"Preventive Leadership Program" at the Salesian University: An Exploratory Case Study

Author

Alejandro Rodriguez, University of San FranciscoFollow

Date of Graduation

2014

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

College/School

School of Education

Department

Leadership Studies

Program

Organization & Leadership EdD

First Advisor

Patricia A Mitchell

Second Advisor

Christopher Thomas

Third Advisor

Darrick Smith

Fourth Advisor

Francis Moloney

Abstract

Leadership is a key factor in the quality of personal life, organizational culture, and social projection of each member in any organization. Bringing out the best of each person involved in any decision is a must for a Preventive Leader. This kind of leadership opens the possibility to develop, adapt, change and modify the theoretical construct of the definition of a leader from the Preventive horizon, the practical implications of Preventive Leadership development, and the learning and practice of Preventive leadership in a contextualized environment, creating interactions and interdependencies in a net-like pattern of relationships situated in one specific context: the VUCA world.

"Preventive Leadership" is therefore proposed in this study as a plausible paradigm of convergence between Lonergan's anthropological method, Vygotskian community of learning model, and a reinterpretation of the Salesian Preventive System principles. The novelty in this approach is the viability of the Preventive Leader construct into the specific context of college students and the educational community surrounding them. In a VUCA world, it is critically important that a leader not only knows how to but also knows what and why to be successful. The Preventive Leadership framework contributes to the understanding of the leader itself with a positive, holistic, propositional and end-oriented reflection. The Preventive Leadership construct opens and enriches the leadership development theory and practice by incorporating intrapersonal and interpersonal methods of self-awareness and self-knowledge, learning process from a community perspective, ethical behaviors, and the phases comprising decision-making.

A case study of the Salesian University in Mexico City, where students, alumni and professors have been active participants in the Preventive Leadership Program, provided the information and experience, insights and questions, challenges and desires for the use of a mixed method study. The methodology applied facilitated the process of a case study embedding the quantitative data into the qualitative data, and it provided rediscovering the reading of the Salesian Preventive System from a leadership perspective. The paradigm of convergence in an interdisciplinary dialogue between method, model, and preventive principles has been the focal point and the binding agent to interpret, modify and renew the meaning and impact of leader comprehension and leadership development.

The results of this study indicated that students and professors agreed that the Preventive Leadership Program in the University is valuable, meaningful and the impact goes beyond the college experience time frame. The study concluded that (a) the construct "Prevention" from a Salesian perspective is fresh, inclusive, flexible and adaptive to any context, and leadership theory; specially connected to the transformational, transformative and authentic leadership in universities, (b) the paradigm of convergence between an anthropological method of knowledge, a pedagogical method with a social learning tendency, and a renewed preventive framework is a very plausible reality, and (c) the Innermost-nurturing principle, and the Feedforward Principle are two aspects of same reality and both crystallize conditions, parameters, criteria, educational strategies, and social parameters that all leader who presumes to be Preventive should consider in all circumstances.

Comments

The author has made a presentation in Spanish in the VI Iberoamerican Congress of pedagogy in Santiago de Chile:

http://ediciones.ucsh.cl/ojs/index.php?journal=congresodepedagogia&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=431&path%5B%5D=317

Author's other publications:

Recommended Citation

Rodriguez, A. (2014). "Preventive Leadership Program" at the Salesian University: An Exploratory Case Study. Retrieved from https://repository.usfca.edu/diss/111