AbstractsPsychology

Contextual Leadership: The Social Construction of Leadership in a Comprehensive Healthcare System

by Mark James Moir




Institution: Antioch University
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


Abstract

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.