THE MEANING MAKING THAT LEADS TO SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTION KATHLEEN ROBERTS A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Ph.D. in Leadership & Change Program of Antioch University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August, 2011 This is to certify that the dissertation entitled: THE MEANING MAKING THAT LEADS TO SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTION prepared by Kathleen Roberts is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Leadership & Change. Approved by: Jon Wergin, Ph.D., Chair date Laurien Alexandre, Ph.D., Committee Member date Jonathan Reams, Ph.D., Committee Member date Jeanne Nakamura, Ph.D., External Reader date Copyright 2011 Kathleen Roberts All rights reserved Acknowledgements Writing a dissertation can be an exhilarating and a frustrating process. It is a process that would not have been possible without the support and love of many people. First, I would like to express my love and gratitude to my mother, who never waivered in her support and in her certainty that I could do anything. I would also like to thank my Antioch cohort for being there. Knowing I could call upon any one of you at any time was incredibly assuring. I especially want to appreciate Lisa Graham for your humor and intelligence, Susie Erenrich for your insight and groundedness, and Sue McKevitt for your enthusiastic encouragement as you brought me into the home stretch. If it were not for your insistence on regular contact and the amazing combination of intuition and rational thought you brought to the data analysis process, I am not sure I would be writing this acknowledgement at this time. I would also like to acknowledge the individuals who recommended social entrepreneurs for the research study and I especially want to thank the system changing social entrepreneurs who graciously shared their stories with me. I want to extend a very special deep appreciation to Grace Noonan-Kay and Margaret Cleveland for the warm and loving friendship you offered to me as I undertook this journey. Enormous gratitude goes to my committee members: Jon Wergin, Ph.D., who, as chair of the committee, quietly yet persistently guided me through the process, and also Laurien Alexandre, Ph.D., Jonathan Reams, Ph.D., and Jeanne Nakamura, Ph.D. Thank you all for the freedom to explore the outer reaches and the guidance to pragmatically focus. Your unique perspectives, penetrating analysis, and detailed critiques have strengthened me as a scholar and inspired me as a practitioner. My deepest heartfelt gratitude goes to my loving and trusted partner, Mike, to whom I dedicate this dissertation. Thank you for allowing the space in our relationship for me to explore new territory. Your intelligence, humor, compassion, and love were my anchors and i your quiet patience, generosity of spirit, and open and curious mind inspired me onward. I love you and excitedly look forward to the present as together we steer our lives in new directions. ii Abstract This dissertation is an exploratory study of the meaning making that leads to social entrepreneurial action; specifically, action that has either moved beyond the local or at the local level has impacted several different systems. Recent leadership research suggests that to meet today’s complex challenges and create sustainable change, leadership must possess bigger minds, meaning advanced and mature ways of understanding the world (Cook-Greuter, 1999; Torbert, 1999). By challenging and changing established equilibriums with new structures, new systems, and new relationships, social entrepreneurs reflect a capacity to understand the world in complex ways. Through the lens of constructive-developmental theory (Kegan, 1982, 1994) and the action logic framework of Cook-Greuter (1999, 2002, 2003, 2004), Rooke and Torbert (2004), Torbert (1994, 1996), and Torbert et al. (2004), this study examined the complexity of mind of 9 social entrepreneurs and the perspective-shifting experiences that led to social entrepreneurial action. The purpose of the study was to obtain insights for constructing learning environments for the development of future social entrepreneurs and determine whether a sample of social entrepreneurs might yield a higher percentage of individuals engaged in advanced and complex meaning making. Participants were assessed for their action logic using the Leadership Development Profile (Cook-Greuter, 1999, 2004; Rooke & Torbert, 2005; Torbert et al., 2004), a variation of the Washington University Sentence Completion Test (Loevinger & Wessler, 1970) and were interviewed to identify significant perspective-shifting experiences. The sample revealed two Individualists, one Strategist/early Alchemist, one late Achiever, and five Achievers; suggesting that operating from Achiever action logic may be a prerequisite for engagement in social entrepreneurial action. The results of the study also suggest early life experiences of a global perspective contribute to a commitment to social change. The three iii themes that emerged, an awakening, a community connection, and a global perspective, highlighted empathy as a catalyst for taking responsibility for a greater good. An area to be further explored is whether engagement in social entrepreneurial action and/or the cultivation of empathy is a pathway to advanced meaning making capacity. The electronic version of this dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements i Abstract iii Talbe of Contents v List of Tables ix List of Figures x Preface 1 Chapter I: Introduction 3 Purpose of the Dissertation 3 Understanding Social Entrepreneurial Action 6 Researcher’s Stance 7 Areas of Inquiry 8 Entrepreneurs 8 Social Entrepreneurs 10 Theory U 10 Metacognition and Epistemic Cognition 10 Constructive-Developmental Framework 11 Leadership 12 Developmental Action Inquiry 13 Action Logic Framework 13 Research Questions 14 Organization of the Dissertation 15 Chapter II: Literature Review 16 Introduction 16 Entrepreneurs 17 Historical Perspective 17 Cognition and Entrepreneurship 19 Entrepreneurial Learning 22 Kitchener 25 Social Entrepreneurs 28 Historical Perspective 28 Traits and Personalities 30 Theory U 34 Constructive-Developmental Theory 37 Kegan 37 Loevinger 43 Cook-Greuter 46 Leadership 48 Transformational/Transactional Leadership 49 Cognition and Leadership 51 Constructive-Developmental Theory and Leadership 52 Action Logic Framework 55 v Conclusion 59 Chapter III: Research Methodology 61 Introduction 61 The Qualitative Paradigm 61 Research Design 62 The Research Process 64 Developmental Action Inquiry 65 Selection of Participants 66 Data Collection 69 Overview of the LDP 70 LDP Data Collection Procedure 71 Validity and Reliability 72 Advantages of the LDP 74 Critiques of the LDP 75 Interview Protocol 75 Member Checking 78 Validity and Reliability 79 Reactivity 80 Descriptive Validity 80 Interpretive Validity 80 Reliability 81 Ethics 81 Research Timelines 82 Data Analysis 83 Implications 86 Chapter IV: Results 87 Introduction 87 Summary Review of Constructive-Developmental Theory 89 Summary Review of the Action Logic Framework 90 Data Results 92 Summary of 3rd and 4th Orders of Consciousness 94 3rd Order of Consciousness/Socialized Mind 94 4th Order of Consciousness/self-authorship 94 Summary of Action Logics 95 Achiever Action Logic 95 Individualist Action Logic 95 Strategist Action Logic 95 Alchemist Action Logic 96 Summary Biographies of Participants 96 KJ (58) 96 AW (47) 96 SW (58) 97 MD (65) 97 DA (44) 97 CG (59) 98 vi KF (61) 99 BS (61) 99 AG (37) 100 Post-Conventional Participants’ Descriptions of Perspective-Shifting Experiences 100 KJ (58, Strategist/Early Alchemist) 100 Present 103 AW (47, Individualist) 104 Present 108 SW (58, Individualist) 108 Present 111 Common Theme 111 Conventional Participants’ Descriptions of Perspective-Shifting Experiences 112 MD (65, Achiever) 112 Present 115 DA (44, Achiever) 116 Present 119 BS (61, Achiever) 119 Present 122 CG (58, Achiever) 122 Present 125 KF (61, Achiever) 126 Present 128 AG (37, Conventional Late Achiever) 128 Present 131 Common Theme 132 Discussion 132 Making Meaning of the PSEs 132 Language 133 Implication of Culture in Developmental Theory 136 Themes of the Perspective-Shifting Experiences 138 An Awakening 138 A Community Connection 138 An Early Experience of a Global Perspective 139 Taking Responsibility by Moving Into the Unknown 139 Empathy 140 Conclusion 142 Chapter V: Implications, Contributions, and Suggestions 143 A Review of the Study 143 Review of the Findings and their Implications 147 3rd Order of Consciousness/Socialized Mind 147 4th Order of Consciousness/Self-Authorship 147 Conventional and Post-Conventional Action Logics 148 Summary of the Findings 149 Shaping A Learning Environment 149 Cognitive 151 Embodiment 151 vii Engagement 152 Early Life Connection to a Global Event 153 Conclusion 153 Contribution to Scholarship 154 Future Research 154 Individual Level 155 System Level 156 Appendix 159 Appendix A: Initial Contact with Individual Social Entrepreneurs 160 Appendix B: Request for Recommendation 161 Appendix C: Communication to Referred Individuals 163 Appendix D: Invitation Letter to Participate 164 Appendix E: Informed Consent Form 166 Appendix F: Three-Minute Exercise 168 Appendix G: Narratives 169 Appendix H: Perspective-Shifting Moments and Interpretive Concepts 229 References 245 viii List of Tables Table 2.1 Three Main Dimensions of Each Action-Logic 55 Table 2.2