Can You Lead Me Now? Leading in the Complex World of Homeland Security
Abstract
This thesis focuses on a theory of leading and the activities and processes used to move a bureaucratic, public agency to a higher level of fitness in the contexts of dynamic equilibrium and the edge of chaos. The main claim is that leading and all of its components thinking and sense making, storytelling and demonstrating the right ideas, and organizing action and shaping collective movement are required for an organization to address the complex, coordinating problems of homeland security. This research is exploratory using the methodology of grounded theory. An in-depth analysis of a single case was used to test a theory of leading in complexity. Descriptive examples are provided of the activities identified in the process of leading. The findings supported the theory of leading and offered some suggestions for leading the work of homeland security. The analysis demonstrated that leading is a process that weaves in a non-linear way from thinking to sense making to demonstrating the right ideas and identities to organizing collective movement and back around to thinking. It is a process without ends and a process that shows how to accomplish organizational change in the realm of complexity and chaos.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA474035
Entities
People
- Nola Joyce
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School