An Examination of Dominican Values and Authentic Leadership at

Edgewood College

By: Suzanne C. Otte Allen, Ed.D.June 14, 2014

Background of the Study

• Leadership Crisis– Achievement Gaps– Changing demographics– Disparities

• Dominican Ethos– Normative Values– cor ad cor loquitur– Studium– Mission

• Leadership Schools of Thought– Servant– Transactional– Transformational– Characteristics/Traits– Spiritual– Transformative– Authentic Leadership

Purpose of the Study

• Examine the extent to which graduates of the Edgewood Ed.D in Educational Leadership incorporate Dominican normative values

• Examine the impact of the incorporation of Dominican values on the constructs of Authentic Leadership (Avolio, Gardner, & Walumbwa, 2012).

• Develop the moral perspective component of Authentic Leadership theory, and

• Develop a new conceptualization of leadership, that of an Edgewood leader.

Research Questions

1. To what extent do graduates of the Edgewood Ed.D. program incorporate Dominican values in their professional roles?

2. What is the relationship between incorporating Dominican values in professional settings and Authentic Leadership?

3. How might the relationship between incorporating Dominican values and Authentic Leadership help develop the internal moral perspective component of Authentic Leadership?

Theoretical Model• Constructivism in Metaethics (Bagnoli, 2011)

– Normative truths exist – Normative truths are first order moral beliefs and are hypothetically agreed on by

rational deliberation– Embodied in this study as the Dominican Values

• Normative Ethics – Deontological: right over good (Alexander & Moore, 2012)

– Consequentialism: right based on effect of action (Alexander & Moore, 2012)

– Virtue Ethics: virtue, phronesis, eudaimonia (Hursthouse, 2012)

• Authentic Leadership (Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Gardner, Avolio, Luthans, May, & Walumbwa, 2005)

– Self-awareness– Relational transparency– Internalized moral perspective– Balanced processing

Authentic Leadership(Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Gardner, Avolio, Luthans, May, & Walumbwa, 2005)

Dominican Values

The Authentic Edgewood Leader

Authentic Leader

Edgewood Leader

Method, Data Collection, and Analysis

• Quantitative– Edgewood College Leadership Values Survey– Authentic Leadership Questionnaire– Population: Graduates of the Edgewood Ed.D. in

Educational Leadership• Qualitative – Two open ended questions

Quantitative Data Analysis

Factor Analysis and Reliability

Authentic LeadershipEdgewood College Leadership Values Survey

Reflection •.81

Decision

Making •.69

Negatively

wo rd ed

items •.58

Avoid in g

con fl ict •.486

Relational Transparen

cy •.692Internalized Moral Perspective •.83

Self-Awarene

ss

•.72•.84

Balanced

Processing

•.72•.84

Scales

• Authentic Leadership– Internalized Moral Perspective– Transparency

• Edgewood College Leadership Values – Decision Making– Reflection

Correlations

Scales 1 2 3 4

1. Decision ECLVS ̶̶̶

2. Reflection ECLVS 0.26 ̶̶̶

3. Transparency AL 0.34 0.22 ̶̶̶

4. Internalized Moral Perspective AL 0.50 0.46 0.37 ̶̶̶

Regression Analysis and T-tests

• About 25% of the variance in decision scores could be explained by the scores in the internalized moral perspective.

• Earlier cohorts (1-7) scores were significantly higher than later cohorts in each scale (p < .05)– reflection (.026)– transparency (.002), – the internal moral perspective scale ( .003), – and the decision scales (.025).

• Few other significant differences at the .05 or below level.– Gender– K12 or Higher Education cohorts– Not enough scores from non-white participants to determine if

differences exist

Qualitative Data Analysis

Open Ended Questions

• In what ways do you incorporate your beliefs and values into the work you do and the decisions you make in your professional life?

• Describe an incident in your leadership experience when your values conflicted with an event or decision. How did you respond to the incident?

Word Frequencies

Word Frequency

decision 81values 51work 48students 43beliefs 37make 33school 25reflection/think 21needs 21person 21others 20

Values Frequencies

Normative Value Frequency

Community 46

Partnership 29

Truth 30

Justice 14

Compassion* 10

Community

• This can be best summed up regarding my relationships with those with whom I work. I consider the perspectives of others when making decisions. I always try to communicate effectively and respectfully. I value the opinions and decisions of my supervisor, peers, teachers, parent and students.

Truth

• I believe in honest communication. I like to hear all viewpoints.

• I listen to the alternative viewpoint and work to assimilate the information.

• I communicate openly

• I am always honest and forthcoming

• Eliminate bias and judgment

Partnership

• I am especially in tune to seeing, valuing, and utilizing the strengths of others. I am sensitive to the fact that everyone has different ways of looking at (and) approaching problems.

• I strongly (believe) in the value of collaboration and think that everyone in our organization is a valuable contributing member.

Justice

• I found out that a high school student had been bullied during his four years in high school because of his sexual orientation and teachers and administrators did not get involved to address this situation. What that student went through and the lack of responsiveness and compassion from our staff was appalling! I implemented measures to make sure that that kind of situation would never occur again in our district.

Compassion

• I examine my own biases and privileges. I make sure marginalized and underrepresented voices are heard. I am a student advocate.

• I was a superintendent when the board voted "no" to offering breakfast programs in our schools. I kept plugging away at the issue and giving board members and the community justification for such a program. A year later it passed.

StudiumStudy

• I conduct outreach to all constituents, evaluate data, and analyze carefully

• I carefully analyze inputs from others

• I do consider long-range implications.

• My professional experiences and educational background have furthered my understanding and commitment to student development, professional ethics, social justice and educating students utilizing a holistic approach

Reflect• In decision making, I

believe in partnership; • Reflect on how this

moves kids forward, how it impact students,

• I constantly prioritize leadership tasks

• Take time to reevaluate my decisions before

• before making decisions that will impact my professional life and that of others.

ActO to ensure informed decision

making.O I explained my values, took

time to explain my reasoning, allowed the principal time to discuss her rationale and then overturned the decision based on what was best for the student, parent, teacher and the school.

O is the decision and belief 'what's in the best interest of kids'?

O work I do must have meaning, must improve the school and benefiting students.

O Servant leadership is foundational to my actions and decisions. While these decisions are not always acceptable to everyone in the organization

O proceeding and finalizing things.

Key Findings

• Graduates consistently and thoroughly incorporated and internalized Dominican values

• Moderate positive correlation between decision making and reflection and the internalized moral perspective of Authentic Leadership Decision making and

Reflection

Internalized Moral Perspective

Main Conclusions

• Graduates tightly interweave Dominican values and the studium in their professional lives.

• Study may be used to develop the internalized moral component of Authentic Leadership.

• Edgewood Leader identity includes incorporation of values and practice in the studium.

Practical Implications

• Advanced a conceptualization of ethical leadership using a specific set of values.

• Helped inform the internalized moral perspective of Authentic Leadership

• Advanced the conceptualization of an Edgewood Leader. – Incorporated into Program Assessment and Portfolio – Incorporated into the curriculum scope and sequence

Ed.D. Leadership Identity Curriculum

701 715 725 735 745 755 790

Introduction to Doctoral Study

Faculty, Programs, and

Assessment

Inclusion, Diversity, and

LeadershipLaw, Media, and

MarketingFinance of Higher

Education

Ethical Leadership, Policy, and

Governance

Program Assessment and

Transition

Edgewood Leader Identity

Beginning reflection,

Studium overview,

community building,Cohort Value

discussion Studium

Values discern-

ment

Interme- diate

Reflection StudiumCor ad Cor Loquitor

Final Reflection

Program Assessment

ED701

Edgewood Leader

Academic Writer

Scholarly Researcher

Reflection

Recommendations

• Program Leaders– Practice the studium – Continued values clarification and discernment– Examine and expand relational

transparency/internal moral perspective– Seek answers to cor ad cor loquitor questions– Incorporate Edgewood Leader conceptualization

into curriculum

Questions?

Suzanne C. Otte Allen, Ed.D.SOtteAllen@edgewood.edu

W (608) 663-4250C (920) 285-1739