Date of Award
5-3-2013
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Educational Leadership, Ed.D.
First Advisor
David Cox
Committee Members
Ahlam Lee; Amany Saleh; Clint Relyea; Les Wyatt
Abstract
The landscape of higher education in the United States shifts and moves in response to environmental challenges often hard to predict or measure. A joint taskforce of the American College Personnel Association and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators taskforce expressed the concern that no other time in history has the incentive for real change been more powerful or the consequences for not changing more significant. How institutions, particularly Divisions of Student Affairs assess and respond to these changes has far reaching effects. Student affairs professionals must possess the skill set necessary to effectively assess the challenges facing their units and to manage the changes necessary to respond to the challenges while meeting the goals and objectives of their units and the mission of the institution. Adaptive leadership, as advocated by Heifetz and Linksy (2002), provides the framework needed to assess each challenge, determine the nature of the challenge, and frame a response. For individual leaders to successfully practice adaptive leadership, the organization as a whole must value and support adaptive practice. A tool to help student affairs practitioners to assess the adaptability of their organizations is needed. Researchers designed an original instrument based on the five constructs of Adaptive Cultures (Heifetz, Grashow & Linsky, 2009): Elephants Are Named, Independent Judgment Is Exercised, Leadership Is Developed, Reflection and Learning Are Encouraged, and Responsibility Is Shared. The Adaptive Culture Profile Scale (ACPS) was reviewed by an expert panel from Cambridge Leadership Associates and validated through administration to over 800 student affairs professionals. The final ACPS, using a six-point Likert scale, measures the adaptability of two important aspects of those who define the organization culture: the boss and the team. The instrument can be used to assess what specific characteristics of an adaptive culture are not developed and need work, as well as, those aspects of the boss and team that are working adaptively. Leaders will be able to use the ACPS to address those areas that are not adaptive and define the changes necessary for the culture to become more adaptive.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Fowler, Tammy Lynne, "Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure an Adaptive Culture Profile Using Student Affairs Divisions in Higher Education" (2013). Student Theses and Dissertations. 789.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/789
