Using Interpretive Frameworks to Teach Leadership

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Using Interpretive Frameworks to Teach Leadership
International Leadership Association Conference
2006Friday, 3 November 2006, 915 1015 am
PresentersEileen Eckhart-Strauch and Jim
Wolford-Ulrich, Ph.D.School of Leadership
Professional AdvancementDuquesne University
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About Duquesne University

• Founded 1878 by Spiritan order of priests
• Private (Catholic) coeducational
• Distinctives of the Spiritan charism
• outreach, education, inclusivity
• Over 10,000 students in 10 Schools
• 57 undergraduate / 43 graduate
• School of Leadership Professional Advancement
  (SLPA) founded in 1983
• Total current enrollment 1,011 students
• Offers 2 bachelors degrees and 5 masters degrees
• We serve God by serving students"

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SLPA Graduate Programs

• Awards 5 graduate degrees in leadership
• MA in Leadership Liberal Studies
• MS in Leadership Business Ethics
• MS in Leadership IT
• MS in Sports Leadership
• MS in Community Leadership
• Serves students in these formats
• Pittsburgh Harrisburg 183 students
• Online 335 students
• MLLS 717 is required for all 5 degree programs

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MLLS 717 Course History

• Leading People and
• Managing Relationships
• Designed by faculty team January-April, 2005
• Offered every semester since Summer 2005
• MLLS 717 enrollments
• 158 students in 11 face-to-face sections
• 244 students in 18 online sections
• 10 faculty hold regular conference calls to
  review and exchange instructional practice and
  make curricular adjustments

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Course Objectives

• Integrate current theoretical and practical
  perspectives on leadership with your own practice
  of leading people and managing relationships.
• Demonstrate effective use of self as an
  instrument of change.
• Utilize interpretive frameworks when exercising
  organizational leadership.  
• Design strategies for realizing change in self
  and others through conscious intervention and
  personal influence.

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Key Assignments

• Learning Style Inventory
• Leadership Strengths
• My Best Self Reflection
• Political Savvy Style
• Feedback Me At My Best / Reflection
• Vignette(s) / Mini-Case(s)
• Be the Change / My Best Self Speech
• Leadership Development Plan

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What Are Interpretive Frameworks?

• Framework
• a structure designed to support or hold something
  together
• Interpretation
• explaining or giving meaning to something
• A leadership interpretative framework is a
  structure, built around an idea or a set of
  related concepts or principles, that provides a
  particular focus for explaining or giving meaning
  to the act of leading.

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Leaders and Sense Making

• Sense-making is what leaders do (Weick)
• Focus on cues in the environment
• Use frameworks to construct meaning, to explain,
  and to deal with surprise
• Interact to produce mutual understanding
• Recognize patterns of experience
• Explore the plausibility of possible
  interpretations
• They make sense of reality
• Retrospectively and prospectively
• In collaboration with others
• On an ongoing basis

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Framing A Leader Skill

• Organizational Frames Examples
• Bolman Deal Four Framework Approach

• Structural
• Human Resource

• Political
• Symbolic

• Fairhurst Sarr Ways of Framing Situations

• Metaphor
• Stories
• Traditions
• Slogans

• Artifacts
• Contrast
• Spin

Bolman Deal, 1991 Fairhurst Sarr, 1996.
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Implicit Interpretive Frameworks

• Other Examples
• Situational Leadership
• Four leadership styles
• Directing, Coaching, Delegating, Supporting
• Leader must interpret team behaviors to assess
  levels of competence commitment
• Servant Leadership
• Leader interprets what followers need
• Kelleys Followership Model
• Sheep, yes people, alienated, effective
• Leader interprets participation critical
  thinking

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Vignette Materials Developed

• Teaching notes
• Sample vignette
• Vignette response rubric
• Response to sample (with feedback)
• Vignette A Leading Up
• Vignettes B1 and B2 Leading Out
• Sample student responses with instructor feedback

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Feedback from Students

• Life is a series of leadership vignettes. It's
  very useful. Not everything is a huge term paper,
  or a major event. Big progress is often made in a
  series of small ways.
• They are great examples to make you think about
  how you would handle a situation while still in a
  controlled environment.
• It paints the picture of what we are
  discussing.
• The challenges described in my vignette are
  typical of those I face on a regular basis.
• When asked in a post-course survey if
  vignettes should be kept as part of the course,
  79 of respondents indicated Yes.

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Faculty Perceptions

• Vignettes permit me to develop case study
  examples specific to the needs and interests of
  the students.
• Vignettes are a great alternative to standard
  testing, as they allow me to better assess the
  progress that each student has made.
• Students appreciated the opportunity to put into
  practice theories we have covered in the course
• Students indicated the vignettes helped them to
  pull everything together in the course.

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Lessons Learned

• Embed interpretive frameworks in the rubric, and
  tie the rubric to course objectives.
• Give multiple examples of what is desired
  explain the rubric (and frameworks) carefully.
• Encourage students to
• View leadership as authorship they are
  designing a solution that fits their strengths
  style.
• Integrate frameworks into their leadership
  practice.
• Vignettes can be useful in helping online
  students make effective application of leadership
  concepts, models and theories.

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• Discussion

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Key Course Texts

• Clifton, D., Buckingham, M. (2001). Now
  discover your strengths. New York Free Press.
• DeLuca, J. R. (1999). Political savvy Systematic
  approaches to leadership behind the scenes.
  Berwyn, PA Evergreen Business Group.
• Goleman, D., McKee, A., Boyatzis, R. E. (2002).
  Primal leadership Realizing the power of
  emotional intelligence. Boston Harvard Business
  School Press.
• Hammond, S. A. (1998). The thin book of
  appreciative inquiry (2nd ed.). Plano, TX Thin
  Book.
• Jackman, J. M., Strober, M. H. (2003). Fear of
  feedback. Harvard Business Review, 81(4),
  101-107.
• Koestenbaum, P. (1991). The leadership diamond
  Four strategies for greatness. In Leadership The
  inner side of greatness (pp. 83-104). San
  Francisco Jossey-Bass.

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Presentation References

• Bolman, L. G., Deal, T. E. (1991). Reframing
  organizations. San Francisco Jossey-Bass.
• Burrell, G., Morgan, G. (1979). Sociological
  paradigms and organizational analysis. London
  Heineman.
• Fairhurst, G. T., Sarr, R. A. (1996). The art
  of framing Managing the language of leadership.
  San Francisco Jossey-Bass.
• Kish, M. H. Z. (2004). Using vignettes to develop
  higher order thinking and academic achievement in
  adult learners in an online environment.
  (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University,
  2004). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. (AAT
  3145405)
• Smircich, L., Morgan, G. (1982). Leadership
  The management of meaning. Journal of Applied
  Behavioral Science, 18(3), 257-273.
• Weick, K. E. (1995). Sensemaking in
  organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA Sage.

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Additional Information

• Handouts and vignette materials package may be
  downloaded from
• http//www.inflectionpoints.com/ILA
• Presenter Contact Information
• Eileen Eckhart-Strauch
• Phone [phone]
• E-mail eckhartstrauche_at_duq.edu
• Jim Wolford-Ulrich, Ph.D.
• Phone [phone]
• E-mail ulrich_at_duq.edu

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Using Interpretive Frameworks to Teach Leadership