Leadership Trails: Lessons from the Lakota Sun Dance

This essay argues that while having a vision as a leader is important, that often means that the future is afforded more value than the past and the present. The past demonstrates the leadership trails, or the evidence for what has and has not worked for the organization as the leaders and members enact the leadership vision. Here I offer a leadership model that embraces leadership trails, one based on a decade of research on traditional Lakota life, particularly their most sacred ceremony, the Sun Dance. The Lakota-based leadership model consists of six elements: mitakuye oyasin (“we are all related”), respect, bravery, generosity, fortitude, and wisdom

Native Virtues: Traditional Sioux Philosophy and the Contemporary Basic Communication Course

Teaching and learning in the basic communication course can be informed by the traditional Sioux virtues of bravery, generosity, fortitude and wisdom. The virtues are forwarded as a set of ideas that may equip the reader with an alternative way to think about course material, pedagogical practices, and classroom interrelationships. The essay concludes with the limitations of an concerns with the virtues in the contemporary basic course

Constructing Space and Time for Work and Family: A Structuration Perspective on Bed and Breakfasts

This qualitative study explored how bed and breakfast owners communicatively construct privacy while operating a business out of their personal home. One hundred eighty-two B&B owners from 20 U.S. states and 20 countries responded to an electronic qualitative questionnaire that, in part, explored the issue of privacy. Three themes emerged from the data, including: traditional organizational structures, perception of availability, and banking of time and space. These themes revealed that the owners of the nontraditional businesses relied upon recognizable organizational structures used in more traditional organizations to create and maintain private space and time. They also engaged in communication with their guests that simultaneously enabled and constrained their sense of privacy. Finally, the owners reported using intrapersonal communication strategies that allowed them to account for the lack of privacy during peak-season, though these strategies may have unintended consequences in terms of family roles and mental and physical health

Communicative Challenges in the Parent-Teacher Relationship Regarding Students with Special Needs

The current study explored the communicative challenges for parents and teachers of children with special needs. This qualitative study elicited interview data from both parents and teachers, and revealed that teachers were frustrated with parents not communicating regarding their special needs children in a way that could help prepare the teachers for the challenges they may face. Caregivers cited a lack of communication with teachers as problematic, as well as their perception of teacher as expert that led them to feel as if the teachers presented information in inaccessible ways. The findings are discussed through the lens of structuration theory