This study weaves together strands of knowledge from a range of disciplines including anthropology and physics to explore power and leadership from a paradigm of synergy. Due to a desire to develop a phenomenological understanding of synergic power, both synergic power and network-based leadership are explored in an organization in Northern Colorado that uses community organizing to develop leaders and exercise power for social change. Nine semi-structured interviews, observational data, organizational documents, and census data were collected and analyzed to address five research questions: do people in organizations use synergic power and are they aware of it, how do they conceptualize power, how do they conceptualize leadership, what is the structure and function of leadership, and what can we learn about synergic power and network-based leadership from this type of organization. Overall the data provides support for the presence and use of synergic power and network-based leadership in the organization. The data also shows that organizational members understood power and leadership to be relational phenomena which is indicative of a synergy paradigm. The results of this study have implications for leadership, practice, social action, and social change.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-09132006-114646 |
| Date | 13 September 2006 |
| Creators | Armstead, Theresa Leola |
| Contributors | Maury Nation, Melissa Snarr, Paul Dokecki, John Newbrough, William Partridge, Paul Speer |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-09132006-114646/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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