Leadership Needs Assessment of FHSU Alumni Association
Raenee Patterson
Department of Leadership Studies, Fort Hays State University
Introduction
Debra Prideaux took on the position of Executive
Director of the FHSU Alumni Association 23 years ago.
Following her retirement in June, FHSU President Tisa
Mason appointed Tammy Wellbrock, to act as the
interim Executive Director. As with any change, this
change in leadership has challenged the staff of the
FHSU Alumni Association. This study worked to
examine the leadership needs and feelings towards
change within the FHSU Alumni Association by asking
the question “How does the Fort Hays State University
Alumni Association team participate in leadership?”
Literature Review
• Houghton and DiLiello (2010) state that leadership
development may be one option for “unlocking this
idle creative potential and enhancing overall
organizational effectiveness,” (p. 230-231).
• Research done by Luria, Kahana, Goldenberg and
Noam (2019) showed that those who trained under
effective leaders became highly effective leaders,
while those who trained under less effective leaders
were not as effective.
• Kalmanovich-Cohen, Pearsall and Christian (2018)
did research on change leadership and found that a
new leader can help lower the feeling of
commitment felt by organization members and thus
help the organization become more comfortable with
change.
• Coetzee, Visagie and Ukpere (2014) found three
main similarities between leaders who successfully
implemented change within an organization:
communicate and execute a clear vision and
strategy, embrace change and be transparent
through the change.
Methods
This is a qualitative case study which investigates a
case “bounded by time and place” (Cresswell & Poth,
2018, p. 96).
Population
FHSU Alumni Association Staff
Sample
5 of the staff members agreed to participate.
Method
Qualitative, open-ended interview conducted either in
person or via Zoom.
Instrument
A semi-structured interview protocol was created for
one-on-one interviews that lasted between 30 and 60
minutes.
Results
Following the interviews, transcripts were coded, and
five themes were identified.
1. Debra’s Leadership – While Debra had many
strengths as a leader, one theme that appeared
about her leadership was her absence for much of
the year due to being a governmental liaison.
2. Advancement Model – “Dr. Mason, when hiring me,
gave me two objectives. One was to explore/launch
what she calls and advancement model.” This has
led to a rearrangement of offices throughout the
building and increased partnership with the FHSU
Foundation.
3. Feelings Towards Change – “The people who have
been here the longest are having the most trouble
with change.” “It might be fair to say it depends on
who’s suggesting the change.”
4. Emotions – “There’s been a lot of tears and there’s
been meetings where we can’t finish because
somebody has to leave to go get composed.”
5. Tammy’s Leadership – “I think that she has good
intentions of helping everybody to grow and to…
learn and just figure out how best to do this.”
Discussion
Following the conclusion of this research project, were
key leadership theories that played a role in the
findings.
Change Readiness
How individuals within an organization feel about
change has a large impact on change being
implemented successfully. Further research could be
done using Holt, Armenakis, Field and Harris (2007)
findings that found four factors that influenced an
individual’s beliefs about change.
Change Leadership
As identified in the literature review, bringing in a new
leader can lead to more openness for change. Leaders
must have the right attitudes and skills in order to
implement the change in an effective way for the
organization.
Limitations
Limitations of all sorts impact research. One large
limitation with this project was the short time frame in
which to work through the entire research process. A
limitation on the side of the researcher was taking too
broad of an approach to an extremely complex
situation.
References
1. Coetzee, R., Visagie, J., & Ukpere, W. (2014). Responding to change in a large organization
from a leadership angle. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, Volume 5(No. 20), 827-
837. http://www.richtmann.org/journal/index.php/mjss/article/view/3802/3726.
2. Holt, D. T., Armenakis, A. A., Field, H. S. & Harris, S. G. (2007). Readiness for organizational change:
The systematic development of a scale. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 43(2), 232-255.
https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.fhsu.edu/doi/abs/10.1177/0021886306295295.
3. Houghton, J. D., DiLiello, T. C. (2010). Leadership development: The key to unlocking
individual creativity in organizations. Leadership & Organization Development Journal,
Volume 31(No. 3), 230-245.
https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.fhsu.edu/docview/89117750/fulltextPDF/B3FAC72646A
4A85PQ/1?accountid=27424
.
4. Kalmanovich-Cohen, H., Pearsall, M. J., & Christian, J. S. (2018). The effects of leadership
change on team escalation of commitment. The Leadership Quarterly, Volume 29(No. 5),
597-608.
https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.fhsu.edu/science/article/pii/S1048984316302636.
5. Luria, G., Kahana, A., Goldenberg, J., & Noam, Y. (2019). Leadership development:
Leadership emergence to leadership effectiveness. Small Group Research, Volume 50(No.
5), 571-592.
https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.fhsu.edu/doi/pdf/10.1177/1046496419865326.