Contextual Leadership: The Social Construction of Leadership in a Comprehensive Healthcare System
Institution: | Antioch University |
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Department: | Leadership and Change |
Degree: | PhD |
Year: | 2009 |
Keywords: | Business Community; Health Care; Management; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior; Social Psychology; leadership; leader attribution; social cognition; grounded theory; situational analysis; health-care; contextual model; social construction, organizational culture; social process; healthcare; isomorphism |
Record ID: | 1854436 |
Full text PDF: | http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1247843733 |
Healthcare is a complex and dynamic environment containing a plurality of social forces and perspectives that shape the organizational culture and the nature of the leadership. As leadership is a social phenomenon, it is important to understand the complex social processes that mediate our perceptions and that in turn influence processes of leader attribution. The central purpose of this study has been to illuminate the nature of culturally specific processes that emerge within a specific organizational setting and that fuel leader attribution and the social construction of leadership. Accordingly, this qualitative study has developed a Grounded Theory utilizing Situational Analysis to study leadership in a comprehensive healthcare organization. The electronic version of this dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd.