Oliwier Dziadkowiec, Scott Wituk and Debra Franklin
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the composition and strengths/weaknesses and major actors of a coalition of regional economic leaders in the composites participating in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the composition and strengths/weaknesses and major actors of a coalition of regional economic leaders in the composites participating in the Workforce Innovations in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) project aimed at supporting high-skilled and high-wage careers.
Design/methodology/approach
Social network analysis (SNA) was used to assess south-central (SC) Kansas WIRED coalition (n = 81) based on three surveys question: Who do you know? Who do you communicate with? and Who do you collaborate with? All the surveys were administered online in two waves.
Findings
SC Kansas WIRED network has a strong core, well-defined periphery and is immune to key actor losses, which suggests that they are well developed and sustainable. The well-defined periphery positions the collaborative to reach out to resources outside of the network and innovation.
Practical implications
SC Kansas WIRED Leadership team used the SNA to identify opportunities for further collaboration and reach out to individuals and groups who are not engaged well with others but are positioned well for sparking innovation and bringing resources to the region.
Originality/value
There are few analytic resources to empirically examine coalitions/collaboratives and the human and economic resources embedded in them. The results of this study and the feedback from SC Kansas WIRED Leadership team suggests that SNA was very valuable in identifying areas for action or improvement of the SC Kansas WIRED collaborative and can be utilized for effective decision-making.
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David D. Chrislip, David MacPhee and Patti Schmitt
Some communities in the USA are remarkably better at responding to civic challenges than others. These communities are more competent at marshaling their resources – material and…
Abstract
Purpose
Some communities in the USA are remarkably better at responding to civic challenges than others. These communities are more competent at marshaling their resources – material and human – in service of their own needs. The authors’ purpose in this paper is to enhance their collective understanding of ideas related to community-driven change and to describe the development of a civic capacity index (CCI), a measure of a community's capacity to respond to civic challenges and disruptions like COVID-19.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a concept mapping process (akin to grounded theory) to develop the CCI. Using this process, a panel of 34 scholars and practitioners of civic leadership and civic engagement worked together to create measurable descriptors of civic capacity.
Findings
The CCI measures dynamic processes related to collective leadership, inclusion of diverse voices, how institutions and coalitions address shared challenges and collaboration among community members. Sample data from several states show the CCI's scales to have high internal reliabilities and to correlate strongly with validation scales such as collective efficacy, social justice and community connectedness. Confirmatory factor analyses support a bifactor model of a general CCI factor and six CCI scales.
Practical implications
With the help of the CCI, civic actors can take advantage of existing civic capacity, understand where it is lacking and build resilience for the future.
Originality/value
To date, most scholars have used qualitative research to determine the elements of civic capacity. The authors wanted to know what civic capacity looks like in sufficient detail to assess the extent to which it is present or not in a community. Other efforts to quantify or assess civic capacity or related ideas are less comprehensive or lack the specificity to provide guidance for building and mobilizing it in communities. This work enhances our understanding of leadership in the civic arena, a little understood aspect of leadership studies.
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Matthew E. Archibald and Kendralin J. Freeman
This paper examines whether affiliation strategies used by social movement organizations to establish institutional linkages assure survival. Several streams within both social…
Abstract
This paper examines whether affiliation strategies used by social movement organizations to establish institutional linkages assure survival. Several streams within both social movement and organization theories suggest contrasting expectations. Two core research questions are proposed: how does strategic affiliation, as well as increasing legitimation, alter social movement organizations’ longevity, and how does the evolution of the movement condition these dynamics? Our answer focuses on the self-help/mutual-aid movement and the institutionalization of national self-help/mutual-aid organizations. Analyses comparing economic, political and symbolic means of survival at the population-of-organizations level and organizational level, and across the history of the movement, show that professional and political alliances and legitimation impact the longevity of self-help/mutual-aid organizations in unexpected ways. For instance, as the number of political alliances at the population level increases, the likelihood of organizational survival declines, although political alliances at the individual organizational level are beneficial for an organization. These relationships change dramatically as the movement matures. Implications for integrating social movement and organizations theories are discussed.
The purpose of this paper is to give some theoretical foundation to leadership function and style for managing knowledge workers whose work, by definition, is non-routine, thrives…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to give some theoretical foundation to leadership function and style for managing knowledge workers whose work, by definition, is non-routine, thrives on innovation, and places a special demand on autonomy for its execution.
Design/methodology/approach
Extant search of literature to look for evidence supporting successful leadership theories and practices that are shown to improve performance of knowledge workers. Synthesis of findings to structure a framework in the form of major propositions for their testing by future research.
Findings
The authors begin with establishing the first finding that states that leadership of knowledge organizations is different from the leadership of traditional organizations. Then the authors build six additional findings for shaping a successful leadership process for knowledge organizations.
Research limitations/implications
Since it is a theoretical paper built on a search of literature in the field of leadership, there is a need to empirically test the findings to give them their final shape. Each of the seven propositions in this paper would result into many hypotheses that should initiate several empirical studies.
Practical implications
The authors consider individual and organizational/group contexts of the leadership proposed here, and also provide recommendations for carrying out this research further. While the paper is written more specifically with regard to the leadership of knowledge organizations where its findings should be fully implantable, however, to some extent, they would apply to all organizations.
Social implications
Leadership is a ubiquitous social phenomenon. It affects not only organizations, but also every aspect of human activity. This paper is an attempt to alter the fundamental thinking of leaders, suggesting to not to use authority, and instead, to allow everyone connected with the task the opportunity to lead. This shift in leadership paradigm will have an impact on the behavior of all involved, and steadily, will bring a change in the norms of social behavior.
Originality/value
This paper is a move toward giving the knowledge organization leadership some theoretical framework, as it is still in a state of flux in spite of attracting a lot of research.