Causality, Change, and Leadership
Gill Robinson Hickman
Hickman, G. & Cuoto, R. (2006) Causality, Change, and Leadership. Chapter in Goethals, G. & Sorenson, G. The quest for a general theory of leadership. Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc. The chapter will be posted in the Course Resources section of this course. We will discuss this case as part of our Unit 4 cohort meeting. The key question to discuss is,
"What two chapters from the Sage handbook on leadership best help one frame and understand the leadership issues presented by this case?".
As you think about and discuss your answer(s) to this key question also think about these sub-questions: 1. Who in the Prince Edward County school desegregation case is a leader? Explain your choice(s).
2. What leadership was missing in the case? What would have been different had that leadership occurred? Support your thinking with reference to the Sage Handbook.
3. What leadership is represented in the case that is not well-captured or addressed in chapters from the Sage Handbook?
4. How did the analysis of the case affect your thinking after initial reading of the case?
5. What implications about causality and change do you now believe are important in our study of leadership?
6. Generally speaking, what does this case tell us about leadership?
Who in the Prince Edward County school desegregation case is a leader?
Barbara Rose Jones- led the students to meet after getting principal out of school on false call.
Principal Jones asked students not to strike.
Jones and Carrie Stokes he asked to write letter to NAACP attorneys
Strike committee meets with school superintendent. T.J. McIllwaine
Wed- NAACP attorneys Oliver Hill came to speak with group
Barbara Jones succeeded in restoring crowd’s support
May 23 case filed in federal court Davis v. County School Boards of Prince Edward County
Barbara Jones left and moved to Montgomery Al live with uncle
School Dist. fired Superintend Boyd Jones
1956 courts ordered desegregation.
Prince George public schools remained closed until 1964.
Barbara Jones was the Leader her leadership influenced school desegregation
Rev. Griffin requested to come to school. He was trying to organize NAACP chapter.
What leadership was missing in the case?
Superintendent, School officials, county government
What would have been different had that leadership occurred?
Quicker resolution to the issue
What leadership is represented in the case that is not well-captured or addressed in chapters from the Sage Handbook?
How did the analysis of the case affect your thinking after initial reading of the case?
What implications about causality and change do you now believe are important in our study of leadership?
Generally speaking, what does this case tell us about leadership
Notes:
In the simplest of systems, with only two opposing elements, a change in one brings about a change in the other, which in turn brings on more change.
Every element of the system interrelates with every other element, and every element has its peculiarities and irregularities (Myrdal 1944, p. 1068)
Construct- leadership to people’s actions-actions that are intended to influence the actions of other people-within a system of change.
We might conceive of change as a destination sought through the leader as engine p- a linear and railroad track analog. (Wheatly 1992, p. 51)
Death of Chief Justice Vinson, made possible a strong majority opinion in Brown v. Board of Education.
Warren, guilt he felt, California, during WWII, internment of West Coast Japanese Americans. (Kluger 1975, pp. 661-2)
Moton High Schol PTA; WWII service of Rev. Griffin, Principal Jones and John’s father; support of small band of student strike leaders.
The uncertainty demands examine every inexhaustible subset
In the sharp formulation of the law of causality – “If we know the present exactly, we can calculate the future” – it is not the conclusion that is wrong but the premise (American institute of physics and David Casidy 2005)
African Americans were deemed inferior and unequal. 