AIJ 2013 Conference Proceedings.inddSupervising a Student Managed Investment Portfolio Ms. Teri Allen
Developing a Graduate Program in Healthcare Management Using a Competency Based Curriculum Methodology Dr. Kevin LaFrance
The High Cost of Bullying Ms. Marcy Tanner
24-26Addressing Uncertainty during Workplace Change: Communication and Sense-Making Dr. Richard Parsells
An Analysis of Online Cheating: An Empirical Examination of Online Proctors Dr. Randall Valentine and Dr. Dawn Valentine
Competency-Based Learning: Proof of Professionalism Dr. Michael Williams
United Way Bright Beginnings on Professional Development and Retention Among Administrators and Teachers Dr. Nicole Andrews and Ms. Amanda Rutter
15-18 Increasing Intercultural Effectiveness Through a Global Citizenship Approach Dr. Kelly Fish
The Wise Leader Dr. Shirley Garick 19-21
Students’ Experiences and Expectations of Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) in Nursing Education Ms. Hephzibah Samuel 7
A Case for Teaching Geography Mr. Richard Huck 22-23
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Advisory Board 4
Editorial Board 4
Environment Matters: Exploring the Role of Personality and Accountability on Performance Dr. Jermaine Vesey
33-38
The Tale of Two College Experiences: A Cluster Analysis of Obama’s Argument for Higher Education Reform Dr. Justin Walton
39-42
43-46
Advisory Board Members
Dr. Les Crall Associate Dean, Southwestern Oklahoma State University School of Business & Technology les.crall@swosu.edu
Dr. Mary Aspedon Bernhardt Professor, Southwestern Oklahoma State University Department of Education mary.aspedon@swosu.edu
Dr. Jama Rand President, Seattle Research Partners, Inc. jamarand@seattleresearchpartners.com
Dr. Michael Williams Dean, Thomas Edison State College School of Business and Management michaelwilliams4@comcast.net
Dr. Virgil Van Dusen Bernhardt Professor of Pharmacy, Southwestern Oklahoma State University College of Pharmacy virgil.vandusen@swosu.edu
Editorial Board Members
Dr. Patsy Parker Managing Editor, Southwestern Oklahoma State University School of Business & Technology patsy.parker@swosu.edu
Dr. Kelly Moor Copy/Production Editor, Idaho State University Senior Lecturer, Academic Programs aij@swosu.edu
Dr. Lisa Appeddu Research Editor, Southwestern Oklahoma State University College of Pharmacy lisa.appeddu@swosu.edu
Mr. Frederic Murray Editor-at-Large, Southwestern Oklahoma State University Al Harris Library frederic.murray@swosu.edu
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Ms. Teri Allen Southwestern Oklahoma State University
This paper discusses how a student-managed investment fund is used in conjunction with a portfolio management course in an effort to offer students real-world experience while students at a regional university. The class and portfolio are su- pervised by a member of the finance faculty, and investments are processed through a local stock broker. Students are re- sponsible for generating an objective statement for the fund, setting a benchmark for the portfolio, creating an investment strategy, evaluating current holdings, selecting stocks to purchase (or sell), as well as portfolio analysis and evaluation. General guidelines are given for each task, but students retain the majority of the decision making power for the manage- ment of the portfolio. Students are evaluated based upon their participation in weekly meetings and online discussions, as well as on outside research, written reports, and presentations to the university foundation.
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Developing a Graduate Program in Healthcare Management Using a Competency Based Curriculum Methodology
Dr. Kevin LaFrance University of the Incarnate Word
Within a sea change in the structure and process of providing health services, the field of health administration education has moved decisively and concretely from a teaching-centered model of education based on the assumption that knowl- edge equals competency to a learning-centered model. The learning-centered, or student-centered, model is based on the assumption that competency is related to the ability to demonstrate mission- and market-relevant knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes. This presentation provides a comprehensive, non-prescriptive approach to the development of a new competency-based graduate program in health administration within an urban-based, private university located in the Southwest United States. The presenters will describe the structure and process used to align the program’s competencies and curricula to the market needs by incorporating the healthcare community’s input. The first part of the presentation ar- ticle addresses the components of the program development framework, including the determination of a program vision and philosophy and the establishment of a program development group and advisory board. The second part concludes with a discussion of the process used in the selection of a competency model and its application to the course curricula.
This article has been published in Volume 3, Issue 1 of the Administrative Issues Journal. To read the full article, visit: http://swosu.edu/academics/aij
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Students’ Experiences and Expectations of Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) in Nursing Education
Ms. Hephzibah Samuel Anglia Ruskin University
The Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) approach derives ultimately from the Problem Based Learning (PBL) model. This was origi- nally developed in Canada at McMaster University, to be used in their medical school as a way of overcoming learner pas- sivity and linking theory and practice. Nursing Education needed a more flexible curriculum which would help to develop lifelong learning skills and show the importance of competence in practical skills. To achieve these objectives, the use of student-centered learning methodologies such as IBL was encouraged.
Many students have difficulty in adapting to IBL. They feel very insecure and uncertain of the whole process. Students at- tending the program are from different cultures and their previous exposure to, and experiences of, the learning process are very different. This needs definite attention if the goal of the institution is to give the best learning experience to its students.
The results of the study will allow insight into the current experiences that the Nursing students undergo during the IBL process and what are some of their actual expectations of what IBL should be. These findings will help the IBL facilitators to make any changes that may be required to enhance their students’ learning. This will contribute to greater satisfaction on the part of both the students and the facilitators.
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Ms. Marcy Tanner Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Bullying in health care professions is epidemic, and is often considered a rite of passage. Bullying has many deleterious effects, including a physical and emotional toll on those who are victimized or observe others being victimized, as well as myriad financial and administrative effects on the organization itself. Bullying has been implicated in increased absentee- ism, workplace errors, reduced productivity, attrition, and increased costs in terms of insurance claims and litigation. Both the victim and the organization can anticipate immediate and long-term consequences of bullying. However, the majority of organizations have not created or enforced policies to prohibit and address bullying. A literature review of several pro- fessions indicated that bullying has many antecedents, and uncovered best-practice measures for proactively addressing bullying. This information can guide the creation of administrative policies and procedures for addressing bullying in order to mitigate the costs both to the organization and to those who would otherwise be victimized.
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An Analysis of Online Cheating: An Empirical Examination of Online Proctors
Dr. Randall Valentine Dr. Dawn Valentine Georgia Southwestern State University
A study is conducted using data from online unproctored exams and exams using Proctor U, an online service that proctors via a computer webcam. Students in an undergraduate Business Finance class are given the same exam. One class section uses no proctor and the other section uses Proctor U. We find that students taking the unproctored exam score 14% higher on the exam. Further, using a T Test we find a significant difference between the 2 sections.
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Dr. Michael Williams Thomas Edison State College
Over the past decade competency-based education has garnered attention as an alternative educational model in higher education. Increasingly, industry and higher education leaders are acknowledging that current traditional models and practices of education no longer adequately prepare college and university graduates for the cognitive and competency rigors of the 21st century workplace. To meet the evolving expectations of industry leaders, higher education must be re- sponsive to calls for educational reforms associated with preparing graduates for contemporary careers or risk educational irrelevance. While these leaders discuss and debate educational reform, a number of colleges, universities and secondary schools are addressing workforce readiness through implementing competency-based education programming. This pa- per addresses current trends in competency-based education and explores three emerging perspective central to this edu- cational approach; Journeymanship and Education, Faculty as Facilitator and Learner as Learning Steward.
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United Way Bright Beginnings on Professional Development and Retention Among Administrators and Teachers
Dr. Nicole Andrews Ms. Amanda Rutter University of Houston
Administrators and teachers are leaving the field of education at alarming rates that has caused a rise in concern for the future of education. Each year, troves of administrators and teachers vacate their posi- tions for various reasons including retirement, termination, and voluntary resignation. Carroll (2007)
found that between1994 and 2004, U.S. schools hired more than 2.25 million teachers while losing 2.7 million during the same time period. Approximately 50 percent of teachers in the nation leave the field within their first five years of working citing poor working environments and not having enough support as two of the main reasons for pursuing alternative careers (Ingersoll & Smith, 2004). Similarly it was also noted by Pomanski et al. (2010) that a lack of motivation and “disengagement from one’s work” occurs in response to a lack of resources and poor working conditions (Pomanski et al., 2010; p. 1341). Moreover Whitebrook and Sakai (2004) argue that turnover rates among early childhood education staff may be at a higher rate compared to national averages with between one fifth and one third vacating their positions annually. In the State of Texas, nearly 40 percent of teachers leave their position in the first three years costing the state $329 million annually (Greenlee & Brown, 2009). Compounding these already frightening statistics is the reality that approximately 50 percent of current education administrators and teachers are baby boomers that are expected to soon retire (Huling, Resta, & Year- gain, 2012).
Each time an educator is lost, time and money must be spent on recruiting, hiring, and training new staff. The high turnover rate of administrators and teachers in schools are detrimental not only financially but in terms of creating continuity and stable learning environments for impressionable students. When an educator is lost, so is the sense of community the educator established within the school and with fellow staff members, students, parent, and families.
It is well known knowledge that retaining administrators and teachers in the field of education is a challenge faced each year within the United States and is costly to the education system. Attrition rates of teachers within their first few years in the profession are alarmingly high with many educators citing lack of support for leaving the profession before the age of retirement. Moreover, many educators feel they must “sink or swim” in the current educational environment. The fast rate of attrition of educators concerns administrators and policy makers alike. As such there is a need to prepare new and ef- fective teachers as well as to support administrators to sufficiently staff their schools and create nurturing environments for students and teachers alike. This training extends to administrators providing quality professional development that is viewed as increasingly important in order to promote high-quality educational programs that serve every student. Participating centers in the United Way Bright Beginnings program were administered quarterly professional development courses to improve teaching and administrative skills. The participants included directors and teachers from seventeen centers. Results indicated that the self-efficacy of administrators and teachers alike were enhanced as well as retention rates of staff were higher than national averages.
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In contrast, research has shown that through supportive environments and quality professional development and continuing education, administrators and teachers can build higher levels of self-efficacy, thus remaining longer in the field of education. Moreover, research suggests that when teachers receive adequate support from adminis- trators and additional education training including professional development, classroom quality improves (Barnett 2004, Bowman 2011, Whitebrook, Gomby, Bellm, Sakai, & Kipnis, 2009).
In 2002, United Way of Greater Houston and Exxon Mobil created an innovative early childhood education program entitled Bright Beginnings aimed at aiding children from lower-income families in achieving social, emotional, physi- cal, and cognitive milestones as well to have program participants enter school ready to succeed. In addition, this program aimed to strengthen the quality of child care and early childhood programs through staff training and lead- ership development to create competent and confident directors and teachers. In order to strengthen administrators and teachers United Way Bright Beginnings provided quarterly professional development training.
Method
In 2012, United Way Bright Beginnings consisted of seventeen participating learning centers staffing 17 directors and 119 teachers. During 2012, UWBB provided quarterly professional development trainings with the goal of building the confidence of directors and teachers. In order to accomplish this goal, teachers received on-site coaching as well as participated in 24 professional development training hours specific to their teaching assignment. Teaching assign- ments were allocated to four different professional development tracks: new teacher, infant cohort, toddler cohort, and preschool cohort. During professional development training hours, teachers met with teachers of other centers who shared the same teaching assignment. Additionally, UWBB encouraged and provided support to teachers to complete their CDA.
Directors participated in 114 professional development training hours. UWBB provided three day training on the GOLD assessment to help directors learn about and understand the assessment process. Additionally, directors re- ceived training on the parent-child-provider relationship in the first six years of a child’s life from the Brazelton Touch- points Center. This training aimed at helping directors understand the importance of partnerships between parents and providers and to boost directors feeling of competence in communicating with and serving their parent com- munity. Many directors also attended five local, state, and national conferences. Directors travelled to the Chicago Commons for Reggio Emilia Inspired Learning Tour in which they learned how Reggio teaching philosophies can be implemented in American classrooms to engage children in meaningful play.
Results
The Annual Survey revealed that 77% of teachers attended three or more of the quarterly professional develop- ment trainings while 23% attended two or fewer. Additionally, teachers reported changes in their teaching prac- tices regarding observation, documentation, communication, confidence, and collaboration. 82 percent of teachers reported a change in their confidence as a result of participating in UWBB professional development trainings. One teacher shared that “I’ve always been confident, but UWBB appreciates me and sees me as a professional and for that I am grateful.”
Directors indicated that they felt a greater sense of community and improved relationships. Several directors noted that their confidence grew in response to their improved stress management skills. Moreover they indicated that by being able to better manage their own responsibilities and stressors, they in turn improved their listening and com- munication skills, being able to better support their staff and be a team player.
During 2012, 42 staff members left their positions: 14 staff members were dismissed or voluntarily left, 21 left for personal reasons (school, health, family, retirement, moves), and 5 left for better pay. Among the staff that left, 71 percent had less than 4 years of teaching experience, 26 percent had between 4 to 9 years of experience with an average of 5.3 years, and 3 percent had over 9 years of experience. Overall, 105 staff members remained in their posi- tions, a retention rate of 72 percent. Thus, UWBB turnover rate for 2012 was that of 28 percent, at the low end of the national average.
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Discussion
United Way Bright Beginnings has seen success and higher rates of retention by offering quality professional devel- opment training to directors and teachers. Directors of UWBB centers average 10.7 years of experience as directors of centers and 8.9 years of childcare teaching experience. Teachers have an average of 10.1 years of experience, 21 percent under 4 years, 39 percent between 4 to 9 years, and 40 percent with 10 or more years of experience.
By continuing to educate, develop, support, and supervise teachers and administrators beyond formal training, we create educators of quality which in turn positively impacts student achievement. Analysis of norm referenced tests indicated that students of UWBB centers who are predominately high risk populations (children of teen mothers, liv- ing in poverty or homeless, new immigrants, and victims of domestic abuse) are consistently ranking as high as or higher than both the national average and HISD average on the Stanford reading and mathematics, Aprenda reading and mathematics, and STARR reading and mathematics tests.
Thus, in order to change the climate of education, we must first build competent and confident administrators and teachers supporting their growth professionally and providing them with opportunities for further education and ex- ploration of practices, As stated by Elliot, Isaacs, and Chugani (2010) “the development of and progression of.. teach- ers [and administrators] into truly skilled professionals requires continued support and supervision.” (Elliot, Isaacs, & Chugani, 2010, p. 141) In order to be successful, professional development should be “engaging, regularly repeated, and monitored for implementation” (Morgan & Kritsonis, 2008, p. 4). Building confident and competent teachers and administrators is the way to build the success of current and future students.
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References
Andrews, N., Houston, W. R., Tobe, P., Zhang, A., Powers, K., & Kelley, E. (2013). A Program of the United Way of Greater Houston and ExxonMobil: 2012 Program Evaluation. Institute for Urban Education, 1-39.
Barnett, W. S. (2004). Better teachers, better preschools: Student achievement linked to teacher qualifications. Pre- school Policy Matters, (2).
Bowman, B. T. (2011). Bachelor’s degrees are necessary but not sufficient: Preparing teachers to teach young children. In E. Zigler, W. S Gillman, & W. S. Barnett (Eds.), The Pre-K Debates: Current controversies & issues (pp 54-57). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.
Carroll, T. G. (2007). Policy Brief: The High Cost of Teacher Turnover. National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future.
Elliot, E. M., Isaacs, M. L., & Chugani, C. D. (2010). Promoting self-efficacy in early career teachers: A principal’s guide for differentiated mentoring and supervision. Florida Journal of Educational Administration & Policy, 4(1), 131-146.
Greenlee, B., & Brown Jr. J. J. (2009). Retaining teachers in challenging schools. Education, 130(1), 96-109.
Huling, L., Resta, V., & Yeargain, P. (2012). Supporting and retaining novice teachers. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 140-143. Ingersol, R. M., & Smith, T. M. (2004). Do teacher induction and mentoring matter? NASSP Bulletin, 88(638), 28-40. Morganm M. M., & Kritsonis, W. A. (2008). A national focus: The recruitment, retention, and development of quality teachers in hard-to-staff schools. National, Journal for Publishing and Mentoring Doctoral Student Research, 5(1), 1-7. Pomanski, G., DeLongis, A., Frey, D., Short, K., & Woehrle, T. (2010). When the going gets tough: Direct, buffering and indirect efforts of social support on turnover intention. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(6), 1340-1346.
Whitebrook, M., Gromby, D., Bellm, D., Sakai, L., & Kipnis, F. (2009). Preparing teachers of young children: The current state of knowledge, and a blueprint for the future. Berkley, CA: Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, Insti- tute for Research on Labor and Employment, University of California, Berkley.
Whitebrook, M., & Sakai, L. (2004). By a thread: how child care centers hold on to teachers, how teachers build lasting careers. Economics of Education Review, 25(6), 677-678.
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Dr. Kelly Fish Arkansas State University
Many colleges and universities today seek to increase their students’ global skill sets in order to prepare them for the complex integration of cultural, political, social and business processes that await them in today’s world (Lane, Maznevski& Mendenhall, 2004). Indeed many accreditation agencies have for the past several
years included globalization of the curriculum as part of the evaluation process. In this paper, we will measure how one introductory course for freshmen students can increase their global mindset and enhance their intercultural ef- fectiveness. We will use the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale(IES) (Mendenhall, Stevens, Bird, Oddou and Osland, 2011) to gain insights into students’ continuous learning, interpersonal engagement, hardiness and overall intercultural effectiveness by measuring such traits at the beginning of the global citizenship class and again at the end of the semester. Our results indicate that such a class can inch increase student global mindset thus improving their inter- cultural effectiveness.
The IES Scale
The IES scale discussion that follows draws heavily on the IES Instructor’s Guide (2011) as the instrument analyzes three dimensions of intercultural effectiveness: Continuous Learning, Interpersonal Engagement, and Hardiness. Each dimension has two subdomains: Continuous Learning is made up of self-awareness and exploration; Interper- sonal Engagement is comprised of global mindset and relationship interest; while Hardiness involves positive regard and resilience. The IES results report also contains scores on Continuous Learning, Interpersonal Engagement, and Hardiness which are combinations scores of their respective subdomains. Lastly, an Overall IES score is generated by combining the results of the six subdomains. The scale consists of fifty-two items on a five-point Likert-like scale.
Self-awareness is defined as the extent to which a person is aware of his/her personal values weaknesses strengths behavioral tendencies, interpersonal style, as well as, the impact of these things on others. Individuals scoring high in this sub domain are aware of their own personal values and behavioral tendencies while low scorers are not involved in self-discovery. Exploration measures the degree to which a person is open to and pursuant of understanding new ideas, norms, situations, behaviors, and values that are different from one’s own. It measures a person’s willingness to seek new experiences that result in learning or changes in perspective and behavior. High scorers are extremely inquisitive and curious, while low scorers have a preference for current habits and traditions.
The authors conduct pre-treatment and post-treatment observations on students taking a first semester freshman course designed to enlighten them about their role in the world as global citizens. The authors use the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale to measure the students across the dimensions of Continuous Learning, Interpersonal Engagement and Hardiness. Results suggests that students undergoing such a course may increase their intercultural effectiveness, especially in the area of interpersonal engagement, as well as, global mindset.
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Interpersonal Engagement is the next dimension and it is comprised of global mindset that measures the extent to which a person is interested in and wants to learn about other people and their cultures. Additionally, it mea- sures the degree to which one seeks out information outlets such as newspapers, the Internet, movies, and other modes of information in order to expand his/hers global mindset. A global mindset provides the foundation to interact more effectively with people from other cultures. High scorers tend to seek information about cultures other than their own, while low scorers tend to avoid learning about other cultures and do not go out of their way to expose themselves to information about new cultures. Relationship interest is the degree to which a per- son is likely to initiate and maintain positive relationships with people of another culture. Specifically, it measures the extent to which engaging others is an energy producing or energy depleting activity. For example, a person’s willingness to use a foreign language in developing a new relationship is an important aspect of this sub domain. Persons that score high are interested in developing friendships with people from other cultures while those that score low do not put very much effort into developing such a friendship.
The third dimension to be measured by IES is Hardiness which is comprised of the subdomains open-mindedness and emotional resilience. Open-mindedness is a measure of the extent to which a person withholds judgments about people or situations that are new or unfamiliar. It is a reflection of the extent to which a person is open to alternative perspectives and behaviors. High scorers have a tendency not to rush to judgment intend to refrain from stereotyping as they first desire to understand the situation or people. Low scorers have a tendency to make quick judgments about situations or people and they tend to use stereotyping in order to make sense of the world around them. Emotional resilience measures a person’s capacity to recover from challenging emotional ex- periences. High scorers have the ability to cope well with such situations and are able to continue learning about a new culture while low scorers find it difficult to handle emotionally challenging experiences. Their recovery from such experiences tends to take a long amount of time and this limits their ability to remain open to others.
The Global Challenge Course
The Global Challenge course is mandatory and taught to first semester freshman students enrolled in the Col- lege of Business. The following is the course description contained in the syllabus (citation omitted as it would identify an author):
“The Global Challenge will help prepare the students for thinking globally. Not only will this course demonstrate the global dimensions of several crucial contemporary issues, including the problem of global conflict, the global environment, and health and population concerns, it also will underline the necessity of an interdisciplinary approach to understanding these issues. Scientific questions have political, social, economic, and ethical dimensions. Similarly, economic matters are inextricably linked with their cultural, psychological, political, techno- logical, geopolitical, and moral aspects. The concerns of The Global Challenge demonstrate the relational thinking students will be called upon to exercise in other academic contexts, and throughout the rest of their personal and professional lives. In other words, this course is as much about how to study and think about global problems and relationships as it is a course about specific global issues. Students will be required to participate in a service learn- ing project during the semester break.”
The course has seven learning modules - Welcome to the World,Ethnicity and Global Diversity, Moral Reasoning and the Global Challenge, Global Economic Issues, Global Environmental Issues,Global Population and Health Issues, and Global Conflict in the 21st Century. Students are required to participate in a cross-cultural service learning project outside of class either in a domestic or international setting.
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Results Since students are tested at the beginning of the course and then again at the completion of the course, the appro- priate statistical test is a series of paired sample t-tests. The results shown in Table 1 indicate that students complet- ing the global challenge course scored slightly higher in most measures of intercultural effectiveness. However with n=72, only a few of these measures were deemed statistically significant.
Table 1 – Results of Paired T-tests
On average the students scored 2.70 on global mindset before the course, this increased to 3.08 after the course and this difference was deemed statistically significant at the .000 level. Student interpersonal engagement scores increased from 3.19 to 3.33 and this difference was significant at the .003 level. Lastly, students overall IES score in- creased from 3.39 to 3.46 while this difference was deemed statistically significant at the .033 level. Although many of the post course scores were higher on several of the dimensions these were the only difference is deemed statistically significant.
Conclusion
First semester freshmen students were enrolled in a course designed to teach them global citizenship that included a module on cross-cultural service learning. Our results suggest that such a course can increase intercultural effective- ness of students primarily by increasing their interpersonal engagement which is most largely a result of increasing their global mindset. Students increased their interest in actively learning about other cultures and their people through films, cross-cultural in class assignments, and hands-on service learning. Although most components of intercultural effectiveness saw a rise in the various subdomains and dimensions from pre-class testing to post class testing, only three of those differences were deemed statistically significant however, a larger sample size and further study could be insightful in this regard.
Pair Dimension Mean Sig (2-tailed) Self-Awareness/pre 3.78 Self-Awareness/post 3.9 Exploration/pre 4.1 Exploration/post 4.12 Global Mindset/pre 2.71 Global Mindset/post 3.08 Relationship Interest/pre 3.68 Relationship Interest/post 3.59 Positive Regard/pre 2.91 Positive Regard/post 2.86 Resilience/pre 3.17 Resilience/post 3.23 Continuous Learning/pre 3.94 Continuous Learning/post 4.01 Interpersonal Engagement/pre 3.19 Interpersonal Engagement/post 3.33 Hardiness/pre 3.04 Hardiness/post 3.05 Overall IES/pre 3.39 Overall IES/post 3.46
10 0.033
7 0.306
8 0.003
9 0.887
4 0.191
5 0.471
6 0.309
1 0.095
2 0.785
3 0
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References
Lane, H.W., Maznevski, M.L., & Mendenhall, M.E. (2004). Hercules meets Buddha. In , Lane H.W., Maznevski, M.L., Mendenhall, M.E., & McNett, J. (eds). The handbook of global management: A guide to managing complexity. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing
IES Instructor’s Guide (2011), The Kozai Group, Inc.
Mendenhall, M.E., Stevens, M.J., Bird, A., Oddou, G.R. & Osland, J.S. (2011), Intercultural ffectiveness scale: technical
report, The Kozai Group, Inc.
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Dr. Shirley Garick Texas A&M University- Texarkana
MLeadership is crucial to any organization from Medicine to Nursing to Hospital to privately owned busi- nesses/corporations. Success generally must have a centralized locus of competent leadership for an orga- nization to flourish. An example of leadership gone amuck is the great “Enron” debacle, Lehman Brothers
and Washington Mutual. There are many other examples, too numerous to mention but in all cases leadership of an organization is of primary importance. The gap between effective leadership and incorporating moral behaviors into a business entity is large. The general public, who has been hit hard by greed and fraud, are angry and distrustful of business.
Nonaka and Takeuchi (2011) in their article, The Wise Leader, points out that the severe recession we have experience on a global dimensional plane has placed enormous demands on leadership. The authors point out that Corporate Executive Officers (CEO”s) struggle to retool and cope with the rapid changes in technology, let alone keeping track and ensuring that their work force operates and adheres to ethical standards.
These authors point out the gulf between theory and practice when it comes to ethical behaviors. At this point, they draw on philosophical theories of Plato which is the grounding for western behaviors and conclude with the axiom that if a theory isn’t working there must be something wrong with reality.
It needs to be understood at this juncture, that these theoretical perspectives are better placed into a branch of phi- losophy called Axiology where there is a clarification of values which puts ethical standards in place by determining what is valued by a society, group, and organizations. After considering the failures of the recent past, the suggestion was noted that natural sciences need not be the only path to leadership but making social sciences a more determi- native guide for leaders to consider.
The authors speculate on sole dependence on explicit knowledge, meaning the scientific deductive, theory first approach leading to universal and predictive outcomes. This tends to leave out the social phenomena with leaders making decisions based on economic gains rather than including within this the shared social value.
The authors bring in the idea of practical wisdom which lies in Aristotle’s Nicomachean ethics and his concept of ph- ronesis, that is a “state of true and reasoned capacity which acts in regard to the things that are good or bad for man” (Nonaka I; Takeuchi H. p.3).
Aristotle also identified two types of wisdom; metaphysical and practical wisdom and the authors postulate that this comes from knowledge based on experience. This type of knowledge gives help to the leaders pursuit of a balanced approach of leading by giving service to people as the right course to follow.
This paper is an article review of the Wise Leader, written by Nonaka, I; Takeuchi, H (2011) in the Harvard Business Review. These authors offer salient advice on what a wise leader needs to understand, regardless of your administrative leadership role. It can quality and apply across all dimensions of leadership roles from executive to managerial to employees.
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The concept of Episteme which again falls into Aristotle sphere implying valid scientific knowledge, where as tech- nique implies skill/technical know-how and phronesis implies what should be done.
The authors then go on to explain the six abilities of phronetic leaders. The first abilities are called, wise leaders can judge goodness. The essence of this first ability revolves around four ways of capturing this ability. These are your own experience of adversity, principles of life experience & the ability to share them; the relentless pursuit of excellence and the leader should be well versed in philosophy, history, and literature plus fine arts helps the executive practice.
The second phonetic ability is wise leaders can grasp the essence. In this paradigm, the wise leader is able to sense what lies behind the situation, develop a vision of the future and/or consequences, and then take action to realize the vision. Practical wisdom allows this to happen through intuitive understanding of the nature and meaning of people, things and events. The exercises that are offered to help this develop is the constant of asking “why” and “what”. The next item is the see the “forest and the trees” together, not as single entities and the third is constructing and testing hypotheses.
The third is wise leaders create shared contexts. This phronetic leader is consistently creating the opportunity for se- nior executives and employees to work together and learn from each other. This is simple and straight forward with interaction that brings about a shared sense of purpose.
Fourthly, the phronetic leader must demonstrate the ability to communicate in ways where everyone is able to un- derstand. This may entail metaphors, stories and perhaps figurative language which let individuals of differing ven- ues and experiences to grasp things intuitively. Rhetoric may also be used to touch the areas of heart and mind and it is crucial to understand that communication can bring dreams to life. Remember Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech of “I have a dream”.
The fifth ability is wise leaders exercise political power. This is where the phronetic leader spurs people to action and develops this into the single minded pursuit of their goals. Here the leader uses political judgment within the pur- view of having a critical grasp of viewpoints and emotions of others. Along with this the leader attempts to attain an understanding of the good and bad in human nature. This art of being able to hold two opposing views and at the same time continuing to function at a high level is critical to using political power in a creative and successful way.
The sixth and last ability is wise leaders foster practical wisdom in others.
Here the authors practice the sharing of practical wisdom at all levels and with all employees of the organization. This distributed phronesis lets the organization develop flexibility and creativity within a particular setting and may include part-time workers. Other ways of including practical wisdom is to use exemplars who exhibit leadership qualities which draw people to them. They may inspire average people to perform in extraordinary ways.
In summary, these authors describing a more philosophical approach to capitalism by taking on communitarianism with a philosophical leader who can deal with the changing duality of business at all levels. This ideal leader must be a philosopher, master craftsman, an idealist, a politician, a novelist and a teacher with strong values and principles. They must be able to balance the inductive and deductive precepts to acquire a new vision in an ever changing, rap- idly paced world of leadership within the realm of business. This leader will shy away from excess and greed and focus on companies living in harmony with society.
Leadership might be designated as and art as well as a science. The art form of it would include the individual’s per- ceptive nature, intuition and receptiveness to lead. The science part could include multiple skills and workshops of training based on leadership theories and how to become an excellent administrative leader. However, given the many personalities involved within a leadership milieu, the essence of leadership lends itself to the ethical dimen- sions that are universal.
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Reference
Noaka, I; Takeuchi H. (2011). The Wise Leader. Harvard Business Review May;
Vol. 89 (5), PP. 58-67, 146.
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Mr. Richard Huck St. Charles Community College
It is clearly remembered how we used to line up at dismissal time at St. Anthony of Padua Parish Grade School in South St. Louis for dismissal, lunch, recess, etc. While we stood in line by the wall we would look at the huge world map that hung on the wall. One of the boys grew very excited once when he found a city named St. Louis on the
west coast of Africa in what is now Senegal! What a neat discovery! I also remember the old globe my grandfather had, and how I would sit on his couch playing with it, spinning it around and marveling at all the exotic places. It was an old globe, depicting places that are gone with the passage of history, such as French Equatorial Africa. My grandfather was an old Austrian. He was rarely seen without a book or newspaper and beer in his hand. From him I learned a love for reading, geography and history. Later I studied and obtained degrees in Geography from St. Louis U. Eventually it was my karma to land work in Sales and Marketing at a large local company where I worked for 32 years. After retiring, I applied for an Instructor of Geography position at Harris-Stowe State U., and was hired. Later I was able to teach another class at St. Charles Community College. So now my experience inludes five years of teach- ing college level Geography.
It amazes me how small the world has become. Just one hundred years ago the only way to get from New York to London was by ship, which took weeks. Now it just takes a few hours by plane. Letters would take forever, now we have emails in an instant. With these technological advances, far away places are no longer so far away. Today, we have Americans fighting and dying in Iraq & Afghanistan and other places. We have dependence on various minerals and foods from foreign countries, such as the mineral Bauxite, the ore of aluminum, and oil from Venezuela. There are rogue nations such as Iran threatening to cause trouble by closing the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic, and to shoot missiles at Israel. Then we also have N. Korea trying to coerce S. Korea and Japan and the U.S. by rattling the sabre of their missiles which they only have by starving their own people so they have the money for a huge military.
In my classroom, my students are told that “we cannot understand ourselves as a people unless we understand our history; and there is no way we can understand history without understanding the geography behind that history”!
It is incredible how little of geography our young people understand!
At the beginning of each semester my students are given a questionnaire. Of 150 students questioned, most from local St. Louis Metro Area High Schools, the results are very sad. Peruse the following:
The knowledge of geography is clearly lacking in college students. “We cannot understand who we are unless we under- stand history, and there is no way we can understand history if we do not understand the geography behind it”! How can we understand the Civil War without understanding the importance of the Mississippi River? A great many students cannot locate the Mississippi River on a map!
This paper is original research based on my classroom experience and on a questionnaire given to my students at the begin- ning of each semester. About 150 students have been given this questionnaire over the 5 years I have taught Geography.
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Did you take a Geography Class in High School? 48% No
What is the capital of the U.S.? 22% Did not know! A. Washington, D.C.
What is the capital of Missouri? 18% Did not know! A. Jefferson City
How many states are in the U.S.? 17% Did not know! A. 50
What river is called “The Father of Waters”? 82% Did not know! A. Mississippi R.
What river is called “The Big Muddy”? 90% Did not know! A. Missouri R.
Why is St. Louis called “The Gateway to the West”? 77% Did not know! A. Settlers moving westward
stopped here for supplies
Label the Continents on a map 70% Did not know!
Label the Oceans on a map 70% Did not know!
Define Geography 83% Did not know! A. The study of man in time
and space
Again, these students were graduates from local high schools in the St. Louis Metro Area, and all were college and university students at either Harris-Stowe State U. or St. Charles Community College. It is hard to believe that these young people, all intelligent, did not know about the local geography of our rivers, and that so many could not iden- tify even the continents and oceans of our planet! It is also a shame that so many did not know the capital of the U.S. and of Missouri, the home state for most of them.
Also mind boggling is the fact that so many of these students could not locate the major physical features of the U.S. on a map, i.e., the Rocky Mountains, the Appalachians, the Great Lakes, the locations of the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Arkansas, and Hudson Rivers, and the Erie Canal. It is amazing that these students were able to pass history courses without learning the locations of these places. Again, “you cannot understand us as a people unless you understand history and understand the geography behind it”! How can you possibly understand the Civil War without under- standing the importance of the Mississippi River??? Or the Revolutionary War without knowing the significance of the Hudson River? Or the economic development of New York City as the commercial and industrial hub of the na- tion without realizing the importance of the Erie Canal?
The issue becomes even more questionable when it becomes apparent that these young minds have no idea where our soldiers are fighting. They have no idea where Afghanistan and Iraq are. Nor do they know where Israel is. They do not know of the importance of the Suez and Panama Canals, and do not know of the historical importance of Is- tanbul (formerly Constantinople), nor what drove Columbus and other explorers to try to find sea routes to India and China (they were looking for trade routes to bring spices and silks to Europe since the age old trade routes to the east were cut off by the Muslims). These students are also unaware of the location of N. Korea, and the threats posed by that nation to S. Korea, Japan and the Philippines. It also becomes apparent that they are oblivious to the fact that we almost had Armageddon when the Russians tried to put missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles from Miami.
Young people need to talk with their fathers & grandfathers about World War II, the Cold War, Korea, & Vietnam to become aware of what hardships were involved.
It is also necessary for them to have a good understanding of what has led to the religious extremism causing so much tension among Jews, Muslims and Christians.
Aside from all this, they need to be aware of the interdependence among the different parts of our own country; i.e., the Wheat Belt, the Industrial Areas, the mining areas, fisheries, the importance of trade and transportation on the Mississippi and Great Lakes waterways, etc., which also ties in with the problems associated with invasive species on our ecosystems such as the Golden Carp.
The purpose of this article is to emphasize that it is necessary to teach Geography at all levels of education; elemen- tary, junior high, senior high, and college. It is necessary to achieve an understanding of who we are as a people, and why the world is like it is. Again, “We cannot understand who we are as a people unless we understand history, and there is no way to understand history if we do not understand the geography behind it” !!!
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Dr. Richard Parsells St. Edwards University
Change is a commonplace occurrence in today’s organizations. In order to survive in an extremely competitive marketplace, organizations and their employees undergo change frequently. The ability to manage change and to learn from this experience is now viewed as a key competency for sustainable competitiveness in most
business markets (Burnes, 2009; Connor, 1998). However, while change management processes are employed and followed, a high percentage of change efforts are judged to be unsuccessful by upper management (Armenakis, Harris, & Field, 1999; Clegg & Walsh, 2004). Moreover, a number of scholars suggest that communication strategies during organizational change are an important element to the success of a change initiative, yet such strategies are not given primacy in the research literature (“A critical analysis of communication approaches,” 2012; Burnes, 2009). This suggests the need to further investigate communication factors which aid in the successful implementation of change in the workplace.
The purpose of this paper is to add to the discourse on communication and workplace change initiatives by reporting on a research project that explored communication actions which were employed and viewed as useful by those ex- periencing a change in the workplace. This paper will present the findings that emanated from the study and explore their meaning in relation to selected scholarly literature on communication and change.
The study took place in a quasi-governmental organization located in the south central region of the United States. The organization operates four general business lines within an operating budget of approximately 650 million, em- ploying close to 2,500 individuals. The workplace change included new budgeting software and revisions to the chart of accounts. Through purposeful sampling, nine individuals were selected for the study. All of the study participants were involved in supporting the budget process. Three personal interviews and two critical incident reports were completed with each participant over the course of the change, which was a period of six months. All study partici- pants were receptive to, and supportive of, the change initiative, and, therefore, the study focused on the implemen- tation phase of the change
Change is a commonplace occurrence in today’s organizations. In order to survive in an extremely competitive market- place, organizations and their employees undergo change frequently. The ability to manage change and to learn from this experience is now viewed as a key competency for sustainable competitiveness in most business markets. However, while change management processes are employed and followed, a high percentage of change efforts are judged to be unsuccessful by upper management. Moreover, a number of scholars suggest that communication strategies during orga- nizational change are an important element to the success of a change initiative, yet such strategies are not given primacy in the research literature. This suggests the need to further investigate communication factors which aid in the success- ful implementation of change in the workplace. The purpose of this paper is to add to the discourse on communication and workplace change initiatives by reporting on a research project that explored communication actions which were employed and viewed as useful by those experiencing a change in the workplace. This paper will present the findings that emanated from the study and explore their meaning in relation to selected scholarly literature on communication and change. Suggested implications for practice and future research are also explored.
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Three themes were identified through an analysis and evaluation of the data: individual experimentation, along with communication with coworkers, were important factors for sense-making and learning; contextual reasons for major modifications during implementation of the change, along with details of why and reasonable adjusted timeframes, facilitated study participants’ handling of their roles and functions in support of the change efforts; and, statements of appreciation for their work, along with expressions of empathy, from management were valued by study partici- pants.
The first theme aligns with a number of concepts contained in the literature on change communication and sense- making. The combination of taking action through experimentation in addition to dialogue with co-workers for help in problem-solving and/or confirmation of beliefs aligns with the concept of “social-mutual understanding”; a shared interpretation and understanding through interaction with others, a form of meaning creation (“A critical analysis of communication approaches,” 2012). In addition, this theme very closely resembles the concept of sense-making as defined by Weick & Sutcliffe (2005) as the “interplay of action and interpretation” (p. 409), and includes such factors as being action oriented and involving the social system of the work environment.
The second theme appears to be supportive of the positions of scholars who advocate for ongoing and consistent communication that strives for clarity, the reduction of ambiguity in one’s work, and an understanding of the ex- pectations of management (Lewis, 2006; Duck, 1998). While study participants were receptive to the change they all reported experiencing uncertainty and frustration in their work with the new software system and the ongoing changes that occurred in the development of the new chart of accounts, within tight timeframes.
The final theme could be associated with the celebrating of accomplishments as asserted by a number of change transition scholars, along with the recognition and normalization of the internal feelings experienced by the employ- ees involved with the change (Bridges, 2009). Aside from celebration serving as a ritual to mark the beginning of a “new normal”, communicating success along with empathy appears to have addressed participants’ personal efficacy, and had the potential of forming a strong achievement oriented group identity.
These findings suggest several implications for practice. First, while support for the change is critical there is also a need for communication during the implementation phase where much uncertainty and ambiguity can occur. In addition, it appears that sense-making is a social phenomenon that occurs within credible circles of workers. This would suggest the need for management to assist in strengthening intragroup communication, through such means as arranging physical space strategically that will allow for, and encourage, interactive dialogue; conducting frequent meetings of working groups to discuss and problem-solve issues that arise; and, advocate for information in areas that need to be addressed. In addition, it appears that recognition of the anxiety brought on by uncertainty and am- biguity is helpful in minimizing frustration and allowing for continued motivation of employees to pursue problem- solving. Management may play a significant role in modeling behavior through the way they frame an issue and by acting in a problem-solving manner. Lastly, success can enhance confidence and competence, and the recognition of success by management through spoken and/or written words could send messages of personal and group mastery along with a sense of personal value.
There are limitations to this study. This is a single case study with limited participants who were of the same profes- sional field and worked within the same corporate culture. Future studies should be conducted that explore commu- nication and sense-making actions during the implementation phase of a change for those in different professions and from different organizations in order to assess similarities and differences with the findings from this study.
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Bridges, W. (2009). Managing transitions (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Capo Press.
Burnes, B. (2009). Managing change. New York: Prentice Hall.
Clegg, C. & Walsh, S. (2004). Change management: time for a change! European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 13(2), 217-239.
Connor, D.R. (1998). Leading at the edge of chaos; How to create a nimble organization. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Duck, J. (1993). Managing change: The art of balancing. Harvard Business Review, 71(6), 109-118.
Lewis, L.K. (2006). Employee perspectives on implementation communication as predictors of perceptions of success and resistance. Western Journal of Communication, 70, 23-46.
Weick, K., & Sutcliffe, K.M. (2005). Organizing and the process of sensemaking. Organization Science, 16(4), 409-421.
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In a recent issue of the Administrative Issues Journal, Dr. Michael Williams encourages readers to be ready to ‘seize the day’ when presented with unexpected opportunities and the accompanying “contexts-of-change” (Williams, 2012). “Contexts-of-change are potentials,” writes Williams, “…unique alignments between an opportunity and our
knowledge and skills that, if properly used, can enable us to benefit from engaging the opportunity” (p. 3). Williams serves as the Dean of the MBA Program at Thomas Edison State College (New Jersey) and may have been directing his comments to aspiring entrepreneurs and business leaders, but the advice is equally valid for education. In particular, I think it valid for the legions of America’s public school administrators now managing a crucible of financial, political and social problems impacting public schools.
Rise of the Expert
Public participation is defined “as any process that involves the public in problem solving or decision making and uses public input to make decisions,” (International Association of Public Participation, 2006, p. 2). Central to pubic participation is the idea that individuals or groups affected by a particular decision should be given an opportunity to be engaged in making that decision. However, when institutional leaders bypass the difficult work of inclusionary decision making, the outcomes can include inadequate or misinformed decisions, diminished stakeholder trust and buy-in, increased disengagement from public affairs, rejection of institutional policies and decisions, and refusal to provide advocacy, monetary support and volunteer time. Accordingly, administrators of public institutions are evalu- ating their decision making processes and exploring strategies to authentically and systematically engage stake- holders to better understand shared problems and the collective well-being (Mathews, 2006). This requires working through the complexities posed by individual interests, perceptions and positions to find workable solutions that garner stakeholder support (Yankelovich & Friedman, 2010).
From the early twentieth century to the present, citizen participation in U.S. public institutions—particularly schools—has continually decreased. The trend has been linked to the bureaucratization of public schools and their increasing reliance on expert knowledge for solutions to school- and education-related problems. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a parent training program designed to increase a school district’s capacity for public participation by parents and other citizens. The program—known as Leadership St. Vrain—provided citizens knowledge about school district operations and man- agement (know-how) and relationship-building opportunities with key decision makers (know-who). This article focuses on the experiences and participation of the citizens from a mixed-methods study that collected data using two original sur- vey instruments, follow-up interviews, and archival documents. Of the five domains studied, this paper focuses on findings for the domains of knowledge, relationships, and action as well as the secondary ripple effect from participants to others who did not participate in the training.
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Loss of Social Capital
Insulating schools from citizen involvement strained the formerly close bonds that existed between the citi- zens and their schools. Fewer parents attended school-related functions, joined committees, or sought leader- ship roles on Parent Teacher Organizations (PTO) and school boards (Putnam, 2000). The experiences and per- spectives parents had previously provided to complement the findings and recommendations of professional educators were significantly lessened. The lack of citizen involvement also resulted in greater distrust and less buy-in for the decisions made. According to McNeil (2002), “There has perhaps been no time in our history when links between public education and democracy have been as tenuous as they are right now” (p. 234). Some have argued that this distancing between institution and citizens has resulted in school districts losing valuable input, public support, and commitment for new policies and change initiatives. In the absence of collaborative problem solving, policymaking, and shared governance, administrators grow comfortable conducting business and implementing policies without working through complex or controversial problems with parents and other stakeholders.
The Case for Public Participation in Schools
In the twenty-first century, leaders of U.S. public institutions—town councils, police departments, and school districts—are expected to manage conflicts that emerge from the competing interests and values of citizens. Seemingly mundane issues such as school menus, bus schedules, school boundaries, and curriculum choices routinely evoke intense controversy between citizens and school staff members or central office administrators. When leaders facilitate opportunities for citizens to deliberate on shared school-related problems, citizens de- velop a greater understanding of the complexity of issues involved and strengthen their skills of deliberation and judgment (Yankelovich & Friedman, 2010). Unfortunately, officials frequently go the opposite direction when, empowered with expert knowledge, they develop solutions and then implement a “decide, announce and de- fend” (Yosie & Herbst, 1998, p. 24) strategy to achieve a preferred and predetermined outcome. Even when such an initiative is successfully implemented, increased public distrust resulting from an exclusive process can take years to reconcile.
Leadership St. Vrain
The study was based on a training program designed to increase the capacity of a public school district for public participation and stakeholder engagement. In the program, invitations were broadly disseminated invit- ing citizens to a series of meetings to gain information about school district operations and management (re- ferred to as know-how), and relationship-building opportunities with key decision makers associated with the school district (referred to as know-who). The purpose of the study was to determine if the training increased participant knowledge, relationship, and action with or about school district and education-related issues, and whether the training had a secondary ripple effect on other individuals and groups in the school district and community.
The training, called Leadership St. Vrain (LSV) took place in the St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD), located in northern Colorado. SVVSD includes 53 schools with a growing enrollment nearing 30,000 students. Participants, mostly parents, attended 10 meetings over eight months during the course of the school year, with each meet- ing approximately 2.5 hours in length. The know-how components of LSV were based on presentations about all aspects of district operations, including school finance, state education funding, state and federal school laws and policies, state and district-level governance, school board policies, regulatory requirements, curriculum, and information about school operations and management. Each meeting included a know-who portion with op- portunities for relationship building with SVVSD administrators and board members, as well as state elected and appointed officials, who were invited speakers.
Methodology
The mixed-methods study contained 3 phases of data collection: Phase 1 was comprised of quantitative surveys of two citizen populations from the LSV and PTO groups, Phase 2 was comprised of face-to-face interviews of LSV participants and PTO members, and Phase 3 was a review of archival materials documenting the presence and/ or influence of activities related to LSV in the greater community.
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Findings
The qualitative and quantitative findings indicated that a majority of the LSV participants either agreed or strongly agreed that the training significantly increased their knowledge of school district operations, improved their relationships with key influencers in the district, and increased their involvement in education- and district- related activities. Findings also indicated that the training had a “ripple effect” that extended beyond the trainees and impacted education- and district-related issues in the greater community.
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References
Farkas, S. & Johnson, J. (1993). Divided within, besieged without: The politics of education in four American school districts. New York, NY: Public Agenda Report to the Kettering Foundation.
International Association of Public Participation. Student manual: Planning for effective public participation. (2006). Thornton, CO.
Mathews, D. (2006). Reclaiming public education by reclaiming our democracy. Dayton, OH: Kettering Foundation.
McNeil, L. M. (2002). Private asset or public good: Education and democracy at the crossroads (Editor’s introduction). American Education Research Journal, 39 (2), 243-248.
Poynton, J. (2012). Organizational training and relationship building for increasing public participation in a public school district (Doctoral dissertation, Colorado State University). Retrieved from http://digitool.library.colostate.edu.
Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
Putnam, R. D. (2001). Community-based social capital and educational performance. In D. Ravitch and J. P. Viteritti (Eds.), Making good citizens: Educated and civil society (pp. 58-95). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Williams, M. (2012). Seizing opportunity: A special invitation collection. Administrative Issues Journal, 2(2), 3-6.
Yankelovich, D. (2010). How to achieve sounder public judgment. In D. Yankelovich & W. Friedman (Eds.) Toward wiser public judgment. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.
Yankelovich, D. & Friedman, W. (2010). Toward wiser public judgment. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.
Yosie, T. F., & Herbst, T. D. (1998). Using stakeholder processes in environmental decision making: An evaluation of les- sons learned, key issues, and future challenges. Washington, DC: Ruder Finn Washington.
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Dr. Diane Taylor Tarleton State University
University – based teacher education programs are currently under attack by the public for producing non- effective teachers. In order to combat the perception of the “disintegration of teacher preparation” (Baines 2010), Teacher Preparation Programs need to demonstrate to the public the rigor of their screening measures
and admissions criteria as a beginning to demonstrating program rigor. In addition, the field of education also deals with the general public attitude that teaching is not a profession and therefore anyone can do it. In order for educa- tion to be viewed through the same lens as other equivalent professions, University TEP’s must act with similar stan- dards as organizations the public deems to be professions.
This study presupposes the idea that teachers need to be proficient in content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical skills, and have positive attitudes towards teaching (Casey & Childs, 2007). Given this idea, screening measures and admission criteria to teacher preparation programs should focus on these four areas, however, current research indicates teacher preparation programs have a variety of screening measures and admissions criteria that focus on varying of aspects of quality teachers (Casey & Childs, 2007, Cohen-Schotanus et al., 2006, Helm, 2006, Uno, Blackwell, & Leonardson, 2001).
As university-based teacher education programs continue to come under fire, it becomes increasingly important to maintain the boundaries on who is qualified to become a teacher. Holding high standards of admission to teacher education programs requires a coherent plan for admitting candidates (Fallon & Ackley, 2003, Salvatori 2001, Truell & Woolsley, 2008), which, in turn, requires universities to evaluate current admissions requirements. This study exam- ined Texas university-based teacher preparation program screening measures and admission criteria, illuminating measures and criteria that either address or neglect to address the candidates’ content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical skills, and attitudes towards teaching. The paper will detail the results of the research and the analysis of data.
During presentation of research, authors will discuss with participants trends revealed in the study and solicit input regarding research findings.
University – based teacher education programs are currently under attack by the general public for producing non-ef- fective teachers. In order to combat the perception of the “disintegration of teacher preparation” (Baines 2010), Teacher Preparation Programs need to demonstrate to the public the rigor of their screening measures and admissions criteria as a beginning to demonstrating program rigor. This presentation will detail one university’s efforts to collect and analyze admission criteria to Teacher Education Programs in universities across the state.
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Baines, L.A. (2010). The disintegration of teacher preparation. Educational HORIZONS, Spring, 153 – 163.
Casey, C. E., & Childs, R. A. (2007). Teacher education admissions criteria and what beginning teachers need to know to be successful teachers. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 67, 4 – 24.
Cohen-Schotanus et al. (2006). The predictive validity of grade point average scores in a partial lottery medical school admissions system. Medical Education, 40, 1012 – 1019.
Fallon, M., & Ackley, B. (2003, April). Standards for admission to teacher education programs. Paper presented at the annual meeting of American Education Association, Chicago, IL. Retrieved from ERIC database. (ED4777753)
Helm, C. M. (2006, Jan/Feb). Teacher dispositions as predictors of good teaching. The Clearing House, 117 – 119. Salvatori, P. (2001). Reliability and validity of admissions tools used to select students for the health professions. Ad- vances in Health Sciences Education, 6, 159 – 175.
Truell, A., & Woolsly S. (2008). Admissions Criteria and other variables as predictors of business student graduation. College Student Journal, 42(2), 348 – 356. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.
Uno, T., Blackwell, T. R., & Leonardson, G. (2001). Admissions criteria of undergraduate teacher preparation. Education, 101(4), 315 – 321.
Vaughn, M., & Everhart, B. (2005). A process of analysis of predictors on an assessment continuum of licensure cand- dates’ success in K-12 classrooms. Research for Educational Reform, 10(1), 3 – 15.
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Dr. Jermaine Vesey University of San Antonio at Texas
This paper examines the role of accountability in the workplace. Accountability is defined as the need to justify or defend one’s actions to an evaluator who has potential reward or sanction power (Frink & Klimoski, 1998). While accountability is a growing research conversation among scholars, more focus needs to be dedicated to understanding how the dispo- sitional traits of employees interact with workplace accountability mechanisms. Specifically, this manuscript explores the interaction of personality and the accountability environment on employee performance. The findings from this empirical investigation indicate that there is a significant interaction between personality and accountability environment when it comes to predicting employee performance.
This paper examines individual and department level accountability and its relationship to employee behavior. Accountability is defined as “[T]he real or perceived likelihood that actions, decisions, or behaviors of an indi- vidual, group or organization will be evaluated by some salient audience, and that there exists the potential
for the individual, group, or organization to receive either rewards or sanctions based on this expected evaluation” (Hall, Frink, Ferris, Hochwarter, Kacmar, & Bowen, 2003, p.33). The aforementioned definition reflects current under- standing of the construct; specifically, it includes language which acknowledges the social nature of accountability (i.e., interaction with relevant others) as well as its ability to motivate and shape human behavior.
Despite increased scholarly attention, researchers are still unraveling accountability’s role within organizations. Over the past decade, scholars have refined the definition of accountability (Cummings & Anton, 1990; Frink & Klimoski, 1998; Schlenker & Weigold, 1989), explored a select number of antecedents (Lerner & Tetlock, 1999), and tested a number of outcome variables (Frink & Ferris, 1999; Hall et al., 2003).
According to Katz & Kahn (1978) attributes of the person and organizational factors influence the way in which role episode (i.e., social cues) is interpreted by the focal person (i.e., receiver or agent). This is an important part of understanding how social influence theory and accountability integrate. This idea has been explored in several accountability research studies. Frink and Ferris (1999) found that the interaction of personality and accountability was significantly related to performance outcomes. More specifically, the study showed that under accountability conditions more conscientious individuals performed at higher levels than less conscientious. In another study, Ferris, Dulebohn, Frink, George-Falvy, Mitchell, & Mathews (1997), found that job and organization characteristics interact with employee accountability in such a way that influences employee behavior.
Because people seek approval and status, informational cues received from relevant others (not just those who hold the employee accountable) may influence the decisions made. This is particularly relevant to the preemptive self- criticism assumption. Preemptive self-criticism states that when employees are aware that they are held accountable, but not aware of the accountability standards, they will engage in greater cognitive evaluation. As such, employees tend to exert greater effort toward information searches and engage in increased complex information processing (Chaiken, 1980; Cvetkovich, 1978; Rozelle & Baxter, 1981) prior to making decisions or taking action. Under this condi- tion, employees are more likely to entertain informational cues (intentional or unintentional) from third parties. Using Tetlock’s decision heuristics as a starting point, social influence, and accountability can be integrated in a meaningful manner that sets the stage for greater research and exploration.
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Accountability Environment: Proposed Model
This paper argues that the social environment (i.e., accountability environment) can affect the accountability expe- rienced by employees. Specifically, environments that are high in accountability (e.g., strong accountability environ- ments) will engender greater employee accountability. Secondly this paper explores the role that personality, namely conscientiousness, plays in the accountability performance relationship. While it is argued that high accountability environments lead to greater employee accountability, it is equally important to note that certain personal factors can have an amplifying or dulling effect on workplace behaviors (i.e., performance). More clearly stated, this paper presents the notion that high accountability environments are valuable and do, in fact lead to greater employee ac- countability, however the relation between personality and employee accountability will be most pronounced in a weak accountability environments (as compared to a strong accountability environments).
Additionally, it is argued that employee accountability is positively correlated with effort expended.
Accountability Environment
Employee Accountability
Effort Expended
PerformancePersonality (consciousness)
Research hypotheses:
Hypothesis 1: A positive relationship is expected between the outcome variable performance and the predictor vari- ables effort expended, employee accountability, and personality. Additionally, employee accountability in a strong accountability environment is expected to be higher than employee accountability in a weak accountability environ- ment.
Hypothesis 2: The relation between personality (conscientiousness) and employee accountability is moderated by accountability environment, such that the correlation between personality and employee accountability is less pro- nounced in high accountability environments, as compared to low accountability environments.
Data and Methodology
Participants: Participants consisted of 230 students at a medium size university located in southwest Texas; 96 were in the high accountability group and 133 were in the low accountability group. The majority of the participants were 21 (23%) or 22 (25%) years of age. There was an equal distribution between men(50%) and women (50%). Sixty-one percent of the population were seniors, 33% were juniors. 78% of the participants are African American, 5% were white, 2% were Asian, 4% Hispanic, and 7% were in the other category. The majority of the participants had between 4 years (33%) and 5 years (30%) of work experience.
Data Analysis and Results
Hypothesis 1 was supported. Multiple linear regression was used to test hypothesis 1. Results of the high account- ability environment suggests an overall significance of the equation, overall F value was as follows: F(8, 82) = 10.38, p <.001 indicating that personality, employee accountability, and effort expended were significantly and positively related to the outcome variable student performance – supporting the hypothesis. See Table 1, 2, and 3 for support- ing data.
Partial support was found for hypothesis 2. In order to test hypothesis two, the correlation between personality and employee accountability was calculated for strong/high accountability environments (r = .119) p = .055. Similarly, the correlation for personality and employee accountability was calculated for low accountability environments (r = .217)
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Conclusion
Accountability is key to the successful functioning of any organization, as such, it is important that managers under- stand both their employees and the accountability mechanisms with their organization. Empirical investigation of the interaction between dispositional traits and accountability environment would shed much needed light on how organizations can better use accountability to drive employee performance. If we concede that human resources (i.e., employees) are the most valuable resources within an organization, the natural conclusion is for organizations and scholars to fully examine the role of accountability within the workplace.
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Z test for accountability Across the Strong and Weak Accountability Environments
Accountability Environment Employee Accountability Strong .215** Weak .008**
z test z = 1.61**
Note. Standardized beta values are reported. *** p. <.001, ** p. < .01, * p. < .05
Table 3
Multiple Linear Regression Results for Hypothesis 1 – High Accountability Environment
Step and Variable Step 1 Step 2 Step 1: Age 0.297 0.165 Gender -0.185 -0.016 College Status -0.038 -0.031 Work Experience -0.274 -0.077 Race 0.099 0.116 Step 2: Effort Expended .285** Employee Accountability .215* Personality .346*** R2 0.136 0.503 R2 0.367
Note. Standardized beta values are reported. *** p. <.001, ** p. < .01, * p. < .05
Table 1
Multiple Linear Regression Results for Hypothesis 1 – Low Accountability Environment
Step and Variable Step 1 Step 2 Step 1: Age 0.193 0.180 Gender -0.07 -0.119 College Status 0.076 -0.014 Work Experience -0.367 -0.281 Race 0.005 0.007 Step 2: Effort Expended .282** Employee Accountability -0.008 Personality .492*** R2 0.046 0.454 R2 0.408
Note. Standardized beta values are reported. *** p. <.001, ** p. < .01, * p. < .05
Table 2
Difference Correlations of Personality and Accountability Across Strong and Weak Accountability Environments
Accountability Environment Employee Accountability Strong Personality .199* Weak Personality 0.217
z test z = .14 Note. *** p. <.001, ** p. < .01, * p. < .05
Table 4
Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 Accountability 44.79 7.39 1 2 Personality 55.41 9.42 .22** 1 3 Effort 53.34 10.97 .45** .39** 1 4 Age 23.01 3.99 0.01 -0.01 0.04 1 5 Gender - - -0.04 -0.04 -0.03 -0.02 1 6 College status 3.65 0.54 0.08 0.08 0.08 0.12 0.05 1 7 Work experience 5.67 3.44 -0.07 -0.09 -0.12 .59** 0.02 0.04 1 8 Race - - -0.12 -0.01 -0.08 0.1 -0.03 -0.02 0.08 1 9 Performance - 0.785 .32** .57** .52** 0.01 0.06 0.07 -0.23 0.01 1
N = 230. The table above presents all of the inter-correlations between this study’s variables. These correlations do not strongly indicate problems of multicollinearity because none exceeds the .60 benchmark noted by Cohen, Cohen, West and Aiken (2003).
Table 5
Correlation Matrix
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Difference Correlations of Personality and Accountability Across Strong and Weak Accountability Environments
Accountability Environment Employee Accountability Strong Personality .199* Weak Personality 0.217
z test z = .14 Note. *** p. <.001, ** p. < .01, * p. < .05
Table 4
Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 Accountability 44.79 7.39 1 2 Personality 55.41 9.42 .22** 1 3 Effort 53.34 10.97 .45** .39** 1 4 Age 23.01 3.99 0.01 -0.01 0.04 1 5 Gender - - -0.04 -0.04 -0.03 -0.02 1 6 College status 3.65 0.54 0.08 0.08 0.08 0.12 0.05 1 7 Work experience 5.67 3.44 -0.07 -0.09 -0.12 .59** 0.02 0.04 1 8 Race - - -0.12 -0.01 -0.08 0.1 -0.03 -0.02 0.08 1 9 Performance - 0.785 .32** .57** .52** 0.01 0.06 0.07 -0.23 0.01 1
N = 230. The table above presents all of the inter-correlations between this study’s variables. These correlations do not strongly indicate problems of multicollinearity because none exceeds the .60 benchmark noted by Cohen, Cohen, West and Aiken (2003).
Table 5
Correlation Matrix
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The Tale of Two College Experiences: A Cluster Analysis of Obama’s Argument for Higher Education Reform
Dr. Justin Walton Cameron University
During the third week of August 2013, President Barack Obama presented two televised policy speeches ad- vancing his case for higher education reform. Underscoring themes of institutional accountability, efficiency, and affordability, Obama sketched out a three point agenda aimed at making higher education a “better bar-
gain” for America’s struggling middle class (Lewin, 2013; Mauriello, 2013; McMinn, 2013). In this brief essay, I examine the rhetorical processes President Obama used to justify his argument for higher education reform through a cluster analysis of his Henninger High School address. The paper seeks to explore the general implications of word choice/ style and language arrangement in political advocacy through a critical reading of his argument.
Context of Speech
On August 22, 2013, President Obama delivered two policy speeches—one at the University of Buffalo in Am- herst and a second at Henninger High School in Syracuse—outlining new initiatives directed at curtailing the rising costs of higher education. These speeches were part of a two day bus tour through upstate New York and Pennsyl- vania aimed at promoting his education plan to the nation (Lewin, 2013; UPI, 2013). In an interview conducted on August 23, 2013 on CNN’s morning program, New Day, Obama synopsized his three point blueprint to anchor Chris Cuomo:
Number one, we want to create a new system of ratings for colleges so that parents and students know what schools graduate kids on time, are a good value for the money, lead to good jobs…. The second thing we want to do is work with colleges who are doing some really interesting things to figure out, how do you reduce costs?....And then the third thing we want to do is to build on something we’ve already done, which is to try to help students manage their debt (Obama, 2013b).
During the third week of August 2013, President Barack Obama presented two policy speeches furthering his rationale for higher education reform. Stressing themes of institutional accountability, efficiency, and affordability, Obama sketched out a three point agenda aimed at making higher education a “better bargain” for America’s struggling middle class. In this brief essay, I examine the rhetorical processes President Obama used to justify his argument for higher education reform through a cluster analysis of his Henninger High School address. The paper seeks to explore