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Shaping Leadership: Leadership Standards In The Organizational Language Of University Programs, R. Ben Meador Iv

Dissertations

According to institutional theory, organizations in complex fields like education seek legitimacy by aligning formal descriptions of their activities to institutional rules supported by regulators, professional groups and exemplar organizations. This study presents a new technique for measuring isomorphism and the strength of institutional forces within fields using quantitative content analysis of organizational language. This method is deployed to measure alignment between the formal descriptions of 321 university-based programs for educational leaders and themes from the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (i.e., technology, finance, research, and learning) and the influence of state licensure policy and professional affiliation in the University …