Collaborative Leadership in Action

The 46 fellows in the 2017 cohort of the UMass Boston Emerging Leaders Program worked with seven community partners on projects of strategic importance to these nonprofit and government organizations. The fellows contribute their professional skills and discover collaborative leadership through practice. The theme of our public symposium is “Collaborative Leadership in Action.” The fellows shared their insights about what collaborative leadership involves – its challenges and benefits – and what they take back to their workplaces

Identity in the mobilization of the wealthy in the fight to income equity

In this paper, we look at the prospects for mobilization of the wealthy to contest widening income inequality. We begin by looking at members of an organization that supports the mobilization of grassroots groups on behalf of economic justice. We found among its members an unexpected voice = the voice of wealthy people grappling with their fairly invisible wealth and their own surprise that it evoked such a series of emotions and a gradual process they termed coming out at wealthy. We discuss the implications of this identity formation and interpretation for the organization\u27s ability to shape a collective agenda for social change. The study locates a novel space in the intersection of business and society - where the spoils of business are used to redress social inequities, and even to reshape how business is conducted

Collaborative Leadership In Action

The 46 fellows in the 2018 cohort of the UMass Boston Emerging Leaders Program worked with seven community partners on projects of strategic importance to these nonprofit and government organizations. The fellows contribute their professional skills and discover collaborative leadership through practice. The theme of our public symposium is “Collaborative Leadership in Action.” The fellows shared their insights about what collaborative leadership involves – its challenges and benefits – and what they take back to their workplaces

The Institutional Entrepreneur as Modern Prince: The Strategic Face of Power in Contested Fields

This paper develops a theoretical framework that situates institutional entrepreneurship by drawing from Gramsci’s concept of hegemony to understand the contingent stabilization of organizational fields, and by employing his discussion of the Modern Prince as the collective agent who organizes and strategizes counter-hegemonic challenges. Our framework makes three contributions. First, we characterize the interlaced material, discursive, and organizational dimensions of field structure. Second, we argue that strategy must be examined more rigorously as the mode of action by which institutional entrepreneurs engage with field structures. Third, we argue that institutional entrepreneurship, in challenging the position of incumbent actors and stable fields, reveals a ‘strategic face of power’, particularly useful for understanding the political nature of contestation in issue-based fields

Dismantling universals : literacy within the context of globalization

The focus of this thesis is literacy but it is also about the veiled urgencies of becoming literate. Fueled by the restructuring of the labour market and profound structural changes in the economy, a social narrative developed warning nations that they were unprepared to meet and possibly benefit from the challenges of globalization. As the neo-liberal goals of accountability and of performativity have begun to reframe both education and literacy, it has become ideologically strategic for governments to quantify and measure literacy. Instruments, such as the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (ALLS), have been created in alliance with the OECD, to address the fears that the purported downward spiral of falling standards of education and literacy will result in both the inability to competitively survive within the global marketplace and of being overtaken economically by other countries. This thesis argues that within this global economic framework, a revised hegemonic form of functional literacy has become the latest unquestioned benchmark required by the knowledge workers of new capitalism . Questions asked by the alternate approach of New Literacy Studies (NLS), such as, "whose literacy?", "at what cost?", "for what purpose?" and "in what context?", are not considered by this hegemonic form. A significant way that market ideology is naturalized is through commodified and de-historicized language. This thesis applies aspects of Gee and Fairclough's approaches to Critical Discourse Analysis to explore the language of the ALLS in an attempt to question the consensual perception of both literacy and globalization

The Pediatric Obesity Epidemic and the Role of the Corporation: Why Work Conditions and Faith in Meritocracy Matter

The global pediatric obesity epidemic is a “grand challenge” that will reduce quality of life and strain healthcare delivery systems for many years. The root causes and treatments of pediatric obesity are medical and social, requiring cross‐disciplinary collaboration. Research on pediatric obesity spans medicine, molecular biology, public health, and sociology and involves hospitals, clinics, community partners, and schools. However, little attention has been given to how corporations play a role in this nexus of institutions. We make the case for understanding the role of the corporation, beyond that of producer and distributor of unhealthy foods. Specifically, we consider two factors. First, we examine the work conditions that corporations create for parents and how these affect family lifestyle, differentially by socioeconomic status (SES). Second, we expose how the American tendency to “individualize” social problems is reinforced in the corporation. Faith in meritocracy directs attention to individual effort rather than structural constraints. Treating pediatric obesity as remediable by meritorious individual behaviors might obscure root causes and promising approaches based on new medical research

Engaging and Expanding Communities: Widening the circle of stakeholders

The 32 fellows in the 2013 Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) worked with community partners to investigate the theme, “Engaging and Expanding Communities . They worked with six community partners, and identified ways to help them expand beyond their core stakeholders to a wider circle of stakeholders and broader potential impact. The fellows gave their time and professional skills to understand how to reach new business partners, new participants, new advisors, and new donors. They conducted surveys, interviews, and focus groups; explored social media options; examined best practices; and considered ways to tell powerful stories about the vitally important work of the “project sponsor” organizations with whom we partnered. Our six project sponsors – and their widening circle of stakeholders – include: Massachusetts Business Roundtable: Large corporations – & small businesses Girl Scouts of Eastern Mass: Scouts, parents, leaders – & new scouts, volunteers Science from Scientists: Scientists in schools – & engaged donors in this niche Children’s Trust Fund: Struggling families – & supportive young professionals Center for Social Policy: Poor people’s views – and business people’s views Center for Collaborative Leadership: ELP staff - & ELP alumni as ambassador

Making the Invisible Challenges and Opportunities Visible

The 41 fellows in the 2015 Emerging Leaders Program worked with community partners to generate the theme, “Making the Invisible Challenges and Opportunities Visible: Collaborative leadership for economic and social well-being. The projects provide fellows an opportunity to practice elements of collaborative leadership in peer-led teams working with multiple stakeholders. The projects focus on civic engagement, building a leadership base for Greater Boston that is ready to tackle the big challenges that ensure the broader economic and social well-being of the region. The project sponsor with whom each team works is a nonprofit or governmental organization with big goals. Each team begins the process by refining the scope of work, so they can best leverage their skills for the organization’s strategic needs

Supporting Healthy Lives and Vibrant Places: Learning about and living the collaborative leadership model

The 31 fellows in the 2012 UMass Boston Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) worked with community partners to investigate the theme, “Supporting Healthy Lives and Vibrant Places.” They worked in peer self-managed teams, in order to learn collaborative leadership skills first-hand, while engaging with stakeholders and issues where collaboration makes a difference. Their team projects addressed: best practices in corporate wellness initiatives, outreach to support health care access for homeless people, ways to grow awareness of the wide need for affordable housing, ideas for arts-based local economic development, broader funding sources to support innovative research on poverty, and ways to continue to engage and support ELP alumni as they continue to grow as leaders. Through their team projects, they brought their professionalism, analytical skills, and fresh perspectives to nonprofit organizations that benefit from their commitment and energy

Lessons from Lived Experience: From fresh insights to effective action

The 34 fellows in the 2014 Emerging Leaders Program worked with community partners to generate the theme, “Learning from Lived Experience: From fresh insights to effective action. Each year, the projects draw upon a theme or lesson from the prior year. Last year and this year, fellows saw how the lived experiences of both their stakeholders and themselves generated nuanced and appropriate approaches to problem-solving. The fellows worked with six community partners, giving their time and professional skills to understand how to frame complex social challenges, engage new partners and resources, and sharpen strategic plans. They conducted surveys, interviews, open houses, and focus groups; they explored social media options, examined best practices, and considered ways to tell powerful stories about the vitally important work of the project sponsor organizations with whom the ELP partnered. Our six project sponsors are: Massachusetts Business Roundtable, Center for Social Policy at UMass Boston, Hospitality Homes, Commonwealth Diversity Fellows Program, Emerging Leaders Program and the Center for Collaborative Leadership