DPLS Learning Goals
Our goals are for students to:
Goal 1: Develop self-knowledge required for leadership
Goal 2: Become fluent in models for understanding social systems
Goal 3: Understand change processes
Goal 4: Understand and prize diversity and global approaches
Goal 5: Become more reflective as ethical leaders
Goal 6: Become more committed to and skillful in promoting social justice
Goal 7: Develop rigorous research competencies based on the “habit of truth”
Goal 8: Practice leadership based on respect for and accountability to others
Goal 1
As part of the Doctoral Studies learning community, students will use multiple theoretical
frameworks to better understand themselves and to facilitate their personal development. Selfknowledge is the first requirement of a leader.
Self-knowledge is a lifelong quest for knowing the truth about oneself and a prerequisite to
discovering truth in the world. A variety of traditions differ in their paths to this goal, and no two
individuals pursue identical paths to knowing themselves over a lifetime.
One aspect of self-knowledge is the ability to identify one’s own leadership strengths and
weaknesses. This skill requires self-reflection and personal honesty, the presence of honest and
nurturing feedback, the ability and willingness to act on such feedback, and confidence which
comes from this continuing learning process. Bennis and Nanus (1985) see this self-diagnosis as
composing the “raw ingredients” of leadership, necessary not only to a leader's success, but also
necessary to encouraging the same process in others.
An important aspect of self-knowledge focuses on values. Briskin (1996) contends that the
ability of the leader to be in touch with her soul is critical to making organizations places which
nurture the souls of all they touch. Briskin calls this aspect of self-knowledge soul making,
defining it as “an odyssey of self-discovery that connects us to the world and to our duties in this
life” (p. 11). Palmer (1983) believes that this way of knowing is based on self-knowledge of
one's whole person – not only on reason, but on intuition, beliefs, and actions as well. This quest
for self-truth requires a leader to become vulnerable and to share herself with others.
To know in truth is to become betrothed, to engage the known with one’s whole self, an
engagement one enters with attentiveness, care, and good will. To know in truth is to
allow one’s self to be known as well, to be vulnerable to the challenges and changes any
true relationship brings. To know in truth is to enter into the life of that which we know
and to allow it to enter into ours. (Palmer, 1983, p. 31)
Self-knowledge requires leaders to apply what is learned to their personal and professional lives
in such a way that a transcendence or a new way of thinking and living may evolve, a process
Quinn (1996) calls deep change. Because deep change occurs not only at the personal level, but
also at the organizational and societal levels, Quinn contends that willingness to understand and
to risk deep change in one’s own life is necessary to leadership for the deep change in
organizations and societies.
The constant learning necessary to knowing oneself over a lifetime is also necessary to leading
learning organizations. Senge (1990) calls this continued learning personal mastery:
Personal mastery goes beyond competence and skills, though it is grounded in
competence and skills. It goes beyond spiritual unfolding or opening, although it requires
spiritual growth. It means approaching one’s life as a creative work, living life from a
creative as opposed to reactive viewpoint. (p. 141)
Leaders who practice the discipline of personal mastery, according to Senge, live in a continual
learning mode; they never “arrive.” They are committed to their own growth as well as to their
work; they possess personal vision as well as organizational vision. Senge believes that
organizations learn only through individuals who learn. The personal search is essential to
leadership.
Program Response. In order to provide our students with opportunities to learn several models
for self-understanding and reflection, we offer the following courses:
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Leadership Theory
Leadership and Psychology
Leadership and Ethics
Research sequence
Goal 2
As part of the Doctoral Studies learning community, students will become fluent in several
mental models or theoretical frameworks and know how each enriches their understanding of
social systems.
Mental models are deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, and images that influence how
we understand the world and how we behave within it (Senge, 1990). Critical competencies for
contemporary leaders are the ability to make one's dominant mental models explicit, to widen
one's repertoire of mental models, and to engage in dialogue with others about shared mental
models. Several authors call this set of competencies reframing (e.g., Bolman & Deal, 1991;
Carlson, 1996; Fairhurst & Sarr, 1996); metaphor fluency (e.g., Morgan, 1986); or the critical
ability to utilize multiple organizational perspectives (Ancona, Kochan, Schully, VanMaanen, &
Westney, 1996).
Leaders, by definition, operate within the context of a setting. The abilities to diagnose one’s
setting, to define its critical issues collaboratively with others, to understand basic methodologies
for exploring issues, and to work for continuing improvement are critical leadership
competencies. However, most people are comfortable with only one or two “lenses” through
which to view the world. Such limited paradigms are no longer sufficient when institutions are
characterized by accelerating change and increasing diversity. Therefore, fluency in several
paradigmatic mental models is a basic skill of 21st century leaders.
Mastering the ability to diagnose a situation from multiple perspectives is the first step in helping
others to do so. Morgan (1986) contends that leaders
. . . have to become skilled in the art of “reading” the situations that they are attempting
to organize or manage. This skill. . . often occurs at an almost subconscious level. For
this reason it is often believed that effective managers and problem solvers are born
rather than made, and have a kind of magical power to understand and transform the
situations that they encounter.
If we take a closer look at the processes used, however, we find that this kind of
mystique and power is often based on an ability to develop deep appreciation of the
situations being addressed. Skilled readers develop the knack of reading situations with
various scenarios in mind, and of forging actions that seem appropriate to the readings
thus obtained.
They have a capacity to remain open and flexible, suspending immediate
judgments whenever possible, until a more comprehensive view of the situation emerges.
They are aware of the fact that new insights often arise as one reads a situation from
“new angles,” and that a wide and varied reading can create a wide and varied range of
action possibilities. Less effective managers and problem solvers, on the other hand,
seem to interpret everything from a fixed standpoint. As a result, they frequently hit
blocks that they can’t get around. (pp. 11-12)
Building upon this competency of multiple tools with which to analyze a social institution, Senge
(1990) suggests that a major task of the “new” leader’s work is to help others to also increase the
ways they see a situation:
. . . how different parts of the organization interact, how different situations parallel one
another because of common underlying structures, how local actions have longer-term
and broader impacts than local actors often realize, and why certain operating policies are
needed for the system as a whole. (p. 353)
In their book, The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes and Posner (1990) assert that this basic need
for diagnostic knowledge and skill is a contemporary leader's most critical tool:
The more you know about the world, the easier it is to approach it with assurance. Thus,
you should seek to learn as much as possible about the forces that affect the organization,
be they political, economic, social, moral, or artistic. (p. 299)
The goal of diagnostic skill is to inform and enable action.
Program Response. In order to provide our students with these basic diagnostic competencies,
the Doctoral Studies Program offers students the following courses:
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Leadership Theory
Organizational Theory
Policy Analysis
Organizational Change and Reform
Advanced Organizational Change and Reform
Research sequence
From its inception, Gonzaga’s Doctoral Studies Program recognized the necessity of introducing
a number of mental models not available in the literature on leadership per se. Therefore,
between 25% and 50% of a student's program comes from a variety of liberal arts offerings. Each
introduces a way of knowing and a way of examining the role of leadership:
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Leadership and Psychology
Leadership and Ethics
Leadership and Sociology
Leadership and History
Leadership and Philosophy
Leadership and Religious Studies
Leadership and Communication
Leadership and Political Science
Leadership and Law
Leadership and Literature
Leadership and Economics
Leadership and Diversity
Leadership and Technology
Goal 3
As part of the Doctoral Studies learning community, students will understand the change process
at the individual, organizational, and global levels.
Quinn (1996) describes two major types of change, which can occur at any system level:
When most of us talk about change, we typically mean incremental change. Incremental
change is usually the result of a rational analysis and planning process. There is a desired
goal with a specific set of steps for reaching it. Incremental change is usually limited in
scope and is often reversible. If the change does not work out, we can always return to
the old way. Incremental change usually does not disrupt our past patterns -- it is an
extension of the past. Most important, during incremental change, we feel we are in
control. . . .
Deep change differs from incremental change in that it requires new ways of
thinking and behaving. It is change that is major in scope, discontinuous with the past and
generally irreversible. . . . Deep change . . . distorts existing patterns of action and
involves taking risks. Deep change means surrendering control. (p. 3)
Traditional theories of leadership, which are based on control, are not useful during times of
deep change. Most observers agree that change is increasing at an unprecedented pace (e.g.,
Heifetz, 1994; Quinn, 1996; Senge, 1990; Swenson, 1992). Kleiner (1996) maintains that leaders
must learn to be responsible for personal, organizational, and large-scale changes without feeling
in control of them.
Heifetz (1994) suggests that traditional leadership theories which hold leaders solely accountable
for knowing the answers to increasingly complex issues, which accompany deep change, are
obsolete. He contends that more inclusive definitions of leadership behaviors – which he calls
adaptive leadership – must be distributed widely within the population. Adaptive leadership not
only assumes increasing change, but also increasing diversity, both of which require new
leadership competencies. “Instead of looking for saviors, we should be calling for leadership that
will challenge us to face problems for which there are no simple, painless solutions – problem
that require us to learn new ways” (Heifetz, 1994, p. 2).
Changes in individuals, organizations, and society often require more than a commitment to
more just relationships. Enright (1994) suggests that individuals need to also value and forward
forgiveness. Worthington and DiBasio (1990) contend that forgiveness plays a primary role in
the resolution of wounded and unjust relationships. The Doctoral Studies Program recognizes
that personal and social justice require an understanding of forgiveness and reconciliation within
the self, significant interpersonal relationships, organizations, and society.
Program Response. In order to provide our students with these competencies, the Doctoral
Studies Program offers students the following courses:
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Leadership Theory
Leadership and Sociology
Organizational Change and Reform
Advanced Organizational Change and Reform
Goal 4
As part of the Doctoral Studies learning community, students will understand and prize the need
for increasing diversity and for global approaches to issues with special attention to the
implications of this diversity for individuals, organizations, and societies.
Greater diversity everywhere asks us as individuals and as members of organizations and
societies to operate differently. Understanding this diversity and its implications constitutes
another competency of the new leader. Mindell describes the situation:
Often the organization’s declared vision, structure and model are almost irrelevant compared to
its ability to incorporate differences of opinion and diverse styles of communication. If a group
succeeds at diversity, it is a successful community and will work. If it cannot do this, it fails at
the deepest spiritual level of community, becomes unsustainable within itself and does little good
for the world around it. (p. 20)
Specifically, increasing diversity has implications for leaders in the areas of compassion,
conflict, and community. Senge (1990) advocates the discipline of systems thinking not only to
better understand organizations, but also to better see the interrelationships between ourselves
and those we perceive as different. Such connections form the foundation of compassion, a
necessary trait for any leader.
Conflict is a by-product of diversity. Although many think of conflict as something to avoid, its
constructive uses make it imperative for organizational effectiveness and learning. Leaders must
understand how to keep conflict constructive; they must know how to prevent destructive
conflict; they must know how to resolve and manage conflict that results from diverse styles and
values; and they must develop the capacity to “sit in the fire” of the conflict necessary to build
true community (Mindell, 1995).
Extensive knowledge of history and the outside world only increases your awareness of
competing values systems, of the many principles by which individuals, organizations, and states
can choose to function. “You cannot lead others until you have first led yourself through a
struggle with opposing values” (Kouzes & Posner, 1990, p. 301).
Heifetz (1994) contends that many leadership models, even those based on the primacy of
values, fail to guide us when diverse values conflict with each other. He maintains that the
leader’s work in diverse situations is to “influence the community to face its problems” (p. 14).
Finally, true community, in Peck’s (1993) opinion, can only result if a group is willing to face its
conflicts and work through them in a civil manner. Peck maintains that the courage to work
through conflict and the ethic of civility constitute the only true formula for building
communities in the future. He predicts that organizations will eventually come to this recognition
because leaders will see that community is the only viable social institution in a diverse society,
and once experienced, leaves other forms of organizing lacking.
As it becomes more obvious that issues faced by leaders and their organizations do not observe
national boundaries, the notion of community clearly extends itself globally as well. One of the
important benefits from increasing focus on diversity is best realized from actively seeking out
and learning from the experiences of the international community. Collaborative, multinational
approaches based on cross-cultural sensitivity and communication skills will be critical for
leaders in an increasingly interdependent world.
Program Response. The Doctoral Program in Leadership Studies works to include an
increasingly diverse curriculum and instructional strategies to reflect this goal. Active
recruitment of international students and their contribution to the program are integral to the
global consideration of leadership and organizational change. In addition, specific courses deal
with issues related to diversity and global approaches:
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Policy Analysis
Leadership Theory
Leadership and Political Science
Leadership and Diversity
Organizational Change and Reform
Advanced Organizational Change and Reform
Research sequence
Goal 5
As part of the Doctoral Studies learning community, students will become continually more
reflective as ethical human beings and as ethical leaders.
When leaders know themselves and are surrounded by others with diverse attributes, behaviors,
and values, a cycle of reflectiveness becomes a personal discipline. However, such reflection is
based upon a knowledge of ethics and possession of values regarding individual worth and
dignity, social justice, and accountability for oneself and the global community.
You can resolve the conflicts and contradictions of leadership only if you establish for
yourself an ethical set of standards on which to base all your actions. . . . All of your
individual complexities are held together by a fundamental set of values and beliefs.
Developing yourself as a leader begins with those key convictions. It begins with your
value system. Clarifying your own values and visions is a highly personal matter. No one
else can do it for you. (Kouzes & Posner, 1990, p. 300)
Both Fritz (1989) and Senge (1990) provide clear models for this type of ethical reflection. They
suggest that one must develop the capacity to hold two images simultaneously in the mind: the
first is the courage and ability to see current reality as it is, and the second is to hold up one’s
own personal vision of and commitment to the truth. The discrepancy between these two images
at the point of ethical reflection gives birth to a creative tension, the energy to act ethically. This
discipline requires that we acquire “a relentless willingness to root out the ways we limit
ourselves from seeing what is, and to continually challenge our theories of why things are the
way they are . . . continually broadening our awareness” (Senge, p. 159). Other barriers include
our personal tendencies and institutional structures and cultures, which encourage feelings of
powerlessness to achieve lofty goals.
As children, we learn what our limitations are. Children are rightfully taught limitations
essential to their survival. But too often this learning is generalized. We are constantly
told we can’t have or can’t do certain things, and we may come to assume that we
(always) have an inability to have what we want. (Fritz, 1989, p. 156)
And when what we want is commitment to the truth, Fritz believes that we must continually
learn and relearn how to energize ourselves to work in this direction.
Program Response: In order that our students develop both the discipline of reflection and
increasingly moral reasoning and behavior, many class assignments and discussions stress these
practices. In addition, the following courses address this goal specifically:
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Leadership Theory
Leadership and Diversity
Leadership and Ethics
Leadership and Psychology
Goal 6
As part of the Doctoral Studies learning community, students will become increasingly
committed to social justice, and through their participation in community activities will refine the
skills relevant to bringing about more humane social institutions.
Gardner (1987) suggests that there are four moral goals of leadership: 1) releasing human
potential; 2) balancing the needs of the individual and the community; 3) defending the
fundamental values of the community; and 4) instilling in individuals a sense of initiative and
responsibility. These goals are applicable to all social institutions, from families to work
organizations, businesses to governments, villages to international entities. More humane social
institutions begin with more humane individuals capable of creating more humane relationships.
Such an endeavor involves “the reconciliation of people with one another” (Ely, 1980) through a
critical understanding of both justice and forgiveness (Enright, Eastin, Golden, Sarinopoulos, &
Freedman, 1982).
Senge (1990), in his description of the learning organization, expands his description in such a
way that the learning organization is not an end in itself, but rather a means to a more
compassionate world. Toward this end, leaders must
. . . work relentlessly to foster a climate in which the principles of personal mastery are
practiced in daily life. That means building an organization where it is safe for people to
create visions, where inquiry and commitment to the truth are the norm, and where
challenging the status quo is expected. (p. 172)
To make the world a more compassionate, just, and humane place is the consummate end of the
role of leadership as defined in the Doctoral Program.
Program Response. The following courses specifically address the goal of creating more humane
and just social institutions:
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Leadership Theory
Policy Analysis
Organizational Theory
Leadership and Ethics
Leadership and Diversity
Organizational Change and Reform
Advanced Organizational Change and Reform
In addition, the Doctoral Program in Leadership Studies provides service learning opportunities,
both as part of course work and encouragement to become involved in community activities
focused on issues such as organizational reform, equity of educational opportunity, and
community responses to race-based hate activities.
Goal 7
As participants in the Doctoral Studies learning community, students will develop research
competencies that are founded on practices of rigorous scholarship and based on the “habit of
truth.”
Locke, Spiduso, and Silverman (1993) suggest that the foundation for scholarship as a collective
human enterprise is neither intellect nor technical skill, but simple honesty. The Doctoral Studies
Program believes that honesty is the point at which leadership and scholarship converge and that
leaders and scholars must develop what Brownowski (1995) calls the “habit of truth.” The rules
for practicing the habit of truth are absolute with no compromises, no evasions, no shortcuts, and
no excuses (Locke, Spiduso, & Silverman, 1993). Both scholarship and leadership require
attention to the difficult and profound questions of the meaning of truth, authority, and evidence.
These answers also affect the ways leaders interact with others, their public and private personae,
their sense of control over events, their views on learning, and their conceptions of morality
(Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986).
Developing the habit of truth is the focus of the research component, including the dissertation
requirement, of the Doctoral Studies Program. Because rigorous scholarship based on this
foundation demands sophisticated research competencies, the program is designed to provide
solid grounding in research theory and the mastery of methodological techniques. Attention is
given to the use of research to provide voice to people who have been traditionally silenced.
Students are encouraged to know and to value both quantitative and qualitative methods, and to
carefully consider the issues of validity from the perspective of those studied. Research
methodologies are regarded as providing tools that are as relevant to promoting social justice,
understanding social systems, and leading organizational change as they are to the demonstration
of scholarship represented by the completion of a dissertation.
The dissertation provides a critical culminating project where students combine theory and past
research with their own exploration of a substantive issue in the area of leadership, change,
and/or social justice. The dissertation allows students to demonstrate the abilities to design a
methodology for studying problems, collecting and analyzing results, drawing meaningful
conclusions, and making recommendations for action based on their findings.
Program Response. The following courses (the Research Sequence) specifically address the goal
of developing research competencies based on the “habit of truth”:
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Principles of Research
Literature Review for the Dissertation
Qualitative Research Methods
Advanced Statistical Methods
Statistical Data Analysis
Advanced Qualitative Methods
Instrument Design
Proposal Seminar
Dissertation credits
Goal 8.
As part of the Doctoral Studies learning community, students will inspire, create, and lead
through a value system based on respect for and accountability to others, their organizations, and
the planet.
This goal represents the culmination of all the others. The overall mission of the Gonzaga
University Doctoral Studies Program is to enhance the personal and professional development of
leaders toward this end. The most visionary of leadership theorists contend that past conceptions
and practices of leaders must change in order to take on ever more complex, ambiguous, and
dangerous problems. Heifetz (1994) eloquently summarizes this need for what he calls adaptive
leadership:
Because leadership affects many lives, the concept we use must be spacious. It has to
allow for the values of various cultures and organizations. It cannot be imperialistic. Yet
we cannot beg the issue altogether by saying that leadership is value-free and define it
simply in terms of its instruments (influence, formal powers, prominence) or personal
resources (skills, bearing, temperament). Those who listen to us do more with what we
say. They turn instruments and resources into values that orient their professional lives. . .
.
Tackling tough problems – problems that often require an evolution of values -- is
the end of leadership; getting that work done is its essence.
Our societies and organizations clearly need (this type of) leadership. . . . We are
facing major adaptive challenges. We need a view of leadership that provides a practical
orientation so that we can evaluate events and action in process, without waiting for
outcomes. We also need a governor on our tendencies to become arrogant and grandiose
in our visions, to flee from harsh realities and the dailyness of leadership . . . a strategy of
leadership to accomplish adaptive work accounts for several conditions and values that
are consonant with the demands of a democratic society. In addition to reality testing,
these include respecting conflict, negotiation, and a diversity of views within a
community; increasing community cohesion; developing norms of responsibility-taking,
learning, and innovation; and keeping social distress within a bearable range.
Clearly, we have a host of quite precious values – liberty, equality, human
welfare, justice, and community – for which we take risks, and a concept of (leadership)
applied to human organizations and societies must account for these squarely. (pp. 26-27)
The final task of the adaptive leader, in Heifetz’s terms, is to give work and accountability “back
to the people.” We can no longer afford for our organizations and societies to be divided into
those few leaders who assume accountability for action and the many followers who do not feel
responsible for either common problems or for the search for solutions. Global issues are too
critical for anyone to escape accountability. Thus, future leaders must use their talents and skills
to enable greater leadership density within their communities, where what we suggest are the
basic traits of a leader are true of more and more people. The final justification for leadership
development is the work of making leaders of everyone.
Program Response. The combination of courses, research (culminating in the dissertation), and
community involvement that constitutes the Doctoral Program in Leadership Studies is designed
to provide students the opportunity for growth as adaptive leaders and to develop the personal,
academic, and professional skills necessary to address complex, ambiguous, and potentially
dangerous societal issues.
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