The Leadership of Service

Using experiences at Memorial University of Newfoundland as a basis, this essay suggests that leadership should be an expectation of professional academics in all the categories of their work, namely teaching, research and service. The desirability of developing the leadership of service in particular is advanced as an appropriate expectation for faculty members career progress. Developing a general leadership ethos is both philosophically appropriate and practically advantageous in collegial organisations.     

Group Identity and Conflicting Expectations of the Future in Northern Ireland

Much of the conflict in Northern Ireland is based on investments in one of three opposing political futures possible for the region: remaining part of Britain, joining Ireland, or becoming independent. Speculative scenarios describing each of these futures were randomly assigned to equal numbers of Protestant and Catholic undergraduates in Northern Ireland, and their expectations regarding material and civic improvement for their ingroup and peace and reconciliation between the groups were assessed. Two dimensions of religious identity, measured by the Identity and Public subscales of Luhtanen and Crocker's (1992) Collective Self-Esteem Scale (CSES), moderated the differences between groups, but only for their expectations of peace and reconciliation. Stronger expectations of improvement for the ingroup were related to higher scores on the Public subscale, regardless of religion or the political future presented. Thus, group identity had a complex, context-dependent relationship to intergroup conflict.     

Personality traits in leadership tasks

A common factor analysis was performed on the four personality dimensions measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and questionnaire measures of preferences for the four leadership tasks, Production, Administration, Enterprising, and Integration, described by Adizes. The sample was 1040 Norwegian adults. Three factors showed distinct common variances among the task preferences and the personality traits in a way that supported the construct validity of the traits. The implication of logical consistency among constructs based on self-report data is discussed, and it is argued that such concepts are valid and necessary at both personal and organisational levels although they may not predict performance as exactly as one might want for example in personnel selection.     

Assessing Leadership Potential with a Biographical Measure of Personality Traits

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of biographical inventories free of the limitations common to many current biographical measures by constructing and validating an inventory composed of homogeneous scales, with item content that is factual and fair, to assess personality traits predictive of leadership. The experimental inventory, with tentative scales for Dominance, Emotional Stability, Need for Achievement, Self-Confidence, and Sociability, was administered to incoming midshipmen at the US Naval Academy and item analyzed. The validity of the final scales was appraised against subsequent peer ratings of the traits and of leadership shortly after entering the Academy; military performance grades, and midshipman rank and leadership position at the Academy; and recommendations for promotion after graduating and serving as an officer. The Sociability, Dominance, and Need for Achievement scales demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity, and all of the scales except Self-Confidence correlated with the leadership criteria. The Sociability scale’s consistent correlations with several of the leadership criteria, including a nontrivial correlation (r = 0.28) with the leadership peer rating, implies that this measure may be useful in assessing leadership potential.     

Persuasive argumentation and social comparison as determinants of attitude polarization

Several of our studies indicate that persuasive-arguments theory by itself is an adequate explanation of polarization. Sanders and Baron (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 1977, 13, 303–314) criticize this research. More generally, they contend that both argumentation and comparison are involved, “with persuasive arguments facilitating the shifts motivated by social comparison.” We feel that their critique is unconvincing. Relevant portions of the standard literature are reviewed to demonstrate that social comparison is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for polarization. Finally, we speculate about how persuasive-arguments theory could be extended to argument-poor settings (e.g., Asch's line comparison situation).     

Sexuality as an Integral Part of the Church's Being and Mission

The article draws on the experience of being part of the Reference Group on Human Sexuality and other debates on sexuality in the World Council of Churches to discuss the “Message of the 11th Assembly.” It makes explicit how issues of sexuality have been avoided and how they ground the understanding of theological perspectives and the church's being and mission. Finally, it presents alternatives to reclaim sexuality and make the movement of reconciliation grounded in a transformative and queer spirituality more concrete and truthful to people's lives – a sexy movement.     

Popular Politics and the Clinton/Lewinsky Affair: The Implications for Leadership

The Clinton/Lewinsky scandal unfolded in an era of "new media" politics that presented fresh and often unanticipated challenges for presidential leadership. New media actors, such as call-in talk radio and TV hosts, tabloid journalists, and Internet gossip columnists, played a significant role in scandal politics. They influenced the framework within which stories were reported and perceived by the public. New media channels, in particular, framed the events leading up to the presidential impeachment in terms of dramatic, prime time–style entertainment. This entertainment news frame allowed citizens to compartmentalize their perceptions of President Clinton as a leader versus a private individual involved in a sex scandal. Media Politics can explain, at least in part, President Clinton's strong job performance evaluations in the midst of one of the most publicized political scandals of the century.     

领导与微观管理的效果

领导的功能就在于实现组织的目标。但是他们却很少考虑以什么样的方式来指导其下属 ,以及他们的领导行为的后果。企业中员工及基层管理人员的最大抱怨就是针对他们上级的微观管理。微观管理或许是企业中值得探讨的最大问题之一。     

Outsider Witness Groups as a Means of Professional Growth in Family Therapy Training: An Exploratory Qualitative Study

This exploratory qualitative study examines the experiences and meanings associated with family therapy trainees’ participation in the narrative practice of Outsider Witness Groups (OWG). At the Barcai Institute in Tel Aviv, we incorporate OWGs into our live clinical supervision courses. In some sessions, we offer the families undergoing therapy the opportunity to listen to the reflections of the group of trainees regarding what they witnessed during the session. Twenty-nine family therapy trainees participated in the study in five focus group interviews. Analysis of the interviews yielded four core themes regarding the trainees’ experiences: (i) Exploring the stance of the therapist; (ii) The art of listening; (iii) Reflection on hierarchy and boundary setting; and (iv) Negotiating self-disclosure. The findings indicate that family therapy trainees stand to benefit significantly in their professional journey, development, and growth from integrating OWG practices into their training. OWG fosters the development of critical reflectivity in trainees, including the deconstruction of common and taken-for-granted assumptions. It also fosters practices related to family therapy, and perhaps also to therapy in general. The findings also suggest that taking part in OWGs during training may contribute to family therapy trainees’ development of critical reflectivity as a means of introducing a more critical and political approach to therapy and developing their own preferred stories as therapists.