Dissertation Archive, WMU Graduate College

Dissertation Defense

Candidate: Patricia L. Reeves

Degree of: Doctor of Education

Department: Teaching, Learning, and Leadership

Title: Increasing Organizational Capacity: A Systems Approach Utilizing Transformational and Distributed Leadership Practices

Date: Monday, March 22, 2004 9:30 am - 11:30 am
3208 Sangren

Committee: Dr. Van Cooley, Chair
Dr. Jianping Shen
Dr. William Blokker

Abstract: The purposed of this study was to test transformational, systemic change framework designed by the researcher to assist school leaders who are attempting to incorporate the major elements of transformational leadership theory, systems theory, and organizational development theory into their school or school district operations. The study involved both the distillation and organization of the major theoretical elements from the literature into an operational framework for planning, conducting, and monitoring the systemic change process in K-12 school systems. This framework was then tested by the researcher for its descriptive power in a case study analysis of an actual school district change process over a number of years.
The study used ethnographic approaches to analyze the district document and artifact record against the operational framework. The researcher also developed a survey of descriptors aligning with each of the operational elements of the frameworks and administered it to professional staff (teachers and administrators) currently working in the case study district. The researcher analyzed the data collected from the survey responses and the document/artifact analysis to asses the power of the operational framework and descriptors to track the actual change process in the case study school district and describe its current status with regard to the incorporation of transformational, systemic change elements into operational norms.
Finally, the researcher triangulated the testing of the analysis framework in a specific case study district with a field test of the transformational, systemic change survey with Michigan K-12 school superintendents. The items on the survey were operational descriptors aligned to the major elements in the operational framework. The survey responses were analyzed for variance within and across survey items to determine the power of the descriptors to elicit differentiated responses from school superintendents as they reflect upon the current status of their own school districts with regard to the incorporation of transformational, systemic change elements into their organization's operational norms.

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