Browsing by Author "Cletzer, D. Adam"
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- Advancing Adaptive Leadership Through Adaption-Innovation Theory: Enhancements to the Holding EnvironmentSeibel, Megan M.; Kaufman, Eric K.; Cletzer, D. Adam; Elliott-Engel, Jeremy (Wiley, 2023)While adaptive leadership is a useful framework for leadership practitioners, there is limited empirical research supporting its conceptual tools and tactics. Kirton’s adaption-innovation (A-I) theory contends individuals have innate problem-solving style preferences for more or less structure. In this conceptual paper, we examine the theoretical underpinnings of adaptive leadership and A-I theory within the context of complex problem solving. We connect A-I theory to concepts from adaptive leadership to connect a more rigorous and empirically supported theory to a popular practice. We go further to explore how a leaders’ A-I style informs a leader's maintenance of an adaptive leadership holding environment (HE), particularly with regard to facilitating a productive zone of disequilibrium (PZD).
- Agricultural Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Three-step Approach to AET Institution BuildingCletzer, D. Adam; Rudd, Rick D.; Westfall-Rudd, Donna M.; Drape, Tiffany A. (Macrothink Institute, 2016)Educational institution building for agricultural education and training (AET) in sub-Saharan African has struggled, leading to many false starts and only islands of success. This review examines relevant literature related to carrying out AET in developing countries, the historical successes or challenges of developing AET institutions, and the need for establishing AET institutions. Numerous factors hampering the development of AET emerged, including: shrinking national budgets, reverse return, donor congestion, fixation on a linear model of science, and political instability. Recommendations for building AET institutions in SSA are presented using Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation Theory as a framework, and include: (a) develop strategic relationships for political support of agriculture, (b) creating a more flexible framework for structuring institutions of higher learning, and (c) utilizing the SAFE model to reform curriculum to meet today’s learners’ needs.
- Early Career Extension Professional Development Needs Assessment ReportVines, Karen A.; Cletzer, D. Adam; Westfall-Rudd, Donna M.; Hunnings, Joseph; Sumner, Mark W.; Vines, Neal T.; Johnson, Lonnie; Lambur, Michael (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2021-09-30)Virginia Cooperative Extension hired 100 new agents from 2011 to 2014. This study was initiated to determine professional development needs for these early career agents, many of whom were also members of the millennial generation. The hope was that by developing professional development programs to specifically meet the needs of these new agents we would contribute to their career longevity and success. The study consisted of a series of focus groups in which a representative sample of agents hired in the past three years provided information. What has evolved is a series of recommendations to support career longevity in a collaborative environment, taking into consideration the work-life integration and professional development needs of Extension professionals within Virginia Cooperative Extension. This document is a modified version of the original report provided to the VCE Leadership team in January 2016 and contains a summary of findings and recommendations of the study. A follow-up article (Vines et al., 2018) published by the team highlights some of the changes that were observed in the years immediately following the study.
- Eco-Leadership Among County 4-H Organizations: Relationship to Programmatic Success and Best Practices for Eco-LeadersKaufman, Eric K.; Cletzer, D. Adam (Journal of Leadership Education, 2020-10-01)Our understanding of leaders and the role they play in organizations and society is changing, which has important implications for leadership education. At the turn of the century, society began to move from a mechanistic understanding of leadership to a more ecological one. The latter, ecological approach to leadership is characterized by collective decision-making, collaboration, shared leadership, and grassroots organization. While leadership educators have acknowledged this shift, more case examples are needed to illuminate practical implications for leadership. This study of county 4-H associations uses an explanatory sequential mixed methods design to explore the relationship between three factors: (a) subjects’ levels of hierarchical and systemic thinking; (b) how their associations engage in leadership and organizational learning; and (c) programmatic success. While no direct relationship emerged between programmatic success and subjects’ levels of hierarchical and systemic thinking, mixed methods results revealed several distinctions between high and low scoring programs’ approaches to leadership. These distinctions support an ecological approach to leadership, which in turn impacts modern approaches to leadership education.
- Eco-Leadership Among County 4-H Programs: Relationship to Success and Best Practices for OrganizationsKaufman, Eric K.; Cletzer, D. Adam (International Leadership Association, 2018-10-25)At the turn of the century, society began to move from a more mechanistic understanding of leadership to a more ecological one. The ecological approach to leadership is characterized by collective decision-making, collaboration, shared leadership, and grassroots organization. This study used an explanatory, sequential, mixed methods design to explore the nature of the relationship between how 4-H associations engage in leadership and organizational learning and programmatic success.
- Eco-Leadership, Complexity Science, and 21st Century Organizations: A Theoretical and Empirical AnalysisCletzer, D. Adam; Kaufman, Eric K. (Routledge, 2018-01-19)Throughout the 20th century, the traditional approach to leadership was based on “machine metaphors and machine-like assumptions” (Allen et al, 1999, p. 67; Rost, 1997). Leadership was seen as derived from position, vested in an individual, top-down in nature, and “driven by power for the purpose of control” (Allen et al., 1999, p. 67). The leader and his or her actions were viewed as “more critical than those of any other member of the group” (Wielkiewicz, 2000, p. 335). Those individuals within an organization who were “most competent and loyal” were appointed to leadership positions and assumed responsibility for the organization’s overall success; they provided vision for the organization and direction to followers (Chemers, 1997, p. 11). The focus of leadership studies, then, became to make these individuals better leaders, and, indeed, “much of empirical research on leadership focuses on predicting outcomes that reside at the individual level of analysis” (DeChurch et al., 2010, p. 1069).
- Innovative Classroom Strategies that Prepare College Graduates for Workplace SuccessRateau, Richard J.; Kaufman, Eric K.; Cletzer, D. Adam (The American Association for Agricultural Education, 2015-09-30)In our increasingly competitive and rapidly changing world, it is critical that college graduates enter the workforce with the requisite skills for lasting success. However, recent studies suggest employers increasingly identify a workforce readiness gap in core applied skills, which must be bridged by company investment. Teaching strategies that develop applied skills will better prepare graduates for the workforce. The purpose of this study was to describe the classroom strategies of faculty instructors at Virginia Tech who received recognition for teaching excellence. Each participant took part in a semi-structured interview. After analysis, several themes emerged: (a) demonstration of enthusiasm for student learning; (b) willingness to experiment actively with new ideas for practice; (c) approaching teaching with a guiding mentality rather than directing; (d) fostering student ownership of learning; (e) keeping abreast of new developments and practices; and (f) investing the time and resources to overcome barriers to change. These themes signal an underlying trend: Instructors should focus on helping students become life-long learners by teaching how to prioritize and assess information, work in groups, solve problems, and understand divergent perspectives.
- Leadership Discourses: Exploring Students’ Definitions of LeadershipKaufman, Eric K.; Alegbeleye, Ibukun Dami; Cletzer, D. Adam (Association of Leadership Educators, 2018-07-10)Ever wonder how our emerging leaders frame and think about leadership? That insight could help us understand the future of leadership while revealing key priorities for leadership education, development, and research. This workshop will uncover the leadership discourses among college students through the collective wisdom of the workshop participants. The facilitators will engage the leadership educators and scholars in the room in a collaborative card-sort process of college students’ definitions of leadership, as captured through the Multi-institutional Study of Leadership (MSL). Options for closed sort categories will be based on prior research, but open sorting will also be encouraged.
- Leadership Discourses: What We Can Learn From Students’ Definitions of LeadershipKaufman, Eric K.; Cletzer, D. Adam; Alegbeleye, Ibukun Dami (2018-10-27)Ever wonder how our emerging leaders frame and think about leadership? That insight could help us understand the future of leadership, while revealing key priorities for leadership education, development, and research. This workshop will uncover the leadership discourses among college students through the collective wisdom of the workshop participants. The facilitators will engage the leadership educators and scholars in the room in a collaborative card-sort process of college students’ definitions of leadership, as captured through the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership. Options for closed sort categories will be based on prior research, but open sorting will also be encouraged.
- Leadership Programs, Discourses, and Participants’ True Sense of SelfKaufman, Eric K.; Seibel, Megan M.; Cletzer, D. Adam (Association of Leadership Educators, 2016-07-11)As the challenges communities and organizations face become increasingly complex and interconnected, leadership has continued to evolve to meet these new needs. This applied research study investigated the norms and assumptions about leadership held by participants in an adult leadership development program. This study also highlights participants’ perceptions of the program’s impact on their own norms and assumptions about leadership. Based on the Western Indicator of Leadership Discourses, participants reported a near-even preference for eco-leader and therapist discourses. A preference for eco-leadership was highly correlated with introversion, while a messiah leadership was highly correlated with extroversion. Participants also placed a high value on relationships with followers, promoting collaborative environments, promoting committed followers, and not relying on positional leaders for answers.
- Surfacing the Iceberg of Leadership: A New Taxonomy of Leadership Concepts and TheoriesKaufman, Eric K.; Cletzer, D. Adam (Association of Leadership Educators, 2017-07-09)Leadership scholars have long sought to impose order on the numerous theories in leadership literature. While mid-level theories abound, no taxonomy exists to provide hierarchy and a mechanism for explaining how theories interrelate. This poster offers a new taxonomy for organizing leadership theories and concepts based on the metaphor of an iceberg. It invites leadership scholars to vet their own leadership courses and undergraduate leadership programs to determine the depth to which they explore leadership.
- Team-Focused Leadership Education: How Emerging Insights Inform Our PracticeKaufman, Eric K.; Alegbeleye, I. Dami; Cletzer, D. Adam; Gokhman, Ilya; Greenhaw, Laura (Association of Leadership Educators, 2022-06-27)The demand for high-quality team leadership education continues to increase. While many post-secondary leadership education programs have incorporated teamwork skills into their curriculum, there has been limited awareness of how team-focused leadership courses are being updated and adapted in response to emerging research and insights on team effectiveness. This panel session explores team-focused leadership education at multiple institutions and examines teamwork pedagogy in light of recent scholarship on best practices. Specifically, panelists will discuss the root causes of the persisting teamwork skills gap among college graduates, the benefits and pitfalls of utilizing team-based pedagogy, and course content changes from emerging theories, such as followership and shared leadership.
- Understanding the Nature of Eco‐Leadership: A Mixed Methods Study of Leadership in Community OrganizationsKaufman, Eric K.; Kennedy, Rachael E.; Cletzer, D. Adam (Wiley, 2019-08)The purpose of this study was to explore and explain eco-leadership in practice, specifically among community groups in Virginia’s New River Valley. This paper describes relationships between community groups’ leadership style and other factors while also highlighting an intricate mixed method design that ultimately led to a deep, rich understanding of these relationships. There were five research objectives: (1) Characterize the community groups’ leadership culture; (2) Assess each group’s cohesiveness; (3) Assess the groups’ community project involvement; (4) Determine if relationships exist between the variables; and (5) Highlight the role of mixed methods in the emergence of findings. The study has implications for carrying forward the concept of eco-leadership in research and practice.
- When is courageous leadership invisible? Why that could be a good thingBurbaugh, Bradley; Kaufman, Eric K.; Cletzer, D. Adam (2014-11-03)Drawing from the leadership literature and highlights of Virginia Tech Division of Student Affairs (VTDSA) Courageous Leadership Award recipients, we will frame and advance the invisible aspects of courageous leadership. The emphasis is on three desired learning outcomes: (1) understand how courageous leadership can be invisible; (2) articulate practical applications of invisible leadership; and (3) discuss opportunities for applying invisible leadership. The practical implications are in the key components of invisible leadership: (1) a compelling and deeply held common purpose, (2) readiness to use individual strengths in leader or follower roles, and (3) strong shared bonds among individuals.
- When Leadership Terminology Collides: A Spirited Comparison of Adaption-Innovation Theory and Adaptive LeadershipCletzer, D. Adam; Seibel, Megan M.; Kaufman, Eric K.; Friedel, Curtis R.; Elliott-Engel, Jeremy (Association of Leadership Educators, 2021-06-28)As researchers, scholars, and practitioners, leadership educators apply an intellectual inquiry process, identifying what is known and understood, and what is not. Often, this requires seeking clarity around terms and considering how similarities might be contextualized differently between theory and practice. Exemplified through research and teaching, both Adaption-Innovation (A-I) Theory and Adaptive Leadership share similar vocabularies surrounding the concept of adaption. Both are concerned with how individuals and groups solve varying types of problems and navigate change, but one emphasizes individual differences in cognitive style while the other prescribes a series of leader/group processes. This moderated panel affords opportunity for a deep dive into the nuanced overlap of terminology with the premise that leadership educators often teach and model theoretically sound concepts in practice-based contexts. An examined comparison of A-I theory to Adaptive Leadership may illuminate this valuable example of connecting rigorous, empirically supported theory and pragmatic practice.