longitudinal in nature and a comparison between the original data collection and follow-up interviews was done to investigate reported change in values over time. The results from this study show that the outcomes from participation in the Outward Bound and NOLS programs were transferring into participant’s lives and leaving a lasting impression.

This study investigates the promise of using therapeutic adventure as an alternative therapeutic approach to address a public health issue: Veterans reticence towards seeking mental health assistance, despite their rising rates of mental health issues. To examine how the intersection between conformity to traditional masculine norms and Outward Bound for Veterans (OB4V) programming impacted psychosocial development, a quasi-experimental, longitudinal design was implemented on 159 male Veterans. The primary goals were twofold: 1) to determine whether improvement in six therapeutic outcome variables occurred due to the OB4V intervention; 2) to discover whether male Veterans’ level of conformity to traditional masculine norms influenced change in the therapeutic outcome variables. Outcome variables included: 1) mental health status; 2) personal growth initiative; 3) attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help; 4) psychological mindedness; 5) restriction of emotions; 6) subjective wellbeing. Results indicated a significant effect of treatment, suggesting that the OB4V treatment promoted Veterans improvement in all the therapeutic outcome variables, except psychological mindedness. Findings also showed that the significant effect of treatment was associated with Veterans’ improvement in therapeutic outcome variables over all time points irrespective of their level of conformity to traditional masculine norms. / text

No description available.

No description available.