Date of Award

4-25-2010

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Leadership (MAL)

Department

Leadership

Abstract

Effective leadership communication goes beyond the study and process of organizational communication. The purpose of this research is to conceptualize effective leadership communication as a multifaceted concept that is best understood from its diverse perspectives concurrently. In order to illuminate this concept, the term metacommunication will be coined, borrowing from Freud's metapsychology theory. The metacommunication theory informs the study of leadership emergence, development, and effectiveness by looking at the phenomenon in a holistic manner. The leader as CAS along with the environmental factors effecting leadership is better viewed and understood by acknowledging and respecting the complexity of the human condition. Through this analysis, the metacommunication network of inter and intra-actions is brought to the forefront of the leadership phenomenon by calling attention to the fact that effective leadership has non-linear motilities that cannot be understood via reductionism. The major implications of the theory are that effectiveness is gained through the integration of the CAS with his/her environment. The CAS must: strategically cultivate the environment to increase opportunities for goal attainment; understand social constructs based on irrational schema; increase his/her aptitude for critical thinking, and finally engage in CAS threatening self-examination to unlock the human potential in self and others.

Identifier

SC 11.MAL.2010.Brown.RM

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