Date of Award
2001
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Programs for Higher Education
Advisor
Karen D. Bowser
Committee Member
Anita Barrett
Committee Member
Phyllis M. Olmstead
Keywords
adult educators, adult educational training programs, best practices, challenges, changing roles, competencies, competitive advantage, core competencies, Dallas Market Center, design, developers, development methodologies, DMC, education paradigm, employees, evaluation, evaluation plan, evaluation plans, executives, facilitators, formative panels, implementation, implementation plan, iterative review/modify cycles, key core competencies, leadership, leadership competencies, leadership development, leadership development program, leadership development programs, leadership roles, literature review, managers, model programs, participants, program draft, research methodologies, research questions, summative panels, survey questionnaires, theoretical and applied topics, wholesale merchandise marts
Abstract
The Dallas Market Center (DMC) does not have a formal program to develop its employees into leadership roles. Therefore, the Dallas Market Center is at risk of losing its competitive advantage to other wholesale merchandise marts. Consequently, the purpose of this project was to design a leadership development program for the Dallas Market Center to be offered to employees in an effort to develop leadership skills and/or competencies that will in turn benefit DMC.
There were four research questions to be investigated. First, "What are the core competencies needed to be developed within the DMC leadership program?" Second, "What are the adult educational training programs, courses, and methods that will cultivate the identified core competencies?" Third, "How will this program be evaluated?" And, finally, "How should this program be implemented?"
To answer these questions, the development, evaluation, and research methodologies were employed. After a thorough literature review (which included theoretical and applied topics concerning leadership development programs, evaluation plans for such programs, and examination of model programs), survey questionnaires, adapted from the literature, were distributed to executives, managers, adult educators, and developers of these types of programs. The purpose of the surveys was to learn what they consider to be key core competencies, best practices, and best designs for leadership programs. Based on the surveys, models, and literature review, criteria for a leadership development program that included an evaluation plan was developed and submitted to formative and summative panels and subjected to the iterative review/modify cycles. Subsequently, a program draft was created, submitted to the formative panel, and again subjected to the review/modify cycles. The improved program draft was then submitted to the summative panel for the iterative review/modify process. Finally, an implementation plan was designed based on information taken from the surveys, models, and literature review with the input and validation of the formative and summative panels.
The findings of the study identified issues, challenges, and ideas in the area of leadership development programs including the changing roles of facilitators and participants and the shifting education paradigm; in addition to, the best practices in terms of design, evaluation, and implementation of a leadership program. The result was a fully developed leadership development program with a plan for evaluation and implementation.