Digital Commons Network^™

Causality, Change And Leadership, Gill Robinson Hickman

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Conceptual perspective on leadership and change: in general essentialists maintain that social and natural realities exist apart from our perceptions of reality and that individuals perceive the world rather than construct it (Rosenblum and Travis 2003, p. 33). Conversely, constructionists believe that humans construct or create reality and give it meaning through social, economic and political interactions. Specifically, reality cannot be separated form the way people perceive it (Rosenblum and Travis 2003, p. 33). According to the constructionist view, therefore, people can change reality by changing their perceptions of it.

A Quest For A Grand Theory Of Leadership, J. Thomas Wren

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

What happens when a collection of scholars from differing disciplines comes together to create a grand theory of leadership? This is the question philosopher Joanne B. Ciulla came to identify as particularly intriguing as a group of academics assembled to attempt precisely that. Although the substantive challenges of creating a grand theory of leadership had always been the group's focus, it gradually dawned on the participants that how they were going about the task of coming together across disciplines to create an integrated product was as significant as what they were creating. Political scientist Georgia Sorenson noted that 'there is …

Contemplating Context, J. Thomas Wren, Elizabeth Faier

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

In the following dialogue, historian J. Thomas Wren and anthropologist Elizabeth Faier, both original members of the General Theory of Leadership group convened in 2001, embark on a journey to 'contemplate context' within a general theory of leadership. As discussed in Chapter 1 of this volume, initial discussions within the general theory group exposed rather deep rifts concerning the importance and role of context in the leadership relation. These early debates inspired Wren and Faier to sit down and reflect more thoroughly on the troubling issues of the role of context. As the ensuing exchange makes clear, the two have …

The "Actual State Of Things": Teaching About Law In Political And Historical Context, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Vine Deloria, Jr., the most prolific Native writer and one of the most gifted intellectuals in American history, left a deep imprint in many of the fields he so artfully plowed, including: education, religion, politics, cultural critic, history, and indigenous knowledge. His scholarship on specific subjects came in waves, with each wave building upon the previous one before reaching its remarkable crest.

Deloria's scholastic and pragmatic legacy in federal Indian law and policy and indigenous governance is one that has produced several major books and numerous articles, which, in the pantheon of Deloria's prodigious body of works, rank highly in …

Vine Deloria Jr. And Indigenous Americans, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Vine Deloria Jr., a Standing Rock Sioux citizen, widely considered the leading indigenous intellectual of the past century, walked on in November 2005. Deloria spent most of his adult life in an unrelenting, prodigious, and largely successful effort to provide those most grounded of Native individuals and their governments with the intellectual, theoretical, philosophical, and substantive arguments necessary to support their inherent personal and national sovereignty. Importantly, however, his voluminous work also sought to improve the nation-to-nation and intergovernmental relationships of and between First Nations, and between First Nations and non-Native governments at all levels. In fact, he was hailed …

Forging A Political, Educational, And Cultural Agenda For Indian Country: Common Sense Recommendations Gleaned From Deloria's Prose, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Fortunately for the human species, in its wide assortment of pigmentations, cultural experiences, and geographic locations, each generation of a given people produces a small number of truly spirited individuals. These are individuals who not only possess the ability to constructively critique and analyze what is both sound and problematic in their society—or for our purposes, a set of societies—but who also have the rarer gift of being able to propound suggestions, ideas, and prognostications on what might be done to improve the human condition, both individually and collectively.

In the breadth and depth of Vine Deloria Jr.'s copious works …