VTechWorks staff will be away for the winter holidays starting Tuesday, December 24, 2024, through Wednesday, January 1, 2025, and will not be replying to requests during this time. Thank you for your patience, and happy holidays!

Browsing by Author "Rodriguez, Mary"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Gender and Problem Solving: Implications for Leadership in Higher Education
    Bush, Sarah; Seibel, Megan M.; Niewoehner-Green, Jera; Rodriguez, Mary (Association of Leadership Educators, 2021-06-30)
    Leading and managing change through complex problem solving is an integral part of higher education. Yet, appropriately assessing and understanding one another through this work is difficult. Kirton’s Adaption-Innovation (A-I) theory explains problem-solving preferences; namely how people generate ideas, perceive and engage with structures in order to implement ideas, and respond to rules and group norms differently. While there is a dearth of literature related specifically to gender and problem-solving style preference, the environment assuredly influences behavior. Gendered expectations may warrant a behavioral response that is the result of coping to fit, rather than an exhibition of true preference. It is conjectured that genderinfluenced workforce behavior, if at a gap from preferred method of implementing change, can result in poor person-organization (P-O) fit and may adversely impact the success and retention of women in higher education. In this round table, we will explore how problem-solving style impacts the perceptions of women and how those perceptions impact their experiences in higher education. Understanding differences in preferred problem-solving styles can lead to an environment where problem-solving diversity is appreciated (Kirton, 2011). Further, as leadership educators, we can better understand methods for providing training and workshops that fully embrace preferred problem-solving styles and cognitive diversity in breaking down barriers of women’s success in higher education.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Perceived Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Across the US Agriculture Industry: From the Lived Experiences of Gay Men
    Granche, Michael C.; Friedel, Curtis R.; Knowlton, Katharine F.; Rodriguez, Mary (Virginia Tech, 2021-09-12)
    According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, approximately 22 million people work in the agriculture industry and in 2018, this figure represented roughly 11% of the total American workforce. Of these 22 million people, it is indisputable that some unknown percentage of them are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Asexual+ people. With an exponentially growing population, now more so than ever before, the importance of a robust and socially sustainable workforce responsible for the food we eat is undeniable. In order for the agriculture industry to excel today while meeting the demands of tomorrow, it will require the best talent available and will require all agriculturalists to work collaboratively together. This phenomenological study tells the career stories thus far of ten white, gay, cisgender male agriculturalists. A keystone of Social Identity Theory is that the entire world around us can be divided into two groups, groups that we belong to and groups that we do not. By utilizing Social Identity Theory, we can see that gay men who work in agriculture have not always felt a part of the ingroup, and by default have been placed in the excluded outgroup, or the “them”. Social Identity Theory tells us that our group membership greatly impacts not only our pride, but our self-esteem (McLeod, 2019) which both can impact long-term talent retention and turnover rates for employers. The objective of this study was to explore the perceived levels of diversity, equity, and inclusion from the perspective of gay males who work within the industry through semi-structured interviews. This research concludes that the agriculture industry is not found to be diverse or inclusive based on the lived experiences of study participants. Additionally, this study offers recommendations for those in leadership roles within the industry to help create a more equitable environment for all agriculturalists.