Date of Award

12-2012

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Legacy Department

Educational Leadership

Committee Chair/Advisor

Marion, Russ

Committee Member

Knoeppel , Rob

Committee Member

Satterfield , James

Committee Member

Schreiber , Craig

Committee Member

Christiansen , Jon

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of leadership and its influence on innovation at a two-year college, paying particular attention to the network structure, the influence of leadership (formal and informal), and environmental influence. The goal was to learn about the nature of innovation at two-year colleges by studying the environment and leadership at these institutions, relative to theory, specifically complexity theory and dynamic network analysis, to gain an understanding of the complex dynamics that makes up the two-year college. The study looked at these influences and innovation as dynamic, changing processes between interconnected agents within a network and, therefore, relied on dynamic network analysis as the methodology to gain an understanding of the network within this two-year college. Within the analysis, the inferential statistical procedures of MANCOVA and canonical correlation analysis provided insight about relationships. Data was also analyzed using network measures, near-term analysis simulation, belief propagation, and visualization tools available in the Organization Risk Analyzer software.
Results show that leadership does play a role in attitudinal beliefs about innovation, but that leadership does not have a significant effect on diffusing innovation within the network. School administration was seen as much of an influence to the network as national and field specific concerns. The results indicate that leaders within education should focus on creating the dynamics for innovation and fostering positive attitudes about innovation.

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