The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.Smith, Alice Eldridge, Ph.D., Ph.D., Smith College, 1997, Private Practice, Brewster, Massachusetts - "Leadership Characteristics Among Social Agency Executive Personnel"The Ohio State University College of Social Wor

Smith, Alice Eldridge

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Leadership CharacteristicsAmong Social Agency Executive PersonnelAlice Eldridge Smith, Ph.D.Ph.D., Smith College, 1997Private Practice, Brewster, MassachusettsStatement of the Research ProblemBy addressing the need for substantive information regarding desirable social agencyexecutive leadership characteristics, this research focuses on an important contemporaryadministration and social policy issue for the social work profession and the vulnerable clientsit has historically served. Social work educators writing from the late 1980's to the present(Cupaiuolo, Loavenbruck, & Kiely, 1995; Faherty, 1987; Hart, 1988; Neugeboren, 1987;Patti, 1987; and others) note that there is an increasing loss in social service agency. executiveposition of social work-educated persons to those educated in other disciplines, particularlythose focused on business, such as the MBA's, MPA's, and MPH's. The result of this loss isthat 1) vulnerable clients are losing the advocacy of social work-educated agency executiveswho have historically developed and maintained social policies and programs for theeconomically poor, politically disenfranchised, and socially overwhelmed; and 2) the socialwork profession itself is losing members in agency executive positions (Gibelman, 1995).These losses come at a time when United States neo-conservative ideology is increasinglyhostile toward vulnerable clients and when agency executives must operate in "less gender andkinder" environment.This resetlIch begins the discussion by asking what leadership characteristics are neededto operate today's highly complex organizations within an increasingly hostile political,economic, and social environment, so that the social work community can take action toeducate and train prospective and incumbent social work-educated persons to better competewith those of other academic disciplines for social agency executive positions. It does so intwo ways. First, following the advice of Stephen Homes, when commenting on finding anappropriate replacement for NAACP Executive Director Benjamin Hooks, "Times hadchanged, and new times demanded a new type of leadership" (tj~:w York Times, August 23,1994), it assesses new leadership needs within the context of today's environment. Second,responding to Hopps' comment (1986) regarding the need for a new integrative leadershipparadigm because of this changed environment, a model of social agency executive leadershipwas developed.97Re..searcb QuestionsThe goal of this research is to gain a better understanding of the leadershipcharacteristics desirable for today's social agency executive. Since this is exploratoryresearch, no formal hypotheses are posited. However, the research question is driven by threestudy questions. The research question is: What are desirable leadership characteristics forcontemporary social service agency executives? The three study questions that drive theresearch question are discussed in the Methodology section which follows, along with therelevant statistical analyses. The research question and study questions are formulated within abackground of contexts for leadership in the contemporary environment and changes inleadership theory since the 19405.Because social agency executive leadership characteristics are at least in part dependenton the environment, consideration was given to the contexts of contemporary leadership. Fourspecific contexts were scrutinized. They were: 1) the political, economic, and social context(offering challenges for social service agencies); 2) the Massachusetts context (the geographicfocus of the study, within which exist specific social service leadership challenges); 3) theprofessional context (embodying challenges for social work-educated agency executives andsocial work education); and 4) the theoretical context (which incorporates desirableleadership characteristics from the literature review and four useful social science theoreticalparadigms).This study addresses specific desirable leadership characteristics for today's socialservice agency executives, discussing some of the major trends in leadership theory, primarilyfrom World War II until the present, and also examining personal leadership an leader-in-environment theories and their relevance to today's executives. Since the 1940's, leadershiptheory has moved from an emphasis on personal leader qualities, such as leader traits andleader behaviors, to an emphasis on leader-in-environment qualities and skills. Some of theleader-in-environment qualities and skills noted in the contemporary literature are: quantitativeanalysis skills; an understanding of economic principles; contingency skills and leaderdevelopmental level. Both personal leader behaviors and leader-in-environment leadershipqualities and skills are considered in the analysis. In addition, the study looks at somecontemporary socio-demographic characteristics of today's agency leaders before consideringthe three study questions that frame the research and the specific research variables of thestudy analysis.MethQdolQ~To respond to the Research Question, a survey was sent to the executive directors andsenior clinicians of 245 Massachusetts social service agencies (thus, 490 respondents). Thesurvey asked the respondents to define their perceptions of ideal social service agency98executive leader behaviors and lea~ership qualities and skills. The results of their responseswere statistically analyzed by three study questions. The first question was: What are thedistinguishing characteristics of contemporary social service agency executives? This question,designed to gain a better understanding of the population studied (Le. incumbent Massachusettssocial service agency leaders), was analyzed with descriptive statistics. The second questionasked: What leader behaviors are desirable for contemporary social service executives? Thisquestion was analyzed using factor analysis to compare these social service leadersMassachusetts surveyed to subjects representing other career disciplines regarding twelvepersonal leader behaviors. The third question was: What are the relationships among personalleader behaviors, leadership qualities and skills, and socio-demographic variables in desirablecontemporary social service agency executive leadership? This question was analyzed usingmultiple regression analysis to assess the relationships among specific socio-demographicvariables, personal leader behaviors, and leader-in-environment leadership qualities and skills.Leadership characteristics were divided into personal leader behaviors and leader-in-environment leadership qualities and skills. Leader behaviors were assessed using the idealform of the LBDQ-XII questionnaire developed at Ohio State University. These leaderbehaviors included the six task-oriented behaviors of Production Emphasis, Initiation ofStructure, Role Assumption, Persuasion, Representation, and Superior Orientation, and the sixperson-oriented behaviors of Tolerance of Freedom, Tolerance of Uncertainty, Consideration,Reconciliation, Integration, and Predictive Accuracy. Four leader-in-environment questionswere developed from the literature review. They included: Contingency skills from Fiedler(1967) and House (1971); Quantitative Skills and An Understanding of Economic Principlesfrom Faherty (1987); and Leader Development Level (Achiever or Strategist) from Torbert(1987). These sixteen variables were considered in the analysis, along with certain socio-demographic variables (agency position type [executive or senior clinician], gender, andeducational discipline of the respondent [MSW or non-MSW], and years since terminalacademic degree).Seven conclusions address the findings within the environmental context.1) The socio-demographic data provide three important findings which haveimplications regarding timing, locus, and direction of executive education and training. Thefirst finding, that executive positions are most often held by persons who acquired theirterminal academic degree an average of 14 years before the data were collected, suggests thatincumbent executives may need post-graduate education and that contemporary administrationcourse work should be adjusted to meet the demands of today's marketplace. The secondfinding indicates that social agencies continue to discriminate against women--particularly withrespect to attaining and holding executive positions, suggesting the need to prepare femalecandidates to counter stereotypes. The third finding underscores the fact that social work-99educated persons do not dominate in social agency executive positions, leading to thesuggestion that the profession could do more to prepare and "sell" its prospective andincumbent executives.2) Certain personal leader behaviors are relevant to social agency executive leadershiptoday. They are Production Emphasis, Imitation of Structure, Role Assumption, Persuasion,Representation, Superior Orientation, Tolerance of Freedom, Tolerance of Uncertainty,Consideration, Reconciliation, Integration, and Predictive Accuracy.3) Certain leader-in-environment executive leadership characteristics are also importanttoday. They are: contingency skills; quantitative skills and an understanding of economicprinciples; and leader development level (achiever or strategist).4) The multiple aggression analysis indicates there are really two different types ofsocial service agency executive leader functions, one focussed on the internal operations of theagency and determining client needs, and the other focussed outside the agency towardresource providers. Each of these two executive functions requires a different set of desirableleadership characteristics and the skills of a different leader developmental level.5) Social work-educated executives must understand the contemporary social servicedelivery environment.6) Executives could be educated to fulfill a new leadership paradigm described in thisdissertation as a model of social service agency leadership which integrates executiveleadership characteristics with the executive role and agency goals.7) The social work-educated agency executive has an important political role to play indeveloping and transforming social policies to more effectively meet the needs of vulnerableclients.Utility fur Social Work Pra~This dissertation was partly a policy analysis addressing the problem of the loss ofsocial work-educated agency executive positions, which has resulted in both a loss totraditional and potential social work clients and a loss to the profession itself. As a result, amodel of social service agency executive leadership--a new integrative leadership paradigm(Hopps, 1986) to address the "new times" (Holmes, 1990)--was developed. This modelconsists of three interdependent categories: 1) an agency goal of effective policies andprograms for vulnerable clients; 2) the functions of the executive role which include socialpolicy influence, resource development, and agency administration; and 3) executiveleadership characteristics which include personal leader behaviors, leader-in-environmentleadership characteristics, and social work values and ethics.1001!j1;~The significant recommendations emerging from the research is that social agencyexecutives should acquire and strengthen the leadership qualities and skills described in thedissertation. Although there is only one significant recommendation emerging from thisresearch, it has far-reaching implications for the social work profession. These implicationsfocus on the education community which might be expected to lead the initiative for socialagency executive leadership education and training; and on the executives themselves, who arebeing asked to address social work ethics in an increasingly marketized and privatizedworkplace. First, academic and professional organizations such as NASW and CSWE, as wellas social service agencies that assist vulnerable populations, all have a role to play indeveloping prospective social work-educated executives. Because of the keen interest in thesubject, some implementation guidelines for executive leadership education and training havebeen included in the dissertation. Second, even while assisting agencies to maintainappropriate profit margins in an increasingly privatized market, executives should:a) acknowledge ethical beliefs; b) learn a process of ethical decision-making; c) learnnegotiation strategies (Reamer, 1990); and d) reframe certain widely-held beliefs (Fisher andUry, 1983). Grouped together, these strategies form a network of values-orientation anddecision-making skills to guide social work-educated executives.Given the many competing demands on its resources, the professional social workcommunity may believe it is unable to invest in agency executive education and training.However, as Gibelman (1995) reports, "Social workers have an important role to play indefining the social work profession of the future. The profession is ... affected by ... thedirection it sets for itself." If social work does not compete with other professions forexecutive positions, vulnerable clients will be affected and the profession will lose theopportunity to retain the social agency executive positions it has held for many decades in thepast. Macarov (1991) agrees, stating that "Only insofar as we try to influence the directionthat the future will take are we exercising choice, rather than resigning ourselves to theinevitable, or--to be more precise--to capriciousness. "J101ReferencesAustin, D. (1989). The human service executive. Administration in Socia! Work, 13 (3L41,13-36.Bargal, D. & Schmid. (1992). Organizational change and development in human serviceorganizations: a prefatory essay. Administration in SocialWork, 163/4 1-13.Bass, B. (1990). Bass and Stogdill's handbook of leadership. New York: The Free Press.Bevilacqua, 1. (1995). The imperative of professional leadership in public servicemanagement. In 1. Ginsberg and P. Keyes, Eds., New Management in HumanServices. 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Leadership Characteristics Among Social Agency Executive Personnel

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Leadership Characteristics Among Social Agency Executive Personnel

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