Pepperdine University Pepperdine Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations 2014 Top ten effective community college board trustees self- perceived leadership attributes John Newell Henning Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/etd Recommended Citation Henning, John Newell, "Top ten effective community college board trustees self-perceived leadership attributes" (2014). Theses and Dissertations. 434. https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/etd/434 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Pepperdine Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Pepperdine Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology TOP TEN EFFECTIVE COMMUNITY COLLEGE BOARD TRUSTEES SELF-PERCEIVED LEADERSHIP ATTRIBUTES A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in Organizational Leadership by John Newell Henning May, 2014 June Schmieder-Ramirez, Ph.D. – Dissertation Chairperson This dissertation, written by John Newell Henning under the guidance of a Faculty Committee and approved by its members, has been submitted to and accepted by the Graduate Faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION Doctoral Committee: June Schmieder-Ramirez, Ph.D., Chairperson Laura Hyatt, Ed.D. John Tobin, J.D. © Copyright by John Newell Henning (2014) All Rights Reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................ vii VITA ............................................................................................................................................ viii ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... x Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview ........................................................................................... 1 Statement of the Problem .................................................................................................... 2 Significance of the Dissertation .......................................................................................... 4 Purpose of the Dissertation ................................................................................................. 6 Research Questions ............................................................................................................. 7 Definition of Terms............................................................................................................. 7 Summary ........................................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 2: Literature Review ........................................................................................................ 12 The California Idea ........................................................................................................... 13 SPELIT Needs Assessment/Environmental Scan ............................................................. 15 Social Environment ........................................................................................................... 16 Leadership Theories .......................................................................................................... 25 School Board Responsibilities .......................................................................................... 28 Network Dynamics ........................................................................................................... 30 Political Environment ....................................................................................................... 31 Partnership Capital ............................................................................................................ 35 Community Colleges Leadership Competencies .............................................................. 39 Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels ................................................................................................. 44 Public Sector Stewardship ................................................................................................ 47 Economic Environment .................................................................................................... 48 Legal Environment............................................................................................................ 50 Intercultural Environment ................................................................................................. 55 Technological Environment .............................................................................................. 56 Summary ........................................................................................................................... 61 Chapter 3: Methodology ............................................................................................................... 62 Overview of the Study’s Design ....................................................................................... 62 Restatement of Research Questions .................................................................................. 62 Definition of Qualitative Study Method ........................................................................... 63 Description of Target Population ...................................................................................... 63 v Page Establishing Credibility .................................................................................................... 66 Limitations ........................................................................................................................ 67 Assumptions ...................................................................................................................... 67 Human Subjects Considerations ....................................................................................... 69 Summary ........................................................................................................................... 72 Chapter 4: Findings ....................................................................................................................... 73 Demographic Characteristics of Seven L.A.C.C.D. Respondents .................................... 73 Attribute Occurrences in Online Survey, Question One ................................................... 77 Online Survey Question Two, Increased Student Enrollment .......................................... 78 Online Survey Question Three, Difficult Economy ......................................................... 79 Second-Rater ..................................................................................................................... 82 Summary ........................................................................................................................... 83 Chapter 5: Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations ......................................................... 84 Summary of Findings ........................................................................................................ 85 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 86 Implications....................................................................................................................... 88 Applications ...................................................................................................................... 89 Recommendations for Future Research ............................................................................ 89 Final Summary .................................................................................................................. 91 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................. 94 APPENDIX A: Online Survey.................................................................................................... 120 APPENDIX B: Statistics on Community Colleges in Los Angeles County .............................. 123 APPENDIX C: Los Angeles Community College Code of Ethics ............................................. 125 APPENDIX D: Additional Community Colleges in California ................................................. 127 APPENDIX E: IRB Approval .................................................................................................... 128 vi LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1. Community college shared governance…..……………………………………………34 Figure 2. Intranet communications network……………………………………………………..57 Figure 3. Scale-free networking with preferential attachment…………………………………..59 Figure 4. List of effective leadership attributes…………………………………...……………..64 Figure 5. Years serving as community college trustee ……………………………….................74 Figure 6. Trustee degree attainment……………………………………………………………..74 Figure 7. Trustee board composition by gender…………………………………………………75 Figure 8. Trustee board composition by ethnicity……………………………………………….75