Our understanding of leaders and the role they play in organizations and society is changing. Four broad discourses of leadership have been identified as occurring during the past 100 years: controller, therapist, messiah, and eco-leader. The most recent, eco-leader discourse, is characterized by collective decision-making, collaboration, shared leadership, and grassroots organization. Eco-leadership is believed to be beneficial for organizations operating in a 21st century, knowledge-driven economy. A quintessential example of an ecological organization is the Extension Service's 4-H program, the organization which this study examines. However, in 4-H, as in many organizations, a majority of leadership development efforts focus on the individual, positional leader. Further, the vast majority of the literature devoted to eco-leadership is conceptual in nature; empirical studies linking leadership approaches to organizational outcomes are rare.
This study uses an explanatory sequential mixed methods design to examine: (a) the nature of the relationship between county 4-H agents' leadership discourse preferences and programmatic success; (b) county 4-H association members' levels of systemic and hierarchical thinking and programmatic success; (c) the way in which county 4-H association members' perceive their leadership within their counties; and (d) the relationship between these volunteers' perceptions of their leadership and other variables associated with programmatic success.
Findings indicate that the therapist discourse was the most preferred discourse among county 4-H agents, but that agents' discourse scores were unrelated to county 4-H program success. Associations' levels of hierarchical and systemic thinking were also not related to county 4-H program success. Additionally, county 4-H association members reported that: (a) agents play a central role in decision making and communication within the association; (b) association members rarely make decisions on programmatic matters; (c) associations are often not structured in accordance with 4-H's policy for associations; and (d) members are not provided opportunities for development in their roles as association members. / Ph. D. / The one thing we know about leadership is that it changes. Who we recognize as a leader changes over time. What we recognize as leadership also changes over time. In the last 100 years, there have been four eras of leadership, which one researcher dubbed: controller, therapist, messiah, and ecoleader. The latter, eco-leader era, is a 21st century society’s response to the technological and social changes taking place. As the world and its problems become more complex, so too have our ways of addressing them — and that requires a new kind of leader and a new kind of leadership.
But no one knows if this new form of leadership is more effective than any other. There is no scientific evidence, in other words. Rather, most claims are theoretical — it <i>should</i> be better, in theory. This study sought to link the eco-leader era’s approach to actual programmatic success and verify that it is effective. I studied county 4-H programs, which, it is generally believed, subscribe to the eco-leader approach. I surveyed two groups involved in 4-H, categorized the counties as high or low scoring based on their program’s success, and then followed up with small-group discussions in six counties.
What I found is that one group, agents, actually preferred an older era of leadership: therapist. The other group, volunteers, had a variety of views. Regardless of either group’s views, neither seemed to be related to program success. It seems any type of leadership could lead to success or failure. When we met for small-group discussions, however, the three high-scoring counties did tend to describe a more eco-leader style organization, while the low-scoring counties tended to favor older approaches to leadership in which the person in charge makes most of the decisions and the rest carry them out.
This is important to investigate because leadership is, at its root, the way in which people accomplish things in groups. Understanding how we as humans change those ways to meet the demands of our time and determining if they are effective, and, if so, how can we share those strategies with others, is important work to help people grapple with the challenges of an ever-more-complex world.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/73652 |
| Date | 09 December 2016 |
| Creators | Cletzer, David Adam |
| Contributors | Agricultural and Extension Education, Kaufman, Eric K., Rudd, Rick D., Pracht, Dale, Archibald, Thomas G. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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