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UMUC - European Division - Mason G Daly - High School Speech - June 1966
No full textEurope;Hoffmann, RosemaryDr. Mason G. Daly
Director
University of Maryland European Division
June, 1966
High School Speech
So here I stand involved in an appalling medieval tradition that requires someone to speak to a restless, tingling, excited bunch of young people ready to celebrate, to receive gifts, to get kisses [struck through] a diploma and to blast off the pad.
Omit [Bracket, next paragraph]
This dependents' high school graduates you, finishes you, sends you on your way. It's a kind of "finish-ment" exercise and yet it is also known as a "commence-ment" exercise. You are finished; but you are just commencing.
Omit [Bracket, next paragraph]
You know, they used to kill a sheep and write out the diploma (in Latin, of course) on a well-tanned hide. They still have the nerve to call it a "sheep-skin, " but institutions have long ago given out a kind of "cheap-skin" paper diploma much less durable.
Here you appear in your best clothes for a ceremony, and you are immediately rigged out in a costume covering up all the new finery, making you all look alike, and look somewhat ill-at-ease.
You gals get your hair all propped up and pushed out, or ironed out, and then you hook that miserable mortar board to your head.
Omit [Bracket, next two paragraphs]
You do all of this because it is being done. You know you'll have to listen to a speaker, because, of course, that too is being done, has been done for generations and, well, anyone worth graduating ought to be able to sweat out one more lesson in patience and endurance.
Let me just say that those robes no doubt come from the time when monks in a monastery were pretty exclusively the only ones studying or graduating from anything. The robes which we mock today were simple garbs, the only clothes they had really. Now, today, Americans especially like to reach back to this medieval tradition . We garble the garb, however, and stretch its purpose so far that we sometimes have kindergarten classes commencing, I don't know what exactly, all rigged out in caps and gowns.
This paraphernalia of graduation should not be lost because it serves as fairly dramatic reminder of our learned lineage with the medieval past. There should be some drama, some tradition displayed at the end of your long struggle for maturity and at the commencement of reasonably adult life.
The speaker at a graduation is probably the hardest to explain and justify, even with tradition. No one seems to have the simple courage to admit that the speaker is really unnecessary to getting diplomas handed out and you headed back down the aisle. I guess I might as well admit that I actually represent all the adults here today who are just a little reluctant to grant that you are once and for all, for better or for worse, at the close of adolescence. You are supposed to have a kind of adult-hood conferred with that diploma, a kind of intellectual as well as chronological maturity is supposed to be approaching, and we have got to the point where that has to be recognized by the adults around here, it can't be postponed much further. In a sense, then, this speech is our last gasp of delay, and we are not about to give it up.
I am going to do something of a switch on you graduates today. Representing the reluctant (and here and there tearful) adults here, I will congratulate you, yes -- but I refuse to compliment you on your knowledge. Far from it. I should congratulate you, of course, because you have wound it up, you have done well, well enough at least to be given a diploma from a very respected dependents' high school. But my chief intention today is to tell you a bit about how little knowledge you have. I am going to talk about your ignorance. Now that is not sour grapes, not an adult trying to feel more adult, not a threat to withhold that diploma. I am sincere, you have appalling ignorance, and so do I, and so does your principal, and your teachers and your parents out there . And by this time tomorrow our ignorance will be somewhat more appalling still.
This should not be as disturbing as it sounds. Certainly the mark of the educated man, at any point in his education, is that he knows how ignorant he is, how little he actually knows of man's accumulation of knowledge. Furthermore, the educated man knows that he will always be ignorant - like everyone else. Not ignorant through any fault of his own. Not ignorant because he is slothful. But ignorant because of the nature of the world he lives in.
Let's take a look at this world we live in - in terms of the world's knowledge and our ignorance.
There was a time you know, about the time of our national forefathers, say Jefferson and Franklin, that a man could study and absorb a comforting part of the world's accumulated knowledge in his life-time . A few hundred years before that, a man could literally know it all, could, at least, just about read it all. Of course, not many got around to learning it all, or had a chance to learn it all, but it was roughly possible. You have been taught to admire and applaud Isaac Newton and his scientific breakthroughs. Well, give him credit, but don't overdo it. Some of you know now, or soon will know, more physics than Newton ever did. He was informed for his time. He had a sharp, inquiring mind. He was not afraid to speculate and experiment. But with that knowledge he could not today pick up one of those diplomas. I daresay Jefferson would flunk your geography exams, yet he was a widely travelled, learned diplomat. And I am sure Franklin and his kite in a thunderstorm is ridiculously naive to all of you.
Those great men, ill-informed by our standards, and others like them, before and since, did, in fact, guarantee that you and I can never know it all today, however long we go to school, however hard we struggle to gain knowledge. Their intuition, speculation, hypothesizing, experimenting, philosophical thinking, pushed back horizons of discovery and learning, and added to the accumulation of knowledge, and ultimately to the sum of our ignorance of many things now known to man.
You see, way back, let's say when Galileo spouted madly something about the rotation of the earth around the sun, human knowledge was slow to add up, to multiply, to be accepted, to be recorded, and to be passed on. Perhaps in the span of five hundred years human knowledge managed to double itself. A half-way clever man could keep up. Certainly he could keep up if he was formally schooled about half as long as you have already been schooled.
But time and knowledge (supported by many means of communication, and by printing, and by swapping ideas between continents and cultures) marched on, and knowledge compounded itself. In the mid-19th century some sharp philosopher or scientist (no doubt gasping to keep up) suggested that human knowledge would approximately double every half century. He was laughed at, of course. Today, any philosopher or scientist worthy of the name would not hesitate to declare that human knowledge doubles every five years.
Short of total war, which would be total calamity, this doubling process will keep up rather than slow down. And, of course, you and I as individuals just will not, just can not keep up the pace. Our chances to learn have increased many times over, but it can be discouraging, just when you think you have accomplished something labelled "education" to see more and more expeditionary forces charging off in all directions discovering more and more, disproving that which we have learned and thought true.
It can be breathtaking and exciting to have to admit that really nothing seems impossible any more. It can be frightening to know that your way of life, much less what you learned at this high school, will be utterly changed, if not scrapped outright, because of new knowledge just about to be added to the mounting accumulation.
No one here will argue, I suppose, that any disease of man can be whipped. No argument from me, anyhow; for I have seen tuberculosis sanitarium - which were everywhere and always full when I graduated from high school -become obsolete; I have seen malaria brought under control; you and I have seen polio brought to the brink of control; I may die of cancer, but you younger people probably will not. We have all seen the speed of sound become an almost casual speed. We know the human brain has built mechanical computers which can in five minutes do the figuring that would require months of sweat by the combined human mathematical brains of the world. Surely your brief span of years has been enough to make you all believers in the impossible, make you full of daring about the future.
And unless you do almost believe in the impossible, unless you are full of daring, you will be way out of the picture, you will be intellectual "squares," because the sense of daring generated in the reach for more information is impressive indeed. The willingness to gamble and speculate, to spend on experimentation and exploration, is quite enough to make a casino roulette man turn pale. What Las Vegas or Reno sharpie would ever gamble as our scientists who have set up, with governmental aid in part, listening posts to monitor for signals from living beings in remote unseen galaxies who may be signaling around for signs of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. Imagine those odds. Do we dare say it is a futile, wasteful effort? We may pick up that transmission tomorrow. We may not pick up anything for a thousand years . But gamble we must, because that is the point we have reached ln our civilization, in our search for more information.
I read the words of a scientist 10 years ago who believed intelligent life out there is so probable and in so many places that he chooses to think there may be a baseball team on some other earth capable of beating the Yankees or the Dodgers at the exact same game. A roulette man would call that scientist an idiot. But in the long odds of life we know the game goes on.
We know that we will one day, somehow, check Einstein's "twin paradox" which assumes that a twin brother who takes off on a space journey in which he travels at a sizeable fraction of the speed of light would return to find his earth-bound brother either older than he or little more than a dim recollection in the memory of his descendants.
Knowledge accumulates, then, and it tests your nerve, and dares you greatly to find out more, to explore for the impossible. Our daily discoveries are changing the face of the earth, the size of the universe, our way of life, our hope to survive. And this change is constant, relentless, almost momentary. You young graduates do not live or quite think as your parents did; you will not live five years from now as you do today. Your chance for a long life is both better - and unfortunately worse today than it was a year ago. The gathering of knowledge that made these changes was beyond your control. You could not stop or alter or add much to it.
Up to now. Like it or not, I am prepared to admit for the adults present today, that you now go on from this point to add your part to the multiplication of knowledge, to the changing of the face of the earth, to the altering of your own way of life, and ours at the same time.
Accumulated knowledge has changed your life and will change it some more, and soon. But - you might challenge if this applies to all men everywhere. You are all much travelled for your ages, and you are more travelled than the many miles you have covered following your parents around the world, because you can sit in your parlor or in a theatre, and, because of the miracles of sound and camera, see vividly into the corners and heights and depths of the world in which you live. In your travels and in your looking you have seen many of your fellow human beings, all over the world, living, striving for food, worshipping, dying as they and their ancestors have for thousands of years . What is this accumulation and multiplication of knowledge to them, after all, you may ask. They are, are they not, living 1n a world that does not change.
No - not at all - not any more. There is apt to be a Schweitzer or a Dooley nearby - or perhaps one graduating today from this high school. There is an engineer up river (or in some 1969 graduating class somewhere) dreaming about a big dam, which may spell displacement as well as salvation to these unchanging people. There is a laboratory in a far away city discovering a new vaccine, a new antidote to the disease which is killing them today. There are a few among them slipping away to learn to think and to be dissatisfied, to return with disturbing doctrines and dreams. There are two great armies about to choose their miserable valley for battleground, armies which will rubble their homes, displace them forever. (Think of the unlikely battlefields of this last quarter century). Theirs is a climate and place just right for testing the newest bomb or space vehicle - so like it or not, they are moved on .
All human kind is caught up in this advance of knowledge, you may be sure of that. And some of the most backward, most illiterate in the world today are going to be your greatest concern as you develop into political and professional manhood and womanhood. We are giving them longer life, ideas, devices, anxieties, even neuroses, and we will have to live with them and with what we have given them. The patterns of thousands of years are crumbling now, every minute, everywhere. If a man suddenly has a radio and the ballot, what does it really matter that he still uses a pre-Biblical plow behind a mangy camel. That man requires attention. We and our political system better pay attention to him, because he soon learns others in the world consider him important, are in full competition for his allegiance.
I have tried to explain the inevitability of ignorance in a world compounding knowledge at a breathless pace. I have not intended to suggest, however, that there is any futility in learning. Rather I have tried to suggest that the business of continuing your education, full speed and with all your might, is the great dare of the modern world. Whether you go on to college and university or not, you had better get on with the tough, dangerous, daring business of learning. There will be no more pampering, coddling, superficial encouragement to get you to learn when you get into college and into life. When you go out from here into your world take your brains with you. Men and women (that's what you had better start calling yourselves and expect us to call you from this point on), knowledge is now, as never before in human history, the essence of survival.
And so, at this point in this graduation speech, like any graduation speaker, I must trot out the old trite, true phrase about "if our way of life is to survive , we must put our hopes in you ….." That is implied or actually stated in just about every graduation speech given this side of the iron and bamboo curtains. They have graduation speeches on the other side of the curtains, too, you know. Dead serious speeches, given to young graduates as starry-eyed and determined as the best of you. What does their speaker say. Something similar, I should think - something about "if our way of life is to survive, we must put our hopes in you ….." They are clever about how they mobilize and direct the talents and ambitions of the new generations in those soviets and communes. They do not overlook or waste brain talent. They find it and direct it powerfully and persistently. The best brain in the world can be channelled to do the State’s work, can be denied that which will confuse it or arouse it to wrong thoughts. That fine brain can build for the future of that system just as surely as your fine brain can build for our system. We may have the best system in the world for assuring individual freedom and happiness; we do not necessarily have the best system in the world for assuring the first man on the moon.
We already know that brain power can be mobilized to develop the exact sciences, to make gigantic leaps in discovery. We know that here our system can drop behind, can lag in the wrong places. Do we have any idea what mobilized brains can do in the not-so-exact, more philosophical fields. Can a good brain be taught to accept genocide - the murder of a whole race of people. Probably. Apparently. Can intellects capable of orbiting objects around the sun accept concentration camps as readily as taxes and military service. Yes. It seems so. Can anything, social as well as scientific, be "taught" to formula, to party line, to the point of a desired mass reflex action. Perhaps. Every day we are finding out all too vividly some of the awesome results of slave--state mobilization for learning.
We hope that these diplomas mean that you young people approaching adulthood - have a few fine reflexes polished up that our future can build upon; that your fresh young intellects will push out our horizons in the exact sciences, and the not-so-exact sciences; that you will help mankind to live in reasonable peace until it finds a means of accommodating all of its diversity in total peace, in enough tranquility to contemplate the overwhelming fact of mortality.
And so I have done my switch, and I've delayed as long as I decently can. For all of these reluctant adults, I have congratulated you - sincerely, but with restraint. I have explained the certainty and significance of ignorance, yours and mine, because of the immensity of human knowledge and its doubling and redoubling. I have also - I hope - suggested that you emerge today as men and women into a world that changes every few minutes. I sincerely hope you will enter that world aware of the risks, the excitement, the great expectations, that you will not waste time or intelligence, for the next few years will surely prove if the human mind and the human spirit has the right to survive
UMUC - European Division - Mason G Daly - Jan Hartman Farewell - Christmas Party 1965
No full textEurope;Hoffmann, RosemaryAnd finally this is the year we lose Jan Hartman to Charles DeGaulle.
We will miss this wonderful Czech with his French family, and we know he will miss us. His have been the most reassuring reflexes in divvying up books and in dealing with area directors, even including John Hunt - teachers, centers, language supervisors delaying text selections, and Stars and Stripes that this Divisions has ever enjoyed. He has worked harder and with more devotion to our purpose than any Marylander ever has. And to say that in the presence of all of you without fear of contradiction, places Jan Hartman right in focus.
We know that Jan makes his decision to leave with, shall we say, the agony of a Don Totten, without the liquid compensation of a Bill Clutter or a Jack Barnes.
We know Jan will succeed in his new post with this Bordeaux firm which, fortunately for us and for our friendship, places the Hartmans for a time in Karlsruhe. We fully expect to see that bent back little citroen come tailing in her for regular visits.
And now before we let you go, Jan, even as far as Karlsruhe, this staff wishes to see to it taht you have some items of lasting nostalgic value, items that remind you of your great moments of triumph and of frustration with this outfit.
As you all know, Jan has added splash and finesse to our bureaucracy. He has used more color in papers and pads, more shapes in memos and margins, more arrows and urgent reminders, more tabs and ticklers, more carbons and NCR paper than IBM can produce. We are providing him with a supply of some of these genius devices of his and we know the French world and that poor unsuspecting French firm will never be the same, will ultimately never had it so good.
We have also taken random samples of the lower-depth supply cabinets which have always been so subtlely raided by Jan, despite the meanest efforts of Elaine Stelter and Otto Schoettner. And we place these items in your own little supply cabinet, Jan. We wish you to note in particular that you have FIVE - repeat FIVE - extra special plastic erasers, an item over which you carried on a valiant and determined war.
We have here a special roll of memo paper which you dreamed up for better communication with those miserable, inept, and forgetful Area Directors. The white is your original for the book department files, blue is for Bock, yellow for LeBlanc, pink for Umphrey. You were going to add purple for Hunt but gave up, knowing he ignored everything you sent anyhow.
To be completely assured of your continued happiness, Jan, because we all know you would be miserable and unfulfilled if you cannot continue to design forms and memos and pads and paraphenalia to smooth out the bumps of a bureaucracy, we also provide the JAN HARTMAN DO IT YOURSELF FORM DESIGN AND MANUFACTURE KIT. It is absolutely the latest thing, it has a nine way printing plate and permanently inked roller. You probably can print French Francs in it.
The Comptroller’s office, also provides - and it is permanently yours this time - a special desk pen in commemoration of your long and regularly lost battle with past and present Comptrollers.
We also wish to give you this wood carving to place prominently and with loving recollections, in the center of your attention. It commemorates the great books balancing act you have so magnificently achieved through the years.
And Jan, if you do not mind, we insist that you also take with you this rather old machine commemorating your inspiration in introducing to us that magic teletype which has so revolutionized your last happy year with us.
We all, God love you Jan, wish you well with DeGaulle and the wonderful country of your choice
UMUC - European Division - Mason G Daly - Munich Convocation - October 10 1962 - Munich
No full textEurope;Hoffmann, RosemaryThis platform today has the trappings and tradition of the medieval world; showing that this American university In this European setting is a direct and honorable descendent of the ancient universities of Paris and Bologna and Prague and Heidelberg and Oxford. All of us on this platform may not feel as at home in this astonishing regalia as the medieval scholars may have, as some of the Oxford dons do today, but we are here, before you to declare an honorable lineage with the learned past.
This small segment of the University of Maryland bases its purpose and philosophy on the liberal arts tradition, the same liberal arts tradition of the medieval schools. Then it was logic, rhetoric, geometry, and astronomy, and of course it was all in Latin. The liberal arts have expanded to include chemistry, physics, English, Economics, Languages, and others, but here we are shooting at, almost travelling among the stars, and there isn't a telescope in this place, and no Latin. But the honorable lineage is there.
There are a couple of Deans up here today, both very important to you. Dean was decanus, medeaval Latin for supervisor of ten monks in a monastery. Then the select few who did much studying were apt to be monks, religious men, receiving their education in a church or monastery - thus decanus - in charge of monks. Well, these Deans and you know that the original meaning has truly been stretched if we are to compare this campus with a cell of ten monks. But the honorable lineage is there.
Today, as in the past, college students go into the classroom and a Doctor of Philosophy or a Master of Arts or Science reads aloud from a manuscript in order tor the student to write down the words of wisdom that professor has gathered from textbooks, research, and his own thinking. This was more logical perhaps in the old days when books were scarce to non-existent and the lecture was about the only means of transferring knowledge to students. Today, to one degree or another, we perpetuate that tradition and these Doctors and Masters hold forth, while you - supposedly - hungrily and hopefully take notes. Again, the honorable lineage.
When the student was one of a group of monks, he reached a point that all of you hope one day to attain, the baccalaureaus, the bachelors' degree. Today, married or single, man or woman, monk or not, you may achieve the bachelor's. And, when conferring the degree, the dean will say you are "admitted to the degree with all the rights and privileges appertaining thereto." That, among other things, in the middle ages meant that the graduate could avoid being hanged by order of the courts, and other such odd comforting civil privileges were accorded him. Well, the courts today can decide to hang you, bachelor or not, but the statement will one day be read over you, nevertheless. The lineage, again.
And here at these convocations we deans and professors don these long robes with these brightly colored hoods, because in the middle ages these gowns were worn - more naturally of course - by the monks, and the hoods were used to cover the head in bad weather and to hold out for begging in all kinds of weather. Now, quaintly garbed, we walk in procession, two by two, like the monks of old, affirming our lineage from the medieval universities.
It is a curious fact that American universities are apt to keep the traditions more alive than most of the European universities where it all began. We believe such an event is appropriate in a university setting because it cultivates a sense of respect for what mankind, civilization, has accomplished through formalized education, a sense of respect for what we are still doing and what we must do as civilized men and women. Somehow these robed men and women must get through to you this sense of respect for your civilization and for your place in it. We insist that the peraphenalia of a convocation should not be lost just because it is not commonplace; because it is such a dramatic reminder of human determination to advance in knowledge.
In a formal. somewhat medieval way, then, we intend today to remind you that you are citizens of the academic world, that you have joined the long ages of men and women who were and are devoted of the life of thought.
This is a great moment to be joining the academic world, and a frustrating one, if you look at the exploding nature of the world's accumulated knowledge. When those ten monks studied with their dean, when the medieval scholars listened to their doctors and masters hold forth, there was a reasonable chance to absorb in a span of reasonable time the world's accumulated knowledge, even to digest it and sort of use it all in all situations. A scholar could pull together all that was accumulated and available in logic, rhetoric, geometry, and astronomy and expose himself to the lot before he got his degree, and then forge on, perhaps, to add his little bit. How satisfying that must have been. Even at the time of our national forfathers, say Jefferson and Franklin, a man could study and absorb a large part of the world's accumulated knowledge in his life-time, at least if he was as sharp as those forfathers. I daresay Jefferson, widely travelled, learned diplomat, would today flunk a good ninth grade geography exam, and I am sure Franklin and his kite in a thunderstorm seems ridiculously naive to those of you with two weeks of Physics I under your belt.
Those great men, and others like them. Before and since, did, in fact, guarantee that you and I can never know it all today, however long we formally strive, however long we manage to live. Their intuition, speculations, hypothesizing, experimenting, philosophical thinking, pushed knowledge into a geometrically increasing infinity.
In the mid-19th century some philospher or scientist (no doubt gasping to keep up) suggested that human knowledge would approximately double every half century. He was laughed at, of course. Today, any philosopher or scientist worthy of the name would not hesitate to declare that human knowledge doubles every five years.
It is breathtaking to know that so many of the insurmountables, the unobtainable, the unexplainables are going to be wiped out in part by you.
No one here will argue. I suppose, that any disease of man can be whipped. No argument from me, anyhow; for I have seen tuberculosis sanitariums - which were everywhere and always full when I was your age - become obsolete; I have seen malaria brought under control; you and I have seen polio brought to the brink of control; I may die of cancer, but you younger people probably will not. We have all seen the speed of sound become a casual speed. We know the human brain has built mechanical computers which can in five minutes do the figuring that would require months of sweat by the combined human mathematical brains of the world.
The willingness to gamble and speculate on the chance to blast into the unknown, to spend on experimentation and exploration, is quite enough to make a casino roulette man turn pale. What Monte Carlo or Las Vegas operator would ever gamble as our scientists who have set up listening posts to monitor for signals from living beings in remote unseen gallaxies who may be signaling around for signs of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. Imagine those odds. Do we dare say it is a futile. wasteful effort? We may pick up that transmission tomorrow. We may not pick up anything for a thousand years. But gamble we must, because that is the point we have reached in our civilization. in our search for information.
I read the words of a British scientist 10 years ago who believes intelligent life out there is so probable and in so many places and in so many combinations that he chooses to think there may be a baseball team on some other earth capable of beating the Yankees or the Giants at the exact same game. A roulette man would call that scientist an idiot. The British government has decorated him.
What a time to be welcomed into the life of thought, into the citizenry inevitably altering and enriching our civilization through an exploding universe of knowledge.
Accumulated knowledge has changed your life and will change it more, and soon. But you might challenge if it seems to be changing it for all men everywhere. You are all much travelled for your ages, and you are more travelled than the many miles you have covered following your parents around the world, because you can sit in your parlor or in a theatre, and, because of the miracles of sound and camera, see vividly into the corners lind heights and depths of the world in which you live. In your travels and in your looking you have seen many of your fellow men, all over the world, living, striving for food, worshipping, dying as they and their ancestors have for thousands of years. What is this accumulation and multiplication of knowledge to them, after all. They are, are they not, living in a world that does not change.
No .-not at all -not any more. There is apt to be a Schweitzer or a Dooley nearby - or such a man sitting in this auditorium today. There is an engineer up river dreaming about a big dam, which may spell displacement as well as salvation to these unchanging people. There is a far away laboratory discovering a new vaccine, a new antidote to the disease which slaughters them today. There are a few among them slipping away to learn to think and to be dissatisfied, to return with disturbing doctrines and dreams. There are two great armies about to choose their miserable valley for battleground, armies which will rubble their homes. (Think of the unlikely battlefields of this last quarter century, of this moment). Theirs is a climate and place just right for testing the newest space vehicle - so like it or not, they are moved on, out of the way.
All human kind Is caught up in this advance of knowledge, you may be sure of that. And some of the most backward, most illiterate in the world today are going to be your greatest concern as you develop into political and professional manhood and womanhood. As you help forge and apply new knowledge you will give these people longer lives, also ideas, devices, anxieties, even neuroses. The patterns of thousands of years are crumbling now, every minute, everywhere. If a man suddenly has a radio and the franchise, what does it really matter that he still uses a pre-Biblical plow behind a mangy camel. That man requires attention, because he crowds up to the same ballot box in the community of nations that you do. In your search for knowledge you had better try to understand him, and make him part of your civilization.
Welcome to the life of thought - then - welcome to the tough, dangerous, daring business of learning. Welcome to the breathless business of compounding knowledge. Welcome to a citizenry that reaches back to the medieval. but is determened to know the future.
This welcome should be renewed regularly in every academic community, renewed with the trappings and traditions here before you today, keeping fresh before you a sense of respect for your civilization and your place in it
Leader readiness to engage in effective executive coaching: A self-directed learning perspective
No full textExecutive coaching is a popular and proactive approach to leadership
development. While executive coaching can require a client to commit a substantial
amount of time and money to the process, it does not always produce beneficial results
for the client or their sponsoring organization. A review of the literature revealed little
evidence supporting the use of a readiness assessment to pre-determine if a potential
executive coaching client the characteristics similar to those more likely to effectively
engage in the executive coaching process and consequently benefit their organization.
A Conceptual Model integrated four propositions derived from the Literature
Review, and graphically portrayed the links between the constructs of executive coaching
and self-directed learning. The model also portrayed the process for how the Self-
Directed Learning Scale can be used as a readiness assessment for potential executive
coaching clients.
This study compared the levels of executive coaching effectiveness as perceived
by executive coaching clients and their individual level of self-directed learning
readiness. The study also evaluated relationships between approaches used by executive
coaching clients to prepare for coaching sessions and their level of self-directed leaning
ii
readiness. Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale and the Executive Coaching Client
Effectiveness questionnaires were administered to 74 business executives. The results of
Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale questionnaire identified each client’s level of
self-directed learning readiness. The Executive Coaching Client Effectiveness
questionnaire captured perceived level of effectiveness of executive coaching sessions
and effectiveness of client preparation for those coaching sessions.
The results of this research support the central thesis that business executives who
have higher levels of self-directed learning readiness are likely to engage more
effectively in the executive coaching process. Findings also show that the Self-Directed
Learning Readiness Scale questionnaire is an appropriate assessment to assist in predetermining
which executives are more likely to effectively engage in executive coaching
process and subsequently provide benefit to their organization.Abstract
Title of Dissertation: Leader Readiness to Engage in Effective
Executive Coaching: A Self-Directed Learning
Perspective
Donald J Darnall, Doctor of Management, 2012
Dissertation Directed By: Dr. Thomas Mierzwa, University of Maryland
University College, Graduate School of
Management & Technology
Executive coaching is a popular and proactive approach to leadership
development. While executive coaching can require a client to commit a substantial
amount of time and money to the process, it does not always produce beneficial results
for the client or their sponsoring organization. A review of the literature revealed little
evidence supporting the use of a readiness assessment to pre-determine if a potential
executive coaching client the characteristics similar to those more likely to effectively
engage in the executive coaching process and consequently benefit their organization.
A Conceptual Model integrated four propositions derived from the Literature
Review, and graphically portrayed the links between the constructs of executive coaching
and self-directed learning. The model also portrayed the process for how the Self-
Directed Learning Scale can be used as a readiness assessment for potential executive
coaching clients.
This study compared the levels of executive coaching effectiveness as perceived
by executive coaching clients and their individual level of self-directed learning
readiness. The study also evaluated relationships between approaches used by executive
coaching clients to prepare for coaching sessions and their level of self-directed leaning
ii
readiness. Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale and the Executive Coaching Client
Effectiveness questionnaires were administered to 74 business executives. The results of
Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale questionnaire identified each client’s level of
self-directed learning readiness. The Executive Coaching Client Effectiveness
questionnaire captured perceived level of effectiveness of executive coaching sessions
and effectiveness of client preparation for those coaching sessions.
The results of this research support the central thesis that business executives who
have higher levels of self-directed learning readiness are likely to engage more
effectively in the executive coaching process. Findings also show that the Self-Directed
Learning Readiness Scale questionnaire is an appropriate assessment to assist in pre-determining
which executives are more likely to effectively engage in executive coaching
process and subsequently provide benefit to their organization.
iii
Leader Readiness to Engage in Effective Executive Coaching:
A Self-Directed Learning Perspective
By
Donald J. Darnall
Dissertation
Submitted to the
Graduate Faculty
of
University of Maryland University College
in Partial Fulfillment of
The Requirements for the Degree
of
Doctorate of Management
Dissertation Committee:
Dr. Thomas Mierzwa, Chair
Dr. Margaret Elgin
Dr. James Gelatt
© Copyright by Donald J Darnall, 2012
All Rights Reserved
iv
Dedication
I dedicate this dissertation to my children, Brieana and Alexander, with the hope that they
will both embrace lifelong learning as one of their values, and one day gain the
understanding that lifelong learning will enable them to live life to its fullest while
helping them to achieve their best…. and then do better.
v
Acknowledgements
I am graciously indebted to numerous people for their assistance, emotional
support, and encouragement that served me well through all the trials, tribulations,
hurdles, and challenges I encountered along the journey to the completion of this
dissertation.
I am grateful to my children Brieana and Alexander for their patience and
understanding; especially for all the time that was sacrificed so that I could complete this
work.
During this past year and a half, when so many personal challenges could so
easily have derailed my progress I am forever thankful to Kari Anastasi for all her love,
support, and encouragement which kept me on task.
To Kim Krynicki, I owe a great deal of gratitude. She has been a devoted listener,
supportive reader, editor, and a great friend. The support she has provided me, beginning
with my first day of class to the last word written in this dissertation is something for
which I will always be very grateful.
I acknowledge the years of firm support and kind guidance from my committee
chair, Dr. Thomas Mierzwa, who also provided me with a final ultimatum for which I
will always be grateful because it propelled me into completing this work. I also thank
the support, effort, consideration, and input of Dr. Margaret Elgin, and Dr. James Gelatt
I thank Sheila Cox, Marvin Howard, Greg Behm, David Hofmann, Chris Hayes
and Clyde Northrop who are all the Vistage Chairs that provided me access to their
groups and to all the Vistage group members who volunteered to participate in this
research.
vi
I thank Alexis Antes for applying her incredible APA editing skills to this
dissertation.
I thank all my cohort members for all of their support throughout the entire
program, Monica Graham for all her administrative support, Peggy Collins who made
sure my life remained organized, and all those professional and personal friends who
offered daily support and encouragement throughout this entire process; to all of you I am
extremely grateful.
Finally, I thank my parents for instilling in me the value of lifelong learning that
has lead me to the completion of this wonderful journey.
vii
Table of Contents
Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iv
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. v
List of Tables .................................................................................................................... xii
List of Figures .................................................................................................................. xiv
Chapter 1: Introduction and Research Problem .................................................................. 1
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1
Effective Leadership Characteristics ............................................................................ 1
Leadership Development .............................................................................................. 3
Self-Directed Leadership Development .................................................................. 4
Problem Context ........................................................................................................... 8
Significance of the Problem .......................................................................................... 9
Research Opportunity ................................................................................................. 11
Thesis Statement ......................................................................................................... 12
Purpose ........................................................................................................................ 13
Research Questions ..................................................................................................... 13
Discussion of Key Terms ............................................................................................ 13
Executive Coaching .............................................................................................. 13
Self-Directed Learning .......................................................................................... 14
Scope of Inquiry .......................................................................................................... 14
Organization of the Remaining Chapters .................................................................... 15
Chapter 2: Literature Review ............................................................................................ 17
Introduction and Approach ......................................................................................... 17
viii
I. The Executive Coaching Construct ....................................................................... 19
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 19
Organization of Six Executive Coaching Construct Elements ............................. 21
Executive Coaching Definition ............................................................................. 22
Executive Coaching Goals .................................................................................... 24
Executive Coaching Process ................................................................................. 27
Executive Coaching Environment ........................................................................ 29
Executive Coaching Benefits ...................................................................................... 31
Executive Coaching Client Characteristics ........................................................... 33
II. The Self-Directed Learning Construct .................................................................. 37
Introduction and Context ...................................................................................... 37
Organization of Six Self-Directed Construct Elements ........................................ 39
Self-Directed Learning Definition ........................................................................ 40
Self-Directed Learning Goals ............................................................................... 42
Self-Directed Learning Process ............................................................................ 43
Self-Directed Learning Environment .................................................................... 46
Self-Directed Learning Benefits ........................................................................... 48
Self-Directed Learner Characteristics ................................................................... 50
III. Comparisons between the Executive Coaching and the Self-Directed Learning
Constructs ................................................................................................................... 55
Introduction and Approach ................................................................................... 55
Interrelatedness of Executive Coaching & Self-Directed Learning Definitions .. 56
Interrelatedness of Executive Coaching & Self-Directed Learning Goals ........... 57
ix
Interrelatedness of Executive Coaching & Self-Directed Learning Processes ..... 59
Interrelatedness of Executive Coaching & Self-Directed Learning
Environments ........................................................................................................ 60
Interrelatedness of Executive Coaching & Self-Directed Learning Benefits ....... 62
Interrelatedness of Executive Coaching & Self-Directed Learning Client
Characteristics ....................................................................................................... 64
IV. Leader Readiness to Engage in Effective Executive Coaching ............................ 68
Readiness Assessments ......................................................................................... 68
The Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale ....................................................... 71
Summary of the Literature Review ............................................................................. 74
Chapter 3: Conceptual Framework ................................................................................... 76
Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 76
Description of the Concept Model .................................................................................... 76
Executive Coaching Construct .............................................................................. 77
Self-Directed Learning Construct ......................................................................... 77
Relationship Analysis between Executive Coaching and Self-Directed Learning
Constructs ............................................................................................................. 78
Readiness Assessment: SDLRS ............................................................................ 78
Process for Pre-Determining the Readiness of an Executive Coaching Client .... 78
Hypotheses .................................................................................................................. 80
Chapter 4: Research Method ............................................................................................. 82
Introduction ................................................................................................................. 82
Research Objective ..................................................................................................... 82
x
Unit of Analysis .......................................................................................................... 82
Research Design .......................................................................................................... 83
Process ........................................................................................................................ 87
Ethics in Research ....................................................................................................... 89
Data Collection ........................................................................................................... 89
Evaluation Method ...................................................................................................... 90
SDLRS Score ........................................................................................................ 90
Readiness Level .................................................................................................... 90
Threats to Validity ...................................................................................................... 91
Limitations .................................................................................................................. 92
Chapter 5: Findings and Discussion ................................................................................. 93
Introduction ................................................................................................................. 93
Presentation of Findings ............................................................................................. 93
Data Relating to Self-Directed Readiness ............................................................. 93
Levels of Executive Coaching Effectiveness ........................................................ 96
Relationship Presentation of SDLRS Scores and Responses to the ECCE ................ 97
Findings Relating to Approaches to Effectiveness ............................................... 99
Demographic Data .............................................................................................. 102
Discussion of Findings .............................................................................................. 104
The Testing of the Research Hypotheses ............................................................ 104
Secondary Findings ............................................................................................. 108
Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 113
Chapter 6: Implications for Management ....................................................................... 114
xi
Implications for Management Theory ...................................................................... 114
Implications for Management Practice ..................................................................... 115
Recommendations for Future Research .................................................................... 116
Appendix A: Learning Preference Assessment .............................................................. 119
Appendix B : Executive Coaching Client Questionnaire .............................................. 127
References ....................................................................................................................... 119
xii
List of Tables
Table 1. Executive Coaching Definitions ........................................................................ 23
Table 2. Executive Coaching Goals ................................................................................. 25
Table 3. Executive Coaching Process .............................................................................. 27
Table 4. Executive Coaching Environment ..................................................................... 30
Table 5. Executive Coaching Benefits ............................................................................. 32
Table 6. Executive Coaching Client Characteristics ........................................................ 34
Table 7. Executive Coaching Construct ........................................................................... 36
Table 8. Self-Directed Learning Definition ..................................................................... 41
Table 9. Self-Directed Learning Goals ............................................................................ 42
Table 10. Self-Directed Learning Process ....................................................................... 45
Table 11. Self-Directed Learning Environment ............................................................... 47
Table 12. Self-Directed Learning Benefits ...................................................................... 49
Table 13. Self-Directed Learning Client Characteristics ................................................. 51
Table 14. Self-Directed Learning Construct .................................................................... 54
Table 15. Definitions of Executive Coaching & Self-Directed Learning ........................ 56
Table 16. Goals of Executive Coaching & Self-Directed Learning ................................ 58
Table 17. Processes of Executive Coaching & Self-Directed Learning .......................... 59
Table 18. Environments for fostering Executive Coaching & Self-Directed Learning ... 61
Table 19. Benefits of Executive Coaching & Self-Directed Learning ............................ 62
Table 20. Client Characteristics of Executive Coaching & Self-Directed Learning ....... 65
Table 21. Interrelatedness between Six Elements of the Executive Coaching and Self-
Directed Learning Constructs ............................................................................... 67
xiii
Table 22. Leader Readiness to Engage in Effective Executive Coaching ....................... 74
Table 23. Summary of Propositions ................................................................................. 75
Table 24. Hypotheses 1 & 2 and Corresponding ECCE Research Questions ................. 86
Table 25. General SDLRS Score Rankings (Source: Guglielmino & Associates) .......... 90
Table 26. Range of Participant Scores and their Respective Percentile Ranking ............ 95
Table 27. SDLRS Ranking Interpretation Chart with Participant Data ...........................
The Use of New Media Technologies in Crisis Communication of U.S. and U.S.-Affiliated Corporations: A New Paradigm Distinguishing Crisis-Prepared Organizations from Their Crisis-Prone Counterparts
No full textThe purpose of this research is to examine communication made possible by the advent of new media technologies and its effect on crisis communication in U.S. and U.S.-affiliated corporations. The crisis management literature identifies communication as a necessary component in crisis management planning, but communication only appears at certain points in various crisis management conceptual frameworks presented by many scholars. The advent of new media technologies has resulted in a growing array of communication tools now available to individuals and to organizations. Missing in the literature is examination of how communication made possible by the use of new media technologies affects crisis communication in U.S. and U.S.-affiliated corporations. Because organizational crises involve multiple perspectives including crisis management, communication, business continuity, decision making, organizational culture, psychology, and organizational learning, the study of crises has come to involve a systems approach. This research focuses on human-caused crises because these particular crises possess the potential to pose the gravest threat to the business continuity of corporations by virtue of the adverse impact that they have on the relationship between corporations and their myriad stakeholders. Regarding the role of communication in crisis management, the advent of new media technologies including the Internet and myriad other forms of electronic-based communication such as e-mail, blogs, webcasts, podcasts, instant messaging, and social media, has caused a paradigm shift in how corporations must now manage crises. The research found that effective use of crisis communication made possible by the advent of new media technologies represents an important factor distinguishing crisis-prepared organizations from crisis-prone organizations. However, the use of new media technologies can both aid and hinder organizational crisis communication efforts because the same technologies are not the sole province of the corporation embroiled in a crisis. The research adds to the literature by addressing new media technologies as an emerging force in crisis communication that can aid and also thwart the efforts of organizations attempting to recover from crises, and that can assist organizations in developing management practices to improve their crisis preparedness. The research enhances understanding of how crisis communication, particularly new media technologies-enabled communication, can assist as well as complicate management in corporate crisis situations.The Use of New Media Technologies in Crisis Communication - A New Paradigm 1
The Use of New Media Technologies in Crisis Communication of U.S. and U.S.-Affiliated Corporations: A New Paradigm Distinguishing Crisis-Prepared Organizations from Their Crisis-Prone Counterparts
W. Christopher Cason
DMGT 892
Summer, 2012
The Use of New Media Technologies in Crisis Communication - A New Paradigm 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract 7
I. Chapter 1 (Introduction) 9
A. Background 9
B. Significance and Purpose 13
C. Importance to Management 14
D. Research Question 15
II. Chapter 2 (Literature Review) 16
A. Crisis management 19
i. Evolution of crisis definitions 19
ii. Crisis-Prepared Versus Crisis-Prone Corporations and Organizations 20
iii. Major frameworks of crisis management 22
iv. Decision making 35
v. A systems approach to crisis management 36
vi. The impact of human-caused crises 40
B. Business continuity 47
i. Business continuity defined 47
ii. Organizational reputation and trust 48
iii. Contingency planning and organizational resilience 53
iv. Stakeholders 59
C. Crisis Communication 63
i. Apologia 63
ii. Situational crisis communication theory 67
iii. Image restoration typology 71
iv. Discourse of organizational renewal 74
v. The advent of new media technologies in crisis communication 77 The Use of New Media Technologies in Crisis Communication - A New Paradigm 3
Thesis/Argument 86
III. Chapter 3 (Conceptual Framework) 88
IV. Chapter 4 (Method) 92
A. Realist Synthesis 96
B. A Configurative Approach to Data Analysis 101
C. The Use of Themes 102
D. Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria 103
E. Keywords Development, and Ancestry Approach or “Snowballing” 106
F. Data Sources Used in the Synthesis 106
G. Flow Chart for Systematic Review and Realist Synthesis in the Research 109
H. Subject Matter Experts 111
I. Summary 113
V. Chapter 5 (Analysis) 115
A. Introduction: Research Question, Propositions, and Summary of Findings 115
B. Finding One: The Use of New Media Technologies as a Characteristic
Distinguishing Crisis-Prepared from Crisis-Prone Organizations 118
i. Social media as a geographically borderless relationship builder 118
ii. Dialogic web-based communication 122
C. Finding Two: New Media Technologies as an Aid and a Hindrance to
Crisis Communication 126
i. The stakeholder equalizing effect of new media technologies 127
D. Finding Three: Other Common Characteristics of Crisis-Prepared
Organizations 135
i. Crisis planning and preparation 136
ii. Sensemaking 139
iii. Organizational learning 141 The Use of New Media Technologies in Crisis Communication - A New Paradigm 4
iv. Continuity planning and organizational resilience 144
v. Maintenance of corporate brand and reputation 147
E. Finding Four: The Affective, Behavioral, and Cognitive Reactions of
Individuals Faced with Crises 150
i. Affective, behavioral, and cognitive reactions of individuals 150
F. Summary 154
VI. Chapter 6 (Conclusions and Implications) 156
A. Implications for Management Theory and Practice
i. Management theory 156
a. A need for growing sophistication in the crisis management
process 156
b. Evolving crisis definitions 159
c. Crisis-related challenges associated with societal dependence
upon high-risk technologies 160
d. A systemic approach to crisis management 160
e. The concept of crisis-prepared and crisis-prone organizations 161
f. A cyclical versus linear approach to crisis management and
crisis communication 163
ii. Management practice 165
a. Corporate social responsibility as a means to generate goodwill
dividends against hard times 168
b. A team primarily to monitor social networking sites 172
c. Continual development of portfolios of crisis scenarios 175
d. Establishing physical and virtual crisis management teams 178
e. Developing an organizational culture of crisis preparedness 180
f. Developing metrics to measure online influence of individuals 182 The Use of New Media Technologies in Crisis Communication - A New Paradigm 5
B. Revised Conceptual Framework, Based Upon Synthesis of the Literatures 184
C. Limitations 190
D. Future Research 190
E. Summary 193
References 195
Appendices Table of Contents 227
Ia. Summary of Iterative Review and Emergent Themes from the
Synthesis of Crisis Management, Crisis Communication, and Business
Continuity Literatures 229
Ib. Pie chart Illustrating Composition of the Research Data Set of 95
Studies in the Synthesis – by Literature Group 230
Ic. Pie Chart Illustrating Composition of the Research Data Set of 95
Studies in the Synthesis – by Theme 231
IIa. Crisis Management Literature Synthesis – Themes and Citations 232
IIb. Crisis Preparedness – Literature Summary Table 233
IIc. Sensemaking – Literature Summary Table 235
IId. The Challenges of New Media Technologies – Literature Summary Table 236
IIe. Organizational Learning – Literature Summary Table 237
IIIa. Crisis Communication Literature Synthesis – Themes and Citations 242
IIIb. The Stakeholder Equalizing Effect of New Media Technologies –
Literature Summary Table 243
IIIc. Social Media as a Geographically Borderless Relationship Builder –
Literature Summary Table 245
IIId. Dialogic Web-based Communication – Literature Summary Table 246
IIIe. Attribution – Literature Summery Table 247
The Use of New Media Technologies in Crisis Communication - A New Paradigm 6
IIIf. Affective, Behavioral, and Cognitive Reactions to Crisis – Literature
Summary Table 249
IIIg. Stakeholder Differentiation – Literature Summary Table 250
IVa. Business Continuity Literature Synthesis – Themes and Citations 251
IVb. Continuity Planning – Literature Summary Table 252
IVc. Corporate and Brand Reputation – Literature Summary Table 253
IVd. Organizational Resilience – Literature Summary Table 256
V. Characteristics of Crisis-Prepared Corporations and Organizations 257
VI. List of Figures and Tables 258
The Use of New Media Technologies in Crisis Communication - A New Paradigm 7
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this research is to examine communication made possible by the advent of new media technologies and its effect on crisis communication in U.S. and U.S.-affiliated corporations. The crisis management literature identifies communication as a necessary component in crisis management planning, but communication only appears at certain points in various crisis management conceptual frameworks presented by many scholars. The advent of new media technologies has resulted in a growing array of communication tools now available to individuals and to organizations. Missing in the literature is examination of how communication made possible by the use of new media technologies affects crisis communication in U.S. and U.S.-affiliated corporations. Because organizational crises involve multiple perspectives including crisis management, communication, business continuity, decision making, organizational culture, psychology, and organizational learning, the study of crises has come to involve a systems approach. This research focuses on human-caused crises because these particular crises possess the potential to pose the gravest threat to the business continuity of corporations by virtue of the adverse impact that they have on the relationship between corporations and their myriad stakeholders. Regarding the role of communication in crisis management, the advent of new media technologies including the Internet and myriad other forms of electronic-based communication such as e-mail, blogs, webcasts, podcasts, instant messaging, and social media, has caused a paradigm shift in how corporations must now manage crises. The research found that effective use of crisis communication made possible by the advent of new media technologies represents an important factor distinguishing crisis-prepared organizations from crisis-prone organizations. However, the use of new media technologies can both aid and hinder organizational crisis communication efforts because the same technologies The Use of New Media Technologies in Crisis Communication - A New Paradigm 8
are not the sole province of the corporation embroiled in a crisis. The research adds to the literature by addressing new media technologies as an emerging force in crisis communication that can aid and also thwart the efforts of organizations attempting to recover from crises, and that can assist organizations in developing management practices to improve their crisis preparedness. The research enhances understanding of how crisis communication, particularly new media technologies-enabled communication, can assist as well as complicate management in corporate crisis situations.
Keywords: Business continuity; business recovery; contingency planning; crisis communication; crisis management models; disaster planning; leadership; management of crises; organizational image and reputation; organizational learning; organizational trust; resilience; risk management; sensemaking; social media; and systems theory.
The Use of New Media Technologies in Crisis Communication - A New Paradigm 9
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Background
Pauchant and Mitroff (1992) defined a crisis as a disruption that physically impacts a whole system and threatens its basic assumptions, its subjective sense of self, and its existential core (p. 12). An organizational crisis is a low-probability, high-impact situation perceived by critical stakeholders as a threat to the viability of the organization and to the stakeholders both personally and socially (Pearson & Clair, 1998, p. 66), and that threatens an organization‟s most fundamental goals (Weick, 1988, p. 305), the most notable goals of which according to Shrivastava and Mitroff (1987) are survival and profitability which they added are becoming increasingly daunting tasks since crises are associated with large-scale damage to human life, natural environments, and social and political institutions (p. 6). Coombs (2007b) noted that a crisis is also a sudden and unexpected event that threatens to disrupt organizational operations and poses financial and reputational threats (p. 164). A crisis has an impact on an organization‟s level of functioning and consequently, crises adversely impact organizational homeostasis and the resulting disequilibrium affects system dynamics (Myer, Conte, & Peterson, 2007, p. 766), but a crisis may also represent an “opportunity for overall organizational transformation” (Shrivastava, 1993, p. 29). While a crisis may severely threaten the continued existence of a corporation or organization, it may simultaneously present opportunities for accomplishing the high-priority goals of corporations and organizations (Ulmer, Sellnow, & Seeger, 2011, p. 7).
Perrow (1984) characterized systems including nuclear power plants, chemical plants, aircraft and air traffic control, ocean shipping, nuclear weapons, space missions, and genetic engineering as “high-risk technologies” because each has the ongoing potential to cause catastrophe, and the ability to either take or irrevocably damage life (p. 3). The proliferation of high-risk The Use of New Media Technologies in Crisis Communication - A New Paradigm 10
technologies represents significant crisis threats (Perrow, 1984, p. 3), and human-caused crises now have the potential to exceed natural disasters in size, scope, and impact (Pearson & Mitroff, 1993, p. 48). This research focuses on human-caused crises because as Gonzalez-Herrero and Pratt (1995), Mitroff, Pearson, and Pauchant (1992), Pearson and Mitroff (1993), Perrow (1984), and others have pointed out, human-caused crises possess the potential to pose the gravest threat to the business continuity of corporations by virtue of the adverse impact that such crises have on the relationship between corporations and their myriad stakeholders.
The crisis management literature identifies communication as a necessary component in crisis management planning, but communication only appears at certain points in various crisis management conceptual frameworks presented by many scholars. In addition, missing in the literature is detailed examination of how communication made possible by new media technologies affects crisis communication in U.S. and U.S.-affiliated corporations.
A corporation or organization that recovers from a crisis has also continued its business operations in some manner. The business operations in place may differ, post-crisis, from those operations that were in place prior to the crisis, but the fact that the corporation or organization has recovered from the crisis suggests that business continuity has been maintained at least in the short-term. Consequently, the research draws upon business continuity literature as a complement to the crisis management and crisis communication literatures.
Herbane (2010) argued that business continuity reflects a wider crisis management literature that focuses on prevention, decision making orientation, and a socio-technical systems perspective (p. 981), and Sawalha and Anchor (2012) noted that business continuity management has evolved from ad hoc reactions to unexpected events to predetermined, systematic, holistic business processes (p. 328). Sawalha and Anchor (2012) also stressed that business continuity The Use of New Media Technologies in Crisis Communication - A New Paradigm 11
has the potential to play an integrated and strategic role that aids in the development of organizational and social capabilities of resilience by engaging internal and external stakeholders in the process of organizational preservation (p. 328).
The way that corporations manage communication as well as benefit or suffer from technological advances in communication in times of crises has helped to determine recovery as an intended outcome of the crisis management effort. Johnson & Johnson‟s decision to maintain regularly scheduled communication with media throughout the cyanide poisoning crisis involving the Tylenol pain reliever in 1982 helped the company to rebound in the marketplace (Cutlip, Center, & Broom, 2000, 2006; Pauchant & Mitroff, 1992, p. 14). During the Exxon Valdez oil spill off the coast of Alaska in 1989, Exxon executives underestimated the nearly instantaneous communication associated with the Information Age when they disseminated a memo indicating that after a certain date, they would cease attempts to clean the region regardless of how strongly they were ordered to do so. Pauchant and Mitroff (1992) noted that Exxon executives failed to consider the possibility of external discovery of such a memo (p. 115). Technology delivered around-the-clock live images of the oil spewing from the BP-owned Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico throughout the summer of 2010, images that helped to fuel the growing outrage that various publics had toward the oil company.
Mitroff (2004) argued that organizations attempt to manage problems of a “systems age” with a “machine age” mentality (p. xi). Others argue that effective crisis management may minimize potential risk before a triggering event (Gonzalez-Herrero & Pratt, 1995; Pearson & Clair, 1998; Pauchant & Mitroff, 1992; Shrivastava & Mitroff, 1987; Shrivastava, Mitroff, Miller, & Miglani, 1988). Following the event, effective crisis management may readjust basic assumptions on the part of individuals and organizations, as well as their behavioral and emotional responses aimed The Use of New Media Technologies in Crisis Communication - A New Paradigm 12
at recovery and readjustment. Because organizational crises involve multiple perspectives including crisis management, communication, business continuity, decision making, organizational culture, psychology, and organizational learning, the study of crises has come to involve a systems approach (Pauchant, Mitroff, & Lagadec, 1991, pp. 210-227; Pearson & Clair, 1998, p. 59), and a systems model of scientific inquiry helps to improve crisis management research because a systems focus conceptualizes crises as ill-structured or non-programmed problems which are characterized by profound disagreement over what is happening, who should be in charge, and what actions need to take place (Mitroff, Alpaslan, & Green, 2004, pp. 176, 182). Mitroff (2004) also pointed out that while basic conceptual models of crisis management have evolved, many corporations facing a crisis still attempt mitigation without considering the complex systems in which the organizations exist and the potential ripple effect(s) that certain crisis management efforts may have on various components within the organization (p. 23).
Regarding the role of communication in crisis management, the advent of new media technologies including the Internet and myriad other electronic-based communication such as e-mail, blogs, webcasts, podcasts, instant messaging, and social media, has also caused a paradigm shift in how corporations must now manage crises. This research examines communication made possible by these new technologies within the context of crisis management. It also examines the challenge of organizational message control from a systems perspective when the ubiquitous nature of Internet-based and other electronic technologies provide organizational allies and foes with platforms to influence discourse including the extent to which a corporation or organization may be considered responsible for a crisis (Argenti, 2006; Gonzalez-Herrero & Smith, 2010; Hill & White, 2000; Jin & Liu, 2010; Mei, Bansal, & Pang, 2010; Schultz, Utz, & Goritz, 2011; Taylor & Perry, 2005). The Use of New Media Technologies in Crisis Communication - A New Paradigm 13
Significance and Purpose
The purpose of this research is to examine communication made possible by the advent of new media technologies and its effect on crisis communication in U.S. and U.S.-affiliated corporations.
The crisis management, business continuity, and crisis communication literatures discuss many of the same converging concepts including the escalating cost of human-caused crises, the proliferation of high-risk technologies and their associated crisis threat, the need for a systems approach to crisis management, the importance of maintaining a sense of reputation and trust among organizational stakeholders, ongoing development of crisis management portfolios and planning, and the necessary organizational learning required to avoid repetitive crisis-prone mistakes. There are instances in the course of day-to-day operations which are crisis-free in which crisis management has no direct role. The literature stresses the importance of maintaining a portfolio of crisis management strategies in the event of a crisis (Coombs & Holladay, 2002, p. 173; Mitroff, Alpaslan, & Green, 2004, p. 180; Mitroff, Shrivastava, & Udwadia, 1987, p. 288; Pauchant, Mitroff, & Lagadec, 1991, pp. 210-227; Pearson & Mitroff, 1993, pp. 49-57).
While the crisis management literature identifies communication as a necessary component in crisis management planning, communication only appears at certain points in various conceptual frameworks of crisis management presented by many scholars. Missing in the literature is detailed examination of how communication made possible by new media technologies affects crisis communication in U.S. and U.S.-affiliated corporations. This
First-year orientation seminars for at-risk students: A change management model for effective student engagement, academic success, and retention
No full textIn community colleges throughout the United States, research documents that the first year is the most difficult for at-risk students. By 1930, colleges and universities began offering a tool that some research suggests was effective in improving academic performance and retention of at-risk students: first-year orientation seminar programs. This research investigated the effectiveness of first-year orientation seminar programs whether they are having a positive impact on student retention and progression and whether some models for these courses demonstrate more specific impact than others for at-risk community college students.
Based on this research, a model for an effective first-year orientation seminar was developed. Specifically, the model carefully incorporated research evidence and analyzed the content of first-year orientation seminar programs that have proven effective and have significantly impacted the academic success of at-risk students. The model also reflects the components of change theory because colleges need to overcome barriers in implementing a required first-year orientation seminar.
The research methodology for this study consisted of three components: evidence-based review of literature, document analysis, and expert review. The first step in undertaking this research was to select materials that were germane to the research subject, that is, first-year orientation seminar course syllabi and research studies from four selected institutions that documented improvements in the performance of at-risk students as a result of participating in such seminars. Several institutions were selected that were highlighted in the literature as having effective programs in community college environments. Research studies undertaken by these institutions were reviewed to validate that their programs were effective. Then, the institutions’ syllabi for those programs indicated as effective were carefully reviewed for content. The course content was compared and contrasted and then used to construct a recommended set of content for a “best practices” first-year orientation seminar.
The research tested the hypotheses and developed an innovative model which can be adapted by many community colleges around the country that are interested in improving the academic performance of at-risk students.FIRST-YEAR ORIENTATION SEMINARS FOR AT-RISK STUDENTS
1
First-Year Orientation Seminars for At-Risk Students:
A Change Management Model for Effective Student
Engagement, Academic Success, and Retention
Linda R. Turner
A Thesis
Submitted to the
Graduate Faculty
of the
University of Maryland University College
in Partial Fulfillment of
The Requirements for the
Doctor of Management
Degree
Mary Ellen Duncan, Ph.D.
Charlene Nunley, Ph.D.
FIRST-YEAR ORIENTATION SEMINARS FOR AT-RISK STUDENTS
2
Abstract
In community colleges throughout the United States, research documents that the first year is the most difficult for at-risk students. By 1930, colleges and universities began offering a tool that some research suggests was effective in improving academic performance and retention of at-risk students: first-year orientation seminar programs. This research investigated the effectiveness of first-year orientation seminar programs whether they are having a positive impact on student retention and progression and whether some models for these courses demonstrate more specific impact than others for at-risk community college students.
Based on this research, a model for an effective first-year orientation seminar was developed. Specifically, the model carefully incorporated research evidence and analyzed the content of first-year orientation seminar programs that have proven effective and have significantly impacted the academic success of at-risk students. The model also reflects the components of change theory because colleges need to overcome barriers in implementing a required first-year orientation seminar.
The research methodology for this study consisted of three components: evidence-based review of literature, document analysis, and expert review. The first step in undertaking this research was to select materials that were germane to the research subject, that is, first-year orientation seminar course syllabi and research studies from four selected institutions that documented improvements in the performance of at-risk students as a result of participating in such seminars. Several institutions were selected that were highlighted in the literature as having effective programs in community college environments. Research studies undertaken by these institutions were reviewed to validate that their programs were effective. Then, the institutions’ syllabi for those programs indicated as effective were carefully reviewed for content. The course content was compared and contrasted and then used to construct a recommended set of content for a “best practices” first-year orientation seminar.
The research tested the hypotheses and developed an innovative model which can be adapted by many community colleges around the country that are interested in improving the academic performance of at-risk students.
Key words: first-year seminars, first-year orientation, first-year experiences, organizational culture, at-risk students, Kotter’s Model, Tinto’s Model, Astin’s Model, student support services, counseling services, peer mentoring, Achieving the Dream Initiative, President Obama’s Community College Initiative, student best practices, faculty and first-year orientation seminars, academic success and retention, student engagement and commitment and enrollment, and testing. FIRST-YEAR ORIENTATION SEMINARS FOR AT-RISK STUDENTS
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© Copyright by
Linda R. Turner
2013
FIRST-YEAR ORIENTATION SEMINARS FOR AT-RISK STUDENTS
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Dedication
To my amazing husband, Corey M. Turner, Esq. and three astonishing children, Bria Makaila, Nia Noelle, and Bryce James Addison, without whose love, support, patience, and understanding, this would not have been possible. I love you all more than you can possibly imagine.
FIRST-YEAR ORIENTATION SEMINARS FOR AT-RISK STUDENTS
iv
Acknowledgements
This dissertation would never have been possible without the guidance, love, and support received from many.
To my University of Maryland University College extended family—Dr. Charlene Nunley, thank you for your leadership, support, guidance, and expertise in the field of higher education. More importantly, thank you for all your words of encouragement when I felt like giving-in and giving-up. Your guidance is the catalyst in developing so many great and talented future community college leaders. I will forever be grateful for your dedication and commitment to our cohort’s success. You are truly a great leader and extraordinary woman! Dr. Mary Ellen Duncan, your guidance, suggestions, encouragement, wealth of knowledge, and experience have proven to be extremely encouraging and I thank you. To my fellow cohort members, I thank you for your encouragement, friendships, brilliance, experiences, and assistance in helping to make this journey a rewarding one.
Special thanks to my mentor—a woman whom I admire, respect, and love, Dr. Joyce M. Simons. You have truly been an inspiration in this process. Your verbal warnings, early morning calls, texts, e-mails, words of encouragement, and love served to be a guiding force in “completing what I started.” You are a blessing to all you encounter. Thanks, Gabriella Oldham, for providing your editorial expertise. Your guidance and assistance have been invaluable.
To my husband, Corey—thank you for being such an amazing husband, life partner, and best friend. Your love, words of encouragement, support, and willingness to do more than your fair share have meant the world to me. You are truly all and more than I could have imagined in a husband. Thanks for standing beside me through the good and difficult days. To my hearts—FIRST-YEAR ORIENTATION SEMINARS FOR AT-RISK STUDENTS
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my children, Bria, Nia, and Bryce—your understanding, love, support, funny jokes, precious smiles, notes, and pictures have all been priceless and inspiring. You all are my life’s driving force. I pray that the three of you understand through my and your dad’s hard work the value of placing your academics first and keeping your eyes on the prize. Thanks to my “Mommy Girlfriends” —Gwen, Mary Lynn, Monica, Deana, and Icilma—for your listening ears, words of encouragement, and reasons to escape the stressors associated with my journey…all of which were right on time and well deserved. To my mother-in-law, Ellen—thanks for your love, support, and words of encouragement. And to my mother, Barbara—thank you for your endless love, support, and instilling in me the strength of perseverance and determination. But more importantly than that, Mom, thanks for providing me with the words and conviction that all things through God’s grace and guidance are possible.
FIRST-YEAR ORIENTATION SEMINARS FOR AT-RISK STUDENTS
vi
Table of Contents
Chapter
1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1
History: First-Year Orientation Seminars ................................................................. 1
Statement of the Problem ........................................................................................... 2
Statement of Purpose ................................................................................................. 7
Context or Background Related to the Problem ........................................................ 8
Theoretical Base......................................................................................................... 18
A Comparison of Theories by Astin and Tinto .................................................... 10
Kotter’s Change Theory Model ........................................................................... 11
Research Questions .................................................................................................... 13
Definition of Terms.................................................................................................... 14
Significance................................................................................................................ 15
2 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................... 18
Overview of First-Year Seminars .............................................................................. 18
Theoretical Background ............................................................................................. 19
At-Risk Students ........................................................................................................ 22
Description of First-Year Orientation and Seminar Programs ............................ 24
Research Evidence on the Impact of First-Year Seminars .................................. 27
Associated Student Support Initiatives ................................................................ 32
Kotter’s Change Theory ....................................................................................... 33
Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 35
3 CONCEPTUAL MODEL .......................................................................................... 37
Introduction ................................................................................................................ 37
Hypotheses ................................................................................................................. 37
Assumptions ............................................................................................................... 38
Theoretical Background ............................................................................................. 39
Kotter and Cohen’s “The Heart of Change Model” ............................................. 39
Conceptual Model ...................................................................................................... 43
Model Components .............................................................................................. 44
Related Support Services ..................................................................................... 49
First-Year Orientation Seminar ............................................................................ 51
Student Engagement and Commitment ............................................................... 54
Academic Success and Retention ........................................................................ 55
FIRST-YEAR ORIENTATION SEMINARS FOR AT-RISK STUDENTS
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Chapter
4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY............................................................................... 57
Introduction ................................................................................................................ 57
Examination of the Research Literature .................................................................... 57
Search Methodology ............................................................................................ 58
Key Search Terminology ..................................................................................... 59
Research and Literature Review ................................................................................ 61
Literature Analysis Approach .................................................................................... 62
Document Analysis Approach ............................................................................. 71
Panel of Experts Review Process ............................................................................... 72
Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 74
5 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION.............................................................................. 76
Literature Review Results .......................................................................................... 76
Panel of Experts ......................................................................................................... 79
Strengths .............................................................................................................. 80
Weaknesses .......................................................................................................... 80
Recommendations ................................................................................................ 80
Amendments ........................................................................................................ 81
Findings and Conclusion............................................................................................ 82
Research Findings ................................................................................................ 84
Summary .................................................................................................................... 88
6 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS ................................................................. 90
Introduction ................................................................................................................ 90
Implication for Management Theory ......................................................................... 90
Implications for Management Practice for Community College Leaders ........... 91
Seminar Implementation Guidance ...................................................................... 93
Areas for Future Research ......................................................................................... 96
Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 96
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................... 99
APPENDICES
A Panel of Experts Request for Participation Letter ......................................................111
B Evaluation Form.........................................................................................................113
FIRST-YEAR ORIENTATION SEMINARS FOR AT-RISK STUDENTS
viii
List of Tables
Table
1 A Comparison of the Major Elements of Theorists Tinto and Astin ......................... 22
2 Overview of Kotter’s (1995) 8 Steps for Change Theory Model .............................. 34
3 Key Language ............................................................................................................ 60
4 Keyword Language Grouping Search Results ........................................................... 61
5 Article Categorized Topic Area(s) ............................................................................. 63
6 Literature Evaluation ................................................................................................. 64
FIRST-YEAR ORIENTATION SEMINARS FOR AT-RISK STUDENTS
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List of Figures
Figure
1 Kotter’s “The Heart of Change Model” ..................................................................... 41
2 First-Year Orientation Seminars for At-Risk Students: A Change Management Model for Effective Student Engagement, Academic Success, and Retention ......... 42
FIRST-YEAR ORIENTATION SEMINARS FOR AT-RISK STUDENTS
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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
History: First-Year Orientation Seminars
First-year seminars were initially introduced in the late 1880s at Boston University (Berg, 2004; Gordon, 1989). According to Gahagan (2000), orientation seminars originated from the counseling movement in higher education. Higher education institutions were given the legal responsibility of caring for students and providing them with resources essential for transitioning into college. By 1930, approximately one third of colleges and universities began offering first-year orientation seminars to their students (Gordon, 1989). For many colleges, their first-year orientation seminar courses have many variations and components (Linder, 2002). However, their primary overall function is intended to enhance the academic and/or social integration of first-year college students into the institution (Barefoot & Fidler, 1996; Gordon, 1989).
During the 1960s, first-year orientation seminar programs were discontinued because administrators were no longer concerned and/or affected by student retention (Dwyer, 1989). This attitude developed in large part became student populations had become much more diverse and higher education took a “hands-off” approach regarding students’ transition into college life. Not until the mid-1970s were first-year orientation seminars revitalized at the University of South Carolina (Gardner, 1986). Dwyer (1989) believes some of the important factors leading to this revitalization included the need to address and understand the innovative changes in student demographics (i.e., age, ethnicity, and academic awareness), peer interaction, and changes in the institution’s curriculum and policy requirements. FIRST-YEAR ORIENTATION SEMINARS FOR AT-RISK STUDENTS
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Higher education institutions have used first-year orientation seminars as a common approach in their efforts to ease the transition to college for new students. According to Porter and Swing (2006), the Policy Center on the First Year of College revealed in 2002 that 94% of accredited undergraduate colleges and universities in the U.S. offered a first-year seminar to at least some students and over half offered a first-year seminar to 90% or more of their first-year students. According to Padgelt and Keup (2011), the 2009 National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition indicated that the number of institutions offering first-year seminars has risen for two-year colleges in particular. The Center estimates that 74.2% of two-year institutions of higher education within the U.S. conduct first-year orientations and/or first-year seminars. However, wide variation exists in the nature of these seminars, their length and content, and whether they are credit or non-credit (Jameiske, 2009; Schrader & Brown, 2008).
In addition, the term “freshman” is no longer used for new students and has been changed primarily because of the increasing number of older, nontraditional, married, and working students who are entering higher education. More importantly, the term “freshman” is highly inappropriate in all sectors of higher education because it has come to be viewed as an anachronistic, sexist term. “First-year student” is more consistently used with the movement towards emphasizing gender-neutral language (Lee, 2011; Massachusetts Institution of Technology, 2012; Oregon State, 2012).
Statement of the Problem
Community colleges across the U.S. recognize research evidence demonstrating that the first year is the most difficult for incoming students and is particularly difficult for at-risk students, including students who have academic challenges in reading, writing, mathematics and FIRST-YEAR ORIENTATION SEMINARS FOR AT-RISK STUDENTS
3
technology. Research by Breneman and Haarlow (1998) suggests that public colleges spend 1 to 2 billion dollars on remedial education. Much of this expenditure occurs in community colleges where nearly 60% of first-time community college students take at least one remedial course (Attewell, Lavin, Domina, & Levey, 2006). While a variety of definitions can be found in the literature for the term “at-risk” student, this dissertation focused on students who demonstrate one or more of the following at-risk characteristics: 1) academically disadvantaged when testing into community college developmental courses; 2) minority and/or low socioeconomic stat
Anatomy of Corporate Decline: A Symbolic Interactionism Approach to the Manager's Observations, Understanding and Response
No full textThe onset or inception of organizational decline has been largely bypassed in management
research over the past two decades, even though understanding this fundamental typology is key
to mitigating organizational failure, while also providing important insight regarding how
managers respond to phenomena that they may neither expect or understand. Understanding
how managers observe, decide, and act in times of uncertainty, and how organizational culture
and other factors may shape that environment, are important for scholars and practitioners alike
to understand. This dissertation argues that corporate decline has largely been misunderstood
from the perspective of onset or initiation; that the manager's decision-making process in times
of decline must be considered in relation to the actual causes and factors associated with decline,
and that the fundamental definition of organizational decline must be revised in light of advances
in our understanding in management over the past three decades. This qualitative empirical
descriptive study reviews literature regarding organizational decline with emphasis on the onset
of decline, presents an equation for understanding a firm's propensity for decline, provides a
revised definition of organizational decline, and examines the decision-making process of
management when faced with decline based on symbolic interactionism theory.Running Head: CORPORATE DECLINE
Anatomy of Corporate Decline: A Symbolic Interactionism Approach to the Manager's
Observations, Understanding and Response
A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Management
Ronald J. Buikema
University of Maryland University College
December, 2012
Doctoral Committee: Dr. Dennis Winters
Dr. Sharon Hadary
Date Final Version Submitted: 6 December, 2012
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ABSTRACT
The onset or inception of organizational decline has been largely bypassed in management
research over the past two decades, even though understanding this fundamental typology is key
to mitigating organizational failure, while also providing important insight regarding how
managers respond to phenomena that they may neither expect or understand. Understanding
how managers observe, decide, and act in times of uncertainty, and how organizational culture
and other factors may shape that environment, are important for scholars and practitioners alike
to understand. This dissertation argues that corporate decline has largely been misunderstood
from the perspective of onset or initiation; that the manager's decision-making process in times
of decline must be considered in relation to the actual causes and factors associated with decline,
and that the fundamental definition of organizational decline must be revised in light of advances
in our understanding in management over the past three decades. This qualitative empirical
descriptive study reviews literature regarding organizational decline with emphasis on the onset
of decline, presents an equation for understanding a firm's propensity for decline, provides a
revised definition of organizational decline, and examines the decision-making process of
management when faced with decline based on symbolic interactionism theory.
Keywords: organizational decline, organizational culture, symbolic interactionism theory
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I want to thank my wife Kim for her continued love and support throughout the dissertation
process. Having now gone through the process myself, I would also like to apologize to her for
all of the things that I said to her, well-meaning but misunderstood, as she completed her own
dissertation. I just didn't know how truly challenging this process would be. As usual, you were
right and I was wrong. I would also like to thank my dissertation committee, both Dr. Dennis
Winters and Dr. Sharon Hadary. I can't imagine having two more supportive, dedicated
individuals, available at any time, filled with the enthusiasm of teens, complemented with the
wisdom of mature souls. I would also like to thank the staff and faculty at the University of
Maryland University College (UMUC) Doctor of Management Program. You have been at the
forefront of advances in education, are clearly attracting some of the finest scholars in the field,
and your approach to education and learning is inspirational, truly setting the standard. I would
also like to note the support of the staff at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
Laboratory. Your continued support for my continuing education throughout the entire doctoral
process is certainly appreciated.
I would also like to note the continued support of my mother in-law, Ila Roberts, and my
sister in-law, Michele Roberts, providing family support and understanding day in, day out. I
would also like to acknowledge my father in-law, Dr. James Roberts, who passed on before this
dissertation was completed. You are my role model and inspiration, and I have never known a
finer man. Finally, I lost my best friend during this process. Ishy passed with just months left in
the final academic year. He brought me encouragement, love, and inspiration; he spent countless
hours with me late into the night, sitting on the table next to me, or purring in front of the
keyboard. These are hard days without him.
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Image 1, Prince Ishikawa and the author
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DEDICATION
I would like to dedicate this dissertation to Mr. Milton Whitmore, my sixth grade teacher. He
served as an inspiration for countless hundreds of students throughout the years, and taught me
the value of education, respect for your fellow man, and the importance of possessing a thirst for
knowledge. He also let us listen to the Detroit Tigers 1968 World Series afternoon games on the
radio, and for that, I am also most appreciative (Detroit beat St. Louis, 4-3, bouncing back from a
3-1 deficit).
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Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................2
Acknowledgement.............................................................................................................3
Dedication........................................................................................................................5
Table of Contents..............................................................................................................6
Executive Summary...........................................................................................................9
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Problem..........................................................................11
Problem Statement..............................................................................................14
Statement and Significance of the Problem..........................................................16
Importance of the Study......................................................................................17
Purpose and Objective.........................................................................................19
Research Question...............................................................................................19
Rationale.............................................................................................................21
Summary.............................................................................................................24
Chapter 2: Literature Review............................................................................................26
Corporate Decline, Background and Framework...................................................27
Research Methodologies/Conceptual Development...............................................37
Theoretical Framework...........................................................................................46
Relevant Research in Other Fields..........................................................................50
Research Gaps/Challenges......................................................................................54
Summary of Literature Review...............................................................................58
Chapter 3: Conceptual Framework....................................................................................60
Justification for the Study ......................................................................................61
Areas of Research...................................................................................................62
Foundational Theories............................................................................................65
Incremental Research Approach.............................................................................71
Data Collection.......................................................................................................74
Sources of Data.......................................................................................................75
Data Analysis and Interpretation............................................................................76
Deficiencies in Existing Literature.........................................................................77
Variables..................................................................................................................78
Ethical Issues Associated with the Study and Conceptual Framework..................80
Equation of Organizational Decline, Propensity.....................................................81
Definitions...............................................................................................................82
Definition of Organizational Decline......................................................................82
Tempo......................................................................................................................83
Summary...................................................................................................................86
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Chapter 4: Methodology...................................................................................................87
Evidence Based Review.......................................................................................105
Reference Sources................................................................................................106
Methodology........................................................................................................107
Findings................................................................................................................112
Results by Category..............................................................................................114
Use of the Expert Panel........................................................................................120
Comments from Reviewers...................................................................................122
Additional Dissertation Feedback.........................................................................125
Modifications based on Scholar-Practitioner Feedback.......................................128
Summary...............................................................................................................129
Chapter 5: Analysis and Presentation of Findings.........................................................130
How.......................................................................................................................131
Findings Through the Lens of Symbolic Interactionism Theory..........................132
Findings Through the Lens of Communication Theory........................................141
Revising the Definition of Decline........................................................................143
Independent Variables of Organizational Decline................................................146
Precursors, Observables, Categorization and Significance...................................147
Understanding the Anatomy of Decline...............................................................152
Analysis of Causal Linkages................................................................................159
Findings Associated with Organizational Culture and Cultural Diversity...........160
Understanding Corporate Coping.........................................................................166
Understanding the Propensity of Decline.............................................................166
Understanding the Concept of Tempo and the Time Derivative..........................168
Introduction to the Axioms of Decline.................................................................170
Conclusion............................................................................................................172
Chapter 6: Implications and Conclusions......................................................................175
Overview..............................................................................................................175
Review of the Purpose of the Study.....................................................................181
Review of the Research Question.........................................................................182
Significance of Findings.......................................................................................184
New Understanding Regarding Organizational Decline......................................186
Implications for the Field of Management...........................................................186
Recommendations for Practice of Future Research.............................................187
Limitations of the Study.......................................................................................191
Summary...............................................................................................................193
References......................................................................................................................195
Glossary..........................................................................................................................209
Dissertation Approval....................................................................................................213
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List of Figures and Tables
Image 1: Prince Ishy and the author....................................................................................4
Figure 1: Symbolic Interactionism Theory Graphic Description.....................................67
Figure 2: Transactional Model, Communication Theory..................................................70
Figure 3: Threads Applied for Incremental Research Approach.......................................72
Figure 4: The OODA Loop................................................................................................73
Figure 5: Graphic Depiction of the Conceptual Framework.............................................85
Figure 6: Organizing Scheme, Chronological Approach..................................................90
Figure 7: Model of Symbolic Interactionism..................................................................135
Figure 8: Relationship of Categories of Friction to Coping Mechanisms.......................151
Figure 9: Boyd's Theory..................................................................................................152
Figure 10: Practitioner's Approach to Organizational Decline........................................153
Figure 11: Graphic Depiction, Anatomy of Corporate Decline.......................................160
Figure 12: Formula for the Propensity of Decline...........................................................167
Figure 13: Time Derivative, Decision-Making/Organizational Decline..........................169
Figure 14: Novice Linear Perspective of Writing a Dissertation.....................................179
Table 1: Comparative Chart of Thread #1 and Thread #2.................................................74
Table 2: Organizational Decline Evidence Based Review.................................................110
Table 3: Organizational Decline, Summary of Findings..................................................113
Table 4: Categories of Friction.........................................................................................149
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Executive Summary
Organizational decline, a condition which more corporations and organizations face over time
than not...remains a conundrum, misunderstood on its origins, marginalized for its potential
impact, and rarely recognized as significant at its inception. Instead, scholars and practitioners
have focused on what works...not what doesn't work. Even in the study of decline, the
preponderance of research is focused on how to recover, how to turn around the failing firm.
That may help to explain why the understanding of the roots of the problem still remains elusive.
Scholars and practitioners simply haven't focused on that area. The topic of organizational
decline is somewhat vexing. After all, there may be no one golden nugget, no one key finding
that explains or identifies decline in all cases. But that is not really the issue.
This qualitative empirical descriptive study is focused on understanding what causes decline,
how the causes are observed, how management responds to decline, and how the resources of the
firm are applied to mitigate or obviate its occurrence. It addresses key issues or organizational
culture, particularly associated with the firm's ability to observe, decide, and act in the face of
information and actions that, by nature, are beyond the normal, for normal means that the firm is
either stable or steadily improving. Decline is the equivalent of a disease for the corporation. It
can kill slowly, or it can kill fast, but the corporation will not survive if it is not addressed.
Symbolic interactionism theory, complemented by communication theory serve as the lenses
to view organizational decline. They were chosen because they are theories that are based on
what individuals understand from what is observed, how managers process that information, and
then how they translate what is believed to be understood by others, for further processing and
translation. These two theories help scholars combine both understanding challenges with seeing
and understanding decline (i.e. we may think that what we see is associated with what we know
10
CORPORATE DECLINE
(status quo), not something new, such as decline), as well as how we respond to decline.
Communications theory complements our study by associating how we translate our
understanding that the firm is in decline with the other managers and employees who must also
understand and respond accordingly. Our findings, based on evidence-based research of other
studies on the inception of decline, lead us to revise the definition of organizational decline that
has been used for over three decades. Then we must develop a formula for the propensity of
decline, providing a means for scholars and practitioners to conduct comparative analysis of the
manifestation; and the association of decision-making in relation to the time of decline itself via
application of the time derivative.
This study is guided by three research questions. First, what does the onset of decline look
like? Second, what is the general state of the firm that makes it vulnerable to decline in the first
place? And third, how does management respond when faced with decline? This study argues
that observable factors directly associated with decline are frequently misunderstood or
misinterpreted, that the tempo of decline as it pervades the firms is underestimated and that
responses to decline are generally too little, too late.
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CORPORATE DECLINE
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Problem
...little empirical research has investigated the individual and organizational
factors characteristic of declining organizations.
- Cameron, Kim, & Whetten (1987, p. 225)
No one sets out in business to fail. Business represents to many opportunity, growth,
advancement, and success. The giants of business are lauded and treated almost as rock stars.
They visit with heads of state. They write bestselling books on their secrets to success. They
lecture at the world's most prestigious schools of business and are sought out for their sage
advice. This is what today's MBA student wants to study in many respects: success. This is
what the mid-level manager with unlimited potential wants to emulate - success. All firms,
however, do not succeed. Luo and Mann (2011), two economists with the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics, examined high technology businesses started in the California Silicon Valley since
2000 and found that for firms starting in 2000, less than 20% survived by the ninth year, and
only 50% lasted even four years (Luo & Mann, 2011). If we have focused academic research for
so many years on how firms succeed, why do so many continue to fail? Clearly, there are many
complex reasons that firms fail, but it is surprising that the research on failure or decline is far
surpassed by the study of success. We have just as much to learn about managers, organizational
culture, and decision-making from the study of firms that have failed as those that succeed.
This study is based on the premise that scholars and practitioners have largely avoided asking
substantive questions regarding organizational decline either for lack of interest or lack of
understanding. Studying and understanding organizational decline is in fact fundamental to
understanding organizational success, because firms that r
Crisis Preparedness: Enhancing Organizational Resilience Through the Strategic Planning Process
No full textBecause the environment in which organizations must manage is volatile, some controls need to
be utilized so organizations can survive a crisis or disaster. Organizations that successfully
navigate crises are considered to be resilient. Resilience is important for organizations because of
the many stakeholders who are dependent upon the organization. This study addressed the broad
questions of what a crisis is, why organizations do not prepare for crisis, how could
organizations proceed to prepare for crisis, how preparing for crisis relates to resilience, and how
crisis preparedness could be integrated into the organization’s strategic planning process. The
purpose of this study was to analyze the extent that preparing for crisis by building resilience
capacity using organizational development interventions in the strategic planning process will
increase organizational resilience. Data was examined through a systematic literature review and
a conceptual framework was created to guide the research. The literature revealed that crisis is
not yet well defined, but is moving towards being thought of as a process rather than event.
Crisis has phases that organizations can learn to recognize and understand so as to prepare for
crisis simultaneously as strategic planning, which have not yet been integrated. By incorporating
organizational development interventions into the organization’s strategic planning process,
organizational resilience will be enhanced, increasing the organization’s ability to mitigate, avoid
or manage a crisis.Running head: CRISIS PREPAREDNESS TO ENHANCE RESILIENCE 1
Crisis Preparedness: Enhancing Organizational Resilience Through the
Strategic Planning Process
Sandy Mehalko
A Thesis
Submitted to the
Graduate Faculty
of
University of Maryland University College
In Partial Fulfillment of
The Requirements for the Degree
of
Doctor of Management
Dr. Eric Dent
Dr. Deborah Wharff
July 26, 2013
CRISIS PREPAREDNESS TO ENHANCE ORGANIZATIONAL RESILIENCE 2
Abstract
Because the environment in which organizations must manage is volatile, some controls need to
be utilized so organizations can survive a crisis or disaster. Organizations that successfully
navigate crises are considered to be resilient. Resilience is important for organizations because of
the many stakeholders who are dependent upon the organization. This study addressed the broad
questions of what a crisis is, why organizations do not prepare for crisis, how could
organizations proceed to prepare for crisis, how preparing for crisis relates to resilience, and how
crisis preparedness could be integrated into the organization’s strategic planning process. The
purpose of this study was to analyze the extent that preparing for crisis by building resilience
capacity using organizational development interventions in the strategic planning process will
increase organizational resilience. Data was examined through a systematic literature review and
a conceptual framework was created to guide the research. The literature revealed that crisis is
not yet well defined, but is moving towards being thought of as a process rather than event.
Crisis has phases that organizations can learn to recognize and understand so as to prepare for
crisis simultaneously as strategic planning, which have not yet been integrated. By incorporating
organizational development interventions into the organization’s strategic planning process,
organizational resilience will be enhanced, increasing the organization’s ability to mitigate, avoid
or manage a crisis.
Keywords: crisis preparedness, crisis management, organizational resilience, strategic
planning, organizational development
CRISIS PREPAREDNESS TO ENHANCE ORGANIZATIONAL RESILIENCE 3
Acknowledgement
I have imagined writing this section for three years now. It has been quite the journey
and I owe many people a debt of gratitude for allowing me to accomplish this. First, I must thank
my father, Bill Mehalko. He did not have the opportunity to go to college, but he made sure I
did. Thank you. I thank my mother, Betty Mehalko, (deceased) for being an educator and a
champion for higher education. I thank my sister for encouraging and supporting me. Last, but
not least, I also thank my dear husband, Mark, for his support and encouragement.
Each leg of this journey offered me a nugget (per Dr. Allen). I engulfed myself into this
program and was committed every step of the way. Every professor did the same, and I thank all
of them- Dr. Terwiliger, Dr. Allen, Dr. Witz, Dr. Watts, Dr. Bijlani and my dissertation advisors
Dr. Eric Dent and Dr. Deborah Wharff. I offer my subject matter experts (SMEs) thanks as well,
for their expertise and sometimes brutal honesty contributed to making this paper better. I also
have to call out my cohort: AD, MW, DH, HB, MW, DT, JF. May you all relish the moment you
realize you will now, and forever more, be called Doctor.
CRISIS PREPAREDNESS TO ENHANCE ORGANIZATIONAL RESILIENCE 4
Table of Contents
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 2
Acknowledgement ........................................................................................................................... 3
Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ 4
List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. 8
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. 9
Chapter 1: Introduction to Crisis and Crisis Preparedness ............................................................ 10
Purpose Statement ..................................................................................................................... 12
Research Questions ................................................................................................................... 12
Propositions ............................................................................................................................... 13
Crisis Preparedness and its Relationship to Strategic Planning ................................................ 13
Resilience Overview .................................................................................................................. 14
Definitions of Key Terms as Found in the Literature ................................................................ 15
Assumptions and Limitations .................................................................................................... 19
Significance of Study ................................................................................................................ 20
Study Organization .................................................................................................................... 21
Chapter 2: Literature Review ........................................................................................................ 22
Introduction/Organizational Scheme ......................................................................................... 22
Why resilience matters. ......................................................................................................... 23
Consequences of crises. ......................................................................................................... 24
Potential crises await. ............................................................................................................ 27
Theoretical Background ............................................................................................................ 30
CRISIS PREPAREDNESS TO ENHANCE ORGANIZATIONAL RESILIENCE 5
The need for control. ............................................................................................................. 30
Contributions From Other Fields ............................................................................................... 33
Epidemiology. ....................................................................................................................... 33
Organizational Development (OD). ...................................................................................... 33
Crisis Typology and Attributes ................................................................................................. 34
Factors in Crisis Preparedness ................................................................................................... 39
Creativity. .............................................................................................................................. 44
Learning from failure. ........................................................................................................... 45
Bricolage and luck. ................................................................................................................ 47
Triggers, Issues, and Tensions ................................................................................................... 47
Cost. ...................................................................................................................................... 47
Training and testing. .............................................................................................................. 48
Communication. .................................................................................................................... 49
Bias. ...................................................................................................................................... 49
Perception of crisis. ............................................................................................................... 51
CEO ambivalence. ................................................................................................................. 51
CEO narcissism. .................................................................................................................... 53
Top Management Team (TMT). ............................................................................................ 54
Implementation. ..................................................................................................................... 55
Relationship of Crisis to Organizational Resilience .................................................................. 57
Strategic Factors ........................................................................................................................ 60
Relationship of Organizational Development (OD) to Crisis ................................................... 62
Measuring Resilience ................................................................................................................ 65
CRISIS PREPAREDNESS TO ENHANCE ORGANIZATIONAL RESILIENCE 6
Summary ................................................................................................................................... 73
Chapter 3: Conceptual Framework ................................................................................................ 73
Reiteration of the Issues ............................................................................................................ 74
Synthesis of Literature in Each Thematic Category .................................................................. 76
Thematic category 1 (Theoretical background). .................................................................... 76
Thematic category 2 (Issues and Tensions). .......................................................................... 77
Thematic category 3 (Resilience). ......................................................................................... 78
Thematic Category 4 (Strategic Planning/Crisis). ................................................................. 79
Summary ................................................................................................................................... 82
Chapter 4: Methodology ................................................................................................................ 84
Evidence ................................................................................................................................... 85
Research flaws ........................................................................................................................... 89
Opposition to EBR .................................................................................................................... 89
Inclusion/Exclusion criteria ....................................................................................................... 90
Subject Matter Experts .............................................................................................................. 93
Feedback from SME Review ..................................................................................................... 96
SME Individual Commentaries on Chapters 1-3 ....................................................................... 98
Summary ................................................................................................................................. 100
Chapter 5: Analysis and Discussion ............................................................................................ 101
Purpose of Study Revisited ..................................................................................................... 101
Research Question Discourse .................................................................................................. 102
Conclusions ............................................................................................................................. 114
Alternative Perspective ............................................................................................................ 116
CRISIS PREPAREDNESS TO ENHANCE ORGANIZATIONAL RESILIENCE 7
Summary ................................................................................................................................. 117
Chapter Six: Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 119
Overall Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 120
Implications for Management .................................................................................................. 123
Implications of Trends ............................................................................................................. 126
Legislation. .......................................................................................................................... 126
Socio-Cultural Shift. ............................................................................................................ 127
Technology. ......................................................................................................................... 127
Virtual Interaction. .............................................................................................................. 129
Globalization. ...................................................................................................................... 129
Limitations and Areas of Future Research .............................................................................. 129
Summary ................................................................................................................................. 130
References .................................................................................................................................. 134
Footnote ...................................................................................................................................... 146
Appendix A Subject matter Expert Evaluation & Feedback Form ............................................. 149
Appendix B. Examples of Crises ................................................................................................ 163
Appendix C. Personal Assessment Tool ..................................................................................... 164
Appendix D. Literature Summary Table ..................................................................................... 165
CRISIS PREPAREDNESS TO ENHANCE ORGANIZATIONAL RESILIENCE 8
List of Tables
Table 1. Crisis Models as Evolved in the Literature ..................................................................... 18
Table 2. Crisis Subsets and Attributes ........................................................................................... 38
Table 3. Strategic Factors Affecting Crisis Readiness .................................................................. 61
Table 4. Organizational Development Interventions That Affect Crisis ....................................... 63
Table 5. The STICC Approach to Conversations .......................................................................... 65
Table 6. Factors and Indicators of Relative Overall Resilience .................................................... 68
Table 7. New Model of Organizational Resilience ....................................................................... 69
Table 8. Routine and Crisis Contexts ............................................................................................ 72
Table 9. Literature Review Themes Correlated to the Research Questions .................................. 76
Table 10. Examples of an Evidence Hierarchy ............................................................................. 87
Table 11. Levels of evidence in management research ................................................................. 88
Table 12. Keywords for database search ....................................................................................... 91
Table 13. Literature Assessment ................................................................................................... 92
Table 14. Subject Matter Experts (SME) Participating in this Study ............................................ 94
Table 15. SME Feedback Form Summary. ................................................................................... 97
CRISIS PREPAREDNESS TO ENHANCE ORGANIZATIONAL RESILIENCE 9
List of Figures
Figure 1. Crisis matrix showing four categories of crisis .............................................................. 36
Figure 2. Strategic planning approach for resilience keeping ....................................................... 71
Figure 3. Conceptual Framework .................................................................................................. 81
Figure 4. Linear path to organizational resilience ......................................................................... 82
Figure 5. Five step process of EBMgt. .......................................................................................... 86
Figure 6. Three Phases of Crisis .................................................................................................. 104
Figure 7. Resilience, Crisis Preparedness, and Strategic Planning Integration ........................... 116
CRISIS PREPAREDNESS TO ENHANCE ORGANIZATIONAL RESILIENCE 10
“There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries”
-William Shakespeare
Chapter 1: Introduction to Crisis and Crisis Preparedness
A comprehensive corporate plan, or strategic plan, maps the course for an organization. It
provides a guide to the future and framework so the organization can meet its goals. Its most
important attribute, however, is that it “prepares the organization to interact with the dynamic
forces in its environment” (Bloom & Menefee, 1994, p. 223). By the start of this century, the
tenets of strategic planning existed. Corporate leaders anointed strategic planning as the “one
best way” to devise and implement strategies to enhance competitive advantage (Mintzberg,
1994, p. 16). An organization assesses its situation relative to the environment, devises a
strategic plan and implements its plan in its day-to-day operations. On the surface, this seems to
be a simple proposition: Plan, implement, achieve, and repeat. In reality, organizational leaders
do not know what will happen next. They expect some temporary disruptions along the way, but
also expect things to return to a routine state. Vaill (1989) suggested that we live in a world of
permanent white water, meaning that a routine state never occurs. The challenge for leaders is to
ensure organizational survival and efficacy.
In a world of continuous change, ensuring survival and efficacy becomes most difficult.
Continuous change is one thing, but many organizations experience what is commonly known as
a crisis, a pivotal place where the organization must adapt or die (Appelbaum, Keller, Alvarez, &
Bedard, 2012). When the organization adapts and remains in business it has demonstrated
resilience. Examples of the crises that will be included in this dissertation are man-made crises
such as corporate scandals, workplace violence, sexual harassment, workplace accidents, and
CRISIS PREPAREDNESS TO ENHANCE ORGANIZATIONAL RESILIENCE 11
white-collar crime (Crandall, Parnell, & Nathan, 2012). Natural disasters such as hurricanes can
also cause organizational crises, but are beyond the scope of this paper, as the focus is on man-made
crises. Crises can result in an untimely demi
UMUC - European Division - Mason G Daly - Approximation of remarks at staff xmas party - December 12 1964
No full textEurope;Hoffmann, RosemaryAPPROXIMATION OF REMARKS AT STAFF XMAS PARTY, 12 Dec 1964
This is the year of the anniversary - the longest anniversary in academic history -OUR FIFTEENTH. 31 October may have been allhallows or All Saints or all trick or treat day -it was above all else Maryland's fifteenth anniversary day. We keep trying to celebrate that memorable day with a memorable commemorative booklet. In fact , we are already in our second printing , but still don't have a booklet to read. Signs and symbols everywhere tonight are trying to make very sure that you all know this is the year of the anniversary because in a few days, booklet or no, we will all just have to sit back and hope we survive until the 20th year of the anniversary.
This is the year of the Middle-States
-most of you are thoroughly confused about this Middle-States business and you have developed hostilities against it without knowing the cause of your anger and frustration. The whole thing has come to be known as those "damned Daly projects" -and he-Daly -completely innocent of all blame is the butt of all the hostility. Not one of those miserable projects or surveys are -in fact -his. He just happens to be the most hostile of all and can therefore, be counted on to drive the Bill Clutters and Ann Reeds and Rose Beyers and Hub Steeds and all the others to drive all of you to get on with the miserable business. We should realize that this should be known by a better, more academic name than just those "damned Daly projects." It does go by another name, very appropriate it is too, since the projects are so filled with anxiety and frustration -a Freudian name. It is called, all this Middle-States business -it is called "seIf-analysis." We are, you see all sort of laying ourselves and all that the European Division stands for -on the Middle-States analysis couch. And when we get up off that miserable couch about a year from now we'll know what makes us tick and how we can tick better. The word should go forth to all of you on this evening of good cheer and healing fellowship, that you have measured up very well indeed to the first, most grueling phases of this year of the Middle-States. The self-analysis is well away, and though we will continue to share that Freudian couch through next May; there is already reason for rejoincing together and for thanking each other for doing so much so well so far beyond the normal call of duty.
This is the year of amny other important things, and I can mention only a few:
-this is the year Don Totten changed his hair style from a stand-up brush to a kind of fall-down, or is it fall-out, beatle.
-this is the year Don organized the Maryland Mis-Fits, or 1S it un-fits , for mixed ping-pong once a week in the gym
-this is the year Booster Chamberlin quit insuring volkswagens
-this is the year a Swanson became a Possin and a Pullen became a Fink
-this is the year Runkel and Jivani beat the Finanzamt
-this is the year Vida got an accident-prone new car and Pinky kept her accident-prone old car
-this is the year Elaine got all out of shape, and blames her husband
-this is the year of no known pregnancies in Ann Reed's office. She is obviously pas sing out those new pills at each coffee break
-this is the year Jack Barnes went skiing for one hour on the Zugspitze carry1n three thermos bottles, not a one with coffee
-this is the year Hank Vollmer got his driver's license; and so did Renate Gies
-this is the year the drinking fountain on the third floor worked for 20 minute
-this is the year Hilda Himmelman got a place to park her bicycle
-this is the year Bill Clutter never once took off his dark glasses
-this is the year Doris Reisig went t o t he States
This is the year when we have -as a staff -again sought to bring some light and lasting cheer to the handicapped children in the Wielandsheim in Schlierbac The money we have given this Christmas season -instead of exchanging gifts among ourselves tonight -will be used by the Wielandsheim to buy books and musical instruments for those youngsters.
And finally, above all, this is the year of the blood-pressure. At least six months of this year has gone into reading the blood-pressure charts and reports reference the health of our great Dean. We have established chart to show the direct correlation of his fantastically high blood pressure with the fluctuating fortunes of his overseas empire. When enrollments go down and budget s become unhinged, we simply have to send more powerful tranquilizers to the poor man, and we intend to keep close watch on the blood-pressure chart -which will be on display the remainder of the evening. Dean Ehrensber ger leaves tomorrow, blood pressure down just a bit as our enrollments have stabilized. But after 15 years of leading us through hot and cold war, he should have, finally, visual evidence of his place in our world, of his place in our hearts. We have it here : Dean Ray Ehrensberger , OUR MAN ON THE SPOT