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LEADING CHANGE in Multiple Contexts

To my mother, Beatrice M. Price, who has led change in the military, in the medical profession, and in the lives of her family members

and friends throughout her life.

LEADING CHANGE in Multiple Contexts

Concepts and Practices in Organizational, Community, Political, Social, and Global

Change Settings

University of Richmond

Gill Robinson HICKMAN

Copyright © 2010 by SAGE Publications, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hickman, Gill Robinson. Leading change in multiple contexts: concepts and practices in organizational, community, political, social, and global change settings/Gill Robinson Hickman.

p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4129-2677-5 (cloth) ISBN 978-1-4129-2678-2 (pbk.) 1. Leadership. 2. Social change. 3. Organizational change. I. Title.

HM1261.H53 2010 303.48′4—dc22 2009002579

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

09 10 11 12 13 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Acquisitions Editor: Lisa Cuevas Shaw Editorial Assistant: MaryAnn Vail Production Editor: Catherine M. Chilton Copy Editor: Cheryl Duksta Typesetter: C&M Digitals (P) Ltd. Proofreader: Doris Hus Indexer: Diggs Publication Services Cover Designer: Gail Buschman Marketing Manager: Christy Guilbault

Brief Contents

Acknowledgments x

Introduction xi

PART I. CONCEPTUAL PERSPECTIVES ON LEADING CHANGE 1

Introduction

1. Causality, Change, and Leadership 3

PART II. LEADING CHANGE IN ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXTS 33

Introduction

2. Concepts of Organizational Change 43

3. Concepts of Leadership in Organizational Change 55

4. Organizational Change Practices 79

PART III. LEADING COMMUNITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 119

5. Community Change Context 121

6. Crossing Organizational and Community Contexts 151

PART IV. LEADING POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CHANGE 161

7. Political Change Context 163

8. Social Change Context 197

9. Crossing Political and Social Contexts 221

PART V. LEADING GLOBAL CHANGE 229

10. Global Change Context 231

11. Crossing Global and Social Contexts: Virtual Activism in Transnational Dotcauses, E-Movements, and Internet Nongovernmental Organizations 281

12. Conclusion: Connecting Concepts and Practices in Multiple Contexts 299

Epilogue: Leading Intellectual Change: The Power of Ideas 304

Index 306

About the Author 313

About the Contributors 314

Detailed Contents

Acknowledgments x

Introduction The St. Luke Penny Savings Bank: A Change Vignette xi Purpose, Concepts, and Practices xi

PART I. CONCEPTUAL PERSPECTIVES ON LEADING CHANGE 1

Introduction

1. Causality, Change, and Leadership 3 Gill Robinson Hickman and Richard A. Couto

Barbara Rose Johns 3 Analytical Elements 8 Conclusion 27

PART II. LEADING CHANGE IN ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXTS 33

Introduction The Environment of Organizational Change 33 Purpose of Organizational Change 35 Change Vignette: Technology Solutions Turns Disaster Into Dividends 38

2. Concepts of Organizational Change 43

What Kind of Organizational Change Do We Want or Need? 43

Conclusion 52

3. Concepts of Leadership in Organizational Change 55

What Type of Leadership Do We Want or Need to Accomplish Change? 55

Conclusion 75

4. Organizational Change Practices 79

Which Practices Do We Employ to Implement Change? 79 Conclusion 96 Applications and Reflections 99

PART III. LEADING COMMUNITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 119

5. Community Change Context 121 Richard A. Couto, Sarah Hippensteel Hall, and Marti Goetz

Introduction 121 Purpose of Community Change 121 Change Vignette: Citizens for the Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons 122

Concepts of Change 130 Concepts of Leadership 134 Change Practices 137 Conclusion 142 Application and Reflection 142

6. Crossing Organizational and Community Contexts 151

Introduction 151 Change Vignette: Microcredit to Rural Women 152 Concepts of Change Across Organizational and Community Contexts 155

Concepts of Leadership Across Organizational and Community Contexts 156

Change Practices Across Organizational and Community Contexts 158

Conclusion 160

PART IV. LEADING POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CHANGE 161

7. Political Change Context 163 Richard A. Couto

Introduction 163 Purpose of Political Change 164 Change Vignette: Extraordinary Rendition 165 Concepts of Political Change 172 Concepts of Political Leadership 176 Change Practices 184 Conclusion 190 Application and Reflection 191

8. Social Change Context 197

Introduction 197 The Purpose of Social Change 197 Change Vignette: OASIS: An Initiative in the Mental Health Consumer Movement 198

Concepts of Social Change 200 Concepts of Social Change Leadership 203 Social Change Practices 207 Conclusion 213 Application and Reflection 213

9. Crossing Political and Social Contexts 221

Introduction 221 Vignette: The Sikh Coalition 221 Concepts of Political and Social Change 223 Concepts of Political and Social Leadership 225 Change Practices Across Political and Social Contexts 226 Conclusion 228

PART V. LEADING GLOBAL CHANGE 229

10. Global Change Context 231 Rebecca Todd Peters and Gill Robinson Hickman

Introduction 231 Purpose of Global Change 232 Change Vignette: Chad-Cameroon Pipeline 233 Concepts of Global Change 236 Concepts of Global Leadership 242 Global Change Practices 257 Conclusion 264 Application and Reflection 265

11. Crossing Global and Social Contexts: Virtual Activism in Transnational Dotcauses, E-Movements, and Internet Nongovernmental Organizations 281

Introduction 281 Change Vignette: Is Global Civil Society a Good Thing? 282 Concepts of Virtual Change 286 Concepts of Virtual Leadership 288 Virtual Change Practices 291 Conclusion 296

12. Conclusion: Connecting Concepts and Practices in Multiple Contexts 299

Epilogue: Leading Intellectual Change: The Power of Ideas 304 James MacGregor Burns

Index 306

About the Author 313

About the Contributors 314

x

Acknowledgments

Iwish to thank the many colleagues, students, and family members who have con-tributed to the completion of this book. Specifically, I would like to thank thestudents in my Leading Change classes at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies who helped to shape the content and format of this text through their use of and comments on the initial draft manuscripts; the current Dean of the Jepson School, Sandra Peart, and former interim Provost of the University of Richmond, Joseph Kent, for granting me time to complete Leading Change; and former Dean of the Jepson School, Howard Prince, for giving me the opportunity to develop and teach the course that led to this book. I am forever grateful to the two academic coordinators of the Jepson School, Cassie Price and her successor, Tammy Tripp, for their many months of reference checking and technical editing, their endless patience, and their consistently congenial dispositions. My deep appreciation goes to my longtime colleague and friend Richard (Dick)

Couto, an eminent scholar and cocontributor to Chapters 1 and 5 and sole con- tributor to Chapter 7; to Sarah Hippensteel Hall and Marti Goetz for their experi- ence, insight, and scholarship as cocontributors to Chapter 5; and to Rebecca Todd Peters for her superb scholarship, global perspective, and creativity as cocontributor to Chapter 10. A most special thank you to James MacGregor Burns, my mentor, colleague, friend, and role model, for writing the epilogue: “Leading Intellectual Change: The Power of Ideas.” Your intellectual leadership has inspired me and numerous scholars and students of leadership studies all over the world, and for that we are exceedingly appreciative. I am most thankful to the editors and staff of Sage Publications for their exper-

tise, support, and care during the writing and publication of this book, especially Lisa Cuevas Shaw, MaryAnn Vail, and the late Al Bruckner. You serve as exemplars of the best in publisher-author relationships. I am grateful to Wang Fang, a wonderful colleague and friend, whose intellect

and sage advice about the book I fully respect and appreciate. Finally, I owe a special debt of gratitude to my husband, Garrison Michael Hickman, who provided infi- nite support and laughter; kept me motivated, fed, and supplied with coffee; and graciously read every word of the manuscript.

xi

Introduction

Leadership brings about real change that leaders intend.

—Burns (1978, p. 414)

The St. Luke Penny Savings Bank: A Change Vignette

The first female bank founder and president in the United States, Maggie L.Walker, led an unprecedented change to establish an African American–owned bank where people could combine their economic power to purchase homes, start businesses, and educate future leaders. Virginia banks owned byWhites in the early 1900s were unwilling to accept deposits from African American organizations or accept the pennies and nickels saved from the meager incomes of African American workers. Inadvertently, the discrimination by White bankers spurred Walker to study Virginia’s banking and financial laws and enroll in a business course with the aim of opening a bank (Stanley, 1996). In a 1901 speech before the African American fraternal organization the Independent Order of St. Luke, she said, “Let us have a bank that will take the nickels and turn them into dollars” (Walker, 1901). Walker and her associates formed the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in 1903, with

opening-day receipts totaling $9,430.44. By 1913, the bank’s holdings had grown to more than $300,000 in assets. The Penny Savings Bank survived the Great Depression, whereas many other banks across the United States failed. It merged with two other banks in 1930 and was renamed Consolidated Bank & Trust. The bank still exists today and continues to pursue the founder’s purpose of economic self-reliance for African Americans.

Purpose, Concepts, and Practices

The story of Maggie Walker and the founding of the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank provide a focus for examining the concepts involved in leading change in multiple contexts. Leading change is a collective effort by participants to intentionally mod- ify, alter, or transform human social systems. Certainly, Walker and her colleagues were involved in an intentional, goal-focused change effort. Research and publications

on leading change typically center on how to lead change successfully in organiza- tions, often with an emphasis on practices. The establishment of an African American–owned bank in the early 1900s conforms to the typical focus of change. Yet the focus on the practices of leading organizational change is only one part of the story. Figure I.1 illustrates the connections among key factors involved in lead- ing change and identifies several change contexts, including organizational, com- munity, political, global, and social action. Leading change is ignited by purpose, influenced by context, and linked by concepts and practices of both leadership and change, which function jointly to create new outcomes. The founding of St. Luke Penny Savings Bank provides an introduction to how

the factors in Figure I.1 work together. Moving from the inside of Figure I.1 out- ward, it is apparent that the Penny Savings Bank came about because of a steadfast commitment to a compelling purpose. Most often, the purpose of leadership is change—change in human conditions, social structure, dominant ideas, or prevail- ing practices in one context or several. Walker articulated the purpose most elo- quently: “Let us put our moneys together; let us use our moneys; let us put our money out at usury [interest] among ourselves, and reap the benefit ourselves” (Miller & Rice, 1997, pp. 66–68). Several concepts and practices of change apply to the Penny Savings Bank

example. The founding and operation of the bank involved strategic change (actions to achieve a competitively superior fit between the organization and its environment; Rajagopalan & Spreitzer, 1997). Its long history of sustained opera- tion illustrates theories of change, such as life cycle—stages in the bank’s function- ing from initiation to growth to maturity to decline to revitalization) and teleological (step-by-step change based on goals and purpose) and dialectical change (conflict, negotiation, compromise, and resolution; Van de Ven & Poole, 1995), such as the firing of its officers in 2003. In the area of community change, the purpose and focus of the bank demon-

strate concepts of community empowerment or social power (i.e., actions by a community to control its own destiny; Speer & Hughley, 1995) using practices of community development (i.e., mobilization of resources by the community; Kretzmann & McKnight, 1996), social capital development (i.e., social networks and the associated norms of reciprocity; Putnam, 2000), and economic develop- ment. Walker’s stature in the business community and her personal convictions allowed her to become involved in social change or social movements. She cofounded civil rights organizations to fight racial injustice in the South, including the Richmond branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Richmond Council of Colored Women, and she became an active member of the National Urban League and the Virginia Interracial Committee, among others. Through these organizations, Walker was able to par- ticipate in social change that illustrates theoretical concepts of rational choice (strategies to transform social structures) and resource mobilization (actions taken by social movement organizations) (Garner & Tenuto, 1997). Walker exhibited several concepts of leadership in action during her quest to

bring about organizational, community, and social change. Her speeches clearly

xii LEADING CHANGE IN MULTIPLE CONTEXTS

exemplified her charismatic leadership style through strong rhetorical skills and the ability to create an uplifting vision in the hearts and minds of followers (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2009, p. 637). She was a capable transactional leader (Burns, 1978) who, as president of the Penny Savings Bank, provided an exchange of valued things between the bank and the community. For example, the bank accepted small deposits of hard-earned cash from customers in exchange for providing a source of consolidated funds to build homes and businesses.Walker’s initiative intended “real change” in the sense that James MacGregor Burns’s (1978) concept of transforming leadership connotes. By 1920, the Penny Savings Bank had helped members of the community purchase 600 homes. Walker made loans to African American–owned businesses and started a department store and weekly newspaper, the St. Luke Herald. These businesses employed many members of the Jackson Ward area who, in turn, were able to support themselves, their families, and their community.

Introduction xiii

CONCEPTS OF CHANGE

CONCEPTS OF LEADERSHIP

P U R P O S E

CHANGE PRACTICES

CONTEXTS

• Organizational • Community • Political • Social Action • Global

FIGURE I .1 Leading Change in Multiple Contexts

Context, the setting or environment in which change takes place, matters a great deal, along with larger contextual elements of history, culture, and society. Wren (1995) explained the significance of larger contextual elements to leadership:

Leaders and followers do not act in a vacuum. They are propelled, constrained, and buffeted by their environment. The effective leader must understand the nature of the leadership context, and how it affects the leadership process. Only then can he or she operate effectively in seeking to achieve the group’s objectives. . . . First—beginning at the most macro level—are the long-term forces of history (social, economic, political, and intellectual); the second sphere of the leadership context is colored by the values and beliefs of the con- temporary culture; and finally, at the most micro level, leadership is shaped by such “immediate” aspects of the context as the nature of the organization, its mission, and the nature of the task. (p. 243)

Many historical and cultural elements are evident in the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank vignette. Long-term forces of history—from slavery, to the Civil War, to Reconstruction, and then Jim Crow segregation—led to the context that generated the leadership of Maggie Walker and many others, who in turn helped create a self- sufficient society for African Americans that paralleled European American society in the South. In addition to long-term forces, immediate contexts—organizational, commu-

nity, political, social change, and global—affect leading change in significant ways. The purpose and focus of leading change in each context varies, as indicated in Table I.1, even though change in one context (social or community) may lead to or call for change in another (political). The way in which authority is granted to con- stituted leaders to bring about change in organizations is different from the author- ity of elected officials to affect change in local, state, or federal government. Leaders in each context are chosen by different means (elected vs. appointed) and they serve different constituencies (the electorate/public vs. boards and stockholders). Context also influences concepts and practices of leadership, even though

leadership concepts and practices tend to be adaptable and effective in different set- tings. For example, Maggie Walker was able to use charismatic, transactional, and transforming leadership to bring about change successfully in organizational, com- munity, and social action contexts. The same concept or form of leadership may be used in different contexts but affect very different groups and bring about different outcomes. Charismatic, servant, transactional, and invisible leadership, for example, can be used in organizational, political, social change, and community contexts. Yet these forms of leadership affect different groups (employees, constituents, under- represented groups, or local citizens/community members), and they are intended for different purposes. Leading global change may require transcending boundaries (by identifying what makes us all human), whereas some new social movement leadership may entail creating new identities (the new Right or Left) that separate groups. Although the Penny Savings Bank provides an illustration of leading change in an organizational context, this example also demonstrates the interde- pendent nature of change and its impact across several contexts—organizations, community, and social activism (social movement).

xiv LEADING CHANGE IN MULTIPLE CONTEXTS

xv

C o n te xt s

O rg an iz at io n al

C o m m u n it y

Po lit ic al

So ci al C h an g e

G lo b al

Pu rp os e of

ch an ge

To al te r th e fo rm , qu al ity , or

st at e of an

or ga ni za tio n

to m ee t ch al le ng es an d

op po rt un iti es in th e in te rn al or

ex te rn al en vi ro nm

en t

To ad va nc e or pr ot ec t

rig ht s, he al th , an d w el l-

be in g of ci vi l

so ci et y/ m em be rs in

co m m un iti es

To co nf ro nt

si tu at io ns in

w hi ch po lic y

m us t be

fo rm ul at ed ,

pr om

ul ga te d, an d

ex ec ut ed

To gi ve vo ic e to sp ec ifi c

ca us es in or de r to

co rr ec t in ju st ic es ,

co un te r or re si st so ci al

co nd iti on s, or pu rs ue

an d cr ea te ne w

po ss ib ili tie s fo r so ci et y

To ad dr es s la rg e- sc al e

tr an sn at io na lo r

tr an sc ul tu ra lp ro bl em s,

cr ea te ne w op po rt un iti es ,

de ve lo p or al te r gl ob al

go ve rn an ce st ru ct ur es

Pa rt ic ip an ts

in ch an ge

pr oc es s

Po si tio na ll ea de rs (p riv at e, pu bl ic ,

N G O se ct or s) , in fo rm al le ad er s,

m em be rs /e m pl oy ee s of th e

or ga ni za tio n

C om

m un ity /c iti ze n

le ad er s, co m m un ity

m em be rs , N G O le ad er s

an d m em be rs

El ec te d of fic ia ls ,

ad vo ca cy gr ou ps ,

th e pu bl ic

N on co ns tit ut ed

le ad er s,

ac tiv is ts , N G O le ad er s

an d m em be rs

Po si tio na ll ea de rs

(in te rn at io na la ge nc ie s, an d

co rp or at io ns ), go ve rn m en t

of fic ia ls , N G O le ad er s an d

m em be rs

So ur ce of

au th or ity to

le ad

ch an ge

Le gi tim

at e/ po si tio na la ut ho rit y,

sh ar ed

au th or ity , in fo rm al or

re fe re nt po w er

Se lf- ag en cy or so ci al

po w er

C on st itu te d/

le ga la ut ho rit y

(e le ct ed

of fic ia ls ),

so ci al po w er

(a dv oc ac y gr ou ps )

So ci al po w er an d

le gi tim

at e au th or ity

(N G O s, m ov em en t

or ga ni za tio ns )

N eg ot ia te d ag re em en ts or

co nt ra ct s (p riv at e se ct or ),

le ga la ut ho rit y (g ov er ni ng

bo di es ), so ci al po w er

(N G O s)

A ff ec te d

gr ou ps

St ak eh ol de rs : em pl oy ee s,

cu st om

er s, in ve st or s, an d

co m m un ity m em be rs

C om

m un ity m em be rs /

ci tiz en s

C on st itu en ts ,

sp ec ifi c in du st rie s

an d or ga ni za tio ns

G ro up s se ek in g ju st ic e

or hu m an e tr ea tm en t

Tr an sn at io na ls oc ie ty

(n at io n- st at es , ci vi ls oc ie ty ,

co rp or at io ns , in te rn at io na l

ag en ci es )

TA B L E I. 1

C on te xt ua lI nf lu en ce s on

Le ad in g C ha ng e

The efforts of Maggie Walker and her colleagues to lead change in the Jackson Ward community led to many significant outcomes. In addition to establishing a bank to serve the financial needs of the African American community, Walker and her associates helped to create a self-reliant and thriving community with its own banks, businesses, jobs, homes, and social and economic capital. Members of the community were able to use these resources to establish civil rights organizations, which contributed to the ultimate downfall of segregation in the South. The intent of this book is to bring together many concepts and practices of

change and leadership from various disciplines and connect them to leading change in the five different contexts. The introduction to each context begins with a vignette about actual circumstances, like the founding of St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, to help illustrate concepts and practices in each context, and concludes with an application and reflection that allows readers to analyze other real-life situations using information from the chapter. These vignettes and applications provide examples of each context featured in the text and give readers a sense of how lead- ing change differs in every setting. The book is divided into five parts. Part I, which has only a single chapter, deals with conceptual views of leadership. Part II consists of three chapters devoted to the organizational change context, given that more research and publications have been generated about leading change in organiza- tions than in the other contexts. Part II includes five applications and reflections that represent several types of organizations. In Parts III–V, community, political, social, and global change contexts are examined separately for analytical purposes. Three chapters examine situations in which leading change in one context involves advocating or initiating change in another context because, in reality, change in one context almost invariably generates some form of change in at least one other con- text. These interactions across contexts commonly produce change in both settings. It is difficult to bring about long-term community or social change, for instance, without ultimately generating public-policy change that authorizes or inhibits spe- cific actions. Few long-term gains in civil rights or environmental protections would be possible without significant policy changes in these areas. Leading change is almost always a complex, long-term, and challenging

endeavor. Yet it is one of the most central processes to the study and practice of leadership. I hope that this book will help its readers understand concepts and prac- tices involved in leading change and inspire each reader to make a meaningful dif- ference in some aspect of life in communities, organizations, politics/public policy, society, or the world.

References

Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper Torchbooks.

Garner, R., & Tenuto, J. (1997). Social movement theory and research: An annotated biblio-

graphical guide. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.

Hughes, R. L., Ginnett, R. C., & Curphy, G. J. (2009). Leadership: Enhancing the lessons of

experience (6th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

xvi LEADING CHANGE IN MULTIPLE CONTEXTS

Kretzmann, J., & McKnight, J. P. (1996). Assets-based community development. National

Civic Review, 85(4), 23–29.

Miller,M.M., & Rice, D.M. (1997). Pennies to dollars: The story of Maggie LenaWalker.North

Haven, CT: Linnet Books.

Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New

York: Touchstone.

Rajagopalan, N., & Spreitzer, G.M. (1997). Toward a theory of strategic change: A multi-lens

perspective and integrative framework. Academy of Management Review, 22, 48–79.

Speer, P. W., & Hughey, J. (1995). Community organizing: An ecological route to empower-

ment and power. American Journal of Community Psychology, 23, 729–774.

Stanley, B. N. (1996, February 13). Maggie L. Walker. Richmond Times Dispatch, p. B6.

Van de Ven, A. H., & Poole, M. S. (1995). Explaining development and change in organiza-

tions. Academy of Management Review, 20, 510–540.

Walker, M. L. (1901). An address to the 34th annual session of the right worthy grand council of

Virginia, Independent Order of St. Luke. Retrieved August 19, 2004, from http://

www.nps.gov/malw/speech.htm

Wren, J. T. (1995). The leader’s companion: Insights on leadership through the ages. New York:

Free Press.

Introduction xvii

1

PART I

Conceptual Perspectives on Leading Change

Introduction

Prior to writing this book, I participated with several leadership scholars ina project known as the General Theory of Leadership (GTOL), led by JamesMacGregor Burns, George (Al) Goethals, and Georgia Sorenson. Our mis- sion, as conceived by Burns, was to develop an integrative theory of leadership—in his words, “to provide people studying or practicing leadership with a general guide or orientation—a set of principles that are universal which can be then adapted to different situations” (Managan, 2002). Though the group did not produce a general theory of leadership, at the conclusion of the project “the members of the group decided that the most productive way to proceed was to create a volume of essays designed to capture, to the best of our ability, the nuances of 3 years of scholarly debate and discussion” (Wren, 2006, p. 34). This effort resulted in a book titled The Quest for a General Theory of Leadership (referred to as the Quest) (Goethals & Sorenson, 2006).

Congruent with my scholarship and teaching interests, and in anticipation of writing Leading Change in Multiple Contexts, I worked with a group (consisting of Richard Couto, Fredric Jablin, and myself) that would write the Quest chapter on change. The greater part of that chapter is included in this introduction to provide the conceptual perspective from which I consider leading change.1 As indicated by the Quest editors, this perspective:

take[s] issue with the “Newtonian, mechanistic and old science” view of a leader or leaders initiating change and instead offer[s] a complex net of co- arising historical, economic, group and environmental factors that ebb and flow, push and pull, to collectively birth change. Using a constructionist

approach [the view that humans construct or create reality and give it meaning through social, economic and political interactions] as opposed to an essentialist one [the view that social and natural realties exist apart from our perceptions of reality and that individuals perceive the world rather than construct it], they deftly demonstrate the interpenetrating and complex nature of leadership in action. (Goethals & Sorenson, 2006, p. xvii)

This viewpoint does not presume that “conditions change merely because a group of people wants them to change. . . . social reality is subject to historical con- ditions that can either foster or hinder change beyond any single person’s or group’s ability to effect change” (Hickman & Couto, 2006, p. 153).

The next section presents a vignette from the early civil rights movement in the United States and describes the actions taken by Barbara Rose Johns and the student leaders at Moton High School in protest of injustices committed by Prince Edward County Virginia School Board officials. The analysis that follows identifies and examines elements that contributed to change in this case, with the hope of illuminating elements that may be useful for understanding change across contexts.

Note

1. I wish to thank Wang Fang for her recommendation concerning this chapter.

References

Goethals, G. R., & Sorenson, G. L. J. (Eds.). (2006).The quest for a general theory of leadership.

Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Hickman, G. R., & Couto, R. A. (2006). Causality, change, and leadership. In G. R. Goethals &

G. L. J. Sorenson (Eds.), The quest for a general theory of leadership (pp. 152–187).

Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Managan, K. (2002, May 31). Leading the way in leadership: The unending quest of the

discipline’s founding father, James MacGregor Burns. Chronicle of Higher Education,

48(38), A10–12. Retrieved October 26, 2008, from http://newman.richmond.edu:2511/

hww/results/results_single_ftPES.jhtml

Wren, J. T. (2006). Introduction. In Goethals, G. R. & Sorenson, G. L. J. (Eds.), The quest for

a general theory of leadership (p. 34). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

2 PART I CONCEPTUAL PERSPECTIVES ON LEADING CHANGE

3

Causality, Change, and Leadership Gill Robinson Hickman and Richard A. Couto

Barbara Rose Johns

As a junior at Robert R. Moton High School in Farmville, the county seat of Prince Edward County, Virginia, Barbara Rose Johns knew that the segregated, all-Black school that she attended in 1951 was separate but certainly not equal. She saw the same markers of inequality familiar to African American school children and their parents throughout the South at the time: textbooks handed down from the White students and, most of all, overcrowded facilities. In Johns’s case, a school built in 1939 to serve 180 students instead housed 450 students. The school accommodated some of the overflow students in three buildings hastily erected in 1949. Built of 2 × 4s, plywood, and tar paper, they were dubbed “shacks” or “chicken coops.”

At the constant prodding of the Moton PTA and its president, the Reverend L. Francis Griffin, pastor of the First Baptist Church, the all-White school board offered regular assurances but no action on a new high school for African American children. Progress slowed and the assurances became so broad that in April 1951, the school board suggested that the Moton High School PTA not come back to the school board’s meetings. Johns shared her concerns about the poor facilities and her frustration with the board’s delaying tactics with her favorite teacher, Inez Davenport. Davenport replied, “Why don’t you do something about it?”

CHAPTER 1

AUTHORS’NOTE: This chapter is an excerpt from“Causality, Change, and Leadership,”by Gill Robinson Hickman and Richard A. Couto. In The Quest for a General Theory of Leadership (pp. 152–187), by George R. Goethals & Georgia L. J. Sorenson (Eds.), 2006, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Copyright © 2006 by Edward Elgar Publishing. By permission of Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc. This chapter includes the invaluable contributions of our late colleague and friend, Fredric M. Jablin, who provided his seminal insights during the conceptualization and outlining phase of this project.

So Johns did. During a 6-month period she enlisted student leaders a few at a time to take action themselves. Finally on April 23, 1951, following the PTA’s failed efforts, the students put their plans in motion. They started by luring M. Boyd Jones, the African American principal of the school, away from the premises with a false alarm about students making trouble at the bus station. He had received such complaints before and was anxious to put a stop to whatever was going on. As soon as he left, Johns and the other student leaders sent a forged note to every classroom calling for a school assembly at 11:00 a.m.

When the students and teachers arrived in the auditorium, the stage curtain opened on Johns and other student strike leaders. She asked the two dozen teach- ers to leave, and most of them did. She then laid out the already well-known griev- ances and said that it was time for the students to take matters into their own hands by striking. No one was to go to class. If they stuck together, she explained, the Whites would have to respond. Nothing would happen to them, because the jail was not big enough to hold all of them. Principal Jones returned to school to find the student assembly in full swing. He pleaded with the students not to strike and explained that progress on the new school was being made. Johns asked him to go back to his office, and he did.

Flush with their initial success, the student strike committee asked Rev. Griffin to come to the school that afternoon and give them some advice. They asked him if the students should ask their parents’ permission to strike. The African American adult population in Prince Edward County was “docile” in the view of Rev. Griffin, who had spent time trying to organize an NAACP chapter in the county. He sug- gested that the matter be put to a vote, which ultimately determined that the students should proceed without getting their parents’ approval. At Griffin’s urging, Johns and Carrie Stokes, student body president, wrote a letter to the NAACP attor- neys in Richmond asking for their assistance.

The next afternoon the strike committee met with the superintendent of schools, T. J. McIlwaine, who was serving a fourth decade in that position. He rep- resented the softer side of Jim Crow—accepting things as they were and doing his best to be fair and evenhanded in a system of injustice and oppression. At the meet- ing, the opposing sides hardened their stances. McIlwaine insisted on African American subordination and made numerous promises—assuring the students that much had already been done and that more would be done in time. He also previewed a gauntlet of reprisals—warning the students that unless they went back to class, the teachers and the principal would lose their jobs. The students left dis- mayed by McIlwaine’s elusive and evasive manner but encouraged by their perfor- mance in the confrontation. They had held their own in the face of White power.

On Wednesday, 2 days into the strike, NAACP attorneys Oliver Hill and Spottswood Robinson III came by to talk with the strike leaders and their support- ers in response to the letter they had received from the students. Both Hill and Robinson were high-profile civil rights lawyers who regularly engaged in lawsuits. They had studied at Howard University, a training ground for advocacy lawyers, and had joined the network of African American lawyers working to redress racial inequality across the country. On the state and national level, the premise of the NAACP’s advocacy had been that as long as Plessy v. Ferguson was the law of the

4 PART I CONCEPTUAL PERSPECTIVES ON LEADING CHANGE

land, the government had to make equal what it insisted remain separate. They had already won several lawsuits for equal pay and facilities around the state of Virginia. Hill had even won a case for equal salaries for Prince Edward County teachers before World War II.

Hill and Robinson were not encouraging on this day, however. They and other NAACP members had grown tired of equalization suits, which although plentiful, only succeeded in changing the subordination of African Americans teachers and students at the margins. They were interested in shifting their strategy to confront school desegregation directly and were paying close attention to a case from Clarendon County, South Carolina, that was moving toward the U.S. Supreme Court. In fact, when Hill and Robinson stopped to speak to the Farmville student strike organizers, they were en route to Pulaski County,Virginia, to determine if the plaintiffs in a case there were willing to transform their suit from equalization to desegregation. They counseled the students to go back to class.

The students, however, were adamant in their refusal to end the strike. Impressed by their determination and not wanting to dampen their spirits, Hill and Robinson offered to help if the students would agree to return to school and change their case from one of equalization to one of desegregation.

The next evening, April 26, 1,000 students and parents attended a mass meet- ing in Farmville. The secretary of the state NAACP urged the parents to support their children. Without parental support, he said, the NAACP would not initiate what it knew would be a long, hard suit that would require considerable endurance. Initial assessments suggested that 65% of parents supported the students and the NAACP intervention; 25% opposed it; and 10% had no opinion. No opponents spoke that night.

On April 30, the school board sent out a letter signed by Principal Jones, urging parents to send their children back to school. The strange wording, which stated that Jones and the staff “had been authorized by the division superintendent” to send the letter, suggested that Jones was acting under duress. Rev. Griffin, however appreciative of Jones’s difficult position, nevertheless understood that the princi- pal’s prestige and authority could influence many parents to change or waver in their support of the strike and court action. Consequently, Griffin sent out his own letter calling for another mass meeting on Thursday, May 3, and underscoring the significance of what the students were trying to accomplish: “REMEMBER. The eyes of the world are on us. The intelligent support we give our cause will serve as a stimulant for the cause of free people everywhere” (Smith, 1965/1996, p. 58). John Lancaster, Negro county farm agent, helped Griffin get out the mass mailing.

On May 3 Hill and Robinson petitioned the school board for the desegregation of the county’s schools. The meeting that night took the form of a rally and served as a real turning point. J. B. Pervall, the former principal of Moton High School, spoke in favor of the standard of equality but not integration and gave many people in the packed church reason to pause and reassess what they were supporting. The NAACP officials attempted to regain the momentum, but it was Barbara Johns who succeeded in restoring the crowd’s support. She reminded members of the audience of their experience and the students’ action. In concluding, she effectively recounted the many small and large insults suffered by African Americans in the

CHAPTER 1 Causality, Change, and Leadership 5

history of race relations, challenging Pervall with unmistakable metaphors of White oppression and Black accommodation to it. She admonished the huge gathering: “Don’t let Mr. Charlie, Mr. Tommy, or Mr. Pervall stop you from backing us. We are depending on you” (Smith, 1965/1996, p. 59). Rev. Griffin took the cue and asserted Pervall’s right to speak but implied cowardice of anyone who would not match the students’ courage and back them. The students consented to return to school on Monday, May 7. Hill and Robinson promised that they would file suit in federal court unless the school board agreed to integrate by May 8.

The Walkout Becomes a Federal Case

On May 23, one month after the strike, Robinson followed through on the NAACP’s promise in light of the board’s inaction and filed suit in federal court in Richmond, Virginia, on behalf of 117 Moton students. In Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County he argued that Virginia’s law requiring segregated schools be struck down as unconstitutional. The attorney general, looking at the facts, counseled that an equalization suit was indefensible for the state but integra- tion was too radical a remedy. The state immediately began improving the facilities in an effort to render the suit moot.

The prestigious Richmond law firm Hunton,Williams, Anderson, Gay, & Moore represented the school board. Two senior partners, Archibald Gerard Robertson and Justin Moore, prepared a vigorous defense of segregation. During the 5-day trial, which began on February 25, 1952, they argued a very familiar defense of poor facilities for African American children: to each according to the taxes that they pay. The poverty of African Americans meant a low tax base among them and thus a generous White subsidy of their schools.

Robinson and Hill presented a now-familiar cast of witnesses who discussed the psychological impact of segregation. Moore rebutted one witness for the plaintiffs specifically for his Jewish background and the others for their unfamiliarity with the mores of the South. Moore ridiculed educator and psychologist Kenneth B. Clark for his research methods and overreaching conclusions. During Moore’s cross- examination of Clark, Moore and Hill clashed vehemently—and just short of physically—over Moore’s contention that the NAACP and Hill himself stirred up and fomented critical situations. The passions of this exchange portended events to come.

The court found unanimously for the school board. The students and their parents were disappointed, given their honest, albeit idealistic, belief that they would win because their cause was just. Robinson and Hill were neither surprised nor disappointed; they were now prepared to appeal to higher courts. Davis v. School Board reached the Supreme Court in July and joined with other school desegregation cases for argument on December 8, 1952.

The drama of a local school strike reaching the U.S. Supreme Court was not over, although many of the original actors in the school strike had exited the stage. Barbara Rose Johns left Farmville soon after the strike. Her family, concerned for her safety, sent her to Montgomery, Alabama, to live with her uncle Rev. Vernon Johns, minister of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. The education board fired Boyd Jones, and he and his new wife, Moton High School teacher Inez Davenport,

6 PART I CONCEPTUAL PERSPECTIVES ON LEADING CHANGE

also moved to Montgomery so he could attend graduate school. Ironically, the cou- ple became members of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

The arguments of December left the Court with the task of deciding the legality of school desegregation and possibly the constitutionality of Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 decision that found separate but equal to be constitutional. A divided Court, with at least two dissenting votes, was ready to overturn Plessy but sought a stronger major- ity. Justice Felix Frankfurter bought some time for the Court by developing a set of remaining questions, and the Court asked that the case be reargued on October 12, 1953. In the interval Chief Justice Fred Vinson died and Earl Warren, former gover- nor of California, replaced him as the new chief justice.Warren worked to gain a con- sensus among his fellow justices, who had become deeply divided during Vinson’s tenure regarding civil liberties in the McCarthy era. Firmly opposed to the constitu- tionality of Plessy v. Ferguson, Warren relied on diplomacy and compromise in lan- guage to make it possible for the Court, including a hospitalized member, to render a unanimous decision on May 17, 1954. The Court ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional and that separate-but-equal could not be applied to schools.

Local Authorities and Their Reactions

The Court’s decision engendered a severe backlash in the South, particularly in Prince Edward County and other parts of Virginia. As long as the courts did not set a remedy for segregation, one of Warren’s compromises, segregation remained the de facto practice in Prince Edward County and other parts of the South. In 1956 the courts finally ordered desegregation but still did not set a timetable for it. Prominent Virginia politicians and editors invoked the theory of interposition— the right of state government to position itself between the federal government and those otherwise bound by its laws. They called for “massive resistance” in much the same way that Johns had, certain that they could avoid punishment for noncom- pliance with the new federal law by presenting a united front. Extremists promised to put an end to public schools rather than integrate them.

Reprisals and resistance hit Prince Edward County particularly hard. On the per- sonal side John Lancaster lost his job as Negro county farm agent and Rev. Griffin, besieged by every creditor, was left penniless. His wife suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of the stress. On the policy side the Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors had been providing funding for the public schools one month at a time as long as the schools remained segregated. But in 1959 the federal appeals court ordered Prince Edward County and the rest of Virginia to desegregate its schools in September. In response, the board of supervisors did not allocate any funds for public schools. Instead it provided tuition assistance to students desiring to attend all-White private schools that had been established in the county in the event of court-ordered integration. The county’s public schools remained closed until 1964, perhaps offering the most radical example of massive resistance on the local level in the nation.

For the 5 years the public schools were closed, the NAACP litigated for public funding of integrated schools. African American residents established learning cen- ters for their children. A few families were able to send their children to live with relatives outside the county where they could attend public schools.

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New tensions arose in the African American community. Attorneys for the NAACP sought a legal remedy rather than a local remedy that they feared might undermine their case. Intent on having the courts decide the controversy, the NAACP did not want the learning centers to approximate the quality of school instruction and steadfastly avoided a compromise with officials that would lead to the reopening of the public schools. African Americans heeded the NAACP’s advice and began to register to vote in an effort to vote local authorities out of office rather than submit to them.

By 1960 Prince Edward County had gained notoriety and came to represent what needed to be changed in the South. It attracted organizations other than the NAACP and more direct action protest: Black Muslims supported separate and better schools; the Sit-In Movement inspired direct action; and the Student Non- Violent Coordinating Committee sent in organizers to plan boycotts as well as to tutor the children locked out of their schools. Griffin managed to bridge the gap between the increasingly “old” efforts of NAACP litigation and the “new” methods of movement organizing. He supported the latter in the county even as he became president of the NAACP statewide. Ironically, the “new” movement tactics of direct action had an exemplar: a school boycott organized in 1951 by high school junior Barbara Rose Johns.

Analytical Elements

What elements contributed to change in this case? Are these elements present in organizational, community, political, and other social contexts? In this section we explore these questions by proposing several analytical elements that may be useful for understanding this case and others.

Causality

Accounts of leadership often reduce causality to a limited set of factors. This enables us to portray leadership as links in a chain of cause and effect, such as when we credit Clinton’s fiscal policies with the prosperity of the 1990s or a CEO with the turnaround of a company, without considering the many other factors that played a part in these outcomes. In the case of Prince Edward County, Barbara Johns’s leadership undeniably influenced school desegregation. But an exclusive focus on her role reflects an oversimplification of the chain of events and seriously underes- timates the nature of leadership. Leadership is infinitely more complex than the efforts of any one individual; rather, it is the impact of efforts to influence the actions of leaders and followers opposed to and supportive of the same or related changes. This perspective on leadership requires attention to a network of actors and the sea of other changes in which a leader’s influence efforts take place. Four analytical frames help us to attend to this network of influence rather than to a spe- cific leader: Kurt Lewin’s field theory; Gunnar Myrdal’s principle of cumulative effect; Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge’s theory of punctuated equilibrium; and Margaret Wheatley’s work on systems.

8 PART I CONCEPTUAL PERSPECTIVES ON LEADING CHANGE

Kurt Lewin, Field Theory

Kurt Lewin’s field theory espouses that effective change requires understanding “the totality of coexisting facts which are conceived as mutually interdependent” (Lewin, 1951, p. 240). Lewin, a psychologist with training in physics and mathemat- ics, concerned himself with individual and group behavior, including change. He contributed ”action research” to the field of problem-centered scholarship. Problem solving, just like effective change, requires placing a problem within a system or field with as many relevant and interdependent elements as possible.Within this field each individual also becomes a dynamic field with interdependent parts, including “life spaces” of family, work, church, and other groups. People take positive and negative influences from their experiences that shape their identity and help explain their behavior. Lewin advocated assembling all the relevant, mutually independent factors to explain social