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Workforce diversity in higher education: Career support factors influencing ascendancy of African American women to senior-level positions
No full textThe purpose of the presentation is to identify the key career support factors that enable AAW to obtain senior-level positions in higher education.Workforce Diversity in Higher Education: Career Support Factors Influencing Ascendancy of African American Women to Senior-Level Positions
Tondelaya K. Blackstone
[email protected]
Key Words: Workforce Diversity, Higher Education, African American Women, Senior-Level Administrators, Career Success Factors.Purpose
Identify the key career support factors that enable AAW to obtain senior-level positions in higher education
Scope
Key career support factors that contribute to the career advancement of AAW
Purpose and Scope How do career support factors affect the advancement of AAW to senior-level positions in higher education?
Research Question Significance of This Research for Management
Significance This research study is significant because it seeks to establish a positive relationship between career support factors and career advancement for AAW into senior-level positions while confirming the negative relationship between barriers to career advancement and AAW senior-level administrators. This relationship provides an awareness of barriers and a path for AAW to follow to senior-level management in higher education. Relevance
Limited research exists on career support factors and how they aid AAW in obtaining senior-level administrative positions in higher education.
Limited number of research studies available on AAW, senior-level administrators in higher education.
No systematic reviews exist for this particular topic.Main Literature Themes & Authors Continued
Literature Themes
Authors
Mentoring Career Support Factor
Crawford and Smith (2005); Green & King (2001); Jackson (2008); Pfleeger & Mertz (1995); Ragins (1989), (1996); Smith & Crawford (2007)
Informal Networks Career Support Factor
Brass, (1985); Catalyst (2006); Ibarra (1991),(1993), (1995)
Role Models Career Support Factor
Jandeska & Kraimer (2005); Singh, Vinnicombe & James (2006)
Barriers to Career Advancement
Bell (2004), Bell & Nkomo (2001), (2003); Dominguez (1991); Davies-Netzley (1998); Holmes (2004); Jean-Marie (2005); Nkomo & Cox (1989); Reynolds-Dobbs, Thomas & Harrison (2008); Lewicki & McAllister & Bies (1998); Witt & Smith (1995)Key propositions distilled from the literature
Proposition 1. AAW and minority women who are aware of the barriers to career advancement are more likely to overcome the obstacles and place themselves in a better position to obtain a senior-level positions in higher education.
Proposition 2. AAW who participate in mentoring relationships for career advancement are more likely to obtain senior-level administrative positions in higher education.
Proposition 3. AAW who establish network relationships for career advancement are more likely to obtain senior-level administrative positions in higher education.
Proposition 4. AAW who establish role model relationships for career advancement are more likely to obtain senior-level positions in higher educationCareer
Support
Factors
AAW & Minority Women in Higher Education
Senior-Level Administration
Career Advancement
(Potential)
Informal Networks
Mentoring
Role Models
Conceptual Framework
Career Advancement Opportunity
Initial Education & Experience
BarriersThesis Statement
Hypotheses
Multiple career support factors will improve the career advancement of AAW into senior-level administrative positions in higher Education
H1a. Mentoring has a positive effect on the career advancement of AAW in senior-level administrative positions higher education.
H1b. Informal networks has a positive effect on the career advancement of AAW into senior-level administrative positions in higher education.
H1c. The presence of role models has a positive effect on the career advancement of AAW in senior-level administrative positions in higher education.Research Approach
Systematic Review
Key Search Words: Workforce Diversity, Higher Education, African American Women, Senior-Level Administrators, Minority Women , Career Advancement, Career Success Factors, Women in Management.
Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria:
Studies must include some type of assessment.
Studies must include 4-year and 2-year public or private state institutions in the U.S.
Studies must include career support or success factors.
Studies must include AAW and minority women in senior-level positions.Primary Findings
Support Factors (Rank)
Research Studies
(No. that listed support factor)
1.
Mentoring
44
2.
Role models
24
3. Informal networks
22Secondary Findings
Support Factors (Rank)
Research Studies
(No. that listed support factor)
4.
Support group
(family, friend and community )
14
5. Education
12
6. Experience
11
7. Leadership skills
10
8. Diversity
10
9. Motivation
5
10. Hard work
5
11. Religion
3
12. Location
2
13. Hiring practices, politics, positive work environment, risk taking, mission statement and retention plan
1–2Implications for Management Theory
•
Mentoring, informal networks and role models positively affect the career advancement of senior-level, AAW administrators in higher education (Crawford et al, 2005; Catalyst, 2006; Jandeska et al., 2005)
•Mentoring relationships is one of the most important support factors in career advancement and is important to the professional growth, development and advancement (Crawford et al., 2005; Ragins & Cotton, 1991) Access to role models is considered a critical career support factor (Singh et al., 2006; Catalyst, 1998). Networks are a necessary for the career advancement (Ibarra,1993; Jandeska et al., 2005)
•The awareness of the career advancement barriers influence career advancement (Lyod-Jones, 2009; Holmes, 2004; Patitu et al., 2003; Jackson, 2004; Henry, 2010).
•Inclusion of AAW in senior-level administrative positions is a positive link to diversity in the workplace and can improve the success of an organization (Cox,1993; Nkomo, 1991; Joplin et al., 1997; Jackson, 2004)Implications for Management Practice
Institutions of higher education, corporate organizations and managers can utilize this research to strengthen diversity in senior-level management and in the workplace by;
embracing key career support factors and the linkage between career advancement;
recognizing the barriers to career advancement;
improving the search and hiring process;
developing and implementing diverse training, program, policies and procedures;
embracing a commitment to diversity;
utilizing this tested approach and conceptual model to help AAW and minority achieve success. Future Research Agenda
•
AAW senior-level administrators must conduct critical research and publish peer-reviewed articles that will shape their existence as senior-level administrators in academic institutions and in the corporate industry.
•Reproducing this study with a larger sample of senior-level administrators, a larger geographic area, mid-level managers and all minority and majority groups to expand the study regarding career support factors and to understand what the difference are between the majority and minority groups and how to address it,
• Examine variables such as social class, age, gender, the geographic location of the employment opportunity, size of institution, type of institution (black institution, white institution, research institutions, 2-year colleges versus 4-year colleges, etc.) career path, career goals, family background, financial status, wealth experience in addition to ethnicity to detect the affect on career advancement
Established theory and violent female offenders
No full textAbstract: According to Uniform Crime Report (UCR) arrest data, women’s violent offending has increased while men’s has decreased. The increase is slight for all violent offenses (less than 1%) and men continue to be arrested for over 80% of violent crime. However, the increase for women is significant not only because men’s arrests decreased by nearly 12%, but because it confirms a trend in an important measure of women’s serious involvement with the criminal justice system. In addition, we have not known if this increase is associated with arrests for offending not typically perpetrated by women, something that this study was designed to address. To better understand women who resort to violence, this research examined: trends and patterns in arrests of serious violent female offenders nationally and in Maryland from 2000 to 2010; the criminal histories of women incarcerated for violent offending in Maryland; and the extent to which violent female offending varied from offenses typically associated with women. Examples: Are these “typical” offenses in which victims are intimate partners or family members? To what extent do established theories on serious violent female offending explain violence by women over the last decade?Established Theory and Violent Adult Female Offenders
By Michele Livojevic-Davis, PhD
University of Maryland University College
Submitted to the University of Maryland University College Faculty Research Program
January 9, 2012
2
Table of Contents
1. Report ................................................................................................................. 3
2. DRAFT ................................................................................................................. 4 3
REPORT
Report on the Status of the Research Project: Established Theory and Violent Adult Female Offenders
Submitted to the University of Maryland University College Faculty Research Program
By Michele Livojevic-Davis, PhD
January 9, 2012
This project began in March 2011 with a literature review of research relevant to female violent criminality. The review covered theoretical and empirical work published since the mid 1970’s when interest in crimes committed by women inspired projects that included female and well as male populations in the United States. This project was designed to focus on adult women, not in reference to men but, as a population that merited examination in its own right. Even during the period of interest in the female criminal population the preponderance of research was skewed toward men.
Although this skew was justifiable since far more men than women are responsible for crime, particularly for reported violent crime, recent trends suggest that women’s arrests for violence have increased while arrests of men have decreased. Recent literature has focused on projections since the 1990’s that juvenile female violent offending was rising and should be of concern to researchers and policy makers. This concern could have been in response not only to an actual increase in violence by girls but by the construct of the “predatory juvenile” that emerged during this period. In fact the projection of an increase in juvenile violence and the emergence of a new type of juvenile offender as a significant and looming threat to public safety has not been realized since juvenile male and female crime has decreased (Crime in the Nation 2010).
This project was undertaken In the belief that research using men’s violence as a point of reference for women has obscured our knowledge of why women commit acts of violence . Additionally, the project seeks to examine if our understanding of violent female criminality has led to erroneous assumptions and stereotypes. The project is also based on the premise that while quantitative analysis is critical to identifying trends and outcomes in behavior, it is a first step in explaining behavior which can only be fully explored in terms of process. Crime statistics represent outcomes. They do not explain how or why violent offenders come to commit these crimes. That said, this project is intended to be developed in two stages. The first stage is an examination of aggregate data to identify trends in arrests and records of past arrests (outcomes) for a group that can eventually best be studied in a second stage, examination of the process by which adult women – the only group that has shown an increase in reported violent crime since 2000. 4
DRAFT
Established Theory and Violent Adult Female Offenders
Abstract
According to FBI-Uniform Crime arrest data, women’s violent arrests have increased while men’s decreased. The increase is slight for all violent offenses (less than1%) and men continue to be arrested for over 80% of violent crime. However, the increase for women is significant not only because men’s arrests have decreased by nearly 12%, but because it confirms a trend in an important measure of women’s serious involvement with the criminal justice system. In addition, we have not known if this increase is associated with arrests for offending not typically perpetrated by women, something that this study was designed to assess.
To better understand women who resort to violence this research examined trends and patterns in arrests of women for violent offenses since 2000 and the extent to which these arrests varied from arrests for offenses typically associated with women, offenses in which their victims are emotionally close to them. It found that surprisingly large percentages of victims of women’s violence do not fit the typical stereotype suggested by previous research and public perceptions of violent women. The study went on to examine the extent to which established theory applies to these findings.
“Criminology knows next to nothing about women, since it has concentrated all along on the doings of men” Ann Jones. 2009
What do we know about violent women?
While 80% to 83% of those arrested for murder, aggravated assault, rape, and robbery are men, the gender gap in arrests for violent crime is closing. Since the 1990’s the gap has shrunk from 6 to less than 5 times more arrests of men than women in the last decade (OJJDP, Bureau of Justice Statistics, December 1999; Uniform Crime Reports, 2000-2010).
This study examines law enforcement arrest and criminal history data. Although some comparisons are made to male offenders, they are limited to major findings of previously reported trends. Rather than men as the reference for comparison, 5
this study focuses on findings questioning established knowledge of violent women offenders so far lacking in research that has been dominated by quantitative measures (Zhan et al., 2004). As suggested by Messerschmidt (2002), we should explore the possibility that women use violence in situations other than direct response to violent victimization. To do this trends identified with quantitative analysis in this study should be further explored in-depth, using personal narratives of women that go beyond identifying to explaining their violent behavior.
Literature review – Research findings, Speculation, and Theory
Because 10 year longitudinal arrest data did not become available until this Fall, much of the literature reviewed depended on data through 2005. In looking for longitudinal trends, researchers began time lines in the 1980’s and 70’s revisiting long established projections based on findings that had incited flurries of early interest.
As noted by Ann Jones (2009) and others, speculation that crimes committed by women suggested the masculinization of women and emergence of a “new breed of violent women” was exaggerated. Analysis that particularly focused on increased violence among girls has been refuted by research documenting that juvenile as well as adult women continue to be arrested for more non-violent than violent crime. More importantly, other measures of women’s offending, offender self-report, and victimization data, do not support the theory of behavioral change toward violent criminality (Steffensmeir, 1996; Steffensmeir et al., 2006).
Researchers attribute the increase in arrests of women for all offenses not to a real increase in offending, but to heightened police interest (Stenffensmeir and Allan, 1999; Steffensmeir et al. 2005; Irwin and Chesney-Lind, 2008; Yin, 2008). One possible explanation for this heightened interest was suggested by a police officer’s comment to criminologist Rita Simon, “If it’s equality these women want, we’ll see that they get it (Jones, 2009:30). There is no way to know from current research if this comment reflects the individual officer’s attitude or the department’s organizational culture. Another explanation for the increase in 6
women’s violent arrests was proffered by Katherine Irwin and Meda Chesney-Lind who concluded that theories about girls masculinization have influenced the way that girl’s (and, by reasonable extension, women) are controlled as evidenced by increased arrests, harsher sentences, and increased incarceration.
“Clearly we need more nuanced studies of the expression of aggression and violence in women and girls and we need to divorce such studies from the rigid conceptualizations of masculinity and femininity as individual attributes.” (Irwin and Chesney Ling, 2005:852)
When examining violence feminist theorists have concentrated on men’s violence against women inherent in social structures or institutional bias against female offenders (Reilly, 1992; Daly, 1994; Vito and Holmes, 1994, Chesney-Lind, 1997, Fisher et al. 2000). Although not alone in their refutation of Freida Adler’s ecological fallacy in 1975 that the “masculinization” of female offending was associated with the Women’s Movement, their concentration on feminist socio-political theory continues (Gosset et. Al, 2002; Mederos, 2002; Miller and Melroy, 2006; Forbes et al., 2006; Jones, 2009).
However, in her book Men, Women and Aggression (1991), Anne Campbell presciently alluded to the influence of media in changing girl’s attitudes toward female aggression (p.37). Changing attitudes does not necessarily equate to changing behavior. However, is it possible that current depictions of girls and women portrayed in films like the Laura Croft series, the teen avenger film, Badass, The Hunger Games, Columbiana, Salt, Resident Evil, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo have facilitated girl’s acceptance of their aggression and influenced their adult behavior? We also don’t know to what extent the influence of media depictions of violent women have fed the public perception of women’s aggression rather than contributing to violent women’s self-perception and their acceptance of violent offending (Irwin and Chesney-Lind 2005).
Frustration- Aggression Theorists see violence as a lashing-out in response to stress, pain, failure, or suffering of any kind. Violence is a reactive or expressive aggression to aversive stimuli. “it satisfies an innate desire to harm others when one is feeling bad or frustrated” (Zahn et al., 2004:74). 7
Instrumental Aggression theorists like James Tedeschi (1974) distinguished instrumental aggression Violence as reactive or expressive aggression, where harm is a means to achieve dominance (masculinity) from expressive aggression, where harm is a means to satisfy bad feelings or frustration (implied femininity). It does not require a quantum leap to see the gender bias in this comparison.
With the premise that aggressive behavior has a distinctive goal, Instrumental theory is similar to Rational Choice Theory, which looks at incentives for aggression and the decision-making process preceding an aggressive act (Zahn et al., 2004).
In contrast to Instrumental Theory or Rational Choice Theory, Lenore Walker’s Learned Helplessness Theory (1979) is closer to Frustration-Aggression Theory and is frequently used to explain (defensive) female violence, or the lack of such violence, in the face of women’s violent victimization. It is of little value to this study. The reason for its inapplicability becomes clear in the presentation of findings. Briefly, the theory explains the behavior and motivation of battered women. The findings of interest to this research are not necessarily relevant to the battered women represented in Walker’s work. However, the work of other researchers who developed and applied theoretical constructs explaining violence does have potential for further exploration of the trends identified in this study.
Although derivative of Symbolic Interaction Theory, Sociologists Scheff and Retzinger’s Shame and Rage Theory includes micro (individual) and macro (societies/cultures) examples in support of their premise that solidarity and alienation are poles on a spectrum of cognitive and emotional attunement between persons or groups. In the tradition of previous sociologists and social psychologists, Charles Horton Cooley, Irving Goffman, and Helen Lewis, they propose that two emotions, pride and shame, play a crucial role in conflict that can escalate to violence (Scheff and Retzinger, 2001: 22-39).
While Scheff and Retzinger’s work holds interest for this study, it is largely theoretical with a few cases representing empirical application. 8
In two books, the first an introduction (1991), the second, an elaboration of his Violentization Theory, Lonnie Athens personally interviewed men and women to support his theoretical explanation of violence. Athen’s life and work were presented in the book, Why They Kill, by Richard Rhodes (1999). Violentization Theory is based on Symbolic Interactionism and its premise that understanding the development of self-image is the key to understanding behavior.
Athens contends that to understand the violent individual, we must understand the process by which she or he has developed a violent self-image. For a violent self-image to develop, the process must be fully completed. An authority figure who not only brutalizes but coaches the individual (most likely a child) to violence acts as initiator and agent in the production of a violent individual The brutalized individuals are also process-agents, not just receptors, since they take part in the process of violentization to which they are subjected (Rhodes, 1999).
Athen’s asserts that personal narrative is critical to our understanding of violence, and positivistic approaches, particularly those relying solely on quantitative analysis, ignore the fact that human action is situated and contextual. Violence takes place within a context that must be interpreted (Athens, 1997). Applying Alfred Lindsmith’s method of universals, also known analytical induction, Athens contends that if a single case does not fit the theorized pattern, the pattern is inadequately derived (Rhodes, 1999:139). This is a contention not generally proffered by theorists, either through lack of courage or tendency toward caution. In addition, Athens reports that he found no evidence that mental illness causes violent crimes (Rhodes 1999:200). While his work could be questioned by psychologists and other theorists, it provides an in-depth exploration of violence in terms of process that is unique in the literature. It also leads to another potential avenue of research on violent women thus far not explored.
With her book, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development, Carole Gilligan broadened the social and behavioral sciences’ male-centric focus to include girls’ moral development. She found that while boy’s morality is derived from a sense of justice and rules observance, girls derive their morality from a sense of caring and relationships (Gilligan, 1982). In a study with 9
adult male and female subjects, Gilligan and Antonucci (1989) confirmed this gender dichotomy, male morality based on sense of justice with female morality based on a sense of caring. In fairness to James Tedeschi and Instrumental Aggression Theory, the same criticism can be laid here of gender bias and reflection of traditional gender scripts.
Gilligan did not examine aggression or violence by either sex. A search for literature directly tying Gilligan’s findings to violent criminality indicated that any connection between the two topics – women’s morality and women’s violence – is an untapped area of research. We do not know if Gilligan’s findings associating women with caring, typifying traditional gender stereotyping, applies to violent women arrested for murdering victims who are not family members or partners. How do women approach murder, the most violent of all violent offenses, when they have little or no personal relationship with their victims? These questions are best answered by the women offenders themselves. To assess whether the increase in women’s violent criminality merits a closer look through qualitative analysis, this study examined patterns in aggregate data, arrests for violent offenses, and supplementary homicide data over the previous decade.
Method:
2000-2010 Uniform Crime Report Arrests and 2000-2009 Supplementary Homicide Data
The researcher analyzed violent crimes (1st and 2nd degree murder, aggravated assault, rape, and robbery) for which women were arrested in the U.S. and Maryland reported by the FBI in the Uniform Crime Report databases from 2000-2010 for the U.S. and 2000-2009 for Maryland. 2000-2009 Supplementary Homicide databases were analyzed to examine the following variables for the United States and Maryland:
• relationship between victim and offender
• female offender age, race/ethnicity
• victim age, race/ethnicity
• weapon used in the offense 10
• circumstance of the offense
Findings: What Changing the Focus from Men to Women Tells Us About Violent Female Offenders
Over the past 10 years, arrests for violent offenses in the U.S. increased only for adult women. The increase is small at less than 1%. Nonetheless, it is interesting that adult women were the only group with an increase. In contrast, Maryland’s arrests of women for violent offenses decreased by 12%. However, in 2011 there were five hi-profile cases involving adult female perpetrators and adult female victims, three homicides, an aggravated assault, and a robbery/carjacking. Two of the victims were college roommates of the women arrested for the offenses. One victim was a co-worker, one an acquaintance, and one a stranger. Because of the small baseline number of violent offenses by women in the state, these arrests could reflect an increase in the 2011 annual crime report for women.1 (Brian, The Baltimore Sun, 9/16/2011 www.baltimoresun.com last retrieved on 9/16/11; Alexander, The Washington Post, 11/16/11; Devisi, The Washington Post, 11/7/11; Morse and Zapana, The Washington Post, 9/2/11; Klein, The Washington Post, 12/7/11).
As established in the literature on violence 2000-2010 arrest data confirm that women are arrested for far more non-violent offenses – 80% of all offenses committed by women – than violent offenses and more men than women are murder victims of women. Research findings rejecting earlier projections that increased violent offending by juvenile girls would continue were confirmed in this study. I
In contrast to the literature, women are as likely to be arrested for murdering victims who are not family members or partners as victims who are family members or partners. Women are also far more likely to be arrested for murdering adults than children. In addition, in the U.S. as a whole, arrests of women for murdering victims 65 or older are greater than arrests for murdering children over the age of seven. This national finding does not apply to Maryland
1 The outcome of only one of these cases had been determined at the time of this analysis, a homicide that resulted in a guilty finding of 1st degree murder. 11
where more children than victims over 65 were murdered by women during this period.
Crime fiction from “Arsenic and Old Lace” the play and film (released in 1944) to Agatha Christie mysteries, have influenced the public perception linking women to poison or knives as murder weapons of choice. In fact, like men in the United States, women’s weapons of choice are handguns.
Trends in Arrests for Violent Offenses in the U.S. from 2000-2010
The percentage of males arrested for violent offenses decreased by 11.8% while female’s arrests increased by .07%. Since violent crime arrests of women under 18 decreased by 20.7% from 2001 to 2010, the increase for females is attributable to arrests of adult women.
Figure 1
While analysis confirms a continuation of a trend in UCR data from the 1990’s noted in the literature, the increase continues to be qualified by the small base (number) arrested when compared to men. From 2000 to 2010 women in the nation as a whole accounted for 17% to 18% of arrests for violent crimes. Regardless, adult women’s 12
involvement with the criminal justice system as alleged offenders has increased over the last decade. This is a trend also seen in the number of women incarcerated with an increase since 2000 of 22% for women incarcerated in federal and state prisons (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2010).
Arrests for Violent Offenses in Maryland 2000-2009
Maryland does not share the national trend of increased arrests of adult women. From 2001 to 2009, the most recent trend data available at the state level, arrests for adult men and women decreased; men’s by 7% and women’s by 12%.Over the 10 year period, women’s percentages of all violent crime arrests were less stable in Maryland than in the nation as a whole. In Maryland they ranged from a high of 21% of total violent arrests in 2001 to a low of 16% in 2005. However, for 7 of the last 10 years they held at 17%, comparable to national percentages over 10 years.
Figure 2
13
Women Arrested for Murder 2000-2009
The FBI’s Supplemen
Efficacy of foreign assistance in promoting HIV treatment
No full textThis paper analyzes the efficacy of donor aid in promoting HIV treatment coverage. The ongoing financial and sovereign debt crises in developed countries are leveling, if not reducing, aid contributions to the African nations that have received substantial assistance over the past decade. As a result of these funding limitations, it will become increasingly important to ensure that assistance is targeted to maximum effect. We examine the effectiveness of recent Global Fund, PEPFAR, other donor, and country support of health care in hopes to inform future financing of HIV treatment.The Efficacy of Foreign Assistance in Promoting HIV Treatment
Matt Dobra, PhD and Katherine Marconi, PhD
Management, Accounting, and Finance Department
The Graduate School, UMUC
BACKGROUND
This paper analyzes the efficacy of donor aid in promoting HIV treatment coverage. The ongoing financial and sovereign debt crises in developed countries are leveling, if not reducing, aid contributions to the African nations that have received substantial assistance over the past decade. As a result of these funding limitations, it will become increasingly important to ensure that assistance is targeted to maximum effect. We examine the effectiveness of recent Global Fund, PEPFAR, other donor, and country support of health care in hopes to inform future financing of HIV treatment.
METHODS
Using a unique, unbalanced panel dataset, we examine 39 African countries (excluding North African countries and those with less than a million population) from 2002 through 2009. Our measure of HIV treatment is the percent coverage of ARV treatment (number of people on ARV divided by the number of HIV infected). We examine using fixed-effects regression the relationship between HIV treatment and foreign assistance per capita (both total and broken out to only include PEPFAR and Global Fund disbursements), controlling for GDP per capita, government health spending, percent rural population, and quality of governance (IBRAHIM Index). Data sources include the World Bank’s African Development Indicators, the Global Fund, and PEPFAR.
RESULTS
The majority of the increase in treatment coverage is associated with the fixed effects of the estimated model, implying that country specific characteristics are the driving force behind ARV treatment rates. Nonetheless, we find a significant, positive relationship between ARV treatment coverage and donor spending, as well as a positive relationship between the size of the rural population and ARV coverage. Country and year fixed characteristics accounted for about 80% of the variation in ARV treatment. Percent rural and foreign assistance had a positive and significant association with ARV treatment. A $10 increase per person in foreign aid for STD and HIV mitigation and control (World Bank estimates; 2010 USD) is associated with an increase in ARV coverage between 1 and 2.4 percentage points. A similar increase in Global Fund and PEPFAR assistance is associated with an increase in ARV coverage between 4 and 6.2 percentage points, despite the fact that both funds include funding for HIV activities other than treatment.CONCLUSIONS
Our analysis shows that foreign assistance is capable of increasing ARV coverage and that initiatives such as The Global Fund and PEPFAR have been effective. But simply linking foreign assistance to country need is simplistic. Country characteristics play a large part in treatment coverage. For example, there is a high correlation between foreign assistance and the quality of governance as measured by the IBRAHIM index (ρ = .45). As the importance of treatment increases, the allocation of it to countries based upon need alone requires re-examination.
REFERENCES:
Anonymous. (2011). HIV Treatment as prevention – it works. The Lancet. 377(9779), 1719, 21.doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60713-7.
Karim, S.S. Abdool. (18 July, 2011). Antiretroviral prophylaxis: a defining moment in HIV control. The Lancet. 9809 (378). E-23-e25. Doi:10.1016/S0140-(11)6736,61136-7.
Leach-Kemon, K., Chou, D.P., Schneider, M.T., Tardif.A. Dieleman, J.L., Brooks, P.B.C., Hanlon, M., Murray, C.J.L.M. (December, 2011). The global financial crises has led to a slowdown in growth of funding to improve health in many developing countries. Health Affairs. DPO: 1-.1377/jlthaff.2011.1154.
Marconi, K., Dybul, M., & Bouey, P.D. PEPFAR: A results-driven approach to international HIV support. In Low-Beer, D. Innovative Health Partnerships:Global Health Diplomacy Series. England, London: World Scientific Press.
Youde, J. (2010). The relationship between foreign aid, HIV and government health spending. Health Policy and Planning. (25), 523-528, doi:10 1093/heapol/czq030.
RESEARCH PRODUCTS
Submission of two abstracts to 2012 International HIV/AIDS Conference for Presentation: The Efficacy of Foreign Assistance in Promoting HIV Treatment and The Association of Donor Assistance with the Promotion of Health Spending for July 2012 Conference.
Two planned papers based upon these presentations.Table 1: Regression Coefficients
Parameter
Dependent Variable: Percentage of HIV Infected on ARV Treatment
i
ii
iii
Coef.
t-stat
Coef.
t-stat
Coef.
t-stat
Foreign Health Aid Per Capita (2010 USD)
0.0017***
(4.7483)
Global Fund/PEPFAR Aid Per Capita (2010 USD)
0.0051***
(9.3130)
% Rural Population
0.0122**
(2.4731)
0.0092**
(2.1279)
GDP per Capita (2010 USD)
0
(1.3441)
0
(-0.0468)
Domestic Gov't Health Expenditures Per Capita (2010 USD)
0.0002
(0.8668)
0.0002
(0.7951)
Ibrahim Index
-0.0022*
(-1.6829)
-0.0018
(-1.5626)
Country Fixed Effects
Yes
Yes
Yes
Year Fixed Effects
Yes
Yes
Yes
Constant
-0.0282*
(-1.7478)
-0.5834**
(-2.3742)
-0.3930*
(-1.8087)
n
241
241
241
R-squared
0.8287
0.8667
0.8971
t-statistics in parentheses. One, two, and three asterisks denote significance at the 10, 5, and 1 percent levels with a two-tailed test, respectively
Organizational resilience: Is there evidence for what works to support business continuity?
No full textThe purpose of this presentation is to examine and critique the varied literature & commentary on sustaining organizational continuity and to determine if there is supporting evidence for what works. BP oil spill; Lehman Brothers; Wall Street meltdown; Apple’s IPhone, Amazon’s Kindle—whether the result of disaster, unexpected events or competition, recent events have highlighted the need for effectively dealing with situations that threaten continuity of operations (COOP) (Weick and Sutcliffe, 2007, p. ix)—that is, to be resilient. Most definitions emphasize resilience as the ability to ‘bounce back’ from difficulties: “the capability to rebound from a disaster …and return to normal functioning with little delay” (Chandra/RAND, p 2); “dynamic process encompassing positive adaptation within the context of significant adversity” (Luther et al, p.543); “the ability to reinvent business models and strategies as circumstances change” (Hamel & Valikangas, 2003, p 53). Others focus on the need for proactive approaches: the ‘identification of potential risks, proactive steps, to ensure an organization thrives in the face of adversity” (Somers, 2009, pp 13+); creating “a rapid, flexible, innovative and effective response when a future crisis presents itself” (Boin and Lagadec, 2000, p 188). The analyses are connected to point(s) on a resilience continuum.SchWeber & Bouchard Organizational Resilience 1
Paper for the 2011 Conference
Organizational Resilience:
Is There Evidence for What Works to Support Business
Continuity?
Authors:
Claudine SchWeber, PhD
University of Maryland University College
3501 University Blvd.
Adelphi, MD 20783
[email protected]
240.684.2468
and
Marcia M. Bouchard, DM
University of Maryland University College
2323 Dulles Station Blvd., #106
Herndon, VA 20171
[email protected]
706.726.9095
SchWeber & Bouchard Organizational Resilience 2
Organizational Resilience: *
Is There Evidence for What Works to Support Business Continuity?
Introduction
Hurricane Katrina; the BP Oil Spill; Lehman Brothers and Wall Street meltdown; Apple’s IPhone competition—the interest in managing and surviving change, whether caused by unexpected events or competition, reveals a need to effectively deal with situations that threaten the continuity of operations (Weick & Sutcliffe, 2007, p. ix)—to remain, in a word, resilient. Resilience has been defined as “the ability to reinvent business models and strategies as circumstances change” (Hamel & Valikangas, 2003, p. 53); “the capability to rebound from a disaster...to return to normal functioning with little delay” (Chandra et al., 2010, p. 2); the identification of “potential risks, proactive steps, to ensure an organization thrives in the face of adversity” (Somers, 2009, p. 13). See Appendix A for detailed list of definitions.
Discussions of resilience are connected to stages in a resilience continuum:
anticipationmanagementresilience.1
Periodically there is a discussion of a fourth stage called thriving, or “hyper resilience,” reflecting a condition in which the subject is better off than before the event (Clair & Dufresne, 2007; Carver, 1998) —in effect “the crisis becomes a catalyst for positive transformation” (Claire & Dufresne, 2007, p. 65). These definitions and stages reflect both the proactive and reactive approaches to organizational survival in these “interesting times.”
1 Emergency management professionals refer to these stages as preparation; response; recovery (Crichton, Ramsay, & Kelly, 2009; Chandra et al, 2010, p. 3).
*The research for this paper was supported by a Faculty Research grant from UMUC, fall 2010 SchWeber & Bouchard Organizational Resilience 3
Anticipation
(preparation)
Management
during event
(response)
Resilience
(recovery)
Thriving or
Hyper resilience
(better off)
Crisis:
Trigger
Event
(adapted from Carver, 1998; Comfort, 1994)
Figure 1. Resilience continuum.
Concept of Resilience
The concept of resilience has been discussed from several perspectives (e.g., psychology,
sociology, and technology) and is found in scholarly studies, books, special reports and
professional publications. The literature on resilience can be grouped into the impact on three,
sometimes overlapping, populations: individuals, particularly from a psychological perspective;
communities; organizations.
Individual. These studies examine the ability of individual(s) to “bounce back” from
challenges, such as children who were abused or were addicts, and focus on the individual and
adaptive systems in human development (Masten, 2001; Masten & Wright, 2009). Carver (1998)
argues from a psychological perspective that reaction to a traumatic incident encompasses four
stages: succumbing, surviving, resilience, and thriving. Parent (2006) applies the same stages to
individual employee adaptation to major workplace changes.
Community. An examination of the literature on community and crisis/disaster
management reveals a focus on managing post-disaster events (Chandra, et al., 2010); being
prepared, anticipating, possible systems failures such as at nuclear plants (Weick & Sutcliffe
2007, ch 3; Irvine & Anderson, 2004); and the importance of leadership in these circumstances
(Boin & Lagadec, 2000; Horne, 2007)
SchWeber & Bouchard Organizational Resilience 4
Organizations and management. Marwa and Zairi (2008) examined 120 corporations that failed from 2000 to 2007. Their findings suggest that weak senior leadership quality was the primary reason for the downfall of firms. More specifically their findings suggest that leadership was the missing ingredient related to resilience. Another perspective is that of Patnaik and Sahoo (2010) whose case study of organizational resilience at Xerox Corporation indicated that organization culture is the key determinant of organizational resilience. Continuity of operations was based on the values of honesty, resilience and trust, which enabled the founder to retain employees during uncertain times. The authors argued that a return to the founder’s principles, as embodied by the current CEO, enabled Xerox to become competitive again.
Related to the examination of management’s role is the study of resilient workers. Mallak (1998), defines resilient workers as those able to quickly “design and implement positive adaptive behaviors” (p. 8) with tools and strategies at hand. This concept is referred to as bricolage—a term first coined by Claude Levi-Strauss in his 1962 book The Savage Mind and applied to behavior in groups and organizations by Weick (1993). Mallak’s (1998) point is that a resilient organization must have individuals who are bricoleurs, able to design and quickly implement actions from existing resources to survive (p. 8). Weick (1993) discusses resilience and bricolage through a case study of the Mann Gulch Fire. Weick and Sutcliffe (2007) refer to organizations that have the ability to manage the unexpected as “high reliability organizations (HRO).” Parent and Levitt’s (2009) study of a large manufacturing company with frequent changes found that there is a disconnect between employees’ self-perceived resilience and how their supervisors rate employee resilience.
While crises may fuel public awareness of disasters or new products, the importance of continuity of operations (coop) is not new to the business community (Elliott, Swartz, & SchWeber & Bouchard Organizational Resilience 5
Herbane, 2010, ch 1). Data from the past decade note that 80 percent of all businesses that have a major fire do not recover; an estimated 40 percent of organizations without business continuity and recovery plans go out of business after a major disaster; and, 93 percent of companies that have a significant loss of data fail within five years (Devargas, 1999, p. 35; Cocchiara, 2005, p. 4; Michigan State, 2000, p. 3). A 2004 study reported that an estimated 50% of organizations without business continuity and recovery plans go out of business after a major disaster (Irving & Anderson, 2004, p. 234). Curtis (2008) cites Department of Labor data showing that of all companies that experience disaster, 65% fail, with 40% not re-opening, and 25% closing within 2 years (p. 38).
As noted, varied publications and disciplines offer analyses of past crises, offer advice regarding preparedness planning, crisis management (response) and resilience (survival)—all geared towards supporting resilience in the face of unanticipated or existing challenges. The recommendations usually address actions to be taken at one point on the resilience continuum, with an eye towards the others. This paper will examine the literature—scholarly, professional, special reports—to determine what should work in promoting business continuity.
Research Question
The guiding research question for this study is: What does the literature indicate about “what works” to promote business continuity?
Overwhelmingly, the literature we investigated revealed three major themes which are linked to each other and are an integral part of the resilience continuum: (a) “avoiding drifting into failure” (Crichton et al., 2009, p. 26), which means anticipating and planning for crises (Weick &Sutcliffe, 2007, ch 1,3); (b) the critical role of senior leadership in establishing a culture of group cohesiveness and trust in dealing with crises (Pearson & Clair, 1998; Horne, SchWeber & Bouchard Organizational Resilience 6
1997; Boin & Lagadec, 2000; Brazeau, 2008); and (c) communicate, communicate, communicate—this seemingly obvious practice appears to still need reminding, since ineffective or no communication, internally and externally, at any stages affects response during a crisis as well as reputation, organizational continuity and the organizational culture afterwards (Booth, 2000; Crichton et al., 2009; Curtis 2008; Pearson & Claire 1998; Weick, Sutcliffe, & Obstfeld, 2005).
Methodology
To investigate this question, we examined a total of 57resources by conducting a preliminary systematic review of the literature, in order to “identify, acquire, extract and synthesize existing research studies” (Leseure, Birdi, Bauer, Denyer, & Neely, 2004, p. 14). We broadened this approach to include a range of perspectives beyond academic studies.
Our approach was based, in part, on the ‘evidence-based research’ method (EBM), pioneered at Carnegie Mellon (www.evidencebased-management.com). 2 This method enabled us to review a variety of sources, to include case studies, empirical studies, reports, theoretical papers, dissertations and so on. EBR is a research approach in management, based a process used in health care, in which the goal is to identify and analyze existing research. The steps include: identifying literature on the selected topic based on identified criteria; narrowing the scope using inclusion and exclusion criteria; evaluating the resource evidence. Our research revised the latter stage, instead analyzing the resources according to the three major themes: anticipation, leadership, and communication.
2 The assessment of research for EBM, uses a quantifiable method in identifying and assessing research and the evidence. We have used the first two steps, and leave the final one, evaluating each resource individually according to specific criteria, to future research.
SchWeber & Bouchard Organizational Resilience 7
The process occurred in three stages: (a) identification of criteria for initial selection of resources that would enable a broad sweep; (b) identification of exclusion and inclusion criteria by which we could separate those resources that fit our focus from others, and enable us to respond to the research question; (c) analysis of the literature in terms of the three identified major themes.
The total 57resources included books or chapters of books (9), scholarly articles (34?), professional articles (10), dissertations (2), special reports, white papers (2).
Stage 1: Initial Selection Criteria
We obtained the 57 resources based on the following criteria: (a) database word searches using terms such as resilience, business continuity, continuity of operations, emergency management, crisis, crisis management, disaster management, organizational failure, organizational change; trauma recovery, bricolage, high reliability organizations; (b) follow-up references obtained from publications; and, (c) follow up on the work of key authors, such as Karl Weick, Paul Lagardec, Ann Masten and Judith Clair. Our broad sweep at this stage resulted in four empirical studies, while the remaining literature used other authors’ research, case studies, or examples of actual events to make their points.
Stage 2: Exclusion and Inclusion Criteria.
The resources were categorized based on the primary focus: individual, community, organization. In order to assess the resources that dealt with our research focus, organization/business continuity, we needed to separate the 57 resources into two groups: those which were not directly germane (exclusion) and those which were (inclusion). SchWeber & Bouchard Organizational Resilience 8
Exclusion criteria. The exclusion criteria were those that: focused only on individual (e.g., psychology, child trauma, drug addiction); focused solely on government entities; or had a narrow scope (e.g., supply chain), or were published before 1990.
Inclusion criteria. The inclusion criteria were those for which the primary focus was organization, had identifiable concepts related to resilience, and were published between l990-2010. The outcome was that 45 resources remained after the sorting.
Stage 3: Synthesizing the Analysis
Synthesizing the analysis of the 45 items was done based on the three categories: preparation/anticipation; senior management leadership; communication.
What We Learned
Our goal was to “identify, acquire, extract and synthesize existing research studies” (Leseure et al., 2004, p. 14), professional publications, special reports/white papers, books or book chapters dealing with organizational resilience. The literature represented a variety of situations, such as those involving strategic resilience in an economically dynamic environment (Hamel & Valikangas, 2003; Lewis & Loebbaka, 2008); low probability-high consequence events such as nuclear reactor breakdowns; tornadoes; regional power outages (Weick & Sutcliff, 2007, ch 3;Curtis, 2008; Boin & Lagadec, 2000); high probability-high consequence events such as forest fires (Weick, 1993) and, small businesses hurt by public fear of spreading foot-and-mouth disease in animals(Irvine & Anderson, 2004). A majority of the 45 resources we examined focused directly on anticipation-preparation. This focus was connected to crisis management (response) and post-event resilience (recovery) as well as the role of senior leadership and communication. SchWeber & Bouchard Organizational Resilience 9
Anticipation/ Preparation
The overwhelming attention to prevention represents an effort “to predict and prevent potential dangers before damage is done” (Comfort, 1994, p. 157). The damage may be to the organization’s reputation3 as well as its operation (Booth, 2000; Brazeau, 2008 ; Pearson & Mitroff, 1993). While there is concern about too much reliance on prediction and the dangers of relying too intensively on past crisis management experiences (Lagadec, l997; Boin & Lagadec, 2000; Somers, 2009), there is agreement that internalizing a culture of resilience at all levels is critical, championed by executive leadership (Boin & Lagadec, 2000; Brazeau, 2008; Coutu, 2002; Curtis, 2008; Pearson & Clair, 1998).
What are the ingredients of a culture of resilience? An active ingredient is the need for top level attention to the possibility that failure can occur, avoiding the “amnesia syndrome” in which past experiences are forgotten and the organization returns to its prior operation and structure (Boin & Lagadec, 2000, p. 188). Weick & Sutcliffe (2007) refer to entities with this attention as High Reliability Organizations (HRO), which have a “preoccupation with failure” (p.45 and ch 1, 3). That is, the recognition that a crisis can occur again, requires the need to be realistic (rather than just optimistic) in order to detect signals of impending danger and act to contain the situation (Pearson & Mitroff, 1993; Pearson & Clair, 1998; Coutu, 2002; Lewis & Loebbaka, 2008).
Another ingredient is the development of a continuity culture throughout the organization, so that strategic decisions (e.g., new products, markets) include assurance that processes to carry out the decisions are resilient. With leadership by senior executives, ownership, development, and testing of these processes should become integral to the
3 Some companies change their names, in part, to overcome the negative reputation—for example, Blackwater became Xe, and Diebold Election Systems became Premier Election Systems. SchWeber & Bouchard Organizational Resilience 10
organization. For example, risk assessment tools can be used to examine how to handle disruptions so that suppliers’ customers remain part of the distribution. Internal systems should be flexible enough to allow for system adjustments in responding to changes from the external environment; managers need to be updated on limitations to their knowledge and the organization needs to implement widespread, deep knowledge of past experiences and lessons learned—not as a blueprint, but as part of a “lessons learned” system. Decision-making should be expanded so that individuals have the knowledge and authority to act in the changing circumstances. Finally, the bottom line is that without employees who are adaptable to change the organization cannot be resilient (Brazeau, 2008; Comfort, 1994; Crichton et al., 2009; Hind, Frost, & Rowley, 1996; Mallak, 1998; Somers, 2009). Several authors in this study recommended tools to test resiliency in advance: an employee resilience audit (Hind et al., 1996); an organizational risk survey (Curtis, 2008); a reputational risk audit (Booth, 2000); and a measurement of an on organization’s potential to effectively recover, the Organizational Resilience Potential Scale (Somers, 2009).
Being prepared for resilience also involves hiring senior staff with crisis management experience and training crisis management teams, not just one safety officer; providing practical experience for staff, such as simulations, intervention practice, manager training; and having a continual feedback loop that re-assesses and revises the plans and responsibilities (Boin & Lagadec, 2000; Pearson & Claire, 1998; Brazeau, 2008; Curtis, 2008; Lagadec, 1997). Coutu (2002) offers the example of Morgan Stanley, whose NYC offices were in the South Tower, floors 22-43 in 2001. Due to continual practice and crisis management leadership of a seasoned Vietnam veteran, and the good fortune to be in the 2nd tower that was hit, the 2700 Morgan Stanley staff evacuated the building one minute after the first tower was hit. Only 6 people did SchWeber & Bouchard Organizational Resilience 11
not survive. Coutu attributes this remarkable outcome, in part, to the fact that after the 1993 World Trade Center bombings, Morgan Stanley had instituted a preparedness program with frequent drills so that staff went into autopilot mode in 2001.
Back up practices, not just plans, are also important. Given the technological environment of business, having a back-up system in place could make a difference, especially if it is far away. For example, when Hurricane Katrina hit one educational institution, Xavier University, had backed-up its technology in California. This was likely due to the fact that the new vice president for technology management had come from a major information technology firm. All of the other educational institutions had back-up systems in nearby communities (SchWeber, 2008). Contingency planning should also include having alternative locations for staff, teleworking, remote connectivity as well as alliances or contacts in similar industries. In New Orleans, Xavier University had established communications links with a sister institution in Ohio, which electronically broadcast developments during the first months. Curtis (2008) notes that high level contacts, such as those of board members, could enable a company to move to other locations or countries. He recommends the purchase of risk insurance and creating a reserve fund to cover potential liabilities from a disaster, giving the example of Merck pharmaceuticals’ multi-million dollar fund which helped them when the Vioxx drug crisis occurred (Coutu, 2002; Curtis, 2008; SchWeber, 2010).
Communication has been discussed by almost every author, and is presented in further detail below. Of note here is the need to plan and establish linkages with the external media as one anticipation strategy. In this media rich environment, a plan on what channels to use, whom to contact, varied types of messages to fit the circumstances becomes critical. Writing in l997, Ladagec warned that organizations should not be in the position where media hotlines are SchWeber & Bouchard Organizational Resilience 12
informed of events by insiders before there has been widespread internal communication (Lagadec, l997).
As practitioners and scholars discuss and argue for the need to “plan for resilience” there is also an awareness of the limits of planning. Thus there has been a debate between “high reliability theory” and “normal accident theory” proponents about emphasis (Lagadec, 1997, p. 26). The former argue that awareness of potential danger and planning, practicing for response is critical for recovery. Normal accident theory proponents argue that it is impossible to avoid accidents, rational choices may not be realistic and ask “how strong is the causal relationship between planning and ef
Orchestration and improvisation: Variations on curriculum transformation and systemic change
No full textWhat We Learned About Change:
–It’s a system – change in one area forces change in others
–Some perceive even positive change as loss – of tradition, quality, autonomy, control
–When change is not internalized, people and systems revert back to the old
–Need to see the logic and system behind what we do
–The first parts are inspiring, the later ones can be tedious – persistence is essential
–Be flexibleOrchestration and Improvisation: Variations on Curriculum Transformation and Systemic Change Cynthia Davis Sharon Biederman Elizabeth Mulherrin Nature of the SEGUE Project
•Supporting Educational Goals for Undergraduate Excellence
•Curriculum redesign- starting with programs and outcomes
•Undergraduate school project affecting all other units
•Change in session length (12 to 8 weeks) UMUC Culture
•Adult students
•Distributed education, mostly online
•Part-time, adjunct faculty
•Worldwide
•Centralized curriculum but many stakeholders Original Project Design
•Steering committee, 3 subcommittees
•Regular deans and directors meetings
•Communication and linkages plan
•Incorporation of course development unit into planning and implementation Course Development and Training
•POG and COG processes
•Learning model
•Teaching guide
•Faculty training
•Course development prioritization
•Scalability
Old to New Maps Plans, Policies and Procedures
•Assessment plans and tools
•Advising messages
•Revised policies and procedures Implementation
•Student success planning
•Cross-unit collaboration
•Unexpected events -Financial Aid rules -Change with proctored exams -LMS evaluation -Grants and initiatives What We Learned About Change
–It’s a system – change in one area forces change in others
–Some perceive even positive change as loss – of tradition, quality, autonomy, control
–When change is not internalized, people and systems revert back to the old
–Need to see the logic and system behind what we do
–The first parts are inspiring, the later ones can be tedious – persistence is essential
–Be flexible
Bringing about Systemic Change
•Set the goals
•Define the roles
•Change relationships
•Change the culture
•Focus on communication Share What You’ve Learne
Evaluation of corporate and government crisis management during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill: A comparative analysis of the effectiveness of differing leadership styles
No full textThe Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010 is the
largest oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. Damage done surpasses that of the 1989
Exxon Valdez tanker that spilled 11 million gallons of oil into the Prince William Sound. In this
instance, unlike the Exxon Valdez tanker which held a finite capacity of oil, the rig operated by
BP is tapped into an underwater oil well and continued to pump oil into the ocean until the leak
was plugged. The cause of the spill was not in question, only how the clean up operation was
handled. Various entities, including journalists, public bodies, academics, professional
organizations and a House Select Committee investigated what went wrong. In this study, an
evaluation of the selected responses was made of the behaviors and actions of some corporate
and Government officials during the oil spill disaster. This study used information from official
hearings, various authors, and literature garnered from several government agencies such as the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Beyond an intensive analysis of the
literature relating to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, various leadership models were used and
applied evaluatively during the crisis; situational, participative, transformational, transactional,
and charismatic. These established models were selected specifically for this study and were
used in analyzing the leadership styles of selected managers. The study evaluated which
leadership model would have been most suitable in dealing with the oil spill. Various researches
have been conducted, in which there are examples of successful as well as failed crisis
management strategic responses. This study looked at successful and failed approaches to crisis
management outcomes.Differing Leadership Styles
Running head: An Evaluation of Corporate and Government Crisis Management during the
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: A Comparative Analysis of the Effectiveness of Differing
Leadership Styles
by
Colin R. Aaron
University of Maryland University College
Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Maryland University College, in Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Management
Dissertation Committee:
Dennis W. Winters, Ph.D.
Kathleen F. Edwards, Ph.D.
Leadership and Leadership Models
2
Dedication
This study is dedicated to my mother, Joyce Aaron Elcock, my six children, and my
seven grandchildren. This study is also dedicated to my deceased father, John Reginald Aaron,
who always insisted that an education was of paramount importance. I would also like to
dedicate this study to all of my buddies from the Guyana Police Force Band who served with me
during my fifteen years of service.
Leadership and Leadership Models
3
Acknowledgements
I owe my deepest gratitude to Dr. Dennis Winters, Dr. Claudine SchWeber, Dr. Tim
Reed, Dr. Kathleen Edwards, and Dr. James Gelatt whose encouragement, supervision and
support from the preliminary to the concluding level enabled me to develop an understanding of
the subject. I would also like to thank Dr. Vincent Adams for his support and advice during the
initial phase of this endeavor. Lastly, I offer my regards and blessings to all of those who
supported me in any aspect during the completion of the project.
Leadership and Leadership Models
4
Table of Contents
Dedication 2
Acknowledgements 3
Table of Contents 4
Abstract 8
CHAPTER 1. Introduction
Purpose of the Study 9
A Brief History of the Disaster 9
Background of the Study 11
Statement of the Problem 16
Rationale for the Study 17
Significance of the Study 17
Definition of Terms 18
Assumptions 20
Nature of the Study 20
Research Questions 20
Organization of the Dissertation 21
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Overview 22
Leadership 23
Leadership Styles 27
The Five Models of Leadership used in the Study 27
What is Crisis? 36
Leadership and Leadership Models
5
Crisis Management 40
Crisis Communication 43
Off-Shore Oil Exploration 45
Government and Crisis Management 46
Elected Officials and Crisis Management 47
Examples of Successful Crisis Management 48
Examples of Unsuccessful Crisis Management 49
Contingency Planning 50
Discussion of Theoretical Lenses 51
Research Propositions 52
Contingency Planning and Crisis Leadership 53
CHAPTER 3. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Thesis statement 54
Overview of the Conceptual Framework 54
Graphical Analysis and Synthesis 55
Government Leadership During a Crisis 56
Corporate Leadership During a Crisis 57
Statements and Actions of Leaders 59
Leadership Models 59
Integration of Scholarship 62
CHAPTER 4. METHODOLOGY
Overview 62
Evidence-Based research 63
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Web of Science 64
Validity and Reliability 68
The Expert Panel and Leadership Literature 68
Summary 69
CHAPTER 5. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Presentation and Summary of Findings 69
Research Questions 70
President of the United States Leadership Findings 70
National Incident Commander Leadership Findings 74
CEO British Petroleum (BP) Leadership Findings 79
Conclusion 82
Consideration of other points of view 83
Summery 83
CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Overall Conclusions 84
Implications for Management 86
Implications of Trends 87
Limitations and Areas for Future Research 88
Summary 89
REFERENCES 91
APPENDIX A Biography of Panelists 102
APPENDIX B. Speech to the nation made by the President of the United States. 103
APPENDIX C. Opening statement of Tony Hayward, CEO of BP, given to the 108
Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on
Leadership and Leadership Models
7
Oversight and Investigation.
APPENDIX D. Written testimony of Admiral Thad Allen given before 115
a joint committee
Figure 1. Model of Theoretical Lens. 52
Figure 2. Model of Conceptual Framework. 56
Figure 3. The main users and stakeholders of evidence-based research. 64
Table 1. Table used to chart leader actions and behaviors during the 61
Deepwater Horizon Crisis
Table 2. Leadership literature Identified and literature significant to the study. 66
Table 3. Crisis literature identified and literature significant to the study 67
Table 4. Leadership findings after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. 82
Leadership and Leadership Models
8
Abstract
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010 is the
largest oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. Damage done surpasses that of the 1989
Exxon Valdez tanker that spilled 11 million gallons of oil into the Prince William Sound. In this
instance, unlike the Exxon Valdez tanker which held a finite capacity of oil, the rig operated by
BP is tapped into an underwater oil well and continued to pump oil into the ocean until the leak
was plugged. The cause of the spill was not in question, only how the clean up operation was
handled. Various entities, including journalists, public bodies, academics, professional
organizations and a House Select Committee investigated what went wrong. In this study, an
evaluation of the selected responses was made of the behaviors and actions of some corporate
and Government officials during the oil spill disaster. This study used information from official
hearings, various authors, and literature garnered from several government agencies such as the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Beyond an intensive analysis of the
literature relating to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, various leadership models were used and
applied evaluatively during the crisis; situational, participative, transformational, transactional,
and charismatic. These established models were selected specifically for this study and were
used in analyzing the leadership styles of selected managers. The study evaluated which
leadership model would have been most suitable in dealing with the oil spill. Various researches
have been conducted, in which there are examples of successful as well as failed crisis
management strategic responses. This study looked at successful and failed approaches to crisis
management outcomes.
Keywords: Crisis Management, Leadership Styles, Offshore Drilling, Oil Rigs
Leadership and Leadership Models
9
CHAPTER 1. Introduction
1. Purpose of the Study
It is hoped that this research and its accompanying models will assist organizations in
identifying and selecting leaders that will be an asset in leading and managing any organization
in times of crisis. The goal of this study is to get a better understanding of the best qualities of
leadership and management during a crisis.
This study used evaluation research to examine the actions and behaviors of key players
associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster using various documents that were part
of the public domain. These key players are representatives of government agencies and of BP,
LLC. The purpose of this study is to get a better understanding of crisis leadership practiced by
the three key players who were deemed most accountable for decisions made during and after the
oil spill disaster. . These three key players are the President of the Unites States, Barack Obama,
the CEO of BP, LLP Tony Hayward, and the National Incident Commander, Admiral Thad
Allen. Research on crisis leadership concludes that the leader‘s actions during a crisis reflects the
competency of an organization, because crises will test how well the organization‘s leadership
structure serves its goals and withstands crisis. The approach of the research is to place emphasis
on which leadership style would have been most suitable for dealing with this crisis.
1.1.2 A Brief History of the Disaster
On April 20, 2010 there was a loud explosion and fire on an oil rig operated and owned
by Transocean, Ltd. The rig was drilling for oil off the coast of the state of Louisiana, U.S.A for
BP. The explosion and fire caused the death of 11 workers and another 17 were seriously injured.
On April 24, oil was found leaking from the well for the first time. A risk analysis done by the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the incident "poses a negligible risk to regional oil
Leadership and Leadership Models
10
supply markets and will not cause significant national economic impacts" (DHS; p. 6). White
House press secretary Robert Gibbs at a news conference said that he doubted this was the first
accident that has ever happened and he further doubts it will be the last.
A later Department of Homeland Security report on April 25, 2010, on critical
infrastructure said the problem had no near-term impact to regional or national crude oil or
natural gas supplies. However, a US Coast Guard remote underwater camera showed that the
well was leaking 5,000 barrels of crude oil per day (bpd) and approved a plan for remote
underwater vehicles to activate a blowout preventer to stop the leak. A blowout preventer is a
large, specialized valve used to seal, control and monitor oil and gas wells (CNN, April 25,
2010). On May 1, 2010 the Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announced that
U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen would serve as the National Incident
Commander for the administration's continued, coordinated response to the Deepwater Horizon
oil spill. She suggested that this appointment would provide additional authority and oversight in
leveraging every available resource to respond to the spill and minimize the associated
environmental risks (MarineLog, May 1, 2010). For approximately 86 days, oil from the BP spill
plagued the Gulf of Mexico and bled as much as 5 million barrels of crude oil into the ocean
(The New York Times, April 25, 2010).
On June 17, 2010 the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and
Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held the first set of hearings in which
the Chief Executive of BP plc, Tony Hayward, testified before the committee. During his
testimony he acknowledged that BP PLC, and the oil industry overall, needed to be better
prepared for a sub sea disaster. The CEO suggested that BP must use this incident as a case study
to avoid a similar failure in the future. He went on to acknowledge that so far no one as yet knew
Leadership and Leadership Models
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why it happened (Testimony of Tony Hayward, June 10, 2010). Although hurricanes and
tornadoes are a normal part of life on the Louisiana coast (National Oceanic Atmospheric
Administration), explosions on offshore oil rigs and the rupture of pipelines are not as common.
In November 2009 at a U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing
on offshore drilling, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La) suggested that ―The risks associated with
domestic offshore oil and gas drilling are far outweighed by the benefits.‖ Research has shown
that the better prepared an organization is the more likely it is to survive a crisis (Herman &
Oliver, 2002). As noted by Schoenberg (2005), crisis management is similar to a
multidisciplinary process, which cannot only be left to the public relations department. Effective
leadership is the linchpin to a successful crisis outcome. This study has analyzed the crisis
leadership of the three corporate and government officials involved in this crisis, namely; The
President of the United States, Barack Obama; The National Incident Commander, Admiral Thad
Allen; and The CEO of BP, plc, Tony Hayward.
1.1.3 Background of the Study
When there is a crisis or emergency, every level of government and all corporate
stakeholders must play a role in responding to help contain the crisis or emergency. In order to
respond to a crisis a detailed level of planning and coordination is required. What is also required
is an effective leadership style that will suit every phase of a crisis and avoid a complete
breakdown of the system. Farazmand, (2007) argues that one of the causes of system breakdown
is a failure to respond to and govern effectively during crisis situations and to manage disaster-driven
emergencies which could result in the loss of legitimacy and cause system breakdown (p.
149). He also points out that:
Leadership and Leadership Models
12
Crisis and complex situations require new ways of thinking and a new mind-set, a
complexity-driven management system that can accurately read chaos and crisis
situations with unfolding dynamics and surprises and manage crisis through what I call a
„surprise management system‟ (p. 150)
If the organization is to survive with its reputation and other factors (such as its
operations and financial condition intact) the timeliness and effectiveness of the response to any
crisis is more of a determinant of survival than is the severity of the crisis (Garcia, 2006).
Timeline – Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and its Impact
April 20, 2010 – Explosion and fire on Transocean Ltd‘s drilling rig Deepwater Horizon
licensed to British Petroleum LLP (BP); 11 workers are killed. The rig was drilling in BP‘s
Macondo project 42 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, beneath about 5, 000 feet of water and
13,000 feet under the seabed.
April 22 - The Deepwater Horizon rig, valued at more than 930
million.
May 29 – BP says the complex ―top kill‖ maneuver to plug the well has failed, crushing hopes
for a quick end to the largest oil spill in U.S. history already in its 40th day.
June 1 – BP shares plunge 17 percent in London trading, wiping $23 billion off its market value,
based on the news that the latest attempt to plug the well has failed. U.S. Attorney General Eric
Holder says the Justice Department has launched a criminal and civil investigation into the rig
explosion and the spill.
June 2 – BP continues work on a new plan to try to capture most of the escaping oil. This
involves using robot submarines to cut off what is left of the leaking riser pipe, then lowering a
Leadership and Leadership Models
15
containment cap over the wellhead assembly. Some difficulties are encountered with the cutting
operation. U.S. authorities expand fishing restrictions to cover 37 percent of U.S federal waters
in the Gulf.
June 3 – After previous sharp declines, BP shares rise more than 3 percent on market hopes that
the latest plan to control the leaking well may make some progress. The six-week-old crisis has
wiped a third off of BP‘s market value since the crisis began.
July 15 - The oil flow into the Gulf finally stopped when BP installed a 75 ton cap that
prevented any more crude oil from escaping. (Reuters, Compiled by David Cutler, London
Editorial Reference Unit; Editing by Pascal Fletcher)
The tragedy that unfolded as a result of this sequence of events shows that the absence of
effective leadership can paralyze all governance and administrative capacities. The frequency at
which such crises are occurring has generated an increase in interest and attention by the media
and the public at large. However, this increased attention has a tendency to dwell only upon the
responses to crises (Sementelli, 2007), and not on the type of leadership that is best suited to deal
with a crisis. In today‘s changing world, leaders of organizations must be equipped to deal with
the rapidly changing external and internal environment (Lim & Ployhart, 2004) along with the
quality of their descriptive, reflective and reactive responses. In addition to the changing internal
and external environment of organizations and their milieu, leaders are confronted with a variety
of natural and man made disasters. ―These disasters serve as a constant reminder that crises come
in many forms‖ (Snyder, Hall, Robertson, Jasinski, and Miller, 2006; p.169). A crisis situation
can sometimes cause widespread disruption, so concern for capable organizational or situational
leadership is well justified. In times of crisis, leadership becomes an integral component of a
successful organizational crisis outcome.
Leadership and Leadership Models
16
Strong effective leadership is imperative to organizational survival. However, leaders of
organizations who are adept at handling the regular day-to-day issues may not necessarily be
qualified and prepared to handle a crisis of significant dimensions (Muffet-Willet & Kruse,
200
UMUC's Effective Writing Center_ Who We Are, What We Do, Why We Do It_combined - DE Oracle
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An Online Learning Magazine for UMUC Faculty
Center for Support of Instruction
UMUC's Effective Writing Center: Who We Are, What We Do, Why We Do
It
David Taylor
Senior Advisor EWC
School of Undergraduate Studies
Published: September-October 2011
Category: » University-showcase » Classes-programs
UMUC's Effective Writing Center (EWC) is one of the few fully online writing centers in the world and
serves more students than any other writing center we know of. Because of the EWC's uniqueness, we
are often asked to present at academic conferences where the teaching of writing is a main focus. The
March 2011 gathering of the International Writing Centers Association in Atlanta, Georgia, marked the
second time in five years that the EWC was asked to present to this group.
As a pioneer in American distance learning, UMUC is seen as the "tip of the spear" when it comes to
dealing with many contemporary issues in higher education, especially the need to scale digital services
for a dispersed and differentiated student population of 60,000 online learners and the faculty who
teach them. Interest in our writing center programs seems to stem mainly from several broad trends in
education that affect classrooms and tutoring services:
1. The rising demand for online offerings by traditional and adult learners
The increased use of writing center services due to cross-curricular emphasis on writing and
communication skills
2.
The need to depend less on text and more on multimedia instruction for today's visually oriented
student
3.
Many face-to-face writing centers are experiencing significant challenges because of these changes and
perceive a pressing need to address them. One of the remarkable aspects of representing the EWC at
these conferences is the realization that our daily routine of helping online students with their writing is
considered revolutionary and even suspect by many whose experience includes only face-to-face
tutoring. Audience reaction can usually be counted on to range from those who understand that online
instruction will continue to grow in importance and gobble up copies of the presentation, to those who
are cautiously interested, to those who are genuinely threatened by what the EWC represents—the
digital future of writing centers.
The video presentation below, "UMUC's Effective Writing Center: Who We Are, What We Do, Why We
Do It," was shown at the International Writing Centers Association's March 2011 meeting in Atlanta, in
tandem with the annual Conference on College Composition & Communication. The video was designed
to offer something for everyone in the audience:
A heavy dose of "how-to" for those who want specific tools and strategies to help them get started
A clear recitation of facts that document the rapid, far-reaching changes occurring right now in higher
education for the fence sitters
A straightforward presentation of the empirical studies that guide our methods and document our
success for the skeptical
The video presentation itself is a model digital production that demonstrates how effective multimedia
can be. For several years, EWC advisers have provided DVDs that include presentations done with live
UMUC's Effective Writing Center: Who We Are, What We Do, Why We Do It - DE Oracle
actors and voiced-over audio, in addition to uploading a Flash video version to UMUC's server and to
YouTube. I am the live actor in the video below; the live action was shot in front of a green screen in
my home and then composited into the video. Several EWC advisers also use green screens and have
been digitally composited into some of the EWC productions (e.g., http://polaris.umuc.edu
/ewc/gl_intro/gl_intro.html (http://polaris.umuc.edu/ewc/gl_intro/gl_intro.html) and
http://polaris.umuc.edu/ewc/glwelcomes/kevin_web/kevin_web.html (http://polaris.umuc.edu
/ewc/glwelcomes/kevin_web/kevin_web.html) ). For more information on the theory, methods, and tools used
by the EWC in its digital creations, please see http://www.peakwriting.com/UMUC/onlineguide
/av_solution.html (http://www.peakwriting.com/UMUC/onlineguide/av_solution.html) .
Editor's Note: The video presentation below (transcript of video ) notes that "UMUC has recently
decided to focus its offerings on the hybrid and fully online models and as of Fall 2011 will offer only
these modes in 8-week sessions." The new 8-week session format applies only to courses within the
School of Undergraduate Studies. Graduate course offerings remain unchanged in their session length.
About the Author(s)
David Taylor's first job out of graduate school (Doctor of Arts--Writing) was as an assistant professor of rhetoric at Hampden-
Sydney College for men. After five years there, he landed at another small liberal arts school, Moravian College, where he
served as an associate professor of English and journalism.
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Then the magazine world called: Taylor served as a managing editor and then executive editor at Rodale Press, a publishing
company specializing in health and fitness titles. Combining education and professional editing, he also served as one of the
company's in-house editorial trainers.
Today, Taylor has returned to full-time teaching as a Senior Writing Advisor in UMUC's Effective Writing Center.
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An Online Learning Magazine for UMUC Faculty
Center for Support of Instruction
Transcript of UMUC's Effective Writing Center: Who We Are, What We
Do, Why We Do It Video
David Taylor
Senior Advisor EWC
School of Undergraduate Studies
Published: September-October 2011
Category: » University-showcase » Classes-programs
Hello everyone and welcome to this session on "Writing Center Best Practices" at the IWCA's 2011
Collarborative@CCCC.
My name is David Taylor, from the Effective Writing Center at the University of Maryland University
College, and it's a real honor to talk to you today about using digital technology to improve student
engagement in our online teaching. This presentation will focus on four areas:
1. who we are
2. what we did
3. why we did it
4. what the results have been
Who We Are
UMUC is one of the 11 degree-granting institutions in the University System of Maryland and is the
largest public university in the state with an enrollment of around 93,000 around the world, which
includes 21 countries and 130 military bases, some in forward areas of Afghanistan and Iraq.
UMUC has recently decided to focus its offerings on the hybrid and fully online models and as of Fall
2011 will offer only these modes in 8-week sessions.
As a writing center, the EWC is fully online, with live and asynchronous services. We serve about 7,000
students each semester in the database program. These students submit all or part of their writing to
our database, where the submission is assigned to an adviser who reviews it and responds to the
student in 24 to 48 hours.
In addition, our staff conducts about 160 writing workshops each semester in the online classrooms of
instructors who invite us in to help students with a specific writing assignment during a "guest lecture"
lasting 1 to 2 weeks.
Currently, a teleconferencing pilot program is underway, using the free Adobe Connect Now platform
for live, one-to-one tutoring.
The various programs are conducted by our 48 remote staff, full time and part time, from all across the
United States and some international locations, under the leadership of Dan Gallagher, our director,
who is based on the UMUC campus in Largo, Maryland.
What We Did
Since 2007 we have been engaged in a project to add multimedia support to all of our EWC programs:
database advising, guest lecturing, and live teleconferencing. To date we've developed over 100
multimedia learning objects that are available on the web at our public index page:
Transcript of UMUC's Effective Writing Center: Who We Are, What We Do, Why We Do It Video - DE Oracle
http://effectivewritingcenter.org/ (http://effectivewritingcenter.org/) . These objects are embedded in an
html page that also contains text instruction. Clicking on the multimedia element will activtivate the
lessons, which consist of:
Videos with voice overs
Videos with voice overs and interactive Flash quizzes
Captivate lessons with picture-in-picture learning agent and quizzing
Videos with learning agent composited into the lesson
Videos with 3D virtual sets
Downloadable PDFs with embedded multimedia
These multimedia objects are used in the database program by the advisers, who embed thumbnail
images hyperlinked to the objects. We also rely on these objects during our writing workshops, known
as "guest lectures" at UMUC, when a classroom professor asks us to guide a group of students through
the writing process for one project in that course. These videos are also available on a YouTube
channel (http://www.youtube.com/peakdavid) called peakdavid (http://www.youtube.com/peakdavid) , which is one
way of sharing these resources with students and teachers around the world.
Why We Did I
Why put so much time and resources into developing these resources? There are a number of reasons.
1. Because as educators we must evolve the way we teach in order to meet the needs of students we
teach today. This is a process of evolution that teachers have always been a part of, from the invention
of printed texts to chalkboards to wireless mobile devices. The core concepts and outcomes we teach
haven't changed that much, but the technology certainly has and will continue to do so.
The consequences of the changes we are adapting to --the digital revolution-- are not fully understood
yet. What we do know was expressed well in the New Media Consortium's 2005 publication, A Global
Imperative (http://www.nmc.org/pdf/Global_Imperative.pdf) : "A profound shift is taking place in the way
people communicate and express themselves . . . a new concept of language and what it means to be
literate is evolving."
2. Another reason: this stuff works. Students learn better, remember more and apply it more
successfully because of:
The Multimedia Effect--A term coined by Richard B. Mayer (http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/people/faculty
/mayer/publications/publications.php) more than 20 years ago to describe what all major empirical studies
have found: students learn better with images and words than they do with words alone, and even
better still with images, audio and words, than with words alone.
The Modality Effect--Verbal information is absorbed by the student better when it is spoken rather
than written. When the student can process information through multiple channels--visual, auditory
and kinesthetic--no one channel gets overloaded, as happens with purely textual material which can
quickly overload the visual channel. Html pages with nothing but text are today's worst offenders of the
modality effect.
The Personal Agent Effect--The sound of another human's voice, especially when combined with
images of that human, increase the level of interaction a student has with the materials, improving the
student's motivation, interest, comprehension and retention.
Presence and Copresence--Presence is the feeling of actually being there. Copresence is the feeling
of being there with someone. Both are enhanced with multimedia. Thus these materials help us address
the number one reason why many students avoid online classrooms--they want to be with someone.
3. We did it to catch up. Private industry training departments, which are actually specialized schools,
are 5 to 10 years ahead of education when it comes to the effective use of technology. With very few
exceptions, it is not possible to find a conference for teachers like those offered via private industry
Transcript of UMUC's Effective Writing Center: Who We Are, What We Do, Why We Do It Video - DE Oracle
where you can earn a two-day certificate in designing lessons for mobile devices or participate in a
workshop on simulation design. Yet we know that today's rising students prefer their WMDs over
computers and that the immersive reality of 3D simulations offer the strongest environment for
individual learning.
4. We did it and are doing it as fast as we can to keep up with the tidal wave of online enrollments at
colleges and universities, which were 12% higher than onground enrollments in 2007, 17% higher in
2008, and 21% higher in 2009, the last year for which we have numbers.
5. Finally, we did it because our own internal research shows--not surprisingly--an overwhelming
preference by students for multimedia materials over traditional text materials in the online classroom.
UMUC communications professor Wendy McDonough has just completed a university-sponsored study
of 100 UMUC students that showed this clear result.
Here is a sample of some of these UMUC students' comments on the use of multimedia materials in
their online classrooms:
Pretty neat. I've taken so many distance education (DE) classes, but this was the first time I ever heard
someone's voice!
In my experiences with online classes, this class had the best delivery of materials. I did not really feel that
I was missing out by not attending the normal face-to-face class.
This is the way an online class should be taught. My past experience with online classes is that the
instructor checks out and leaves everything to the student. This was not the case here. If UMUC wants to
improve their online classes, they could learn from [professor's name withheld].
So, there you have it: our effort to build a multimedia component in order to increase student
engagement in online learning. I hope this presentation has helped to clarify the decision we made,
why we made it, and what some of the results have been so far. The work and monitoring of its effect
are ongoing. If you're doing anything similar, we would love to hear about your experiences. If you
would like to know more about our program, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Until next year--best wishes in your writing center, whether online, face to face, or something
inbetween. So long.
About the Author(s)
David Taylor's first job out of graduate school (Doctor of Arts--Writing) was as an assistant professor of rhetoric at Hampden-
Sydney College for men. After five years there, he landed at another small liberal arts school, Moravian College, where he
served as an associate professor of English and journalism.
Then the magazine world called: Taylor served as a managing editor and then executive editor at Rodale Press, a publishing
company specializing in health and fitness titles. Combining education and professional editing, he also served as one of the
company's in-house editorial trainers.
Today, Taylor has returned to full-time teaching as a Senior Writing Advisor in UMUC's Effective Writing Center.
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Study of multimedia to enhance teaching, social, and cognitive presence in online courses
No full textAbstract:
• Community of Inquiry (CoI), characterized by three levels of presence: cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. Garrison et al.posit that this model is necessary for online courses where most communication is asynchronous.
• Drawing on prior research into the CoI model, we studied how faculty are integrating multimedia (audio, video, wikis, weblinks, etc.) technology into their online classes and the pedagogical rationale they provide for using multimedia in the online class.
• A total of 98 UMUC Communication and Writing instructors were surveyed. In addition, we interviewed several instructors and students and observed several online classes in which multimedia was used.
• We sought to measure faculty and student opinions on the effectiveness of the use multimedia technology, using the CoI model as the theoretical backdrop.
Specifically, we sought to understand if multimedia use in online classes affects instructor-to-student interaction (teaching presence); student to student and student-to-instructor interaction (social presence); and, student interaction with course content (cognitive presence).
• Results culled from the survey, faculty and student interviews, unsolicited student feedback, and class observations indicate both UMUC faculty and students believe the CoI model is reinforced in online classes where multimedia is used in addition to text-based communication.
• We also found faculty who adapt multimedia in the class have done so on their own accord. We conclude with recommendations for faculty multimedia support and future research.Wendy McDonough
University of Maryland University College
A study of multimedia to enhance teaching, social, and cognitive presence in online courses.Outline
•
Rationale for the study
•
Selection of Community of Inquiry (CoI) model
•
Definition of CoI model
•
Review of the literature
•
Methodology
•
Results
•
Conclusion / RecommendationsBest Practices Text-Based
•
Conferences
•
Virtual lounge
•
Ice breaking activities
•
Emoticons
•
Email
•
ChatSharing of Best Practices
•
Ah-ha moment!Online Courses
•
How do we facilitate learning?
•
How do we reach students?
•
How do we help students uncover new concepts?
•
How do we encourage students to interact with material?
•
How do we encourage faculty to students and student to student interaction in the online environment?My Journey
•
Asked colleagues
•
Took CTL Impatica and multimedia
•
Attended Summer InstituteTalked to Colleagues
•
Sought to understand
Who is using technology
Why and how is technology being used
What are the issues / barriers with technology use
Scalability
Legal
Support
How can we support champions of technology
How do we encourage others who want to use technologyCommunity of Inquiry
•
(an educational) Community of Inquiry (CoI), characterized by three interdependentlevels of presence:
Cognitive presence
Social presence
Teaching presence
•
Garrison, Anderson, & Archer posit that this model is necessary for online courses where most communication is asynchronous.Community of Inquiry Model
Figure 1 Community of Inquiry Model. Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000).Teaching Presence
•
Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer (2001) define teaching presence as, “the design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes.”
•
Researchers believe a strong teaching presence is necessarywhen the online medium is text-based.
•
During their case study, Ice, Curtis, Phillips, & Wells (2007) discovered that over 1/3 of surveyed students articulated that the use of audio feedback was a key motivatorfor enrolling in an online course.Social Presence
•
Social presence has been defined as “the ability of participants in the community of inquiry to project their personal characteristics into the community, thereby presenting themselves to the other participants as ‘real people’” (Garrison, Archer, & Arbaugh 2000).
•
Rourke, Anderson, Garrison, Archer (1999) explain that the capacity for expressing this type of social emotional communication may be decreasedin text-based communication due to the lack of voice intonations and body language.
•
Boston, Diaz, Gibson, Ice, Richardson, & Swan (2009) noted a heightened perception of social presence in media-rich courses. Cognitive Presence
•
Cognitive presence refers to the degree to which participants in any community of inquiry are able to construct meaningthrough sustained communication (Garrison et al.2000).
•
Cognitive presence is defined and assessed by four scaffolded phases:
triggering event
exploration
integration
resolution
•
Stodel, Thompson, & MacDonald (2006) suggest the use of audio and video technology in the online classroom may help further social presence and enhance overall student learning.Current Research CoI Model
•
Oomen-Early, Bold, Wiginton, Gallien & Anderson(2008) conclude that Web 2.0 will permit faculty to use various asynchronous audio communication (AAC) technologies to present material to students.
•
The researchers state further research is needed to “compare learning outcomes, student retention, and student satisfaction when audio versus text-based feedback is used.”
•
Trail & Hadley (2010) posit screencasting appears to be an effective tool for information literacy instruction in a distance-learning environment. Methodology
•
Faculty survey
508 sent 98 completed COMM WRTG
•
Faculty interviews
12 one-hour phone COMM WRTG
•
Student interviews
6 one-hour phone COMM WRTG
•
Unsolicited student feedback
9 faculty COMM WRTG
•
Class observations
5 archived COMM WRTGFaculty Survey (35 Qs)
Demographic
CoI
Teaching
Social
Cognitive
Type of technology
Purpose for technology
Barriers to technology use
Future interest in technology use
Open ended questions and comments about technology useTeaching Presence
•
The use of audio/video/multimedia technology in the classroom helps students to engage with their instructor.
67 % Agree
21 % Neither agree nor disagree
11 % DisagreeSocial Presence
•
The use of audio/video/multimedia technology in the classroom helps students to engage with other students in the classroom.
49 % Agree
34 % Neither agree or disagree
16 % DisagreeCognitive Presence
•
The use of audio/video/multimedia technology helps students to understand course content.
70 % Agree
22 % Neither agree nor disagree
8 % Disagree Multimedia Assists Learning
•
I believe audio/video technologies improve student learning.
65 % Agree
17 % Neither agree nor disagree
18 % Disagree Relevance
•
The use of audio/video technology is relevant for my classroom.
80 % Agree
12 % Neither agree nor disagree
8 % DisagreePedagogical Use of Technology
•
To narrate lectures or to elaborate on course content 72%
•
To provide feedback on students work 41%
•
To provide course announcements 41%
•
To facilitate group work and/or group discussion 34%
•
To answer student questions 28%
•
Other (quizzes and lectures) 20%
•
To hold office hours 17%
•
For testing and/or assessment 17%Types of Technology Used
•
Audio(Audacity, Jing, Narrated PowerPoint, Wimba Sound Tools, etc.)
•
Video(YouTube, Skype, Huddle, webcam, Flip, iPod, etc.)
•
Presentation materials (Wimba, PowerPoint, Keynote, Impress, etc.)
•
UMUC Effective Writing Center (EWC) multimedia resources
•
Othermultimedia resources (Weblinks, audio, video, etc.)Faculty Comments In Favor
•
“I have taken online classes, and appreciated hearing a mini-lecture and seeing the instructor during an introductory video.
•
When I teach [face-to-face] writing classes, I always include one-on-one conferences, where I can discuss papers with students, so being able to use Jing or something like it for this purpose would be useful.”Faculty Comments in Favor
•
“I think, deployed intelligently, and in a way that does not overwhelm or detract from the rest of the classroom experience or material, tech resources are invaluable ways of presenting material in alternate modalities, or in ways not possible with ‘traditional’ classroom resources.”Faculty Questions of Technology
•
“I strongly agree that more access to multimedia may help some students, such as students in the graduate programs.
•
However, in my own surveys, many of my students have indicated that they would rather use textbook materials rather than online materials.
•
I am a firm believer in instructional design and do not want to waste my time or my students' time. Weakly produced audiovisuals can be deadly. There must be time in the design and execution as well as outcomes.” Barriers to Technology Use
•
54 % stated they did perceive barriers to using multimedia technologies in their class.
•
29% stated they do not believe barriers exists.
•
17 % neither agreed nor disagreed
•
Respondents ranked barriers such as support, training, time, and student access or knowledge of technologies.Captured Comments
•
Problems or barriers to technology use
Time constraints to learn how to use technology
Technology issues such as server space, WebTycho, and Wimba
Specific campus issues (lack of technology for hybrids)Barriers to Faculty Technology Use
•
I do not have the time to learn how to use and integrate technology in my classroom.
53 % Agree
31 % Neither agree nor disagree
17 % Disagree
•
There are not enough training opportunities to learn how to use audio/video technologies in my classroom
32 % Agree
33 % Neither agree nor disagree
34 % DisagreeTechnology Support Barriers
•
Technical support is not available to help me when I have problems using audio/video technologies in my classroom.
28 % Agree
32 % Neither agree nor disagree
40 % Disagree
•
Students do not have access to audio/video technology support.
23 % Agree
39 % Neither agree nor disagree
37 % DisagreeIntegration / Access Barriers
•
There is a lack of integration and coordination of audio/video technologies with WebTycho.
43 % Agree
41 % Neither agree nor disagree
16 % Disagree
•
Students cannot access audio/video technologies, so there is little use in using them for my classroom.
19 % Agree
32 % Neither agree nor disagree
49 % DisagreeCopyright Issues
•
Copyright/intellectual property issues prevent me from using audio/video technologies in my classroom.
9 % interested in using audio
26 % interested in using video
64 % interested in using synchronous and asynchronous presentation materials Future Interest in Technology Use
•
Of all respondents
73% interested in using audio
66% interested in using video
56% interested in using synchronous and asynchronous presentation materials Future Training Ideas
•
Video and presentation software
•
Wikis
•
Online portfolios
•
Work organizers
•
Video/audio chats
•
Narrated PowerPoint
•
Mobile technologies (iPhone, Android)
•
Media sharing
•
Podcasting
•
Virtual worlds and simulationsFaculty Interviews
•
12 faculty (phone interviews)
•
All COMM and or WRTG faculty
•
1 hour w/ 18 specific questions
CoI
Types of technology
Specific technology use
Issues
Opinions / adviceFaculty Interviews
•
Technology use and type
•
Rationale for adapting technology use
Personal
Pedagogical
•
How using technology
Teaching
Social
Cognitive
•
Advice for future technology useTechnology Use
•
To narrate lectures or to elaborate on course content
•
To provide feedback on students work
•
To facilitate group work and/or group discussion
•
To provide course announcements
•
To answer student questions or to hold office hours
•
For testing and/or assessmentRationale for Adopting Technology
•
Personal Reasons
Inspiration from colleagues, students, and children
Experience using technology in the workplace
Desire to improve evaluation scores
Need to overcome physical issues
Desire to improve course managementRationale for Adopting Technology
•
Pedagogical Reasons
To further faculty or teaching presence
To further social presence or interaction
To facilitate cognitive interaction with the material
To replicate traditional face-to-face classroom teaching style Advice for Future Use of Multimedia
•
Additional server space
•
Strengthen WebTycho
•
Strengthen WimbaStudent Interviews
•
6 students (1 hour phone call)
•
$15 cards
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10 open ended questions
CoI
Types of technology
Specific technology use
Issues
Opinions / adviceStudents Assessment of CoI
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The technology encouraged you to interact with the instructor.
50 % Agree
50 % Disagree
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The technology encouraged you to interact with other classmates.
50 % Agree
50 % Disagree
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The technology encouraged you to interact with the course concepts.
100 % Agree
100 % DisagreeFaculty Use of Technology
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Adobe Connect to hold weekly meetings
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YouTube to provide lecture material, to show examples of speeches, to provide, step-by-step instructions for writing assignments, and to give directions for manipulating YouTube settings
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Mp3 clips to facilitate feedback on assignments
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Embedded weblinks to discuss course concepts
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Skype to answer student questions
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PowerPoint and Camtasia to provide lecture material. Student Use of Technology
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YouTube to research lecture material and to create individual and collaborative speech assignments.
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Weblinks to search for lecture material and to provide information to class conference discussions
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Skype to ask their instructor questions and to meet with classmates to discuss collaborative assignments
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Adobe Connect to meet with their classmates. Student Interviews
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Types of technology and use
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Teaching presence
“The Acrobat Connect sessions were used to answer general questions about the class. This was useful in the beginning of the class to determine what the professor was looking for from the students. Watching and listening to my professor made me feel connected to the class and made me know there was a real person teaching the class.” Student Interviews
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Cognitive presence
“Watching videos of speeches inspired me to want to give a great presentation to my class. I created a persuasive argument speech for class, and other students commented that my speech helped them write their speech.”
“When we posted in the conference about a video we watched, I wanted to talk to people in my class. The videos were compelling to watch. There was one where a young man talks about believing in yourself. It made me really think about believing in myself and my education. I had quite a few chats with other people in the class about the video.”Student Interviews
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Cognitive presence
“If I see a video on a topic and then can discuss that video with my classmates, I feel as though I am really interacting with my classmates. The real learning happens for me when there are conversations I can hear and material I can see.”Student Interviews
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Advice for future use
“If UMUC is looking for efficient ways to deliver material, there is no limit to what can be created using multimedia. Many of my classmates are in their mid 20s and 30s. They grew up with technology like cell phones and computers. We are digital natives. The more professors use technology in the class, the more personal the class becomes for the student.” Class Observations
* Video
* Audio
* Weblink
* Online Meetings
* Presentation
Instructor 1
Instructor 2
Instructor 3
Instructor 4
Instructor 5
Faculty use of multimedia in the online classroom. Cells are color-coded by degree of use: Green–consistent use (i.e., weekly); Yellow–some use (i.e., every other week); Red–inconsistent or irregular use (i.e., once a month or less); Gray–No use.Class Observations
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Video
Use of any video embedded or linked to the class. The video may have been produced by the instructor using YouTube, been captured by the instructor using Camtasia, or linked or embedded from an outside source, such as publisher materials or open source videos found on the web.
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Audio
Mp3 files created by the instructor (using Audacity, Wimba Voice Tools, etc.) or linked or embedded by the instructor from outside sources such as publisher material or open source audio clips found on the web. Audio does not contain any video.Class Observations
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Weblink
Include any link embedded in the class either created by the instructor (such as a blog, wiki, or website) and/or weblinks embedded or linked from an outside source, such as a student-created blog and or any open source weblink found on the web.
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Online Meeting
Synchronous or asynchronous meeting between the professor and students or students and students using technologies such as Adobe Connect, Skype, Breeze, Wimba, etc. Online meeting includes links to archived meetings. Online meeting includes audio, audio and video, and chat sessions.Class Observations
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Presentation Material
Embedded or linked materials created by the professor, such as a narrated PowerPoint presentation, narrated Microsoft Word presentations, Prezi presentations, etc.
Presentation material also refers to material linked or embedded produced by an outside source, such as a publisher, the EWC, or open outside source.Faculty Use of Technology
Provide orientation to the course
Hold ice-breaking community-building exercises,
Deliver class announcements
Provide lecture material
Provide feedback to students (assignments and comments
Hold office hours and synchronous class meeting time for question-and-answer sessions
Clarify assignments
Encourage student-to-student interaction and discussion of course material. Student Use of Technology
Post assignments such as speeches or blogs
Discuss course material such as weblinks
Provide feedback to one another such as videos. Conclusion
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The majority of survey participants and interviewees believe the use of multimedia in the online classroom :
improves faculty (teaching)presence
furthers student-to-faculty and student-to-student interaction (social presence)
and advances student engagement with key course concepts and material (cognitive presence). Conclusions
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All surveyed and interviewed faculty adopted multimedia use of their own accord whether the reason was personal or pedagogical in nature.
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All surveyed and interviewed faculty to further the CoI model. Technology is not being used for technology sake.Conclusion
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Faculty are using a variety of multimedia in countless ways in their online classes and the rationale for beginning multimedia use varies from
inspiration from colleagues
desire to improve faculty evaluations
need to mimic a face-to-face teaching method. Conclusion
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When a faculty uses a YouTube video to introduce a class, students can see and hear their instructor (teaching presence).
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If a faculty member creates group wikis and individual student blogs for classmates to review and comment, students are working with material and responding to classmates’ opinions and then sharing their responses to the work (social presence).
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When faculty embed multimedia links in the conferences to discuss key idea of the course students can view various multimedia links to engage with the material –enrich their understanding of concepts other than just reading about concepts (cognitive presence).Conclusion
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Faculty show a true desire to integrate multimedia in the classroom
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Those who are using multimedia in the classroom agree that the multimedia furthers teaching, social, and cognitive presence.
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Surveyed faculty who are not using multimedia in the classroom believe that the use of such technology helps students engage with faculty, classmates, and course material.Conclusion
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Faculty interviewed and surveyed pointed to CTL and the Summer Institute as well as inspiration from colleagues and students for beginning to use technology
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Faculty surveyed applaud the efforts of CTL and UMUC support for multimedia use.Recommendations
1.
Provide Communication Channels for Faculty Opportunities to Learn About Emerging Technologies
2.
Increase Multimedia Workshop Offerings
3.
Locate and Promote Champions of Technology
4.
Develop a List of UMUC Technical Experts
5.
Develop Multimedia Technology Repository (using CSI and CTL)Future Research
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Identify faculty who use multimedia
by soliciting volunteers in each of the undergraduate 999s and by reviewing the names of all faculty who have completed Wimba or other multimedia training classes through CTL.
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Review faculty evaluation questions to
observe trends of student-to-student and faculty-to-student interaction; gauge student comfort with technology
review the open ended questions to understand the strongest features of classes that offer multimedia.
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Seek ways to measure retention of students exposed to multimedia use in online coursesFurther Research
Evaluation Questions
7.The instructor stimulated my interest.
9.The instructor gave me helpful feedback on my assignments and projects.
10.The instructor was accessible to me.
11. The instructor demonstrated concern for my progress in the course.
17.Other course materials (not texts) were valuable in contributing to my overall understanding of course content.
18.Technology (such as CDs, slide shows, multi-media, streaming audio/video) was used effectively in this course.
20. This course helped me develop or improve my computer skills.
29. The structure/design of this course contributed to my overall learning.
30.This course encouraged student to student interaction.
31.This course enhanced faculty to student interaction.
32.I was able to use the technology effectively on my own.
37. What are the strongest features of this course?Author Thanks
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I would like to thank the UMUC Provost Office and the selection committee headed by Dr. Jay Liebowitz for providing an opportunity to research multimedia use in online education. I also offer thanks to Husein Abdul-Hamid who was instrumental in helping me shape my research. I would lik