Am I Really a Leader?
How Leadership Theory can Inform Academic Advising
#NACADA14 | #C256 | Room 200H
Welcome!
Today’s Agenda
• Leadership, Advising, and Theory: What
are They?
• Advising Theory in Brief
• Leadership Theory in Brief
• Leadership Theory in Advising
• Authentic Leadership, Authentic Advising?
• Toward a Theory of Advising
What is Leadership?
How did you describe it?
“A process whereby an individual influences
a group of individuals to achieve a common
goal” (Northouse, 2012).
So, What is Advising?
How did you describe it?
Were there any similarities?
Of the 17 example definitions on NACADA’s
clearinghouse “definition of advising” page:
– “process” appears in 15
– “goals” appears in 9
So, What is Advising?
“A process whereby an advisor influences
students to achieve a set of common goals.”
What is Theory?
Theoria (θεωρία), Greek for “contemplation”,
corresponds to the Latin contemplatio, “looking
at”, “gazing at”, “being aware of”
A theory is a thoughtful and rational explanation
of the general nature of things.
Implies testing for validity, replication, and falls
between hypotheses and laws.
Aristotle contrasted theory with praxis, or
practice, which is still an important dynamic
today.
Advising Theory (in brief)
Advising Theory (in brief)
The Handbook promotes no single theory:
“Use of an array of theories will lead to an
understanding of this broadly complicated
phenomenon known as academic advising”
(Hagen & Jordan, 2008).
Advising Theory (in brief)
Theories are divided into two groups:
• Normative
– From the earlier days of advising theory (or before),
exhort advisors to advise in a certain way
– Include developmental advising, psychosocial and
identity development theories, cognitive development
theories, and personal preference or type theories
• Analogic
– Borrow from other fields and apply them to advising
and tend to represent more recent scholarship
– Include narrative advising (from narrative therapy),
Socratic Method, and social norms theory
Advising Theory (in brief)
When viewed in light of its first edition, the
Handbook demonstrates a growing interest
among academic advisors in exploring other
theoretical areas to inform their practice.
Advising Theory (in brief)
Advising Theory (in brief)
Academic Advising Approaches:
• Presents a variety of established advising
practices and strategies in a contemporary
context
• Written to expand knowledge bases and
link theory with practice
• Also does not promote any one theoretical
perspective
Advising Theory (in brief)
Arranges approaches into three areas:
• Advising as Teaching
– pedagogical theory
– learning theory
– developmental advising
• “A New Light” (established, different social science perspectives)
– motivation theory
– appreciative inquiry (via appreciative advising),
– positive psychology theory (via strengths-based advising),
– self-authorship theory,
– counseling theories (via proactive advising),
– advising as coaching
• “New Lenses” (not typically associated with advising)
– constructivism & systems theory
– hermeneutics
Advising Theory (in brief)
Marc Lowenstein concludes Approaches
with a reassertion of the position that theory
is critical to the future of discipline.
(more on Dr. Lowenstein later… ;-)
)
Advising Theory (the debate)
Reliance on analogies
and metaphors is a
weakness, obscuring
advising’s uniqueness
and masking the
importance of the
scholarship that
underlies its practice.
Analogical theory
building is a strength
and advisors have both
“license to draw upon a
wide array of theoretical
perspectives” and “the
obligation to do so.”
Schulenberg & Lindhorst, 2008
Hagen & Jordan, 2008
Leadership Theory (in brief)
Northouse (2012) documents well the dense
and complex field of leadership theory
Dihn, et al (2014) reaffirm this reality,
identifying 66 different leadership theory
[thematic] categories.
Leadership Theory (in brief)
Era
Themes/Developments
1900-1929
control, centralization of power, domination, imposing of
will, obedience
1930’s
personality traits, influence, give-and-take
1940’s
leadership as part of group behavior, persuasion vs.
coercion
1950’s
goals, effectiveness, group dynamics framing leader
behavior
1960’s
shared goals
1970’s
organizational behavior, reciprocity, process
1980’s
scholarly and popular publishing explosion, all the above
revisited, transformational leadership
into the 21st Century
globalization, diversity, technology, ethical/moral
dimensions
Leadership Theory &
Academic Advising: bff’s?
1. Influenced by other disciplines and
theories
2. On-going evolution in understandings of
the influence relationship
3. Growing public interest in and policy
addressing accountability
4. The scholar-practitioner model
5. Commodification of frameworks
Leadership Theory
in Academic Advising
Goes relatively unnoticed in the Handbook
and Approaches
Sporadic forays in scholarly literature
Three theoretical frameworks emerge:
– situational leadership
– servant leadership
– transformational leadership
Situational Leadership
• Developed by Hersey and Blanchard (1969)
• Based on Reddin’s (1967) 3-D management
style theory
• Used extensively in organization leadership
training and development
• Premise: Different situations demand
different kinds of leadership
• Leaders should match their style with the
developmental level of followers
Situational Leadership
2008: Alan Lerstrom’s “Advising Jay,” the NACADA Journal
• Connects the development of followers in Hersey and Blanchard’s model
and the dominance of developmental theories in academic advising
• Takes an anecdotal and models approach and does not offer empirical
evidence of the relationship
2010: Elizabeth Yarbrough’s dissertation, Auburn University
• Conducted quantitative analysis of connections between follower ability and
willingness to engage in academic advising behaviors and outcomes
• Has not seen further publication
• Focused largely on student development, college readiness, and selfreporting
• Did not provide significant correlative evidence between situation leadership
theory and academic advising
Servant Leadership
• Originated in the writings of Robert
Greenleaf (1970-1977), theory “built” over
last 40 years
• Mostly prescriptive, little early empirical
research (more lately)
• Focused initially on how a leader should
ideally “be,” not necessarily what they “do”
Servant Leadership
Key Servant Leader Attributes:
• Conceptualizing (thorough understanding of the
organization’s purpose, mission, complexities,
etc.)
• Emotional healing (empathy, availability,
openness, commitment to others’ wellbeing)
• Putting followers first (putting their interests and
success above your own)
• Helping followers grow and succeed
• Behaving ethically
• Empowering
• Creating value for the community
Servant Leadership
2007: Jeffrey McClellan, “The Advisor as Servant,” the NACADA Journal
• Holds a doctorate in Leadership Studies from Gonzaga University
• Among the earliest in the academic advising literature to directly apply
leadership theory to academic advising practice.
• Applied the “theoretical-philosophical construct” of Servant Leadership
Theory to advising in an analogic sense, not in an empirical or quantitative
sense.
• Concluded with a wish: “Hopefully this will spawn interest in further
exploration of this relationship in both theory and practice.”
2012: Paul, Smith, & Dochney, “Advising as Servant Leadership,” the NACADA
Journal
• Set out to test McClellan’s Servant Leadership hypothesis
• Sole example of scholarly discourse regarding leadership theory in
• Validated McClellan’s supposition via an empirical methodology
• Conducted at only one university in the southeastern United States and was
purposely sampled
• Replication efforts would be beneficial.
Transformational Leadership
• Term first coined in 1973, but really
emerged as a leadership approach with
the work of political sociologist James
McGregor Burns in 1978
• Distinguishes between transformational
and transactional leadership
• One of the most popular leadership
frameworks
Transformational Leadership
2007: Brad Johnson’s “Transformational supervision,” Professional
Psychology
• Exploration of clinical supervision in a clinical psychology graduate
program
• Connects academic advising as a related practice to faculty
mentorship and supervision
• Does not provide any quantitative support, only anecdotal
2010: Deborah Drozd’s dissertation, Texas A&M University
• Found associations between academic advising and
transformational leadership via student development theory,
Chickering specifically
• Connected perceptions of academic advisor behaviors with
“idealized influence”
• Produced quantitative evidence that “transformational leadership
activities were transferable to activities performed by undergraduate
academic advisors,” (p. 46)
Authentic Leadership
Began with the popular, practitioner-based
works, Robert Terry’s “action wheel” (1993)
and Bill George’s True North (2003)
Scholarship explosion after Gallup
Leadership Institute in 2004 at the University
of Nebraska
Authentic Leadership
“A pattern of leader behavior that draws
upon and promotes both positive
psychological capacities and a positive
ethical climate, to foster greater selfawareness, an internalized moral
perspective, balanced processing of
information, and relational transparency on
the part of the leaders working with
followers, fostering positive selfdevelopment,” (Walumba et al., 2008).
Self-Awareness
Internalized
Moral
Perspective
Balanced
Processing
Relational
Transparency
Self-Awareness
Positive
Psychological
Capabilities
Internalized
Moral
Perspective
Critical Life
Events
Balanced
Processing
Moral Reasoning
Relational
Transparency
Self-Awareness
Confidence
Hope
Optimism
Resilience
Internalized
Moral
Perspective
Critical Life
Events
Balanced
Processing
Moral Reasoning
Relational
Transparency
Authentic Advising?
Common themes:
• Calls for stronger measures of accountability
• Increased expectations from students and
family members for:
– Trustworthiness
– Relationship-building
– Compassion
• Emergent in nature (Are academic advisors
in positions of campus leadership?)
Authentic Advising?
Conclusions:
1. Investigations of advising theory should
consider the moral/ethical component.
2. Connections between the structure of
Authentic Leadership Theory and existing
advising approaches should be explored.
3. Evaluations of epistemologies and
nomothetic networks will be critical.
4. Instruments should be created or adapted
and put to use.
Toward a Comprehensive Theory
In a 2013 webinar, Marc Lowenstein argued
that the development of a unified theory
unique to academic advising is a singular
necessity for our profession.
Now more than any other time in its history,
scholar-practitioners in the discipline of
academic advising need to be testing the
theoretical waters.
Toward a Comprehensive Theory
If we are going to reach Dr. Lowenstein’s
goal of an advising theory that is
comprehensive, common, normative, and
unique to to the profession, theoretical fields
from all disciplines should be explored as
aggressively as previously dominant
theoretical fields have been.
Am I Really a Leader?
How Leadership Theory can Inform Academic Advising
THANK
YOU!
#NACADA14 | #C256 | Room 200H