Scholarship, Practice, and Leadership

Scholarship, Practice, and Leadership
COM/705 Version 7 / 1

University of Phoenix Material

Scholarship, Practice, and Leadership

Note: COM/705 lectures are provided by the University of Phoenix for use in COM/705. The author is the University of Phoenix, not the course facilitator. Although APA formatting has been applied to some portions of the lectures, the primary purpose of these documents is personal communication, not publication. Therefore, the lectures should not be viewed as a model of APA style or tone. If you wish to cite the lectures in your coursework, please indicate the University of Phoenix as the author, and follow APA citation and referencing guidelines.

Welcome to the University of Phoenix online and to COM/705! I am sure you are excited to begin your educational journey. In this 3-week course, you will learn about the University of Phoenix’s adult learning model. You will also learn critical skills necessary for success in the program. As you probably know, COM/705 is the first course in all School of Advanced Studies doctoral programs and is a required course for all incoming doctoral students. This course occupies a privileged place in your curriculum because it will set the stage and prepare you for success in future online classes. Although COM/705 is 5 weeks shorter than all other online classes in the program, the course retains the same newsgroup structure and mix of individual and Learning Team assignments you will encounter in future online classes. Because you recently completed the Doctoral Success Orientation (DSO), you have already gained valuable experience and practice in participating in online newsgroups and dialoging with peers.

Scholarship, Practice, and Leadership

As students of leadership, you will study the challenges leaders face in managing complex individual and group dynamics. Leaders today must shape organizational culture, communicate value systems, model ethical behavior, engage and inspire followers, and manage diversity. To achieve these tasks effectively, leaders must be able to integrate scholarship and practice. Integrating scholarship and practice means that leaders must obtain theoretical understanding of core leadership principles through scholarly research and study. Integrating scholarship and practice also means that leaders must be able to convert their theoretical understanding into daily, observable leadership behaviors and practices. Leaders who can integrate scholarship and practice are typically effective in both personal and professional arenas. Leaders who can integrate scholarship and practice are also able to lead organizations during difficult and challenging times. There is a difference between being a scholar and a practitioner. According to Winter and Griffiths (2000), a scholar possesses reliable and impartial theoretical knowledge. Scholars obtain this knowledge by studying theory and conducting research. Practitioners, conversely, possess application-based knowledge specifically geared toward the workplace. As University of Phoenix doctoral students, you will have the opportunity to obtain, enact, and create both scholar and practitioner knowledge.

Information Literacy

As students in the 21st century, you are fortunate to have access to a variety of information sources. You will begin using these sources when you write your Week 1 paper. You will have the opportunity to continue to access and integrate sources throughout this class and throughout the program. The problem you may encounter is knowing where and how to locate the information required to complete an assignment. As doctoral students, you will be expected to retrieve and analyze information obtained from the University of Phoenix online library, as well as other sources. You will also be expected to evaluate and analyze the content of the information critically and determine if it is appropriate for framing your dialogue and supporting your opinions and ideas. You must be able to apply information effectively to a particular dialogue, decision, or issue and explain how the information validates your position. In essence, you must demonstrate information literacy. According to Scott and O'Sullivan (2005), information literacy is a critical competency for lifelong, collaborative learning. Information literacy spans across all disciplines and all educational levels. Information literacy increases content mastery and enables doctoral students to expand their inquiry, increase independence, and accept responsibility for their own learning. Information literate individuals perform the following tasks:

Know the type of information needed to complete a task or assignment
Retrieve information effectively and efficiently
Evaluate information and sources critically
Integrate select information into their knowledge base
Use information ethically, morally, and legally

Technology has increased individuals’ access to information. Although technology makes information readily available, researching and retrieving information are learned skills that develop over time and improve with practice. Students have a variety of options for retrieving information to formulate scholarly thought. One option is to search an information database such as those found in the University of Phoenix library or to use an Internet search engine. Another alternative is to conduct primary research with scholar/practitioners in the field. As you progress in this class and in your doctoral studies, you will have numerous opportunities to seek, evaluate, and manage information to support, validate, and generalize your ideas and to apply these ideas to the practice of leadership.

Leadership Practice

In his highly publicized book, Good to Great, Jim Collins (2001) portrayed a Level 5 leader as an individual who displays a balance between humility and will. Level 5 leaders are self-aware individuals who are able to conduct honest, rigorous, and candid self appraisal. They articulate their strengths and weaknesses and are able to integrate feedback from others and from the research they conduct. Level 5 leaders know how to integrate theory and practice; they have scholarly knowledge of leadership theory and can translate that theory into effective leadership behavior. Level 5 leaders transform theory into practice through their ability to create organizational disciple three arenas: disciplined employees, disciplined thinking, and disciplined behaviors and actions. When organizations display discipline, leaders do not have to maintain a strict chain of command. When organizational members demonstrate disciplined thinking, leaders do not have to impose bureaucracy. When organizations display disciplined behaviors and actions, leaders do not have to exercise unnecessary control.

One critically important characteristic of Level 5 leaders is that they display internal consistency. In statistics, internal consistency means that test items measure the same idea or concept. For leaders, internal consistency means that leaders’ actions and behaviors are consistent with or match their communication and intentions. For example, it is inconsistent to say you are a participative leader if you micromanage people. It is inconsistent to say you are a servant leader (Greenleaf, 1977) yet display egocentric, individualistic behavior. As doctoral students, it is important to be able to convert the scholarship gained through online study and coursework into internally consistent leadership practice. It is only with this level of consistency and emotional maturity that leaders will gain trust and commitment from followers.

Determining Your Strategic Fit

As doctoral students and students of leadership, your challenge now is to assess yourself and determine your strategic fit. Determining your strategic fit means using critical thinking to evaluate how you will maintain a balance between your scholarly and practitioner experience. You must determine if you possess the 21st century competencies needed to lead organizations, how you will acquire the competencies you lack, and ways to add your own findings to the extant understanding of organizations and leadership. You must determine how you will balance the scholar/practitioner relationship – that is, how you will translate the theoretical knowledge you gain in each class into observable, leadership actions and behaviors. You must strive for internal consistency by having the courage to analyze critically, using available literature and data, your behaviors and actions to ensure that they match your words. If you notice inconsistencies, do not proceed with actions that do not successfully pass your assessment and mirror your desired state.

References

Collins, J. (2001). Good to great – Why some companies make the leap . . . and others don’t. New York: Harper Business.

Greenleaf, R. (1977). Servant leadership. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press.

Scott, T., & O'Sullivan, M. (2005). Analyzing student search strategies: Making a case for integrating information literacy skills into the curriculum. Teacher Librarian, 33, 21-25.

Winter, R., & Griffiths, M. (2000) The academic qualities of practice: What are the criteria for a practice-based PhD?Studies in Higher Education25, 1-13.